[TV George]

I am looking to buy a (multi)media player

Main use is to store films on hard drives and then view them on the tv

Would also like possibility of usb slot and network connection to pc / web

HD 1080p preferred

Ability to show most formats needed

I have seen mentioned - Seagate FreeAgent Theater+ HD Media Players, Sumvision, Western Digital, etc... though I have never seen anything in action.

I would particularly like a user friendly film play interface using the remote - i.e. a simple way of bringing up the hard drive's film list on screen, with an easy method of selecting and playing the required film.

Any advice appreciated.

[Shardlake]

Would highly recommend the western digital, i have two 1Tb drives hooked up full of hi def films, if yr anywhere near coventry i dont mind showing you it in action.

[mal_k100]

I have tried 4 different options.
A media player with integral disk from Aria.
Freecom 350WLAN (now superceded)
Nintendo Wii
ASRock Nettop ion 300 (micro PC with integral disk)
Of the above only the last can play HD but that is because the others were old models (and the Wii doesn't have the power)
It depends on how much money you have to play with. I have slowly waorked my way up working out what I need and what I don;t, hence ending up with a PC based solution (it is only the size of a media player - goggle it to see), but you must get the ion 300 or better for HD as some of the ITX based motherboards don;t have the Nvidia or are lower spec 230 or 270 processors.
Oh - and Wii and PC solutions can browse the internet (Web) and most solutions these days will stream from a network server (PC). Wii interface is OK but you'll need to mess around a lot to implement HBC for Wii. PC solution will depend on what media software you prefer.