Western Digital quietly intros WD TV HD Media Player

Well, what do we have here? With no fanfare whatsoever, Western Digital has apparently strayed from its platter-based roots and delved into the wide, murky world of HD media streaming. The WD TV HD Media Player purports to "turn your USB drive into an HD media player, allowing you to watch your favorite HD movies on your TV." For those still befuddled, look at it like this: it enables you to plug in your USB key or USB hard drive and play back multimedia clips up to 1080p on your HDTV via the HDMI / composite outputs. The 1.6- x 4.9- x 3.9-inch box ought not bog you down too much when looking to take it on a journey, and the $129.99 price tag isn't too painful either.

[Thanks, Anonymous]

[eminemd12obie @ Nov 1st 2008 6:57PM]

cool, my 360 does this but to have a less noisy and dedicated HD media streaming device sounds like a must have for me... not to mention when i upgrade from 720p to 1080p my 360 won't be able to stream 1080p (i'm 99% at least)...

[spartaninahog @ Nov 1st 2008 7:11PM]

I dont see why it wouldnt be able to.

[Mike Cerm @ Nov 1st 2008 7:18PM]

There are no specs for this device anywhere on the internet, so one should reserve judgment. However, the Xbox 360 has pretty good codec support. It's not perfect, but it's probably the best there is. It will be interesting to see if this little device can best the Xbox in the codec department.

[The Engadgeter @ Nov 1st 2008 8:06PM]

Its not even close to the best there is - its not even the best amongst the consoles. PS3 has better codec support as they support x264 with dolby digital 5.1 audio. This is very important to streaming aficionados, but it is trumped by proper matroska x264 dts support.

[DWells55 @ Nov 1st 2008 11:01PM]

If they make the PS3 capable of handling the .mkv container as well as level 5.1 x264 streams and 1.5 Mbit DTS audio, it'll be worth the purchase just for that feature. I don't like having to downconvert DTS to DD 5.1 and then remux to M2TS.

[mirakutea @ Nov 2nd 2008 12:16AM]

Ps3 natively supports x264 mkv ? o_O

[porath @ Nov 2nd 2008 12:48AM]

no, ps3 does not support mkv at all. unless you're talking about ps3 linux. but i don't think you are. :)

[The Engadgeter @ Nov 2nd 2008 1:33AM]

In order to play all your x264 mkv vids that are readily available over the interwebs (hopefully you're grabbing them from places like SceneHD & HDBits), you need to remux the vid. Remuxing is not like converting, it merely changes the container format from extension (.mkv) to another (.m2ts, .vob, .mpg, etc.). This is a very short process taking less than a minute. If you are not very fluent with what I am talking about, then you will need to use a one-click program called mkv2vob. This will work for vids with dts audio as well, but since ps3 does not support dts, the program will have to convert the audio, which will take time.

You're Welcome, enjoy the internet :D

[brickwood @ Nov 2nd 2008 2:52AM]

@Engadget

You need to consider offering 'The Engadgeter' a job the next time a position becomes vacant. He managed to answer questions and follow-up questions i had ahhhaha.. Great stuff!

[hyperspaced @ Nov 3rd 2008 6:18AM]

well, I don't mind remuxing (I use tsmuxer for that), I don't even mind lack of SMB streaming support (I use a DLNA server) but I DO mind SUBTITLES.
No subs are visible on M2TS. Great job SONY. How do you expect viewers (e.g. non native English speakers) to watch foreign movies? Psychic link?

You want to hear another joke? Linux support.

[Jonyah @ Nov 3rd 2008 9:59AM]

I'm sure they'll screw up this device and not make it support mkv's as well. Looks like the only true player in town remains the popcornhour. Just ordered another one. Got almost every tv in the house hooked up with them. Haven't streamed a single byte to my PS3 or 360 since getting them.

[VampireHunter Z @ Nov 4th 2008 12:38PM]

What are you guys talking about? The 360 handles every codec I've thrown at it. Tversity lets me stream mkv. I'm sure Tversity works for the PS3 too but the fact is the PS3 doesn't support more codecs.

[phanbouy @ Nov 1st 2008 7:00PM]

in before the whiny bitch waiownsself trolls me some more

[Major4Play @ Nov 1st 2008 7:25PM]

People only troll you because nobody like you.

[ThreeDee912 @ Nov 1st 2008 9:23PM]

lol...
Great Success at not feeding the troll.

[Frankfurter @ Nov 1st 2008 9:42PM]

He says as he, uh, feeds the troll.

[Reader @ Nov 2nd 2008 1:42AM]

Just 845 more to go phanbouy, keep it up. It'll take me at least 3 years to catch up.

[Atropos @ Nov 2nd 2008 3:43AM]

Holy shit. Phanbouy sucks so fucking bad he has single handedly resurrected the "lowest ranked" status. Congrats on being the most hated pre-teen on Engadget, man.

[MrMac @ Nov 2nd 2008 9:58AM]

I had to copy and paste his text into Word just to see what it said since it was so low ranked.

[phanbouy fan @ Nov 2nd 2008 9:13PM]

Yay Phanbouy! Boo haters!

[julian @ Nov 1st 2008 7:00PM]

sounds pretty cool. i have a hdtv and my passport hdd, but nothing to connect the two like this does. i'll deffinite give this a look when its uk-bound.

[julian @ Nov 1st 2008 7:04PM]

although i was thinking about getting a ps3 soon so maybe not...

[Rich @ Nov 1st 2008 7:04PM]

Saw these in store at Best Buy 2 days ago. Did a google search for it and it came up on Best Buy's website only. No reviews yet online at that time. Kinda interested to see how it fairs.

[Jash Sayani @ Nov 2nd 2008 4:07AM]

Even LaCie has a new media drive with a HDMI port and a small remote... I like that one as its very small compared to this one... And comes upto 500Gigs of storage...

