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Western Digital releases WD TV HD Media Player

Originally posted by: manimal
wonder what formats it supports, I may buy one to test it out.
Click to expand...



Media Formats
MPEG 1/2/4, WMV9, AVI (MPEG4,Xvid, AVC), H.264, MKV, MOV (MPEG4, H264), JPEG, GIF, TIFF, BMP, PNG
MP3, WMA, OGG, WAV/PCM/LPCM, AAC, FLAC, Dolby Digital, AIF/AIFF, MKA

might have to pick this up...
 
Wow, this thing seems pretty cool for the money.

But can the PS3 and Xbox do most of this functionality, too? Would there be a need for this if you already had one of those systems?

If WD can issue periodic firmware updates to take advantage of future codecs, they'll have a real winner. Also, it would be really great if it had network capability to access NAS or shared folders. You could plug in a big external drive and load content from PC's, then have it always ready for your HT system. The way it is now, you'd have to manually move the drive back and forth from a PC to this unit every time you wanted more content. Although it may have a way to transfer data from one drive to another, so you could keep a big drive plugged in and add stuff to it using a flash drive.
 
$99 is a great price, but there are supposedly issues with the x264 mkv files, which is all I would be throwing at it. I guess I'll wait a little bit.
 
Originally posted by: EvilYoda
$99 is a great price, but there are supposedly issues with the x264 mkv files, which is all I would be throwing at it. I guess I'll wait a little bit.
Click to expand...

Where did you read that? Haven't seen any reviews yet...
 
Ordered one, will report back.

Western Digital - WD TV HD Media Player for Select USB Storage Devices WDAVN00BN SKU: 8993217

Scheduled for Standard delivery
Estimated Arrival: 11/7-11/12/2008
 
Hmm. No networking is a big minus, but the GUI seems pretty good (better than the Syabas players anyways (Popcorn Hour, iStar, etc..)

 
Originally posted by: erwos
Looks good, but as others have noted, it's hard to recommend over a Popcorn Hour A-110.
Click to expand...

Bleh, Popcorn Hour. Had one, sold it. GUI was lame and it was buggy. Although, the A-110 sure looks nice. I picked up the WD TV HD for my outdoor movie theater - it's the perfect device for it! I have an inflatable screen and projector, plus a nice unconverting DVD player. Now I can just chuck my movie files on a USB drive and bring it with me easily. Previously I had tried the Popcorn Hour, an HTPC, an Xbox, etc. This is a super-convenient solution. I'm very excited about it 🙂
 
This looks real promising as I was looking at building an htpc primarily to view digital video. For $99, I think I'll try it out.
 
I am going to try it out. Hopefully I don't "need" a WD Passport drive and any USB external HDD will do.
 
The lack of any network function pretty much kills the utility of this device for me personally.
However, I'm still interested to see how it copes with various video files (particularly less-than-standard h.264 mkvs).
 
A lot of people are complaining about lack of network capabilities. If I wanted something like this WD media player but with network capabilities (just for filesharing across my PCs), what would be a good option for me? Wireless would be preferable, but ethernet would be fine. Would popcorn hour be my only choice, or is there something else? Is there anything like popcorn hour but without all the fancy features (i.e. cheaper)? I would really only need it to play .avi and .mkv (standard containers/codecs found via BT). Also internal hdd would be preferable to an external hdd but not necessary.
 
Originally posted by: iamtehwalrus
A lot of people are complaining about lack of network capabilities. If I wanted something like this WD media player but with network capabilities (just for filesharing across my PCs), what would be a good option for me? Wireless would be preferable, but ethernet would be fine. Would popcorn hour be my only choice, or is there something else? Is there anything like popcorn hour but without all the fancy features (i.e. cheaper)? I would really only need it to play .avi and .mkv (standard containers/codecs found via BT). Also internal hdd would be preferable to an external hdd but not necessary.
Click to expand...

Popcorn Hour
Tvix
Vista Media Center
Xbox 360
Playstation 3

Take your pick 🙂
 
Originally posted by: Kaido
Originally posted by: iamtehwalrus
A lot of people are complaining about lack of network capabilities. If I wanted something like this WD media player but with network capabilities (just for filesharing across my PCs), what would be a good option for me? Wireless would be preferable, but ethernet would be fine. Would popcorn hour be my only choice, or is there something else? Is there anything like popcorn hour but without all the fancy features (i.e. cheaper)? I would really only need it to play .avi and .mkv (standard containers/codecs found via BT). Also internal hdd would be preferable to an external hdd but not necessary.
Click to expand...

Popcorn Hour
Tvix
Vista Media Center
Xbox 360
Playstation 3

Take your pick 🙂
Click to expand...

OK thanks for that list 🙂
Looks like it's Popcorn Hour for me if I care about networking and this WD media player if I don't.
 
