Ok people I'm looking for a affordable H.264 Player

[saulin]

I'm looking for a affordable player that plays everything including HD rips in H.264, with wireless, HDMI, Optical out and that supports USB HDDs would be nice.

I don't just want a PC running Media Center. A nice player with it's own sofware that doesn't take too much room would be nice. I did find a couple but they werent that cheap. It was almost better to get a HTPC.

Does anyone know of such player?

[Detale]

I looked around for a while myself and I decided on a HTPC because for the price of the players that will play H264 and MKV files it's better/cheaper to go the HTPC route man.

[xantra]

yeah, just slap together a cheap HTPC mate under $500 easy... not including screen of course

[ryan20021982]

Yep I agree HTPC is the way to go

Also you are restricted to size with a standalone media player
With a HTPC you can always add more hdd's, or even network to another
pc with more hdd's

[mbucari1]

check this out...

http://www.popcornhour.com/onlinestore/

[saulin]

Thanks guys. A HTPC would be my second choice plus I could even add a Blu-ray player.

mbucari1 thanks for that link. That's exactly what I'm looking for and the price seems right. The only think that Popcorn Hour A-110 seems to lack is wireless. But it has everything else I'm looking for. I would love to get one with wireless though.

If this thing plays everything nice and smooth and with perfect sound, I'm sure I'll buy it. I'll check some reviews and see what others recommend as well. I saw another one a few days ago that had all that plus wireless but I think the prices were from $350-500

*Edit* The "Popcorn Hour A-110" has the Sigma Designs SMP8635 chipset which is the best one in this kind of players right now. There is the new Sigma Designs SMP8654/55 chipset but I couldn't find a player that has this chipset yet.

I think the price is right, I will need to run a ethernet cable to the living room I guess and play stuff from my PC through the network. Now I just need to find a place where to order it from. The only one in canada I have found is: www.onlybestrated.com

The price seems a bit high $277 CAD+ $15 of shipping and is back ordered. If I order from Popcornhour then it might be a little cheaper but I might have to wait longer and pay more in taxes and duty charges. mmmmm!

[mbucari1]

Look into wireless ethernet bridges. You can use one to get popcorn hour onto a wireless network through it's cat5 port.

[sk8bomb1067]

I was also looking at this device. Still undecided about it since I have a spare cpu and 2gb laying around so it might be better to go the htpc route. Anyways, it is possible to get wireless on the popcorn hour through a wireless usb adapter (about $35).
check out the forums
http://www.networkedmediatank.com/
there are some more alternatives here
http://www.avforums.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=332

[Detale]

Yeah but for all of that just build a HTPC. It has more uses than a media player it can replace: DVR, DVD player, radio, music player not to mention ITS A COMPUTER!. Many uses in one box, that's what sold me

[sk8bomb1067]

Ok, I have a 3.0 ghz Pentium D and 2gb 800mhz ram and can get a 1.5 TB for about $90 from a friend. What other parts do you recommend for a htpc? I want something small and pretty quiet capable of 1080p x264's. Don't need a tuner card either. Can spend $240 not including the hdd.