Media Centre

I've got a new telly and want to get one of those media centre thingees where you stick your USB drive in it and it can play all your d/loaded video files

Is something like this good enough to do the job?

http://www.trademe.co.nz/Computers/External-storage/Other/auction-309973818.htm

Even cheaper one here:

http://www.trademe.co.nz/Electronics-photography/TVs/LCD/40+/auction-310154282.htm

Any other suggestions? I'm not some media junkie who has to watch everything in HD/MGCp btw

The problem with saying that is you end up sneakernetting stuff off other people who DO have HD, you're going to get annoyed when you can't watch it.

Both of those use analog connections to the TV, lowering your quality, and on a digital TV, you'll notice it.

They ARE cheap enough that it might be worth a go, but I'm of the opinion you're better off buying a real deal thing in the first place.

I like the WD TV range, and would suggest the WD TV HD, because the Mini model lacks HDMI: http://pricespy.co.nz/product.php?p=358745

For more future proof, get the Live version for it's network support:
http://pricespy.co.nz/product.php?p=473945

What I like about these is a pretty decent interface, and they fact that they update the firmware to allow for changing codecs. A lot of the other cheap stuff doesn't.

Sweet, will get one of those then