Need an external player similar to Roku

[big_tasty_muffin]

I need help finding a an external player to play my movie files on my TV in the living room.

I have a external hard drive that has a ton of movies on it but when I plug it into my Roku 3 it can only play certain files such as Mp4. Other files such as AVI and MKV wont play.

Is there some other player that I can buy that would play all file formats?

PS
I realize a lot of people just plug there laptop/desktop to there TV's but my computer doesnt have an HDMI output and I really cant afford anything that costly right now.

[shirepirate]

i'd recommend the WDTV line of HD media players, some of them go for as low as 40 USD. but any HD media player with good reviews should play most files you throw at it.

i own a model WDBHG70000NBK-HESN "WD TV Live Media Player Wi-fi 1080p" and i've been happy with it. over Wireless LAN it plays films stored on a 4TB hard drive just great (the hard drive has no network functionality, it is only connected to a desktop that has a wireless adapter. the media player is connected to the TV via HDMI and to the LAN router via ethernet, but could/can also connect to the router wirelessly).

the ideal setup is a home theater PC, but you're getting into a more expensive zone there, even for the most basic hardware. that's why HD media players have become quite popular

[darkj6]

How about a VGA output on your laptop/desktop?

[big_tasty_muffin]

i'd recommend the WDTV line of HD media players, some of them go for as low as 40 USD. but any HD media player with good reviews should play most files you throw at it.

i own a model WDBHG70000NBK-HESN "WD TV Live Media Player Wi-fi 1080p" and i've been happy with it. over Wireless LAN it plays films stored on a 4TB hard drive just great (the hard drive has no network functionality, it is only connected to a desktop that has a wireless adapter. the media player is connected to the TV via HDMI and to the LAN router via ethernet, but could/can also connect to the router wirelessly).

the ideal setup is a home theater PC, but you're getting into a more expensive zone there, even for the most basic hardware. that's why HD media players have become quite popular

I like the WD Media Player but after researching it, it doesnt appear that it plays AVI files. Which is what I have the most of.

[shirepirate]

I like the WD Media Player but after researching it, it doesnt appear that it plays AVI files. Which is what I have the most of.

it does play them.

[BigDogMoya]

Agree completely with Phoenix32. Plex Media Server is awesome for streaming media.