Western Digital WD TV Live HD media player gets official
By Joseph L. Flatley 
posted October 13th 2009 10:23AM
posted October 13th 2009 10:23AM
Hope you didn't spend your well-earned shekels on a WD TV Mini -- it turns out that the HD-less wonder was just a waypoint to Western Digital's latest. The WD TV Live HD media player is an unassuming sort that doesn't really offer any surprises: 1080p video playback, support for all your favorite codecs, both Pandora and Live365 Internet radio apps, WiFi, two USB ports for external storage, HDMI, composite and component video outputs, SPDIF audio output, and more. No big whoop, right? All this can be yours for an MSRP of $149.99, but we hear that Best Buy has 'em for $119 -- and we wouldn't want you to pay any more than that. PR after the break.
Update: "That's WiFi ready." As in "WiFi adapter sold separately."
Update: "That's WiFi ready." As in "WiFi adapter sold separately."
WD(R) Unveils WD TV(TM) Live HD Media Player With Network Capability and Enhanced User Experience
Consumers Can Stream HD Content from USB Drives, Network Drives and Popular Internet Sites to Their Big Screen TVs
LAKE FOREST, Calif., Oct. 13 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- WD® (NYSE: WDC), the world's leader in external storage solutions, today introduced the WD TV Live HD media player featuring network capability and Full-HD 1080p resolution. The new WD TV Live HD media player makes it easy for anyone to play HD (high definition) videos stored on USB and network drives, as well as Internet content from popular Web sites, on the biggest screen in their home -- their HD television. Building on the success of the WD TV HD media player, the WD TV Live HD media player offers a new, more responsive interface to help consumers enjoy a world of digital content in their living room, without a computer.
The network capability of the WD TV Live media player enables users to stream or transfer movies from PC or Mac® computers or a network-attached storage device such as WD's My Book® World Edition(TM) and WD ShareSpace network drives to their HD TVs. The WD TV Live media player also allows users to stream rich content from YouTube(TM), Flickr® and Pandora®. The HD onscreen menu brings together all of the users' available media in an elegant and simple-to-navigate interface.
Consumers are amassing large libraries of digital videos, photos and music on their computers. According to research firm Parks Associates, the average consumer had 123 GB of videos, photos, and music in 2009 which will grow to 1.3 TB by 2013 (Digital Lifestyles: 2009 Outlook). In addition, an increasing number of consumers are looking for seamless access to their personal media, as well as to Internet media. According to Parks Associates, the sales of connected consumer electronics devices, such as connected TVs and digital media adapters, is expected to more than double from 57 million units in 2009 to 115 million units in 2013 (Home Networks for Consumer Electronics 2009).
Consumers are investing millions of dollars in HD TVs, with HD televisions representing more than 50 percent of TVs sold in the U.S., according to Parks Associates (Home Networks for Consumer Electronics 2009). But consumers' digital content is often relegated to the relatively small screen on their PC or Mac computers. The WD TV Live HD media player is the newest member in the family of WD TV media players by WD, which make moving digital content from a computer to playing it on a big screen TV simply plug-and-play.
Like the popular first-generation WD TV HD media player introduced last fall, the WD TV Live media player connects directly to a users' HD TV and plays almost any file stored on a connected USB drive such as My Passport(TM) portable drive. The WD TV Live media player features powerful media processing, which enables playback in Full-HD 1080p resolution. WD TV Live media player also will play movies and photos stored on other popular USB devices such as digital camcorders and digital cameras.
"The media enthusiast community has embraced the first WD TV HD media player and given us tremendous feedback," said Dale Pistilli, vice president of marketing for WD's branded products group. "With the new WD TV Live media player we're giving them what they asked for -- network connectivity and Internet-content streaming capabilities -- and offering them a simple way to enjoy all of their digital media and enjoy it on their HD TVs."
WD TV Live HD Media Player
Features of the WD TV Live HD Media Player include:
The WD TV Live Media Player is available now at select retailers and online at shopwd.com. Covered by a 1-year limited warranty, the MSRP for WD TV Live Media Player is $149.99 USD.
