Western Digital announces WD TV Live Plus HD with Netflix streaming
By Joseph L. Flatley 
posted June 9th 2010 10:48AM
posted June 9th 2010 10:48AM
We have even more news from Western Digital regarding its WD TV line (and this time around it doesn't involve bricking your set-top box with a firmware update). Besides the usual suspects (including Pandora, Live365, and YouTube), the WD TV Live Plus HD is shipping with Netflix. Get ready to browse titles, manage your Instant Queue, and stream your favorite episodes of Degrassi: The Next Generation on your HDTV -- in addition to accessing your sizable collection of legally purchased digital media via the device's USB connection and / or Windows 7 "Play To" functionality. Available now for $150. PR after the break.
New WD TV(R) Live Plus HD Media Player Delivers Thousands of TV Episodes and Movies for Netflix(R) Members to Watch Instantly
WD TV(R) Live Plus HD Media Player Enables Consumers to Stream Their Favorite Shows and Personal Content Directly To Their Big Screen TV
LAKE FOREST, Calif., June 9 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- WD® (NYSE: WDC), the world's leader in external storage solutions, today introduced the WD TV® Live Plus HD media player, which makes it easy for Netflix® members to instantly watch thousands of TV episodes and movies on the biggest screen in their home -- their HD television set. The new Netflix interface enables members to browse and add movies to their instant Queue on the Netflix Website right from their TV.
In addition to Netflix, the WD TV Live Plus HD media player also enables users to stream personalized Internet content from YouTube™, Flickr®, Pandora®, Live365™, as well as the MediaFly network which includes daily podcasts from CNN, NBC, MTV, ESPN® and other online content providers(1). Unlike most other Netflix-capable devices, the WD TV Live Plus HD media player also lets consumers enjoy a broad variety of the digital media they already own, creating a unified entertainment experience.
The onscreen menu brings together all of the users' available media in an elegant and simple-to-navigate interface, while the network capability enables users to stream movies from PC or Mac® computers, USB storage devices such as My Passport® portable hard drives, My Book® desktop drives, or network-attached storage such as WD's My Book® World Edition™ and WD ShareSpace™ to their HDTVs. Compatible with Windows® 7, the WD TV Live Plus HD media player enables the Windows 7 Play To feature so users can initiate and control the streaming of video, music or photos to the media player and home entertainment systems from any Windows 7-based PC on their network.
The WD TV Live Plus HD media player fulfills consumers' growing demand for large libraries of digital videos, photos and music. According to research firm Parks Associates, the average broadband household will see its digital media storage needs grow to nearly 900 GB by year-end 2014. And users are increasingly looking for easy ways to enjoy the content on the big screen. Parks' findings reveal that 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).
Similar to the popular generations of WD TV HD media players that preceded it, the WD TV Live Plus HD media player connects directly to a users' HDTV and plays almost any file stored on a connected USB drive such as My Passport portable hard drives. The WD TV Live Plus HD media player features powerful media processing, which enables playback in Full-HD 1080p resolution. WD TV Live Plus HD media player also plays movies, music and photos stored on other popular USB devices such as digital camcorders and digital cameras.
"Netflix has become a 'must have' for consumer electronics devices," said Netflix vice president of business development Bill Holmes. "We're proud to align with WD to include Netflix on WD's groundbreaking WD TV Live Plus HD media player."
"While Netflix can be found on an increasing number of products such as Internet TVs, Blu-ray Players, video game consoles, and other stand-alone devices, the WD TV Live Plus HD media player is unique as it allows digital media buffs to access and play all of their own personal HD media stored anywhere on their network or USB drives. At the same time they can easily stream Netflix, Pandora, YouTube and other Internet favorites to their HDTV," said Dale Pistilli, vice president of marketing for WD's branded products group.
WD TV Live Plus HD Media Player
Features of the WD TV Live Plus HD media player include:
* Full-HD 1080p video playback and navigation with the included remote control and crisp, animated navigation menus;
* Access to thousands of TV episodes and movies to watch instantly for any Netflix member with an unlimited subscription;
* Wireless ready to support wireless network connection to your home network with an optional USB wireless adapter, which is sold separately;
* Supports 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, daily podcasts from the MediaFly network including CNN, NBC, MTV, ESPN and other online content providers;
* Ethernet port for wired or WiFi connection(2) 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(3) into an HD media player and plays content from most popular USB drives, 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 that allow seamless media playback from multiple USB drives displayed in a single list and sorted by media type;
* Windows 7-compatible Play To feature enables users to stream Windows 7 computer files to the TV through WD TV Plus HD media player;
* 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;
* Works with digital cameras, digital video cameras and any other 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;
* HDMI® 1.3 port, composite video and component video output(4) 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.
Pricing and Availability
The WD TV Live Plus HD 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 Plus HD media player is $149.99 USD.
Wasn't stated explicitly, but should we assume this does NetflixHD?
I guess Google and Apple just went "oh.. f--k!"
Who knew that WD would release something, that Google and Apple were trying to release for so long and spent so much effort on PR.
