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Western Digital announces WD TV Live Plus HD with Netflix streaming
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.
Western Digital announces Mac-friendly My Book Studio LX drives
Western Digital just busted out some new external drives for all you Apple lovers out there. The My Book Studio LX drives (which are in brushed aluminum cases to complement your MacBook, we suppose) boast FireWire 800 and USB 2.0 and WD, are Mac compatible and come in 1TB and 2TB models. If you're really dying to get your hands on one, you can right now -- it'll run you $199 for the 1TB and $299 for the 2TB model. Full press release is below.
WD TV Live HD gets 'Play To' functionality, full Windows 7 compliance
This silvery-set top box above may look rather drab, but never fear: its next production run will sport a nice, colorful Windows 7 sticker. That's because Western Digital recently signed an agreement to make its WD TV Live HD network media players compatible with Microsoft's "Play To" feature, allowing you to push media right to your TV from a Windows Media Player 12-equipped PC. While the feature actually snuck its way into firmware revision 1.02.21 in late March, WD only just began trumpeting its inclusion today... possibly to let memories of its disastrous prior update fade. Whatever the reason, the box is not the "first network media player compatible with Windows 7" -- Denon has four receivers that predate it. Press release and an example of what 'Play To' looks like, right after the break.
2TB hard drive review roundup: Samsung, Seagate and WD throw down
It's a 2TB world, folks, and if you're looking to select a new drive to archive your upcoming vacation footage, you owe it to yourself to do a little research before pulling the trigger. Currently, 2TB options are on the market from Seagate, Western Digital and Samsung, and while all are in the 3.5-inch SATA form factor, they certainly aren't equal. The benchmarking gurus over at Hot Hardware decided to toss no fewer than ten 2TB drives into the mix, and after running 250 or so tests, they found that WD's RE4 2TB came out on top. 'Course, that just so happens to be the most expensive platter in the bunch, checking in at around $0.16 per gigabyte; the admittedly slower Caviar Green 2TB and Seagate Barracuda LP 2TB both came in at less than half of that. Go on and give that source link a look if you're into bar charts and in-depth analysis of bits and bytes -- and remember, friends don't let friends buy lousy storage.
Western Digital VelociRaptor VR200M review roundup: fast, capacious, but no SSD
While it's only a matter of time before solid state storage becomes cheap and reliable enough to replace magnetic media for good, companies like Western Digital are still finding ways to keep those platters a' spinning. Take this new WD VelociRaptor VR200M, for instance. Critics agree that while it doesn't offer anywhere near SSD levels of performance, it's certainly the fastest rotational SATA drive ever tested -- 15 to 30 percent improved over the last generation of VelociRaptors, depending on the benchmark -- and at roughly 50 cents per gigabyte for the three-platter, 600GB WD6000BLHX ($329), it offers more capacity than any SSD you could hope to buy without refinancing your third vacation home. Reviewers note that with a 15mm drive height, you still won't be dropping one of these speed demons in your new laptop, and your desktop might be better off with a cheaper 7200RPM drive paired with a similarly inexpensive SSD, but if you're looking for that single drive that does it all, the new VelociRaptor is your best bet. Hit the links below for the full skinny, and a deep, deep dive into the fascinating world of IOPS, read speeds and write times. Read - TechReport Read - AnandTech Read - PC Perspective Read - HotHardware Read - Tom's Hardware Read - ExtremeTech Read - LegitReviews Read - StorageReview Read - DesktopReview
WD intros standard-height 2.5-inch 750GB Scorpio Blue HDD
Western Digital already shipped the industry's first 2.5-inch 1TB hard drive last summer, but unfortunately for most, it couldn't be used as a drop-in solution for upgrading one's laptop drive. The reason? It relies on an unorthodox 12.5mm height form factor, while the vast majority of laptops only support 9.5mm height drives. Now, the outfit has pushed out a 750GB Scorpio Blue, a 2.5-incher that does indeed utilize the standard height form factor, and while this here unit includes Advanced Format and WhisperDrive, the 5,400RPM spindle speed is admittedly disappointing. It's tough to argue with the $149 price, though, and it's available now if you've been hankering for more space within your mobile workhorse.
Amazon's frustration-free packaging is anything but for hard drives
It's all well and good to cut corners when you're ridding durable, miniature electronics of their brittle plastic clamshells -- but this time, Amazon's "Frustration-Free Packaging" initiative has gone too far. The company's shipping computer hard drives in the stuff. According to dozens of irate customers, Western Digital hard drives shipped by the e-tailer over the past several months have arrived in damaged cardboard containers, thin layers of bubble wrap, or even loose in a simple electrostatic discharge bag without an ounce of padding to keep them from harm. And while some buyers shipped them back immediately when they saw what had happened, many who tried them anyhow found their magnetic storage dead on arrival. While we're not certain whether Western Digital or Amazon was at fault for placing the drives on the "frustration-free" list in the first place (Seagate drive buyers haven't reported similar issues), Gadget Lab reports that Amazon is aware of the problem, and already working to ensure future (lack of) packaging avoids causing more frustration than it's worth. Read the horror stories with pics at our source links below.
