WD TV-2 spruces up Western Digital's already attractive media player offering
By Paul Miller 
posted Aug 16th 2009 2:30AM
posted Aug 16th 2009 2:30AM
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If it played ISO files I'd be squirreling my cash away for one right now!
I hope it can handle DIVX in custom resolutions.
I've been waiting for something like this if it does!
original one (meanin version 1) can read iso files, so this should read it as well.
I apologise on behalf of Australia for the above idiot.
He does NOT in any way represent our marvellous country.
The above comment is funny and all, but I also can't think of a time where I would need to play an ISO file.
Reading ISO files transparently is a godsend if you have a fileserver and htpc, same with RARs (even split over many volumes) etc. (this is one of the reasons i love running XBMC)
Download and forget. Fiddling around with a DVD burner when i want to check out a file is absolute crap.
I can download most movies in 10 minutes, but I still like to keep a copy that i can skip though if I feel like seeing one specifically awesome scene or to prove a point
It will play the movie out of a DVD iso. I was amazed. The WD TV was spectacular.
My WD TV plays ISOs today. Why wouldn't this one do the same?
Its an excellent device.
HTPC = near infinite codec support.
Both the WD TV and WD TV 2 play ISO files.
awesome! i've used and loved the first version, adding network and dts support just makes it better. here's hoping it stays around the 100$ price point, though it wouldn't surprise me to see it go up to 150$
the first one already plays dvd/bluray-isos, but only the longest file without the menu :/
if they changed that with the second version, i'll buy it without hesitation!
Does it play lossless 5.1 and 7.1 audio from the files over HDMI? How about subtitles?
haven't tried the hdmi-out so far, waiting for my new pio 919 ;)
subtitles are no problem :)
Now THAT is Awesome ! iso support plz ....
The old WD TV already plays ISOs, so this one should also... I'm pretty sure the new one will support ISO DVD menus, since WD TV's developers are aware that it's one of the old one's most requested to be added features.
I hope that's a gigabit ethernet port... not much use to me as fast ethernet.
You're joking right???
Non gigabit ethernet is at 100mbs, Blu-Ray bitrate never goes past even 40mbs, gigabit is just not necessary for a device like this.
There is a reason for gig-E: to read/write files quickly to the attached HD over the net.
if you're connecting over the net then the bottleneck is your internet provider, not your ethernet card
I would be suspecting that by the word net the poster is meaning LAN.
your harddrives cannot write at gigabit speeds, its pointless
Yes, I hope it's gigabit too.
It can be useful to copy files from hard drive to hard drive over LAN.
@acme: Your drives can write at more than 10MB/s, so it's not pointless at all. 100Mbit ethernet is a bottleneck for copying files.
Gotta love the dumb folks who don't think before marking a post down.
Even my friggin' 54Mbps crappy wifi can stream my HD media, I'm concerned about copying.
It's nice to see some more intelligent replies though, from CityZen and ibelike.
"It can be useful to copy files from hard drive to hard drive over LAN."
But this device is not used to copy files hard drive to hard drive, so it's irrelevant. This device plays video, most of which is encoded at between 1 to 10 MBits, well under 100Mbit. Adding network bandwidth won't improve image quality or anything else except, maybe, affect the maximum fast-forward speed.
want so hard
ah shit i just bought a WD TV. thing is awesome though. i absolutely love it. exactly why i needed
I nearly just bought one from Costco too! From now on, whenever that place starts selling something I want, I'm taking it as a sign that its future revision is just around the corner!
i hope the new one is available at costco too.
If it supports UPNP, I will buy one the very second that it comes out.
Reading a SMB share would be much more useful than UPnP/DLNA. With the crazy codec support this thing has, there's no reason why reading a SMB share wouldn't be desireable.
I concur, SMB is a deal breaker. Although my NAS supports DLNA, I'd need to re-configure it to add file types, and then by PS3 will see even more files it can't play, etc, etc. SMB is both simpler and superior.
