Such a device exists

[pinhead]

You're looking for a media box. Popular brands are Apple TV, WDTV, Boxee, Patriot Box and Asus O! Play. Check out the reviews and see what features you need.

I have had an Asus for a couple of years. Add a 2.5 inch hard drive or a flash stick and you can watch your AVIs, XVIDs, MKVs, blue-ray rips plus anything you can find on the net - also supports eSATA. Has component, HDMI, optical out. Has not failed on any format I've tried. These are as cheap as $50 on sale.

If you're interested in Apple TV do some research to see if it will do what you want. DRM makes iTunes, Hulu, Netflix pretty restrictive for a lot of people.

[msjboy]

buy a media player such as Patriot Box Office ( at $29.99 w/ rebate sometimes.. I use this one) or Western Digital's WDTV...dlink Boxee, Asus !oplay, etc as well as others. Plays every format including music, jpgs, rmvb, iso, avi, quicktime, mkv ( ie blue ray rips) etc.
Also, can put onto a network via ethernet or a cheap wifi card, plays thru USB as well. I put in a hard drive on mine which serves as a movie/media juke box.
Can also be open source moded to play youtube, etc.

This is what Apple TV should have done but it has to avoid the legalities of what other companies like Patriot doing movie player rips (ie illegal downloads).

msjboy

[Bryan]

Originally Posted by scherzo

It sounds like you are trying to do this (correct me if I'm wrong)

You have media files on your computer (movies... By the sounds of it since you are burning .avi files)

You want to put them on a USB drive then walk over to the tv and play the files.

You could get rid of the USB portion by using an apple tv.

As long as you have iTunes installed on your computer you can play any media files in your library (stored on your computer) and stream it to your tv.

You could also do the same thing if you have windows 7 and an Xbox 360.

$129 for an Xbox
$119 for an apple tv

I have both but like the interface on the apple tv. It seems peppier than browsing media on the 360.

Thanks everyone, appreciate the replies. Correct just want to copy avi's to a usb stick as opposed to burning to a dvd and playing in the player. Checked my tv and no HDMI input, time for a new tv.

I do have a XBOX 360 that came with my Telus Optik TV subsrciption. Never used it and it's just sitting in the closet gathering dust. Will pull it out of the closet and see if it will do what I need. I have win7 as well. Yes I know a Xbox sitting in the closet. Shows my age and interest in video games.

Patriot Box also seems like a good idea as well

[lee9]

HDMI isn't the only way... you can old school s-video or even older depending on your computer's outputs. No need to "copy" just connect

[Bryan]

Looked up the patriot Box and it seems to be a a real good product. From the looks of it the Patriot can almost do everything.

[lastlight]

If you have an xbox 360 simply install vuze on your computer. It's a torrent download application but it allows you to stream movie files to your xbox. We watch all of our downloaded content this way and it will cost you nothing.

[DanG]

I've got 2 WDTV live boxes. The interface isn't as fancy as some of the other ones out there, but it's dead simple and has played everything I've thrown at it. It will hook to your network or accept files via one of the 2 USB ports. Pictures, video, music.
Costco has them from time to time for ~$80 and I've seen them on sale at Tiger Direct for even less.
They have a new model that has built in wifi so if you don't want to run a hard line, it will connect and stream HD content via wireless N. It also works with netflix, hulu, youtube and a handful of other web media sites.

[MKLKT]

Originally Posted by lastlight

If you have an xbox 360 simply install vuze on your computer. It's a torrent download application but it allows you to stream movie files to your xbox. We watch all of our downloaded content this way and it will cost you nothing.

If you're running media centre or windows media player 11 you can also use your computer as a wireless media hub that your Xbox can connect to.

[lastlight]

We run macs otherwise that would have worked too.

One thing to note is you have to CRANK movies to hear them over your xbox's fan

[MarkoD]

look up a device called "popcorn hour"

it can stream 1080p from usb to your tv