My parents use an Amkette FlashTV with their 29" CRT for movies. I had bought it off eBay about 10 months back for 2400/- or so, if I remember right.
Amkette || Product Page
It plays most common formats -- you can see the specs in the link given above.
The interface is pretty fast -- it loads in an instant and the response to commands from the remote is quite snappy. The device takes very little time to load data from the 16GB USB drive my parents use. The device also supports external HDDs and SD/MMC cards. My parents haven't tried anything other than the 16GB USB drive, though.
The interface is not at all as slick as the WDTV I use. It does not support thumbnails and all it does is give a list of the folders (under Movie/Music/Image) on the screen that you can choose from.
The device does support subtitles (most formats) but the implementation is a bit clunky, with subtitles wrapping in an odd way. You can assign two font sizes to the subtitles -- normal and big.
PQ is just acceptable -- nothing to write home about.
The remote is reasonable sturdy (considering the price paid). It supports jumping to a particular point in time in the movie (which my WDTV does not support), which is a nice option. Otherwise, I find the remote functionality of my WDTV a lot better than the Amkette's.
The device itself is built quite well and has a nice black finish. It comes with the required wires for plugging in a YUV + audio (L+R) setup to a TV.
I'd suggest that your friend spend just a bit extra and get a WDTV (2nd Gen) and enjoy a much better interface, PQ and format compatibility. That said, the Amkette FlashTV is reasonable bang for the buck -- my parents are quite satisfied with it.
in India.
