Yes, it has an ethernet port and can receive content from a variety of servers although I use wizd and momitsu servers mostly. Wizd will run off my slug (nslu2) and off my HTPC. It also has a usb2 port for direct connection to USB hard drive. I also watch some streaming video through tversity on the linkplayer but it can be choppy sometimes. I've been playing with the LiveCD version of XBMC on a couple lower end itx boxes and it looks promising and can handle a huge variety of video and audio formats. I'm thinking about building a midrange system running XBMC installed from LiveCD and see whether I like it better than the linkplayer.
The capture cards I have are WinTV-HVR-1250 (this one supports HD), a standard PVR150 card (PCI), and a WinTV-USB2. I don't capture much HD content, I mostly grab what I want online. I do record a bunch of TV shows for the family though. I can play most video formats without problems using the linkplayer2. I do keep an eye on the new standalone networked players but there hasn't been anything too impressive yet. I picked up 6 of the ADS MXL-581 (discontinued network media players) and damned if they don't work great with the wizd server. They can't handle the variety of formats that the linkplayer2 does, and can't handle HD, but they can play most of my xvid and divx movies. I have one of these in each room, and only payed $23 each at geeks.com about 8 months ago. lopaka Interesting, does that Avel Linkplayer2 have an actual Ethernet port? If so do you think it superior to making a network share out of a regular DVD burner? What video card do you use for HD content? Robert Martin Jr. wrote: > I hadn't seen that one before. My HTPC is really just used for video capture so I have a fairly minimal system. I also run a few websites off the same box along with MisterHouse for home automation. I use an Avel Linkplayer2 (network DVD player) for playback and it can handle HD content no problem. I've had it for years and it still does better than a lot of the new players. > > lopaka > > --- On Tue, 2/3/09, Stan Zaske <[email protected]> wrote: > From: Stan Zaske <[email protected]> > Subject: [H] Western Digital TV HD > To: [email protected] > Date: Tuesday, February 3, 2009, 6:54 PM > > Have any of you seen this new product from WD? You can turn any USB storage > devise into a media player in your living room without the complication and > expense of building an HTPC. Much more versatile that the nVidia ION in the > number of file formats it supports. Cheap too! > > http://www.itreviewed.co.uk/rev.php?id=902 > >
