Alan Zisman -> August Abolins said..

 AZ> Working with video remains too complicated and time consuming
 AZ> in many, many ways... getting a DVD movie onto an iPad, for
 AZ> instance (even with presumably user-friendly all-Apple
 AZ> hardware) requires the following steps:

 AZ> 1) 'Rip' the video from the DVD into a file on a computer.
 AZ> 2) Import the saved file into iTunes.(+conversion).
 AZ> 3) Sync the iPad with iTunes

 AZ> Total time can be as 4-6 hours...

That's way too long.

I decided that I'll put out for a current media player box that just plays
soft-media (no tuner, no dvd, no dvr).  For now, it's a toss up between the
following:

[1] WD TV Live Plus
[2] Seagate GoFlex
[3] Hauppauge 1340

The above models all feature composite or YPbP outputs which I need for my
old TV.  They also feature HDMI output when I am ready with a digital tv.

I like the D-link BoxeeBox too, but it only has HDMI and it exceeds my price-point.

Most of the time, my video material is .avi, divx.  No transcoding is
required since my NTSC DVD/DVR supports flash media via a convenient front
panel USB port.  But TED video is problematic because this particular
DVD/DVR doesn't support .mp4.

TED offers 4 rez qualities. The low rez looks absolutely fine on the
3.5" iPod screen.  But watching them on the device drains the battery
pretty quick.  I can really only watch about 2 hours max before the battery
is depleted. That is why I am looking for a way to be able watch .mp4 files
on TV.

I've been converting their "hi-rez" version to .avi, but the
results look very poor-quality on my 32" 4:3 crt tv.  I also have to
reduce the  file to 480:320 or 480:272 max to support the maximum scaling
of the DVR player.

I haven't tested their top quality .mp4 files for conversion yet.

But it would be a nice bonus to be able to just watch the files without any
conversions whatsoever.

BTW, although the cut-off date was Sep 1, analog TV is still working fine
here.  Still no DSL/cable internet in my immediate area yet.

However, I will be in the market for a digital tv soon to replace my crt tv
that has recently developed an annoying horizonal streak problem.

--- Thunderbird 2.0.0.24 (Windows/20100228)