@ froot and huddaf thank you bros.
enjoying HD now
SO far the m31a has been performing as expected. I've already tried copying and moving files from windows xp, thanks to richie for walking me through the nitty gritty
only problem so far is that a couple of movies seem to have some file error, one froze (Hanna Montana concert) and won't continue playing. another (mummy: tomb of dragon emperor) apparently is an incomplete movie file. it suddenly "ended" around middle part of the movie. will find a good copy of these from e-home.
again thank you guys