Ethernet port! That's the ONE thing that's missing on the WDTV 1st gen. Now, if WDTV partner up with boxee and netflix, this will be THE killer box.
If an ATV doesn't have the processing power for Silverlight I doubt this would.
The ATV does have enough processing power for silverlight or flash or whatever, as you used to be able to run Hulu through Boxee on it.
Maybe this can too.
Yeah... I own one. It does do flash just fine but the Netflix part of Boxee is disabled because it can't handle Silverlight. It can't handle ABC.com's player either.
ooooh, this has peaked my interest.
I currently own a PCH A-110, and was planning on upgrading to the PCH C-200 when it goes for sale...but I may have to hold off on that until I hear more about this...like price and UI.
the UI on the first gen is pretty slick. im guessing the UI on this one will be even better
Not to be a grammar nazi, but more of FYI, it "piques" your interest
I've been looking for a device to play video on the big screen - the ethernet port is definitely a help. Lets hope this comes out soon and for a good price point.
OMG could it be? A viable replacement for a hacked Xbox with HD support???
the hdmi alone is enough to drop the xbox lol
Hmm, the Popcorn is a little more expensive, but I think I still prefer it over this.
This looks like my Mac Mini, but at 1/5th the price :)
This is NOT awesome people! READ the damn specs carefully! This player can NOT do 1080/30p in some formats! It doesn't seem to have the horsepower. Which makes it pretty useless for people, let's say, with a Canon 5D Mark-II, or even some consumer HD camcorders!!! The Sony PS3 might not have as good support (e.g. no support for the .mov container), but whatever you throw at it will NOT die out of CPU starvation.
Western Digital must become more serious about this offering, because it's extremely close to be a _perfect_ solution. But they need to put a more beefy decoder in there.
For those who can't read carefully: the player claims 1080/24p and 1080/30i support for some formats. The 1080/30i seems to mean "60i with half of the frames thrown away with interpolation", because if it's really 30i, then this is a useless player. But it should add support for real 30p, because many people who have 60i camcorders, or 1080/30p digicams, they need to export at 1080/30p. In other words, the WD-TV-2 needs more horsepower.
Yes, you have a Canon 5D Mark-II, we get it. (I read your post history.)
I don't have one. But I am aiming for one if it gets additional 24p support. So I guess you didn't read my history carefully. ;)
Regardless, I do have an HD camcorder, so 1080/30p is the *normal* export I would do after editing for such a cam (since Canon cams can shoot in PF30, which is actual 30p). Therefore, this WD-TV2 product leaves something to be desired. Western Digital went cheap on it.
You do realized all movies and a lot of videos are actually at 1080/24p, right? 24fps is the movie standard, not 30fps. I don't see what your fascination is for trying to export your movies with the extra approximately 6fps. Are your eyes that much better then everyone else's that it is noticeable?
The term 60i and 30i are the same. Opposing circles refer to it differently, but it means the same. An analog guy would say 60i (that's what it is), and a digital guy would say 30i because the image is stored progressively at 30 full frames (aka 30p), but when displayed the decoder understand to show only top or bottom fields producing 60 frames (minus HALF the resolution).
So if something can do 30i, it can do 30p and 60i.
Not even a $700 Blackmagic DeckLink Studio card does 1080/30p. http://www.blackmagic-design.com/products/decklink/techspecs/
There are some folks doing custom firmware for the WDTV ,
and some of the things they are working on adding are support for USB-to-ethernet adapters, and even some wireless adapters. I've downloaded a copy to try, but haven't had a chance yet.
Rats! The link I tried to put in got eaten. Let me try again - http://b-rad.cc/wdlxtv
No support for ISO archive container?
Meh.
So how long will it be until Boxee makes its way out of alpha and beta testing, and into devices?
its a shame it doesnt have an e-sata connection or an internal sata port for a 2.5" sata drive, this box would then be perfect! Wonder if they put a faster cpu in, might mean quicker boot times. USB3 support with a future WD media player would have been nice.
