Streaming with(out) a network

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I want to stream movies to my TV and whilst I love the Apple TV, it doesn't (without some serious hacking) play all the formats I want.

Instead, I'm looking at getting a Freecom Network MediaPlayer. It plays all the formats I'm after and is Mac compatible.

One of the reviews on the Freecom website says that it needs to be connected to an existing wireless network. Does this mean I need a base station as well, or can I just stream from my Mac with built in wi-fi straight to the freecom?
 
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The diagram shown on that page shows that it works without one. I would imagine it asks for a wireless access point just because it needs a IP address but maybe you can manually setup your mac and freecom media player to both have different static ip addresses but appear to be on the same network. This device is very interesting. I want something like this but 250G is quite small for a movie steaming device however I like how you can change the hard drive yourself.

I have just read that this is also a HD Recorder, can it record TV?
 
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Thanks Pixel. It's a wicked little box isn't it - it also comes in 400 and 500MB versions but I figure why not keep the stuff on my hard drive and stream it? I've got LOADS of storage. And get this - you can plug a thumb drive into the back of it and play media from that!

They refer to High Definition, but I can't see on the specs that it is an HD recorder, so I don't think it can record TV unless I'm missing something.
 
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I don't think you can actually record TV yet I read it somewhere which was weird. I am seriously thinking about buying one of these and using it as a media station, my other alternative was buying a mac mini and using it as a internet + media system but its twice the price. I could buy one of these Freecom media players and once I fill the HD buy a 1TB drive if needed. If you can plug in a memory stick maybe you can plug in an external hard drive.
 
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Yeah, I'm sure you can plug in a Hard drive. Don't know whether that would cause stalls in the streaming though
 
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I've just found out that you can't stream to a TV if you only have the ethernet version. The wireless version seems much better.

Play.com said:
Please Note: Streaming via ethernet is only possible on Windows PC's. (uses Window file sharing)

Wireless version

Ethernet version

I think buying the kit + a 500gb hard drive is going to be cheaper than buying it with a Freecom hard drive included. Now to find a cheapish 500gb + HD.

Any ideas how this will handle codecs or new versions of divx?
 

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