Realtek 1073 players

[chiledog]

Lately there has been a large crop of Realtek 1073 players (Patriot Box Office, ASUS OPlay, ...). They typically cost $80-$110. From the stats and reviews, they play pretty much everything you throw at it.

Has anyone used one of these? If so, what do you think?

Also, I wonder if SageTV could use this chipset to create a cheap SageTV extender.

(BTW, I purchased one as my travel media player. They can have an internal HD, which is nice when you travel. Currently I take my SageTV and an external HD. From reviews, it looks like the UI is functional, but nothing compared to a SageMC. I should receive my unit sometime late this week.)

[Fuzzy]

Personally, I believe SageTV already makes a cheap SageTV extender. A good portion of the extender's cost IS hardware/manufacturing, but there is some part of it that is the software development as well. Consider the $110 media player, then add a $30 extender license, and you are rapidly getting close to the cost of the HD-200. Throw in the added connection capabilities of the HD-200 (Component Video, S-Video), and better remote, and the price difference starts to evaporate.