Question about DVD players with USB ports.

[StripeyKnickersSpottySocks]

After spending most of yesterday faffing about converting a film on my laptop from .avi to .mpeg and trying to burn it I've given up and am looking for a new DVD player.

I want one with Divx so it plays .avi files and ideally one with a USB port as well. Am I right in thinking if I get one with a USB port then I don't have to burn a disc I can just save the .avi film onto a stick and plug the stick in?

I've seen one player that looks good but USb port is 1.1 and one review says that because of that it can't read external hard drives. I don't really understand that - would it be a problem for watching films? Thanks.

Don't know for certain because I don't have one yet, but will bump this anyway.

USB 1.1 is an older slower speed. Many older PCs still use it and it just takes longer to copy files. On a DVD player that might be a problem if it couldn't read them fast enough, but I think they copy them first and then play them so that ought not to matter.

What I have heard is that USB DVD players are fussy in other ways. Most should be fine with a USB stick. Plugging an external Hard drive into the DVD player can be more complicated. The HD might be very large, it might have an incompatible filesytem, might have the files stored inside folders where the DVD player can't find them and so on.

I think you will be fine with a usb stick, but post the model and maybe someone will have the same one or know of it.

I'm almost hoping my player breaks so I can get one Currently I burn them to DVD even if I'm only watching them the once which is wasteful.

I got my parents one of these Philips DVP5990/05 and it seems to work quite well. USB2 and plays DivX no problem.

If you're not bothered about the DVD side of things you might be interested in one of these: wd tv
Nice and small, two USB ports, plays just about anything and lots of software updates for it.

If it's a USB stick it should be fine. External hard drives are biggish boxes with a USB cable.

I'm not bothered about an actual DVD player as the one I've got already is fine. I do like the look of the D media player but am confused as to whether I need their Passport External Hard Drive as well or whetehr a USB stick is ok.

You don't need the Passport external drive, any usb media will do. I use usb sticks with mine.

Lots of info here