I have played around with AppleTVs and Roku's. what do you recommend? i am looking to buy one for my house and to be able to sell to customers.

Some of the things i want in a player:
-play videos from a NAS / USB Drive / Network share
-Integrate with Control4 (two way IP driver would be sweet)
-have analog Audio out or at least a optical / digital so i can use a converter to analog
-HDMI out
-compact size
-IR control
-hardwire network port
-cost around $100 - $300
-upgradeable
-tech support

here are some that i have found:
AppleTV
RoKu
Popcorn Hour
Netgear NeoTVs
Control4 Media Player
Western Digital WD TV Live
DLink DSM-380 Boxee Box HD
Sony Smart TV Network Media Player w/ Android
LG SP520 Network Media Player
Dune HD
Blu-ray players?
???

For my house its Popcorn Hour.

[Link: popcornhour.com]

The A400 should be pretty slick, and has a possible 2way interface.

Not sure I would install it in a clients home though.

A few more to ponder below. I think both Fusion and Autonomic have C4 drivers. K-scape is high-end.

Fusion: http://fusionrd.com/
Autonomic: [Link: autonomic-controls.com]
Kaleidescape: http://www.kaleidescape.com/

thanks for the suggestions, but i think these are a little out of the price range for my clients.

oprahthehutt, why would you not use this in a clients house? is it not reliable?

I was seriously considering a Popcorn Hour C-300 with the Blu-ray drive.
[Link: popcornhour.com] with Extra Vegetables IP Driver

We have decided enough is enough. Too many flash in the pan solutions. Gonna do Mirage mms2 for entry level , MMS-5a for the rest. They work! They are easy for client to use. Clients love them.

By the time you piss around getting other systems to work or trying to get iTunes, AirPlay, airport Express etc to work(which they never do reliably), you end up losing a client for ever.

In the 80's and 90's we got clients to spend almost as much as a mirage on a single disc CD player. It is up to us as an industry to educate our clients and ourselves that spending a bit more on our music systems ( and our music collections) is the logical way to go.

At this point Mirage is only an audio solution. There is a video solution coming apparently.

WD TV Live...been using 2 for over 2 years, I have no cable or DSS, they work very well and have a nice UI...but no discrete's and outside of app control, I am not aware of IP control. Given your price constraints the WD is a winner in my book. plus it plays every file format I can throw at it.

Been happy with Dune... interface needs slicking up (although they supposedly have a new one coming soon that will be ported back to all models), but it's played everything I've thrown at it, never glitches, and has discrete codes.

Daniel, that is a nice call on the Dune...never heard of them but the specs look very promising...how long have you had it? and aside from UI anything else you would want to see improved?

just took another look...am I missing something or does the Dune not support any streaming sites, such as netflix or hulu?

That would up the cost.

I have 4 Dunes. I bought them to do one thing - play ripped content - and that they do very well. Full menu support for DVD and BD discs if you want to rip entire discs though many folks rip just the main movie.

One of the things I like about the Dune is that the UI is configurable - every feature can be include in the main screen or not. In my case the only thing showing is the link to the NAS where the movies are stored.

IR control with discrete commands as needed. Two way IP control but I don't know what HA systems have a driver. I tied mine into my Elan g! using an application that I wrote to allow a Elan custom serial device to control the units using the two way IP control.

The only streaming device I can truly recommend is ATV. Yes it has huge limitations and forces you into the Apple ecosystem some respects, HOWEVER, in terms of a polished product, nobody else is even close IMHO.

I noticed the Media Players you show in your message, and then the list of features you want, and notice that none of them meet your expectations.

The Dune players are great hardware, but the software is really ugly.  They work well, and play everything, but the UI is horrible.

What I have found that works, and gives all that you are looking for is:

Buy a good i3 or i5 based Nettop PC with HDMI and audio that supports what you want.  You can get nice small solutions at reasonable prices.  For example, I found the following at Newegg for $450, an i5 with HDMI and 7.1 audio.  [Link: newegg.com]

Next install one of the various versions of XBMC on it.   [Link: xbmc.org]; If you wish to support multiple rooms, you will need one of these setups for each room.  Note this solution allows any PC software, so lots of other video and audio streaming solutions are available, as you can do anything that runs on a PC.

To support XBMC, and supply it with the metadata that makes XBMC look so great, I suggest running MyMovies, [Link: mymovies.dk]; You'll also want to buy a copy of SlySoft AnyDVD HD, as it is integrated well with XBMC, and will make ripping DVD's and Blu-Ray's as easy as loading into a drive, and telling XBMC that you want it to rip the disk to your storage.  Talking of storage...

MyMovies can run on just a Windows PC, but really shines if you instead use a Windows home server that can easily be set up with all the drives you want, and can be set up to support as much storage as you need.  You choose the hardware, and simply install Windows Home Server for about $45, which is a bargain for the capabilities.  You can then log into the network remotely from outside the home, the server can be set up to serve up pages for relatives for sharing pictures or videos, along with running support for mymovies.  It even supports unattended backups for any PC's that you want backed up, that are on your home network.  The best part about WHS is that the interface is simple, and all the basics such as backing up other computers and installing the mymovies software is incredibly simple.

This combo gives a solution that hits all your wants, and then fills plenty of other needs.  This solution makes others like the Dune seem archaic.  Once you get to 3 nodes, it is less expensive than Dune as well, while providing more functionality!

Can WHS have software like DVDFab or AnyDVD loaded on it? That was always my reservation to trying it with my current setup and I have used all of my spare computers to test Vortexbox setups.

the list is just ones that i found. i know there are more out there and i was just starting a discussion regarding inexpensive Media Players (Mainly focusing on movies).

I doubt that any of the sub $500 media players will do it all, but just trying to get the best bang for my buck and for my customers. with so many options out now, i want to find one that is not vaporware, easy to use, plays movies from a NAS and will integrate into my C4 projects.

the XBMC sounds like a winner for my home, but then i don't think i would want to install it in a customer's home. having a windows pc that i have to take care of would be a PIMA. i'm sure it can be locked down, but i just don't want the headaches of maintaining a PC.

the Dune sounds neat. i will take a closer look at them.
the WD Live TV Media Player without descretes could be an issue.

thanks for the feedback

i agree with you. its easy to use, size is great, easy to control. if only you could stream from a NAS without having to use a PC/Mac and itunes...