Win XP needs some TLC to use next-gen hard drives
Solid state drives may be the fast-moving wave of the future in PC storage, but the technology for bigger and better magnetic media keeps on trucking. Only recently, that truck hit something of a pothole: the 4096-byte sector size that will allow advanced format drives to have more usable space (and surpass the current 2TB capacity limit) doesn't play nice with the world's most popular OS -- Windows XP. While manufacturers like Western Digital have already introduced software that successfully combats the problem, the new drives perform poorly in Win XP without it, and rival manufacturer Seagate told the BBC that even with software tricks, XP users should expect the occasional 5ms delay, or 10% speed reduction, during write times. Is this the end of Windows XP? Hardly. Should you make sure to install the software that comes with your next hard drive? Absolutely.
WD's 320GB My Passport AV external HDD wants to have and hold your media
Western Digital has played this card before with the strategically named My DVR Expander, but for those who don't realize that an external hard drive is an external hard drive, there's the My Passport AV. For all intents and purposes, this 320GB HDD is nothing more than a standard drive with a fancy marketing scheme following it closely. Oh, sure -- it may work "seamlessly" with Sony's Direct Copy feature on the outfit's range of Handycam camcorders, but outside of that, we don't see anything in particular that makes us long to pay more for something that doesn't really do more than any other 320GB HDD on shelves today. If you're in complete opposition (it's cool... really), it's available to order today for $109.99.
WD's My Passport Studio wears contents on its sleeve with always-on 'e-label'
Western Digital's My Passport Studio line has been spinning for years now, but today the outfit is pushing out a revamped version with a little something special. Boasting a FireWire 800 interface, a highly pocketable design and 256-bit hardware-based encryption, this here drive offers an "e-label smart display" on the front that actually remains on even when the drive is off and unplugged. Owners can tweak the text on the display as often as they like via WD's SmartWare software, and by utilizing e-paper technology, you'll always be able to see what's inside at a glance. Just so you're aware, the company's shipping this thing in 320GB, 500GB and 640GB flavors, but all three come pre-formatted for Mac use -- thankfully your Windows 7 rig won't have any issues wiping that slate clean and starting over once you hand over your $149.99 to $199.99.
WD's 'Advanced Format' Caviar Green HDD gets benchmarked, minor benefits found
Western Digital has yet to actively market its "advanced format" hard drives -- in fact, there's a decent chance you've no idea what we're talking about if you weren't tuned in on December 11th. In short, it's a technology that alters a hard drive's sector size from 512 bytes (the standard for the past three decades) to 4096K, which enables the ECC data to be stored in a more efficient manner. Just recently, WD began to ship Advanced Format Caviar Green hard drives, and the benchmarking gurus over at Hot Hardware strapped one in to see exactly how much of the hype was warranted. For starters, they debunked the thought that Advanced Format drives offered more usable space; Windows reported 931GB of free space on both AF and non-AF 1TB drives. They also go on to explain how to make AF drives play nice with Windows XP, and on the testing front, they found that an aligned AF Caviar Green drive could (mostly) hang with the higher end (and more expensive) Caviar Black. Pop that source link for the full skinny, particularly if you're a WinXP user looking to snag a new drive.
Western Digital My Book 3.0 goes SuperSpeed USB
Western Digital's kicking off the expected flood of USB 3.0 announcements here at CES with the new My Book 3.0 series. The 1TB version of the SuperSpeed drive is actually available now for $179, or $199 in a kit with a USB 3.0 adapter card, while a 2TB version will hit next week. That's actually not a terrible deal if you're into futureproofing, since USB 3.0 is backwards-compatible with USB 2.0 -- you could theoretically use this drive with both your current machine and your next one. Or you could just keep buying cheap storage for the thrill of it. We won't judge you.
WD's Caviar Black and RE4 2TB drives get benchmarked, one is wicked fast
Western Digital plopped itself firmly in the midst of the 2TB HDD battle back in early September, and if you've been holding off on buying your next slab of storage until the benchmarks hit, we're pleased to inform you that the wait is over. The crew over at Hot Hardware slapped both the Caviar Black and RE4 drives into their testing rigs in order to put 'em both through their respective paces. Without getting into the nitty-gritty, both of the 7200RPM drives were mighty quick in real-world use -- not SSD quick, mind you, but pretty darn snappy given the capaciousness. When push came to shove, the Caviar Black managed to pull ahead in terms of raw speed, but given that the RE4 is really an enterprise drive, we doubt you're keeled over in shock. Hit the source link for all the charts and bars, but only if you've got a C-note or three to burn once you get the itch.