USB 3 for what? e-Sata for what? Streaming 1080p does not require more than USB 2.0 bandwidth wise.
Beat me to it. The heck do you need anything faster then USB 2.0 for what you'll be throwing at this thing?
have you opened one up to verify that it doesn't. there might be a sata plug on the board.
The ability to store video on a hard drive directly attached to this thing would be nice. The Popcorn Hour does it, why not this?
@T.GODFREY
It would be nice if engadget can just let us know if this does come with a sata plug or not. As the article pointed out, there's no price or release date yet... Besides, am not about to buy one just so I can verify if there's a sata plug or not...
@wbbabr
The Popcorn Hour is oversized because it can fit a hard disk inside, even though many people never install a hard drive. I think WD made the right decision to keep it small for those of us who want a small device to put next to our beadroom and kitchen televisions, while letting those who want a hard drive to attach one by USB.
Very excited about this. I love the original WD TV, this only makes it better. Looks like it has enough horsepower to become a Boxee/Netflix player along with the attached and perhaps LAN shared content. I'd love Hulu too but I'm not holding my breath.
Complete spec list from the article, which would be shorter if they just listed what it *didn't* do (Netflix support would be sweet):
Features
-Play Full HD 1080p video, music and photos on your HD TV
-Supports widest variety of file formats and devices
-Network capable for easy access to the newest content from PCs, network drives, internet favorites
Kit Contents
-Media Player
-Compact remote with batteries
-Composite AV cable
-Component AV cable
-AC adapter
-Quick Install Guide
Compatibility
HDMI, Full HD (1080p), AAC, MP3, JPEG, USB 2.0, H.264, SimplayHD™, Energy Star®, Dolby Digital, DTS,
DLNA, Bonjour, AVCHD, Windows Vista
Media Formats
AVI (Xvid, AVC, MPEG1/2/4), MPG/MPEG, MKV (h.264, x.264, AVC, MPEG1/2/4, VC-1),
TS/TP/M2T (MPEG1/2/4, AVC, VC-1) MP4/MOV (MPEG4, h.264), M2TS, WMV9
JPEG, GIF, TIFF, BMP, PNG
MP3, WAV/PCM/LPCM, WMA, AAC, FLAC, MKA, AIF/AIFF, OGG, Dolby Digital, DTS
Playlist – PLS, M3U, WPL
Subtitle – SRT, ASS, SSA, SUB, SMI
MPEG2 MP@HL up to 1920x1080p24, 1920x1080i30, or 1280x720p60 resolution. MPEG4.2 ASP@L5 up to
1280x720p30 resolution and no support for global motion compensation. WMV9/VC-1 MP@HL up to 1280x720p60
or 1920x1080p24 resolution. VC-1 AP@L3 up to 1920x1080i30, 1920x1080p24, or 1280x720p60 resolution.
H.264 BP@L3 up to 720x480p30 or 720x576p25 resolution. H.264 MP@4.1 and HP@4.1 up to 1920x1080p24,
1920x1080i30, or 1280x720p60 resolution.
An audio receiver is required for multi-channel surround sound digital output. Compressed RGB JPEG formats only
and progressive JPEG up to 2048x2048.
Single layer TIFF files only. Uncompressed BMP only. Specific details, please refer to the user manual
technology advancements are great. i remember the pain it took to get dvd-quality...not to mention 1080p...movie files to play on a TV just 2 or so years ago. glad i waited on purchasing one of these... TV2 supports DTS and the network addition opens up more playback ideas.
if the price stays around 140US I will be getting this. DTS is on almost all of my media files and this player is so tiny it can easily be taken in a backpack ower to a friends house. I dont mind that ethernet port either. Good work WD now release it...preferable in europe first :-)
Cool....but I already bought the WD TV 1....recently..and this is kinda disappointing...
Oh well....DTS is the only niche feature for me...but I jsut use audio extractor to convert it to AC3 so oh well...
