TVs Brainstorming media players

Am thinking of giving up my sky+ subscription and getting freesat! Unfortuately my wife and i still watch regular series on sky 1 and fx.
So...if we get freesat and a media player box for the tv, can i get a box that streams from my home network to play onto the tv? Or do i have to dl episodes onto memory sticks/sd cards to play on tv media player?
Or do i get laptop/notebook conected to home network and connect that to my tv after dl programs we want to watch!
Also we don't have a HDTV so would have to be able to connect to scart or s-video as we have no HDMI slot!

Sorry i'm clueless about this, just want to save some cash from paying sky to watch 2-3 channels!?


Ideas and thoughts please!?

Ty


Neil

 

This is a relatively cheap and easy solution, but A) It still needs some form of central storage to stream media from, and B) uses HDMI.


Or..this which has Composite, S-Video and SCART outputs... and a 500GB drive for storage.

The latter will obviously not need a HDTV or HDMI.

 

For streaming media from a NAS to a TV, I am looking at the AC Ryan products.

http://www.acryan.com/en/products.php

They look like just what I am after. Scan stock them as well.

 

There are reviews of the AC Ryan stuff here on Bit as I recall too.

 

One from February of the PlayON! HD: http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/storage/2010/02/02/a-c-ryan-playon-hd-media-player/1

One from last year (probably an obsolete model now) on the PlayON! DVR TV: http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/storage/2009/04/25/ac-ryan-playon-dvr-tv-review/1

I especially like the ability to play ISO file movies from a NAS.

 

I bought a Zyxel one from Scan and was a little disappointed. It doesn't output sound over HDMI and the list of supported files isn't great. For £25 I'll find a use for it, but it hasn't replaced my Ubuntu/Boxee HTPC like I was hoping.

 

Yeah, I am looking to get the HD mini - will play anything back and maintain the dvd menus

 

http://www.scan.co.uk/products/acry...264-mkv-mpeg-wmv9-xvid-avc-iso-network-player

On Scan's Today Only page (until Monday afternoon) for £76.36: http://www.scan.co.uk/TodayOnly/Index.aspx. At the top under "Super Savers".

 

Thanks for info all. Have tried to go small WD media player with fast 'Patriot Xporter2' usb stick..very easy(even wife can work it!) and completely lossless...
So ta very muchly to all replies!

Neil