Be Excellent To Each Other

I'm offloading my PS3 this weekend because;

a) I only really use it for Media stuff and
b) Sony are probably just going to carry on baiting hackers until such time as the entire PSN userbase has had their DNA stolen and been cloned and the original people replaced with those clones and the original people put to work in slave colonies harvesting unobtanium. Possibly.

So what do I get as an alternative? I've been looking at the likes of an Acer Revo but that's got no optical drive and I've a fair few Blu-Rays I would still like the option of playing. An external usb optical is a solution but somewhat inelegant.

We mostly watch optical media stuff on there (Lovefilm etc) and downloaded series. I would prefer to be able to play MKV's without any need to run 'em through a transcoder.

I'll want HDMI output, Optical / Coax digital sound output and a couple of USB sockets at the front and some peas.

You can buy little boxes that can play most media files from a USB stick for about 30 quid. For example I have one of these hooked up to the TV for checking work stuff. Seems to handle most stuff I throw at it. Says it handles MKV:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0046SD2MK/ref=asc_df_B0046SD2MK2725067?smid=A3P5ROKL5A1OLE

Only downside is that the remote is a bitch. But it works, it's cheap, small and the quality is excellent. You'll need to buy a HDMI lead mind.

For disc based material I have a Pioneer Blu-Ray. However a cheap DVD player can be picked up for next to nothing. Try to ensure it has a decent upscaler though.

I would hold on to the Ps3 and use it offline as a blu-ray/media player, unless you have found someone privately willing to pay more than £150 for it then you really aren't going to get much more than that, I've seem people's whole set ups including games and extra controllers go for £220 on ebay, the non-slim are going on amazon for £99. If you are pissed at sony then buy xbox games/second hand games, and change your name/address on your account to something fake.

Although if you don't mind getting credit at Gamestation, these are the best trade in prices from elsewhere, and they will beat by £1.

Depend on the model you will get £104 - £181.

Depends on your budget

A boxee box will handle all your downloaded files and online viewing in the best way possible at the moment, but it costs £200 and has no optical drive.
A wdtv for about £80 will play any downloaded files you get, but with a crappy ui.
You can get a bluray player for £50 these days, or I think there are some for a bit more cash that will handle iplayer, lovefilm etc...

It's an 80GB fat - I intend trading it in at Gamestation using price match and getting a 3ds.

The media player budget is c£200.

I use a Western Digital WDTV thing (70 quid I think). Plays everything I need it to. DivX, MKV, even DVD isos. It doesn't downstream audio though which is a pain as it means I can't watch MKV movies as they are usually 5.1 rather than stereo. Telly MKVs are fine though.

Also, Samsung tellies now seem to have inbuilt media players as well. I bought a 32 inch in the New Year sales and it plays MKVs etc as well.

Good point, my Sony TV in the bedroom has a USB port you can plug something into and play through that.
Best thing for me though is that it does dsdmahdmaupnp (or whatever) via ethernet. I have Serviio running on the iMac and it serves everything from my media storage to the TV. Any format, no problems

I don't have any direct experience with it BUT it sounds like the Samsung BD-C5500 (currently £83 at Amazon) might fit the bill; it just has one USB port on the front, and it only has optical out (no coax) but it plays MKVs, and if it's anything like the Samsung telly I used to have it'll do it really well -- if the file has dts audio then you'll need to run it through something like PopCorn MKV AudioConverter but a) it's pretty fast and simple to do, and b) you won't need to do it for TV series, just films. It supports Lovefilm too so if you're signed up then I guess that means you can stream films? Also I read that iPlayer support has just been added (finally, after being advertised for like a year or something).

Just bought an LG BD360. Plays MKV's off my NTFS USB without a hitch.

£99.

I am a happy man.

I have the BD570 and it's incredibly excellent (once I replaced the dodgy cable).