This is my prob with the wdtv. No DTS support and I don't have a receiver. Does Audio Extractor (platunum, I guess) put the ac3 track back into the container or are you using something else?
http://audioconverter.heartware.dk/ This is what you need...converts DTS to AC3 and can keep DTS intact...all in the same MKV file!!!
can someone explain briefly , this plays networked content , like for instance on my server over ethernet or just certain things like netflix? How does it work?
"Brian @ Aug 16th 2009 3:06AM
You're joking right???"
Gigabit is very important. Primarily for fast forward/rewind and initial buffering of content. As it is today, startup on the fast ethernet devices (popcornhour) is variable and ffwd is limited to 2x. It wouldn't hurt the interactive experience to have support for gige either.
ProfessorKaos:
You put media on a server somewhere, typically a drive share on some computer. Often there is a piece of server software which serves up or creates web pages which host your content, showing you the album covers or movie posters associated with your content. On your TV you browse either graphically or through a list of titles and selecting a title starts your movie (or album or pictures).
If you want to see some examples of it being done right check out the networkedmediatank forums at www.networkedmediatank.com or yamj / NMT server software at http://www.xs4all.nl/~ithiel/nmt/index.html
This is running on a popcornhour quite well. The metadata (actors/directors/etc) are all pulled dymanically from various websites and the web pages you browse are completely interlinked. You can for instance select a movie, click on its director, and it will show you the rest of the movies that you have which are from the same director. This works for actors, studios, etc..
There are lots of projects like thsi out there that are avaialble that use a PC as the playback device but to me they are not nearly as flexible from an installation standpoint, or as low power as either the popcornhour (www.popcornhour.com) or it seems, this new WDTV box.
What's wrong with the popcorn hour?
the price! £170 for popcorn a-110, £78 for wd hd media player v1.
the popcorn hour is twice the price
no rmvb
This, that home server I've been eying and a little cat 6 in the attic, and I'd be done.
Got the WD TV 1 recently as well. It's great, the only annoyance is the remote lag. For example, if I FFWD, it takes about 1/2 a second to update the speed. When you turn it on or off, nearly a second before the box reacts. That made me often think it didn't work, and try again, which would then also happen delayed and I'd turn the box on and off in quick succession.
Hey, WD - remote lag is unacceptable in a consumer device. Hope TV2 fixes that.
Other than that - fantastic quality over the HDMI cable, and it did work just fine with a USB hub and two flash drives. There are also several hacked firmwares out there that add features like networking but I haven't tried them yet.
damn it! they better give the old WD HDTV a firmware update to support DTS! that's the only i need.
Very much looking forward to this. Been using the first WDTV and custom firmware with an Apple USB->Ethernet adapter that sort of works but is not perfect.
Gigabit ethernet would be nice - especially if you can turn this device into a NAS head-end for a connected USB hard drive.
BT support would be nice but doubtful since it doesn't have a built-in drive (unless it integrates with the NAS idea above).
I give WD a lot of credit for the WDTV product. A completely stripped down, no frills box to meet an attractive price-point that offers little other than lots of codec support to play up to 1080p video is great. I think the one thing they did understimate with the first box is the need for network connectivity. HD video is simply too big a payload to be moving across USB all the time - network streaming is certainly the way to go.
Agree with the remote lag comments.
I'd pay extra for bluetooth remote!
after using the PS3 remote, the WDTV remote really sucks
Finally a device to replace my hacked XBox with XBMC. Been waiting for something that will play HD over SMB shares
I recently purchased a WDTV for $100 and I'm loving it. Been ripping all of my past DVD and HD-DVD movies for playback on the device. And, sometime in the near future, my Blu-ray collection. It plays back the audio/video from both of those formats perfectly, in either VOB or TS/M2TS containers.
It is nice that the WDTV 2 will fully support DTS decoding on the device, but that hasn't been a problem with the original WDTV on my end. I have an Onkyo SR606 receiver and it plays back DTS audio, since that receiver has a DTS decoder built-in.