@bathellfire
Um no they didn't. Although I have a WD TV Live, I know it's a niche product, and will always be one (especially with WD's continued practice of screwing over existing customers [no more updates on WDTV when Live came out, and now, screwing the Live now that the Live HD is out]). Google and Apple are not aiming for niche. They are aiming to be in MILLIONS of homes. And, their products will not be some clunky, skippity UI, unreliable cheapo boxes (again, I have one, I can criticize my own purchase). Google TV, at least is going to be weather, stocks, flight times on your TV, watching a show, hop over to IMBD to look for more info on this actor, skip over to netflix, like this movie, hope to amazon and buy it... yah, WD cannot think that high...
I have a xbox 360, so I can still watch my Netflix movies on my TV, but still, this is annoying. This would obviously only require a firmware update. If they don't update the current models they're going to piss off a lot of their customers.
Does this have a gigabit ethernet connection? The specs on their website don't say.
@treefrog
AND can't it mount a blu-ray iso?
That sucks for the people who just bought the WD TV Live not to long ago like myself. Has the hardware changed from the WD TV Live to this new model. It must be an updated Sigma chip in the new one.
I own 3 of the WD TV Live Boxes. I am curious as to why the Engadget crowd in general thinks nothing of flashing a custom ROM on their phone (thanks Cyanogen) but waits for WD to provide roms for these Media Players.
You may want to google WDLXTV and b-rad.cc - they take the latest updated ROM from WD (Release 1.02.21 (3/30/10) was the last one) and add massive speed increase and functionality. Put 3 files on a thumb drive and the rom is updated in about 5 minutes. You can always go back to stock if you want. As for the remote that ships with the box? Its a joke. I use a cheap Harmony remote.
This box isn't perfect, but for those who say 'why not a cheap Xbox?', they haven't seen WDTVLIVE thrown quickly into my Honda Odyssey, or to a hotel room TV (in 2 minutes), giving my wife & kids access to as many movies as I can stick on a thumb or external usb drive.
This is just another device in the new age of the Corporation provides the Hardware and the Community will develop the software. Thanks b-rad!!
This is Bullcrap, they keep releasing new hardware for features that can simply be added via FIRMWARE UPDATE..
@blakeh no they can't
Actually, don't worry about people talking out of their asses about "why not get something else?"
Why? The WD HD TV live basically rocks. To the people that haven't used one, no, they cannot even pretend to assume they know what it's like until they've owned one. This thing plays ANYTHING, any file and does so almost instantly. It streams 1080p content wirelessly anywhere in your house.
Anyone will tell you this is a solid 10 product all day long.
A simple network share and you're golden.
The WD HD TV live has allowed me to have a "Video Library" complete with movie posters that provide me instant SD/HD streaming wirelessly in my home.
My friends a BLOWN away at this thing.
That is why we're going to be super pissed if they screw us over "again" yes, they've done something like this before where many people say they could have fixed the down mixing issue last year but instead released new hardware.
I will never buy another WD product ever, harddrive, anything if they pull this stunt again. And I hate Netflix. But, regardless, I don't like being screwed over.
"Unfortuantely supporting Netflix is not possible on the current WDTV Live platform. This requires additional hardward component and content protection mechanism. We understand this is a very hot idea and we will keep this in mind for the future."
that sucks
@blakeh EXACTLY -
December 2009 Post WDTV Live can never do Netflix
by jveteran » Wed Jun 09, 2010 9:41 am
http://community.wdc.com/t5/WD-TV-Live-Ideas/NETFLIX-streaming-support/idi-p/143
NETFLIX streaming support Status: Unplanned
by Raster99 on 12-02-2009 09:29 AM
Support for instant play streaming of movies from Netflix.
Status: Unplanned
Update: Unfortuantely supporting Netflix is not possible on the current WDTV Live platform. This requires additional hardward component and content protection mechanism. We understand this is a very hot idea and we will keep this in mind for the future.
Labels: Netflix
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73 Comments (73 New)Permalin
@blakeh So the current unit just lacks HDCP over HDMI. That actually makes a lot of sense. I'm just disappointed that they didn't include an encryption option from the start. Obviously it saved them a buck or two in parts. I guess I'll have to keep using my noisy ass 360 to stream Netflix. Or buy a whole new box like Roku. I just hoped that future firmware upgrades would enable anything. At least there is a hope that someone can mod the firmware and make it work (all be it unprotected) on the WDTV Live.
I would absolutely be pissed if they are going to forget about the earlier adopters of the WDTV Live because a lot of this functionality should have been in the original version because people were certainly asking for the DVD menu navigation for a while. We have had to endure the bricked units and the sad playback of certain file types (I'm looking at you mp4 podcasts). Their changes have not always been for the better as mp4s used to work mostly if not great but a lot of the files have unexplained audio hiccups that they should have solved months ago. In most cases I've setup a transcoder just for those few files because I got sick of waiting for them to fix the issue.
I will not buy the new one if they ignore us and I will not suggest friends buy it either. It would be stupid for them to ignore us as it looks to be only a software push. I would be willing to if required to pay a small fee no more the $10 to upgrade the functionality of the device. But that will be the most that they are going to get from me.
