I was liking AR's Digital Mediabridge, but it looks like those are discontinued and hard to get. The Dlink DSM-520 is at a GREAT price at Circuit City right now, but it doesn't look to have the features I am looking for.
Those are:

Must have:
Able to recognize a external hard drive.... not just a thumb drive.
Able to play ripped (legal of course.....) DVDs from the VIDEO_TS folder.

Highly desired:
Able to display pictures at 720p

I believe the DSM-520 can't play ripped DVDs without converting and it doesn't support 720p for pictures. Streaming is great, but to me it makes sense just to move a bunch of movies and MP3s to one of my old external hard drives and not worry about streaming problems. Of course it is nice to get pictures and other items wirelessly as desired.

Suggestions are appreciated.

Matt

Upon reading through all the post I am a little confused about what all these devices do so I am answering this post.

I have an external hard disk with

DVD (ie VOB's) I would like to see as a virtual DVD, and hear in 5.1
many avi files of tv shows (some in High Definition)
I have (ASP) MPEG 4 material from a camera
I have an extensive MP3 library
I have too many photos.

I have a laptop and can connect it to my receiver and projector but it is annoying to do this.

What media server can connect to my network, find these files and produce them in the same quality (visually and audibly) as my computer does it.

After searching more, I have come to like the TViX M4000. It is a bit more than I would like, but looks like it is supported well and does what I want.

http://www.tvix.co.kr/Eng/products/HDM4000.aspx

I have a laptop and can connect it to my receiver and projector but it is annoying to do this. What media server can connect to my network, find these files and produce them in the same quality (visually and audibly) as my computer does it.

I think most people use the media servers to get files (pictures, VOB.... like you mentioned) off the computer and to their TV (either over a network or off a portable hard drive). Normally your media server would sit next to your receiver and send audio/video to one of your receivers inputs so you could watch it on your TV/projector. If you don't want to connect it to your reciever or projector, where would you view it?

Matt

I must have written that a little confusing. I meant that I do not want to have my computer on all the time. I want and external HDD connected to for example a router to serve the media server with the files. This way my computer can be off.

Gotcha. I read that wrong. The TViX that I am interested in can use both an internal hard drive (either serial or parallel depending on what version you buy) and/or an external hard drive that is connected with a USB cable. That is the best of both worlds for me. I believe the units can also connect to a stand alone HD connected via ethernet. There are some P4000 and P5000 threads you can poke around on.
The comparison chart for the different TViX units is here.
http://www.tvixbox.com/comparison.php

I recently got a new HD DVD player and front projector so the $$ is the only thing hodling back right now.

Matt

does anyone know of a device that can connect to a remote storage device (on the LAN) and display cover art and search via categories and be able to stream video??

I would want an HDMI interface also...

The new xbox 360 seems to be the only one...but a bit pricey for the application

Thanks