OTish: media players

[mike]

I'm looking for a cheap, reliable media player that will play MKV, MP4 and FLV (the formats the card slot on the DVD player won't handle). It's to connect to an old CRT telly with only SCART input. It would be good if it came with a decent remote.

Can anyone recommend the Sumvision Cyclone Micro 2+ for the above situation? Is there something similarly priced (=A327 @ eBuyer) that's better? I don't really want to spend hundreds on a media player with a hard drive.

Are there any cheap DVD players that now handle files other than just DivX/avi? The one I have plays MPEG4 (or maybe just H264) but only if it's in an avi wrapper (which I thought was outside the spec for avi files anyway).

Are there any high street chains that stock lower end stuff like the Cyclone rather than copping for online P&P? I've only ever come across more expensive stuff in Currys etc.

Thanks for any info.

[Adrian Brentnall]

Hi Mike Can't help with 'physical' shops - but I bought an NBOX on Ebay which does pretty much what you're looking for. If you put

NBOX Media Player RMVB MP3 AVI MPEG Divx HDD HD TV USB

into the search box on eBay then you'll see the animal mine came from a seller in China called 365digital.

£21 + free postage from China (how do they do that! )

Only snag I could find was that it wouldn't talk to a 'real' USB disk, but would play very happily from USB sticks / SD cards. You also need to 'bodge' (er, adapt ) the PSU, as it came with 'merkin' pluggery, but a couple of 1/4" Lucars on the end of a mians lead sorted that

Adrian

[Reentrant]

I can. It's coped with every MKV I've (ahem) downloaded. The HD video, and DD 5.1 audio are both very good.

I was also pleasantly surprised that it plays AVCHD .MTS files from my Panasonic DSLR camera, and that it's happy with NTFS-formatted USB disks/flash drives.

My only complaint is that the remote control is a bit crap. The range is only 18" or so, and the print is hard to read.

[The Natural Philosopher]

have to say thats what I use half bust laptop PCs for..;-)

[Paulplumb]

I have the sumvision cyclone mkv. It can play anything i throw at it. Cost about 20 quid from maplins b grade. The you have to buy ur caddy/usb of course

[John Rumm]

The WD Live HD does all you want and more - but is a bit more pricey since it also has 10/100 ethernet which seems to jack up the price. Plays pretty much every format known to man apart from possibly iPlayer at the moment.

[mike]

Thanks for all the replies. Will investigate those alternatives before deciding.