Be warned WD's support on these 'entertainment devices' has been horrific, compared to their support of their core product, hard drives.
Take it from the many WDTV Live buyers, WD has mastered the art of completely disappoiting them exisitng customer base.
However, there is some bright light in 3rd party support. I asusme the 3rd party folks will make these some pretty nice devices...
I just called the technical support for western digital and they said they have no plans on releasing a firm-ware for the WDTV Live to allow for Netflix support. So as many of the other people posting here I'm also in the same boat I just bought a WDTV Live on Mya 1st 2010 so I missed returning mine by 8 days.Good by WD way to treat your customers.
Umm, not to brag or anything, but like most people on here, I have at least FOUR ways to stream Netflix without getting upset over this. And for my money, I have the last Samsung Blu-ray player (2550) that shipped with the Faroudja chip and was later upgraded to Netflix streaming. Along with standard DVDs, their content looks better due to the chip's video processing. This is much more important to me than yet another device that can stream Netflix. I mean, even the Wii has it, so it's almost a prerequisite for newer TVs and Blu-ray players.to have it, too
Be happy that the Live not only supports DVD and Blu-ray ISOs (for those who are unaware), but that it also supports HFS+ drives and practically any video format/container out there. You will not find a combination like this unless you spring for a Dune or hope the Popbox or Boxee will do all these things.
I LOVE my original WDTV but skipped the Live version. I just joined netflix a few days ago; seems it might be time for the upgrade (despite the fact that I fully expect another version by the end of the year, probably to support whatever Hulu's got cooking).
Now I'm off to AVSForum. Those guys are no doubt seething over this. :)
http://bit.ly/cMJdfq - WD released an RC version of firmware with DVD Navigation but no Netflix for you living in the USA. Since I'm in Canada - can't care less - we don't have ANY online video rentals. Neither on PSN or our own Zip.ca and even if we did... streaming would be useless since we all have only 50/60Gb per month Internet traffic cap.
I love my WDTV Live, but if Western Digital doesn't add Netflix via a firmware update instead of selling new hardware I will never recommend this again. I've sold 2 or 3 of these to friends already, but no more. WD just lost a valued customer pushing it's product. Screw the WDTV Live Plus. Plus money hungry BS.
@JonMayer
As stated previously the current WD TV Live does not have hardware to support it, so they can't download a new chip to your box. I have the unit too and am disappointed but WD did nothing wrong. I knew the features of the box when I bought it and Netflix support was not there, but this thing plays almost anything I throw at it and I still love it.
SIGMA makes the chip (SOC) or brains that runs this unit. They have a different chip now supports NetFlix and its not the one in the WD TV Live. You have to realize that WD engineers are not writing much software, they are utilizing what is called an API to talk to the chip so they can only program what it can do like talking to netflix servers, built-in stream buffering over TCP/IP, etc.
I do wish though that the plus also offered Amazon streaming as well like my BluRay player does.
The only thing I hope now with this Plus release is that they don't stop release updates and improvements for the WD Live. I am still waiting for it to support chapters in an MKV file by just hitting the next/prev buttons instead of a cutaway to a popup chapter menu.
Does this Plus release add anything other then Netflix streaming?
@jfcarbel
there is no Netflix chip.
@Nicnac
The chip in this new release unit is a Sigma 8654, this chip is similar to the 8655 but has macrovision support (aka DRM) which is why I refered to it as the NetFlix chip since the 8655 has no DRM and thus cannot play the NetFlix DRM wrapped streams.
Hope that clarifies things. I posted some links earlier to the Sigma chips and pictures of the original WD Live opened with chip in plain view, but seems the Mods here never approved that post. Mods?
This sort of thing is why I returned my WD TV Live and got the 1st-gen WDTV HD for a significantly lower price. For the cost of the WD TV Live, I was able to pick up the WD TV HD *and* a nice USB hard drive (800GB), and have money left over.
For Netflix, I'm VERY happy with the Roku now that they've updated the interface (about damn time!) and probably would prefer that to the WDTV version anyway. The 1st-gen WD TV HD handles all the same files as the later models, with the exception of DTS which I don't use anyway. I can live without that feature.
I would consider my XBox 360 for all these features, but the combo of the WD TV HD and Roku is better. They use less power, have better menu systems, don't require additional subscriptions, and the XBox 360 can't handle MKV files at all, and has real problems with non-anamorphic sources.
And, of course, the XBox 360 is free so I can play Red Dead Redemption while my wife watches a movie on the WD TV or Roku.
Hell... You can get the Roku, the 1st-gen WD TV HD, and a decent USB hard drive TOGETHER for less than the cost of an XBox 360 Arcade and XBox Live Gold (required to get Netflix streaming).
So really, I wouldn't bother with the WD TV Live Plus HD with Netflix Streaming, because the same job can be done better with other devices, for a lower price.
There is a great discussion about this device at www.wdtvforum.com Pro and against!
I was wondering if getting a wd live plus and then copying the software on it would allow the owner of the wd live hd to update to this software to enable the netflix and dvd functions. Just an idea worth throwing out there and see if it draws comments.