Western Digital WD TV HD Media Player | List Price: $109.99
Discount Price: $109.99
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Brand: Western Digital
Binding: Electronics
Warranty: 1 year warranty
Features: - Thumbnail and list views - Browse your content by filename or by thumbnails of photos, album covers and movie cover art.
- Media Library - This unique feature lets you view all your media by media type in one menu regardless of its location in folders or drives. You can view content by categories such as genre, album, artist and date. / Search - Search by genre, title, artist, filename and partial filename
- Create custom slide shows with a variety of transitions and background music
- Movie viewing - Fast forward, rewind, pause, zoom, and pan; View subtitles - Search by filename, partial filename, most recently viewed and date
- Music - Fast forward, rewind, pause, shuffle, repeat; Supported USB Device file systems: FAT-32, NTFS, HFS+ (no journaling)
Store Multiple Format video's and play on a HD TV 1080p [Posted on 2009-01-04]
It simply works. If you know how to back up your DVD's ;) and convert them to any format then this is the device for you. I mainly wanted this thing because its easier store multiple movies in a portable HD, than search for discs. At first I was looking at Lacies LaCinema but the price was way too steep, and I liked the interface of the menu screen better on the WD's Media Player. Another feature that also sold me to this unit was Western Digitals updates on "firmware". Another review commented on being not being able to return to an area on the movie where you might have left off. You can now with the newer firmware update. Just to make sure I tried it... I was watching Fan Four, stopped it and started to play Eagle Eye... stopped that movie and went back to Fan Four. A pop up then asks you if you would like to "resume playback", so it works...very nice feature.
The unit comes with ripping software so you can transfer your DVD's to your "own" external hard drive. I opp to go ahead and buy the WD's Portable Essentials Hard Drive, which is a Fat 32 format with a 5400rpm HD. I was kinda worried about the rpm, but it works perfectly and I can hook it up to a Windows or Mac no problem to transfer files. I honestly did not like the sync software thats a built in feature because I like to do things manually, so I don't use it. To me its bloatware! :OBlah!!!
Other things I don't like about the unit. You are totally dependent on the remote, so if it breaks your screwed, and you can't control the unit without it because there are no controls on the unit itself! Scary!!! I almost want to see if you can buy another remote from Western Digitals Website.
One other thing I learned about the unit, if you buy movies off of iTunes you "WON'T" be able to play their movies, or music on this unit! So all I can say is you have to know what your doing to make it work!!!
Overall I am very pleased with my purchase and hope it lasts for a long time! Oh did I mention it has component & HDMI ports and can upconvert to 1080p! I'm not 100% sure but I read some where it can play Blu-Ray format. OH... and its small so it wont take up too much space, and its easy to connect to your TV! I give it 4 stars and would recommend anyone to buy this thing.
Best media player for the money [Posted on 2009-01-05]
First of all, this product works almost flawlessly out of the box. It played every avi, divx, xvid, mpeg, and iso I had stored on my Mybook 500gig. The only issue had was turning the power off during playback. This causes the unit to lock in the off position and you must unplug to reset. It plays 720P video with ease. Digital AC3 sound is also a plus. I also love the menu structure and how simple it was to navigate.
To those having issues, I must suggest the following actions:
- Learn how to rip with proper software
- Read the website and make sure you stick to a supported format
- Go to the website and download the firmware update
- Try to be a little less nitpicky with a $100 video player
Excellent Device! [Posted on 2009-01-06]
After my Iomega 500GB Multimedia Driver died on me I decided to shop for something more reliable I was surfing and found out about the WD TV HD Media Player since I already have a 1 TB WD External drive I thought I'd buy this device to connect it thorough and watch my stuff on my Plasma everything worked fine video, sound, picture quality are excellent it even played some files that didn't work with my previous Iomega device the remote control is comfortable and works fine even from distance the reason why I'm giving it 4 stars not 5 is because when I turn off the WD TV HD Media Player my external WD External drive stays on! This device is better used with an external notebook hard drive, anyhow I think it's a good device and I recommend it I also hope that my review is helpful.
Works well.. but you will need the firmware update. [Posted on 2009-01-06]
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Upon opening the box, I was surprised at how small the unit was. It is dwarfed by the Vantec HD dock as you can see in my test setup. Out of the box I had some trouble playing one .SRT subtitle file, and the subtitles started at the top of the bottom third of the screen. Also if there were more than one line to the subtitle the lines were spaced very far apart. Very distracting.
Imediately I checked the Western Digital website for a firmware update. Indeed there was. Ver. 1.01.02 dated 12/2/08. After updating the problems I was haver were fixed. The subtitle that wouldn't play worked perfectly. And, the subtitles were at the bottom where they should be and the line spacing was corrected. I also noticed some additions to the setup menu, including subtitle size.
So far all the files I have tested work fine, including the .mkv's which I really wanted this unit for. I am very pleased with the operation and menu system. The only improvement that I can see so far is that they need to give an option to change the subtitle color. The only option right now is white, which can be hard to read on bright scenes. The option of yellow would be very nice. Of course hardsubbed video subtitles look great.
WD also offers GPL code for third party developers, which I find awesome. (Sony please take a hint.)
I'll give it 4 stars only because it needs subtitle color options. I am sure this will happen in future firmware updates.
Almost Perfect [Posted on 2009-01-06]
Just needs to add support for some 6 channel audio encodes used in HD video, ac3 etc.
Would also be nice if it could transfer files from usb1 & usb2 so you could use a thumb drive to add files to a connected external drive.
Plays most everything I throw at it (have had to re-encode some audio).
If you have a lot of media files, the WD HD is a must.
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