The one feature I'm really hoping for in the next version is HDMI 1.3 support. It'd be great to be able to use the TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio audio formats from my receiver, rather than having to use AC3 or standard DTS on HD films.
You should check the Popcorn Hour A-110. It does have HDMI 1.3 for the HD Audio standards.
It is a much more complete box. But it is more expensive and a little hard to setup nicely.
Yeah, I was wanting to get the Popcorn Hour A-110 when I originally purchased the WDTV due to its feature set. Unfortunately, I don't have any room left around my home theater setup. I have a pretty small base that my 42" TV sits on, with only three areas open underneath. My 360, PS3 and Onkyo 606 are currently taking up those spaces. The WDTV is very small for what it does, so it just sits on top of the base. I know there are ways around it, but I originally didn't feel like dealing with it.
I just started watching my HD-DVDs again since buying a WDTV. I never watched my backed up movies (just used them as backups in case something happened to the original discs) on my TV, so I went with the cheaper alternative. I am happy with it and hoping that the version 2 implements HDMI 1.3. Now that I am watching more content through the WDTV, I may look at the Popcorn Hour C-200 once it comes out. Pop in a BD-ROM and watch my Blu-ray movies on it, since I only use my PS3 for watching movies now. Sell the PS3 and then have an open spot beneath my TV. But if the WDTV2 has HDMI 1.3, then I'll stick with it. The current version does everything I want it to regarding video...now I just want it to support HD audio.
Before I start, let me say: I am not trying to denigrate this product. I am truly trying to understand it. I think I'm missing something.
So, when I see these types of things, they always look really cool and then I think "What would I do with it if I had it?" I have lots of mp3s. I have a Win 7 box hooked up to a 42" 720p tv. I use it to watch clear qam cable, mlb.tv, and hulu occasionally, and I listen to xm through it also. I don't have a lot of DVDs but when I want one I just pick it up from the local rental store. So, my question is, where does the content for this WD gadget or the Popcorn Hour come from? Are most of you buying and ripping DVDs & Blu Rays? Why is it better to use this device then just playing them through the drive? Seems like its more work just for the coolness factor. Or can you use Netlfix online or a similar service? Or is there some major stash of online HD content (aside from the legally questionable P2P stuff) that I'm just missing? Or is it just that one of these boxes does most of what an HTPC would do but at a fraction of the cost? Any help appreciated. Thanks. And like I said, I'm *not* backhandedly smacking this product. Just trying to understand if it has a place in my living room.
I see where you're coming from. I guess it depends on the person, their personal tastes and what equipment he/she has. In my case, I have a couple of 1TB external drives that I use to backup all of my legally purchased DVD/HD-DVD/Blu-ray movies. I rarely use online video sites, such as Hulu, for playback on my Samsung 1080p TV/Onkyo SR606 receiver and I don't have satellite radio.
When it comes to DVD's, I'll still insert the disc into an Xbox 360 or PS3 for (possibly) better picture upscaling. I don't have a HD-DVD player anymore, so using the WDTV or something like the Popcorn Hour will allow me to watch my backed up HD-DVD movies without any loss in video quality. Plus, you can still find HD-DVD movies online for dirt cheap. I know the format is dead, but it's nice buying HD movies for under $5 and still being able to play them back without a dedicated HD-DVD player. I'm still using my PS3 to playback Blu-ray films, as I don't have a BD-ROM/RW and the WDTV doesn't support TrueHD or DTS-HD audio. Audio quality means just as much as video quality to me.
I'm sure there are enough people out there who download movies (legally or illegally) from torrents, newsgroups, etc. for playback on their device. The WDTV and PH support numerous audio and video codecs, so I doubt much work would have to be done to the downloaded video for it to be played perfectly on whichever device they're using. I do whatever I can to stay away from online sources, because the a/v quality doesn't meet my standards (I've become a snob in that area) or the file size is just too large for me to want to download. I do, however, stream some HD movies from the Xbox 360 Marketplace every now and then.
