Western Digital WD TV HD Media Player
by Western Digital
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Our Price: $312.75 Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Category: Home Theater See more product details |
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Customers in the UK,
Buy this product at amazon.co.uk
for British Pounds
Digital Cameras Photo Reviews of Western Digital WD TV HD Media Player
Customer Review: Simple, sleek home theater media player under $100
Summary: 5 Stars
This unit is simple and cheap to setup and has 2 USB ports to hook up any external USB hard drives. Before I tried this out, I had setup Mac Mini's for our home theaters to stream audio/video using the HP Mediasmart home server. This works really well, but is expensive and time consuming to setup. I wish I had simply tried this first. Hook the unit up to your HDTV with HDMI cord (not included) and connect an external USB drive and you're golden. The screen menus are clean. All of my avi, divx, mpg and mp4 movies were recognized and played full screen smoothly, and of course the actual detail depends on the compression method used to rip your DVD. The unit is very small and easy to hide. I've hooked up WD Passport, WD My Book, Iomega Prestige drives as well as all sorts of USB thumb drives which all work fine. The only flaw I've noticed is that the menu won't display thumbnail images of my ripped video files which is a better interface on the Macs with Apple TV or other video library programs. Overall it's a cheap unit that you can easily transport at home or travel that gives you quick easy, smooth access to play your media library. Cheaper factory refurbished models are also available at the WD outlet site. Another great option are the Popcorn Hour products, but they cost much more. This WD TV HD player is great if you just need something simple that the rest of the family, even kids can easily use. Hope this review helps you out.Customer Review: Excellent product with few limitations
Summary: 5 Stars
This is an excellent product for its price to have a media center in your bedroom/living room.
Pros
It plays basically any video container format and codec smoothly. It can play ISO's, MP4s, and even MKV files with no lag -except protected ones. Plays different audio tracks and even subtitle tracks - Subbing is allowable. Nice looking unit, very small and quiet. HDMI works great -I haven't tried the analog connections.
Cons
It doesn't include an HDMI cable out of the box only analog connectors. Remote feels a bit cheap, no manual controls so if you lose your remote good luck trying to operate the media player. Only allows you to connect two USB devices. It doesn't include and audio digital out for multi-channel sound, only a Toslink out, but that will only give you stereo sound, and of course the HDMI but if you don't have an A/V receiver you'll have to use your HDTV's sound, it still sounds great but more options would be better.
Final toughs
For its price you'll be getting an impressive piece of equipment. There are cheaper models out there but they don't play as many formats as this baby does and as flawlessly. There are more expensive models with a few more features but they're closer to a full computer media system, but for this price this is the best option yet. If you can live with these limitations this is the way to go, otherwise be prepared to spend more on a full HD Computer Media Player system.
Customer Review: A media Player for the all
Summary: 5 Stars
I was very skeptical after reading the capabilities for such a small box and not being a Western Digital fan. The reviews I read were positive and the price for the claims was excellent so I bought it.
PROS:
I works exactly as advertised and it is great to find a product that does that. I used the HDMI output port from the rear of the WD TV directly to my audio video receiver. I then connected 2 USB external hard drives the input ports. One 1TB and 1 500GB drive. These drives have TV shows, movies, photos, and MP3's. All played correctly with out any problems. Quality through the HDMI at 720P was excellent on my Samsung 42" HDTV.
As you well know if the menu system isn't good, trying to find what you want on a terabyte hard drive could be a daunting task. Not a problem with this media player. ICONS represent each item with text below each made understanding what and where you are easy. If you have many items such as I do, it will take a bit to navigate through all the folders to find your selected item.
CONS: Actually there weren't any real cons. It takes the WD TV a while on first start up to index your hard drive. After that time from turn on to playing your selected title is acceptable.
NOTES: I have a Logitech Harmony remote and it works well with this media player. I recommend this as an addition to any home theater or media center.
Customer Review: Excellent product, Strongly recommend!
Summary: 5 Stars
I purchased this as a gift for my father. Shipping time for this product was very fast and prompt. Arrived nicely packaged and well secured. The Media player was very easy to setup using the composite cables included. I inserted my external hard drive which I had placed some movies for testing. I was amazed with the results. The media player has a HD conversion feature that turned my AVI, XVID and other compressed movies which looked a little pixelated when viewed in fullscreen mode on my computer (with a 24" HD-LCD)into almost DVD quality on a regular CRT TV. I then tested on a 48" Plasma TV, followed by a 50" LCD TV with the same results. A much improved almost DVD quality image output. The sound quality was also much louder coming from the media player that when viewing the same movie on my computer.
This is a must have to anyone that is tired of backing up their movies onto DVD's or want something portable that can be easily transported from one room to another or bringing over to a friend or families home. Setup takes only 2-5 minutes (taking out of the box, plugging in the audio/video cables or even an HDMI cable and then plugging in the external hard drive and finally the power cord to a wall socket. It can't be any more simpler. I plan to buy one for myself and the rest of my family. This is a must have to all that are tired of burning movies to DVD.
Customer Review: Este producto es genial
Summary: 5 Stars
[spanish]
He adquirido dos elementos de este producto y es genial, todo bien empacado en su caja, con control remoto, baterias, manuales y CD de instalación.
Por las aberturas de ventilacion del equipo puede verse el procesador y el disipador del mismo. Me gusto mucho porque es un equipo pequeño, igualmente porque puede actualizarse el Firmware, cuando lo encendi probe con archivos MPG, estos no se veian bien, pero despues de actualizar el Firmware desde la pagina de Western Digital se solucionó la visualización de archivos, esa es una ventaja primordial poder actualizar los codecs.
Definitivamente lo recomiendo y estoy muy contento con la compra.
[english]
I purchased two items of this product, it's great, everything packed into its box, with remote control, batteries, manuals and installation CD.
By openings for ventilation equipment may see the processor and heatsink. I really liked because it is a small unity, also because you can upgrade the firmware, when I do test with the equipment with MPG files, it isn't good displayed, but after updating the firmware from the site Western Digital, the files are displaying ok, its primordial advantage is that you can to update the codecs.
Definitely recommend it and am very happy with me purchase.