Maximum PC

Hey guys I have a question & perhaps someone could help me find the right device or suggestion. I have a Roku player with the USB option from a few years back. I've noticed since the time I've gotten it I NEVER user it for streaming I find myself using the USB exclusively to watch movies that I own & have encoded to .MP4. Most of my movies work & some dont, but they ALL work great on VLC. My question is this, is their a device on the market that really just focuses on playing different codecs, encodes, etc. much like VLC with a USB port? I can careless about the streaming option I just want a tiny box that connects to the TV via HDMI & plays all my content with no issues. Thoughts? Thanks!


***EDIT: Looks like this guy had a similar question awhile back
http://forum.videolan.org/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=101414

Thanks for the response, however I'm really looking for an out of the box solution here.

It's not out of the box and you'll do some work yourself, but it's cheap:
Raspberry Pi ($35 w/o the clear box) + XBMC Frodo + A little know how can make this happen easily.

The reason you may get the exact answer you're looking for is 1) All these boxes are media streamers 1st, USB is perk 2) Newer TV's likely have USB ports or at the very least an SD card slot. My TV is well aged now, but it will still accept a big SD card to watch videos off of if I wanted to. I don't, but it's there. 3) Windows Media center, Vista, and Win7, xbox360, etc... You can skip moving files off the computer and putting it on USB drives and physically moving the drive to the device you want to use it on. Media center let's you just stream that file straight to your TV over the network.

It's just vary rare with all the other viable options available where people are still using thumb drives to watch anything off of. Even phones will stream to and from the TV now. If you look at Roku options, only the top 2 XS box even bothers with a USB port for $100. To me, you'd be better off with the $50 LT and just stream wirelessly from your computer and stop using the USB all together. I just feel you're hung up on what you're use to and not to what else is available to adapt too.

Chumly, that's a pretty good idea! I think I will take your advice and build off a Raspberry Pi platform. Can I stream with that device too? The reason I'm not a big fan of streaming is because many of these streaming devices require your PC on at all times & a separate 3rd party application/service to run on Windows. I really dont want to run another app if I dont have to.