Media players which can play my router-attached files??

Bigweed

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Hi all

I have never had a media player, and have been reading about them for quite a while now, but still a bit confused. Hopefully someone can help me find something that fits my requirements!

I have an Asus RT-N66U router:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B007W16SMO/ref=wms_ohs_product?ie=UTF8&psc=1

There are two external hard drives which are connected to the router via USB2 connections. On these hard drives are my movies which I ripped, and am still ripping from, my DVD collection. There are also some photos on these hard drives. I can currently play and view these photos and videos from my laptop using my laptop wifi, no problems. However, I want to watch them from my TV too, and dont want to leave my laptop next to my TV all the time to achieve this. So I am looking for a good media player, upto £150, which I can connect to my TV via HDMI, and be able to browse and view all my movies and photos from my router-connected hard drives in wonderful 1080P HD.

Is this even possible? Or do media players only play content from other content providers eg Netflix, Amazon, etc? If I can view all my content, and also watch stuff from Lovefilm, BBC iPlayer, Youtube, etc that would be PERFECT! Please help me with finding a media player which can do this!

Hope that I have given the right info, and someone can help!

Many thanks
Naz
 
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Your router has a builtin DLNA and SAMBA server. Which means, depending on how you have ripped your DVD collection most media players will work.
As a first media player the WDTV Live is a good choice as it works with SAMBA shares,DLNA and has many of the extra services you are looking for.
 
Buy a wdtv live, and connect your hard drives to that, install wdlink, and that will help identify your drives and your wdtv becomes a nas for your network, wired or wifi.
 
Buy a wdtv live, and connect your hard drives to that, install wdlink, and that will help identify your drives and your wdtv becomes a nas for your network, wired or wifi.

The wdtv live is not going to be as good a nas as the Asus router. IMO the Asus router is one of the best Soho routers on the market. Especially with asus commitment to opening up their routers to third party developers.
 
It's horses for courses, if you just need files flying around your network the wdtv is all you need.

If you want a bells and whistles nas then Asus is fine.
 

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