Western Digital WDAVN00BN HD Media Player $55 at Newegg

$59.99 (in my cart) + $5 shipped = $65

Back down to $49.99 + shipping (AFTER I bought it).

I've been converting our families DVD collections to avi files to save space. Trying to hook up the netbook to my parent's tv for them (and speakers, etc) every time they wanted to watch something was a pain, not to mention the trip hazard of wires. This little toy is the greatest thing since sliced bread. I just move whatever video files they want from the hard drive (where the collection is stored) to a jump drive. That way all they have to do is plug the jump drive into the back of this and presto, they're watching stuff w/o the hassle. When I compare $$$ v/s hassle factor (of dealing with parents' tech deficiencies), this is worth every penny! In fact, I just went ahead and gave my parents the one I bought and ordered a second one for myself.

No instructions included (hook up, user guide). But my parents figured out the simple menu w/o it, so no biggie.

I've only used it with AVI files and I haven't tried hooking up a large external drive to it yet (which will make things even simpler if it works as advertised), I also haven't used it with 1080p files. I'd love to eventually have a wireless system as well as stream live video, but this will do me fine until the industry gets around to standardizing media players.

I've only had it a week so I'll update as I try new things (external hard drives, 1080p, etc).