[No @ Nov 2nd 2008 6:16AM]

@Jash Sayani

Are you talking about this LaCie media drive?
http://www.engadget.com/2007/09/26/lacie-unveils-500gb-silverscreen-multimedia-hard-drive/
http://www.lacie.com/uk/company/news/news.htm?id=10352

If so:
a) it looks *much* bigger - the WD is only 5" wide and the remote alone on the LaCie looks longer than that i.e. WD=portable, LaCie not
b) it supports divx. Yesteryears technology. Literally. Where's 1080p? Can it do mkv? No mention...
c) there's no mention of support for music or photos *other than* for mp3 or jpg, which is very limited file support
d) no mention of hdmi, depite your post, only upscaling component out, which ain't as good as 1:1 mapped 1080p over hdmi
e) yes it has a 500GB harddrive but with the WD you can choose your harddrive and it's separate therefore portable and allows friends to plug their USB drives/sticks in easily, all of which are big advantages for me.

The LaCie just seems to fail on every count

[Kspraydad @ Nov 1st 2008 7:14PM]

I'll give it a week before Netflix announces they are on it...

[AJ in the East Bay @ Nov 1st 2008 8:41PM]

Well, it sort of needs an Ethernet or Wi-Fi to get to Netflix. I'm hunting for specs but got nuthin'. I guess is not a streamer.

Otherwise, keep these devices coming. I can't wait for Netflix AND Hulu to become de facto standard apps.

[AJ in the East Bay @ Nov 1st 2008 8:44PM]

Okay, so no LAN connectivity for sure. This needs to be around $80 if all it can do is play files from your hard drive.

[Josh @ Nov 1st 2008 10:13PM]

I'll take that bet...

[nedilespaul @ Nov 1st 2008 7:17PM]

if it plays .MKV 's im sold!

[Mike Cerm @ Nov 1st 2008 7:22PM]

That's the one thing that the Xbox 360 can't do, though I wish it could. However, I don't really know of any other media players that support MKV, and I've never seen MKV used for legal purposes, so I wouldn't count on many commercial products supporting MKV playback anytime soon.

[US Open @ Nov 1st 2008 7:33PM]

Mike, the Popcorn Hour can play mkv files :)

[The Engadgeter @ Nov 1st 2008 7:47PM]

popcourn hour has a horribly slow and buggy interface. If this has wide codec support such as x264 dts in the matroska container, then it is an immediate winner. I await a proper description engadget!

[KyleK @ Nov 1st 2008 8:00PM]

The Conceptronics CFULLHDMA does MKV as well, although I do not know if it's available in the US, and I can't say anything about the speed of its interface.

[Daza @ Nov 2nd 2008 2:41AM]

SOLD! To nedilespaul...

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

First player of its kind I've seen support MKV. Cheap way to play all those HD rips.

[1234321 @ Nov 2nd 2008 7:56PM]

this don't beat the PopcornHour A-110

[lazyjai @ Jan 8th 2009 5:43AM]

yeah it plays MKV - From mwave.com.au

http://www.mwave.com.au/newAU/mwaveAU/productdetail.asp?sku=29030259

- Video -MPEG1/2/4, WMV9, AVI (MPEG4, Xvid, AVC), H.264, MKV, MOV (MPEG4, H.264)

[IsleOfMan @ Nov 1st 2008 7:18PM]

Knowing codec and container support would be nice. .mp4 and/or .mkv along with h.264 might make this a candidate for my DVD/HD jukebox project. I may give it a try... if codec/container support and a decent UI are there, this might be a nice simple alternative to Popcorn Hour, sans network connectivity .

[RogeR @ Nov 1st 2008 7:32PM]

From Buy.com: http://www.buy.com/prod/wd-tv-hd-media-player-usb-2-0-hdmi-composite-a-v/q/loc/101/209975073.html

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

[Orpheus @ Nov 1st 2008 7:46PM]

BMP support!? I'm definitely getting it now...

[Valicore @ Nov 1st 2008 8:05PM]

Yeah Orpheus, now we can all watch slideshows of the drawings we made in MS Paint as kiddies!

[Orpheus @ Nov 1st 2008 8:47PM]

Actually, having checked out that link and looked at the 'Compatibility' section, I'm not sure I want it any more. Apparently it only plays "Dull HD (1080p)".

[mirakutea @ Nov 2nd 2008 12:22AM]

hmm all it needs now is wireless+wired networking.

[nikster @ Nov 2nd 2008 1:12AM]

Thanks RogeR. I am sold. This is exactly what I was waiting for though I sure as hell expect this to have a _nice_, fast linux based interface. Price is really good considering it plays H264 etc etc, and I really don't want it to have WiFi, provide SMB access or make cheese sandwiches. Play my media files, that's all I want.

Engadget can you please review it? Please?

[_||_ @ Nov 2nd 2008 3:06PM]

it's like the Sandisk TakeTV done right (imo, lack of HD & limited & fixed flash storage killed it)

it's also much cheaper than AppleTV & other streamers.

[Aaron @ Nov 1st 2008 7:39PM]

wow! they have these in my local store. I'm going to go buy one tomorrow and check it out. I was about to order a popcorn hour but this might be a decent replacement.

[eminemd12obie @ Nov 2nd 2008 2:05AM]

let us know how it is!

[kshep @ Nov 1st 2008 7:44PM]

Does this look like an OEM'd Roku box to anybody besides me?

[Aaron @ Nov 1st 2008 8:24PM]

Not really. It's in the same little case as the rest of the WD mybook series.

[3dpenguin @ Nov 1st 2008 8:03PM]

Not advocating piracy, but can anybody say Welcome To Blu-ray Ripping and NetFlix.