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What would you like to ask receiver would I need to play movies on my TV off of a

flash drive? What type of receiver would I use to play movies on my Television off of an external hard drive or flash drive? Would a DVR or TIVO unit work?

No. You want a device called a "Media Server".

These things either link to your computer wirelessly, with a network cable, have an internal hard drive or just a USB slot on one side and HDMI out on the other.

No receiver/DVR wants to constantly update the firmware when .avi, .divx, .wmv, .mp4, ... etc change so these Media Servers were created by companies.

The cheapest is the Western Digital TV HD box for about $99 on sale at Best Buy.

Look up "SageTV" and "PopcornHour" for example of other more expensive devices, but with more connection options.

Linksys even has one for about $500 that has wired, wireless, hard drive, USB support, etc.