So, I guess in a nutshell, I use the WDTV primarily for backed up HD films. Sorry for the long post. ;)
mdb999, I'm a late adopter, so the coolness factor is nil for me. Ripped dvds (or avi files from other sources) on a drive are simply easier to manage than a stack of dvds on my shelf (or my 18 year old's bed room or car floor board). With a little organization skill you can arrange things so they're easy to find and always at hand via remote from your lounge chair.
Simple comparison. We recently had a Buffy marathon over several nights using the original dvds. Our dvd player takes time to boot and dvds take time to load. Every three or four episodes someone had to get up and change dvds. At least in this case we knew where they were. We don't normally use the extras, so we found going through their menus tedious.
Did the same thing with Angel except ripped to an external harddrive attached to our WD media player (version 1). It doesn't take much power so it's always on. A few quick flips of the remote and we're watching the episode we want without worrying where the dvd (or the next dvd) was. Actually, they were all in a cabinet out of sight and out of mind.
It's just easier for us. YMMV, of course.
just sold my apple TV...I think I need this thing
@ matt & strick, thanks for the feedback. sounds like you are using it mainly for ripped physical video media. i guess my htpc is still my best option, although the roku box is on my radar too .....
Any date for release for V2?
They plan on adding full ISO Menu support already : http://wdtv.uservoice.com/pages/17442-general/filter/accepted
Does this play .mkv?
For the price and extensive codec support, this is one of those products that makes Apple look really bad for charging, what, 229 for a 40gig player that only plays a few formats?
Ugly as fuck, though, I'm not gonna pull any punches.
Yes, it supports the mkv container.
I have one of the original WD TVs and it is an awesome little box. Just very cheap, simple and handy. And WD have been very good with doing new firmwares and listening to feedback and suggestions.
Though the new Asus O!Play looks like a worthy competitor, I would like to check one of those out.
this is exactly what i've been waiting for. Exactly. one thing though. does it only have one USB port? that would stink.
nevermind i can see the second usb on the side
you can also use a USB hub to add more devices
While the first one and this one look like good devices, from what I have read and my experience with the Popcorn Hour A-110, it seems like the A-110 is a little more complete solution.
Though I think that the Popcorn Hour C-200 is going to be the media streamer to get, RF remote, Blu-ray player (put in a BD-Rom and play Blu-ray discs) and a upgraded processor.
It basically looks like what the Popcorn Hour does, which streams video over a network. I can watch 1080p video without any problems over CAT5 wiring at 100mps on my setup, never stops or hiccups or anything. I wonder if the internals of this device are essentially the same, except it may use a different firmware or server software. I would get it if it's cheaper than the Popcorn Hour, as the PCH currently sells for around $250 in Canada.
The ability to read ISO's would be more related to software rather than hardware. If the hardware make supports it in their server software, then it'll work, if not, then the best you can do is convert your DVD into an MKV or single multimedia file and watch it that way.
xtreamer?
This is great and all, everything I wanted out of the original wdtv. Now only if those of us with the original could pay for a newer firmware that decodes dts. I dont mind the absence of an ethernet port, I would just really like for it to decode dts
I have the old WDTV. I run b-rad.cc's custom firmware on it and have an apple usb-to-ethernet($40AUD) attached to the back. The custom firmware has the drivers it needs and my WDTV is recognised on the network. I have set up an NFS share from my Mac and have it mounted on my WDTV. Network speed is really good!!!! All movies running off my NFS share take no more than 5 secs to start playing.
I've installed an apache server and a torrent client on the WDTV and found it does a pretty decent job at downloading torrents.
There are good tutorials on setting this up on the site docopenhaver mentioned above.
Apart from the WDTV's UI being sucky as all hell (slow n ugly) it does handle all the media I throw at it. Unless the UI improves there's really no reason for me to upgrade. Right now the WDTV is a point A to B media device....it get's me where I need to go without all the luxuries.