Consumers Can Stream HD Content from USB Drives, Network Drives and Popular Internet Sites to Their Big Screen TVs
LAKE FOREST, Calif., Oct. 13 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- WD® (NYSE: WDC), the world's leader in external storage solutions, today introduced the WD TV Live HD media player featuring network capability and Full-HD 1080p resolution. The new WD TV Live HD media player makes it easy for anyone to play HD (high definition) videos stored on USB and network drives, as well as Internet content from popular Web sites, on the biggest screen in their home -- their HD television. Building on the success of the WD TV HD media player, the WD TV Live HD media player offers a new, more responsive interface to help consumers enjoy a world of digital content in their living room, without a computer.
The network capability of the WD TV Live media player enables users to stream or transfer movies from PC or Mac® computers or a network-attached storage device such as WD's My Book® World Edition(TM) and WD ShareSpace network drives to their HD TVs. The WD TV Live media player also allows users to stream rich content from YouTube(TM), Flickr® and Pandora®. The HD onscreen menu brings together all of the users' available media in an elegant and simple-to-navigate interface.
Consumers are amassing large libraries of digital videos, photos and music on their computers. According to research firm Parks Associates, the average consumer had 123 GB of videos, photos, and music in 2009 which will grow to 1.3 TB by 2013 (Digital Lifestyles: 2009 Outlook). In addition, an increasing number of consumers are looking for seamless access to their personal media, as well as to Internet media. According to Parks Associates, the sales of connected consumer electronics devices, such as connected TVs and digital media adapters, is expected to more than double from 57 million units in 2009 to 115 million units in 2013 (Home Networks for Consumer Electronics 2009).
Consumers are investing millions of dollars in HD TVs, with HD televisions representing more than 50 percent of TVs sold in the U.S., according to Parks Associates (Home Networks for Consumer Electronics 2009). But consumers' digital content is often relegated to the relatively small screen on their PC or Mac computers. The WD TV Live HD media player is the newest member in the family of WD TV media players by WD, which make moving digital content from a computer to playing it on a big screen TV simply plug-and-play.
Like the popular first-generation WD TV HD media player introduced last fall, the WD TV Live media player connects directly to a users' HD TV and plays almost any file stored on a connected USB drive such as My Passport(TM) portable drive. The WD TV Live media player features powerful media processing, which enables playback in Full-HD 1080p resolution. WD TV Live media player also will play movies and photos stored on other popular USB devices such as digital camcorders and digital cameras.
"The media enthusiast community has embraced the first WD TV HD media player and given us tremendous feedback," said Dale Pistilli, vice president of marketing for WD's branded products group. "With the new WD TV Live media player we're giving them what they asked for -- network connectivity and Internet-content streaming capabilities -- and offering them a simple way to enjoy all of their digital media and enjoy it on their HD TVs."
WD TV Live HD Media Player
Features of the WD TV Live HD Media Player include:
- Full-HD 1080p video playback and navigation with the included remote control and crisp, animated navigation menus;
- Play a wide variety of file formats including support for a wide variety of the most popular file formats with no need to spend time transcoding;
- Play videos, music and photos from the Internet on your big screen TV and discover new music with Pandora Internet radio or listen to thousands of radio stations via Live365 Internet radio;
- Ethernet port for wired or WiFi connection(1) to access files anywhere on the network to play movies, music, and photos from any PC or drive on a home network;
- Turns a USB drive(2) into an HD media player and plays content from most popular USB drives, and digital cameras, camcorders, and portable media players that can be recognized as mass storage devices;
- Unlimited media collection, just add more USB drives for more space;
- Two USB ports for seamless media playback from multiple USB drives and ability to access them simultaneously while a media library feature collects the content on all the drives into one list sorted by media type;
- Transfer files by copying, moving or deleting files stored on a USB drive, a network drive, camcorder, or a camera to the attached USB drive using the on-screen menus;
- Picture Transfer Protocol support to show photos and movies directly from digital camera or video camera and or any digital imaging device that supports Picture Transfer Protocol;
- Advanced navigation options including thumbnail and list views, media library and search;
- Photo viewing to create custom slide shows, zoom and pan and search;
- Movie viewing with fast-forward, rewind, pause, zoom and pan, view subtitles, and search;
- Music playback with fast-forward, rewind, pause, shuffle, repeat and search;
- File copying between USB devices;
- HDMI® 1.3 port, composite video and component video output(3) for the highest quality HDTV or home theater;
- SPDIF digital output that sends digital signals to your AV receiver for the best surround sound experience; and,
- Ultra-compact design to fit easily into a home entertainment center.
The WD TV Live Media Player is available now at select retailers and online at shopwd.com. Covered by a 1-year limited warranty, the MSRP for WD TV Live Media Player is $149.99 USD.