I swung by BB and wasn't sure if this would be in the HT or computer section. I tried the computer section and walked down a few aisles until an associate asked me if I needed help. I showed him a print-out of it on the BB site (I had it in case their in-store price was higher) and he told me if they had it, it wouldn't be in the computer section.
He walked over to a inventory computer and proceeded to tell me they probably didn't have any in stock. I looked at him and told him I checked in-store availability a few minutes prior and they should be in stock. In fact there were actually 5 or so about 18 inches in front of his face, sitting on the same shelf as the computer while he checked the inventory.
 
Originally posted by: RKS
I swung by BB and wasn't sure if this would be in the HT or computer section. I tried the computer section and walked down a few aisles until an associate asked me if I needed help. I showed him a print-out of it on the BB site (I had it in case their in-store price was higher) and he told me if they had it, it wouldn't be in the computer section.
He walked over to a inventory computer and proceeded to tell me they probably didn't have any in stock. I looked at him and told him I checked in-store availability a few minutes prior and they should be in stock. In fact there were actually 5 or so about 18 inches in front of his face, sitting on the same shelf as the computer while he checked the inventory.
Click to expand...

Large companies = beauracracies. You're dealing with some kid who doesn't want to be there and is getting paid minimum wage to grudgingly help you find products.

So didja pick one up? 😀
 
Originally posted by: Kaido
Originally posted by: RKS
I swung by BB and wasn't sure if this would be in the HT or computer section. I tried the computer section and walked down a few aisles until an associate asked me if I needed help. I showed him a print-out of it on the BB site (I had it in case their in-store price was higher) and he told me if they had it, it wouldn't be in the computer section.
He walked over to a inventory computer and proceeded to tell me they probably didn't have any in stock. I looked at him and told him I checked in-store availability a few minutes prior and they should be in stock. In fact there were actually 5 or so about 18 inches in front of his face, sitting on the same shelf as the computer while he checked the inventory.
Click to expand...

Large companies = beauracracies. You're dealing with some kid who doesn't want to be there and is getting paid minimum wage to grudgingly help you find products.

So didja pick one up? 😀
Click to expand...

I did pick it up. I'll try it tonight. My main purpose it to play BRD backups since my kids think the originals make great coasters. Currently my only BRD player is in my PC. I was gonna build a HTPC just for BRD/HDDVD but so far, this seems like a better solution.

If I need networked connectivity, couldn't I use a NAS or other enclosure with a networked connection?


Update:

Tried it tonight and it worked pretty well. There is no configuration needed. It's as close to Plug & Play as I have ever dealt with. I don't have an actual external enclosure but one of those cable connectors that allow me to attach any type of HDD via USB and it worked without a hitch.

The remote is tiny and kinda slow. I'll try to see if my Logitech 880 would be better.
The enclosure does get a little warm after a couple hours of use but nothing alarming.
The file system is intuitive and not too difficult to navigate.
It plays .avi and .mkv files without a hitch but the main complaint would be the lack of 'chapters' and needing to FFW to points in a movie. I haven't checked to see if there is a solution to this yet.
Wouldn't play a .iso and had trouble with some .wmv files. It played .wmv files made from home movies but not the sample .wmv files that were on the HDD. I thought I read that .iso files were playable but it didn't work for me. I'm not sure if newer firmware has already been introduced and allowed that format.

I'm just glad I have all 12 of the Land Before Time series at my finger tips. 🙂

 
Originally posted by: RKS
Originally posted by: Kaido
Originally posted by: RKS
I swung by BB and wasn't sure if this would be in the HT or computer section. I tried the computer section and walked down a few aisles until an associate asked me if I needed help. I showed him a print-out of it on the BB site (I had it in case their in-store price was higher) and he told me if they had it, it wouldn't be in the computer section.
He walked over to a inventory computer and proceeded to tell me they probably didn't have any in stock. I looked at him and told him I checked in-store availability a few minutes prior and they should be in stock. In fact there were actually 5 or so about 18 inches in front of his face, sitting on the same shelf as the computer while he checked the inventory.
Click to expand...

Large companies = beauracracies. You're dealing with some kid who doesn't want to be there and is getting paid minimum wage to grudgingly help you find products.

So didja pick one up? 😀
Click to expand...

I did pick it up. I'll try it tonight. My main purpose it to play BRD backups since my kids think the originals make great coasters. Currently my only BRD player is in my PC. I was gonna build a HTPC just for BRD/HDDVD but so far, this seems like a better solution.

If I need networked connectivity, couldn't I use a NAS or other enclosure with a networked connection?
Click to expand...

Hey that's not a bad idea...USB/Ethernet NAS...if we could find one that works on dual interfaces, we could FTP/SMB the files over then just access them via USB on the WD unit. Hmmm 😀

 
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