HDMI SATA HDD media player questions

[pwangdel]

Greetings:

Happy and healthy New Year to all.

I am planning to purchase an HDMI SATA HDD media player with or without HDD. Can someone please recommend one? If I want to play ISO, IFO, VOB with AC3 & DTS audio and AVI 2 channel stereo, what audio and video Codecs should I look for in a media player device?
By the way, do you think it is better and more economic to build one instead? What will I need for hardware and software?

Your advice and comment is greatly appreciated.

[Bwizzy]

Like my dude from Black Sheep used to say "You can get with this":
http://www.patriotmemory.com/products/detailp.jsp?prodline=6&catid=69&prodgroupid=159&id=895&type=20
Check the PDF it also plays ISOs
"Or you can get with that":
http://www.amazon.com/Western-Digital-Network-ready-Player-WDBAAN0000NBK-NESN/dp/B002K...2550711&sr=1-1

Search the net for reviews on the above products. As always you can build a nettop style PC running ubuntu version of linux with XBMC installed over the top, and all you have to do is have/buy the parts for it. Or you can just buy a nettop and hook some spare HDDs up to it.

[Werder]

Just got a couple of Seagate Freeagent Theater+ replacing my no longer supported Zensonic/Ziova media players and I'm very happy with it. Small box and boots fast. All my DVD video I have as ISO files on a server and they are playing perfect. MKV files from BlueRay disks also play perfect from an attached HDD (a little choppy over the network). Other file formats I haven't tried much...

[redwudz]

I use a WDTV Live v2 over my LAN. I store my videos on computers in a different room. Or it can play back from USB hard drives. It plays most popular formats and outputs HDMI video and digital optical audio. Costs about $120US compared to a PC that will cost quite a bit more.

A thread here on the WDTV: https://forum.videohelp.com/topic374280.html

If you want universal playback, then a HTPC would probably be the better choice, with the proper video card with HDMI output.

[cal_tony]

I have both Seagate and Western Digital media players. The Seagate has more features (plays menus) . The WD just plays ISOs and Video TS folders as files and could do with a bit more sophistication but either plays just about anything. I didn't get the Seagate with an enclosed hard disk. Didn't see any advantage to it. Both players can access 2 USB drives either Fat or NTFS at the same time.

Tony

[pwangdel]

Thank you all for your recommendation and comment.

For $90 + free shipping + free USB WIFI G dongle (Circuit city package $129-$30 rebate-8% bing cashback) and the rebate ends today, so I got the PBO instead. Apparently, the WD doesn't support the iso files with menus. So it is out. I don't know about the Seagate though. I hope that the picture quality is not an issue with the PBO.