Western Digital 'advanced format' promises slight boost in usable space
Sure, you may have been able to double your hard drive's storage space with DriveSpace back in the day, but it looks like Western Digital has now come up with a new, more foolproof way to eek out a few more gigabytes from its drives. Dubbed 'advanced format,' the company's new partitioning method promises to do away with each individual sector having its own Sync/DAM header and ECC, and instead move to larger, 4k physical sectors. As you can see in the helpful illustration above, that shift would also actually increase the size of the ECC, but WD says the net gain in usable storage space should still be between seven and eleven percent (which would certainly be welcome when we're talking about 1TB or 2TB drives). Unfortunately, you won't simply be able to update the firmware and reformat your current drive, but WD will apparently be moving its Caviar Green line to the new format in the "next few weeks," and eventually shift the rest of its drives over as well.
WD TV Live boxes left bricked by firmware update
In its short stay on retail shelves the WD TV Live HD media box has picked up an avid community of users for the unassuming unit -- at least until they tried to update the firmware of the last couple of days. Forum reports show formerly operational units with nothing but a blank screen after download the v1.101.12 update. For its part Western Digital has acknowledged the problem and pulled the update from its site, but given the poor ratio of successful upgraders to mourners in the thread, we hope it sees loyal customers out of RMA hell and back to 1080p video playing bliss quickly. Until then, we'd keep clear of that "upgrade now" screen until the next patch has been thoroughly vetted. [Thanks to everyone who sent this in]
Western Digital WD TV Live HD media player gets official
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."
New Western Digital WD TV Live media player hits Best Buy
We'd been hearing that Western Digital was about to update its WD TV set-top media player lineup, and it looks like that leaked WD TV-2 has turned into the WD TV Live on the way to Best Buy. Nothing here too out of the ordinary -- wide codec support, Dolby Digital and DTS decoders, HDMI out, and an Ethernet jack for DLNA streaming and accessing YouTube, Flickr, and Pandora make this one a solid buy at $119 if you need it, but it's not going to blow up the world, you know? We're still saving up for monster Windows 7 / CableCARD Media Center rig.[Thanks, Keith D.]
WD unveils new My Books with e-paper, while My Passport shrinks even further
Good news for hardcore portable storage buffs: looks like Western Digital is taking a hint from Verbatim and putting an e-paper display on its My Book Elite and My Book Studio portable hard drives, offering the device's label and free space up-front, perfect for those of us juggling multiple portable storage devices. In addition, both offer WD SmartWare, 256-bit hardware-based encryption, and are available in capacities ranging from 500GB to 2TB. My Book Studio (formatted for Mac and sportin' a FireWire 800 interface) ranges from $149.99 to $299.99 depending on size, while My Book Elite (with a USB 2.0 interface and NTFS formatting) will run you anywhere from $169.99 to $279.99.If what you're looking for however, is the company's "smallest drive to date," check out My Passport Elite. Featuring a USB dock, illuminated capacity gauge, a secure "drive lock" indicator, and that 256-bit hardware-based encryption, this bad boy is sports up to 640GB storage (which will run you $169.99). This one is available in one of three "metallic" colors -- Metallic Red, Metallic Blue, or Charcoal Metallic. Sadly, the company hasn't yet teamed up with MusicSkins for a Metallica skin -- but our fingers are crossed.Read - My Book StudioRead - My Book EliteRead - My Passport Elite
WD unveils new My Books, My Passports for Windows and Mac
And we have storage for you! WD's refreshing a number of its external HDD storage devices, a move that's sure to put a smile on the face of many a young media hound. The new My Book Essential is available in 1TB ($149), 2TB ($229.99) 500GB ($99.99), while the My Book for Mac is available with 1TB for $149.99. My Passport Essential can be had in capacities of 500GB ($139) or 320GB ($99.99), while My Passport for Mac is going out there in 500GB ($149.99) and 320GB ($119.99) sizes. All these guys feature SmartWare software for data management, and all are available now in a wide range of earth-shattering, psychedelic colors (well, four -- including black). Read - My Book Essential Read - My Book for Mac Read - My Passport EssentialRead - My Passport for Mac
WD ships 2.5-inch 640GB standard 9.5mm-height laptop drive
Monkey see, monkey do -- ain't that right? Whatever the case, we're stoked to see one more player in the 2.5-inch 640GB game, with Seagate, Samsung and Toshiba recently introducing versions of their own. Western Digital's iteration -- the Scorpio Blue 640 -- sports a luscious standard 9.5mm-height package, which should fit just fine within pretty much any laptop out there. WD also claims that this HDD consumes some 30 percent less power than the previous generation Scorpio Blue, though the 5400RPM spindle speed certainly won't impress the performance junkies in the crowd. Look for it to slide into your next portable for $149.[Via HotHardware]
