Hello all. I've been searching for a decent affordable 50"-52" or so 720p or 1080p plasma that will allow me to play movies via my home LAN (network). Preferably avi movies.

My question is do these TV's exist or would it be worth it to just get a Western digital box to accomplish this? My definition of afford is anything below 1299.00.

Thank you.

The Samsung B650 and B850/B860, while out of your price range, both have DLNA capability and can play movies off USB drives.

I am waiting to see the network playback capability of the LG 50PS80 which is supposed to arrive in stores in June. It's around $2,000 though. LG calls the feature "netcast."

I think you are on the right track to getting a 720P set and an external box for network video playback to stay within your budget.

I don't think you will find a TV that can play video via ethernet for under $1300 this year.

Thanks for the replies.

my pio6020 is network capable.

James

The Samsung 650s and up have network capability other than USB. I can stream content from my computer to the TV over the network. Formats may be limited but it played a MKV file I have without a problem.