If you're looking for a media player unit that just plays back a whole bunch of video formats and you don't need TV recording functionality, there's the TVix M-3100U. Put a standard 3.5" hard disk inside and it will play back the media files inside as long as they're in MPEG1/2, DivX, XviD, DVD Video, MP3, OGG, WMA or JPEG formats. Upload files onto it with USB2.0 then connect this to your TV with Component, Composite or S-Video (sorry, no HDMI here).

Best of all, it's only $177! Available to order from Japan June 9th. – Jason Chen

Product Page [Gate via TechEBlog]

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