Got mine last night. It's well worth the $120.
Best Buy didn't even have them stocked separately, they were all stacked together along with the regular WD TVs.
Also, the in-store price was $149 but they matched their web price after i pitched a bi*ch.
Ok I dont get it. I email customer service and they said they dont support dvr-ms files, then lens42 posts the guide:
http://www.scribd.com/doc/20941103/Western-Digital-WD-TV-Live-HD-Network-Media-Player-USERGUIDE
On page 8 it says it supports dvr-ms files. I hate customer service. I wonder if they will get a firmware for wtv files (the default file format for WMC in Win7)......
My only real concern is how it will handle some of my 1080p anime files with multiple sound tracks and .ASS subtitle files. I know it lists them as valid and supported but I worry that I will be let down.
I have the Asus O!Play and absolutely love it! It doesn't have Pandora or YouTube, but I wouldn't use that anyway.
How does this WD Live compare to the Asus O!Play?
Will it work with a Wii USB -> Ethernet adapter? I prefer to network stuff with cables.
Why not just use the ethernet port..
The WDTV is great, I've had one for almost a year. My only complaint is that it won't convert 5.1 AAC into PCM over the optical connection. It will downsample to 2ch. AAC receivers are pretty rare, so going to PCM would be awesome.
just gone one from best buy if you do not buy it online they try to charge you $150 instead of the $120 online
it has rebooted 4 times already doing certain things....flick,pandora, etc..
I will give it a week more
bought 2 of them today they are GREAT!
Being a PS3 owner, I would often use the console to playback videos onto the big screen tv. However, some of my major gripes with it is the lack of mkv support, and the PS3's inability to read subtitle files unless it has been combined with the video itself.
Can anyone tell me how well the WD TV Live supports subtitle files? Will it automatically register the subtitle file when I play its corresponding video when both are on the usb? Any help is appreciated.
Hey Kelvin the subs work pretty well I've only tried a few but basically you have to have the Sub file in the same folder as the movie. I named them the same but that was probably overkill on my part. It was great having subs for movies that have foreign parts without having the drama of hard coding the subs and loosing video quality. Another cool part is that it can read a lot of the subtitle formats so your not limited to one type and you can adjust the size if you have problems reading the subs, personnally I decreased the size.
As long as the file is in the same folder as the video all should work out well. Most likely you would want to have ever video with a sub file in their own folder just in case it doesn't care about the subtitle file name. Don't put the file inside a sub folder like "subs" or "subtitles" because it doesn't seem to look in the other folders and there is no way that I have found to browse for the file.
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For all those who have a WD HD TV, there are hacked FWs available that allow connecting a USB WiFi (and a hub). Since it's basically a small linux box.
Does anyone know how the WD TV Live gets its cover art? Is it a manual process or does it connect to imdb or something?
It is manual you have to name the picture the same as the video file that's it.
I wonder if a Popcorn Hour or Dune HD are worth the differences in price over this. I'd really hate to get stuck with something that requires frequent transcoding.
Have an HTPC now, running Boxee. It's glitchy, despite endless mucking with it. Some files play better in VLC, but then you lose the interface. Would like to have a small, quiet, reliable media player. Could the Western Digital be the box of my dreams...
This is the best 119 bucks you will EVER spend..I've had lots of media servers, but this one is the best bang for the buck BY FAR!!
How is the support for DVDs? I read it doesn't support DVD ISO menus, but what about DVDs ripped as VOBs? Does it support menus there?
I contacted W.D. and asked if it supports divx even though it was not stated in the specs. It took nearly a half hour for them to say it does in only a 3.11 hack software patch. I say WHAT?
Well what I'm asking is does it or not support divx? The Seagate Theater Plus does. And while were at it has anyone tried the Seagate?
Does anyone know if the component output supports 720p HD? My TV only supports 720p and my receiver only has component switching. The WD website is somewhat unclear as it says “HDMI output for full HD” but nothing about whether or not the component output supports HD or just SD. In addition will the WDTV downgrade 1080p files to 720p through the component output?
How does this compare to a Popcorn Hour A-110?
FYI Sears.com has it for 99 bucks.
I just purchased the WD TV Live HD media player from BestBuy. Has anyone experimented wireless streaming to it via a Linksys Wireless-G broadband router? I read on another forum that the G's may cause disruptions during video play like lag or the video being jumpy.