I've had very good luck playing regular DVD files saved on a hard drive using USB. I avoid the multiple VOBs by creating one large VOB with DVD Shrink. With multiples, it stops playing after each one and I have to select the next one in the folder.

Now the question is, will it support Blu-Ray content in the same way? Can I use something like AnyDVD or DVDHDFab, rip it, copy it to a USB drive and have it play through the DSM-520? Are there any encoding issues? I'm fine if the audio is just 5.1. I don't need HD audio.

Thanks

The DSM-520 will play HDTV files of up to about 19 mbps. The DVD formats in HD can run up into the 40 mbps range. There is no way that the DSM-520 is going to be able to keep up with that. I guess some kind of transcoding to a lower bit rate is an option but time consuming.

As a point of comaprison, the spec for a standard DVD was in the 8 mbps range.