Inexpensive Media Players?

[paddyhasneeds]

I meant to do something about this a while back but never got around to it.

Does anyone have any suggestions on a low cost media player that I can connect to my plasma via HDMI and which will let me either install an existing HDD in it, or hook one up via USB?

There seem to be loads of options ranging from a £15 Sumvision Cyclone upwards, and of course other than Youtube there's nowhere you can go to see the things in action.

I don't want anything particularly feature packed, the main requirement is to just be able to play back the various stuff accumulated over the years.

It's a bit of a minefield.

[Mikey G]

Apparently Google TV is on its way, already in the US but looks like a rival to ATV.
There are various Android based units out there on ebay but not sure what the quality of them is like.
As you say its a minefield out there and i'm looking for something similar to complement my current setup.

[paddyhasneeds]

The more I think about this, the ideal would have an internal SATA bay (have the drive already but if it comes with one that's OK), ethernet so I can copy files to the internal HDD, and presumably the ethernet would allow streaming from various online services?

[leorest]

Have you looked into xbmc? - Google it if not.
If you have any suitable hardware lying around then you can't get cheaper than free!