WD TV HD Media Player

I researched this item quite a bit before pulling the trigger. I read many, many reviews, factored in cost, considered the "good" as well as the "bad" - along with other media players - and found this to be the best of what's available. After using it for a couple of weeks now there is nothing that has changed my opinion. I had been using my notebook to view my videos and listen to my music. The WDTV makes this a much more pleasant, and controllable experience. I use it with a WD 500GB Passport connected to a 46" Sony Bravia LCD HDTV via HDMI which is then connected to my Panasonic 1000w Surround Sound system using the standard dual RCA audio out jacks.Granted, nothing is ever really "perfect", and the WDTV has a few shortcomings as have been noted in previous reviews. The menu structure could use some work, but is wholly functional as it is. Certainly something that could be remedied through a firmware update should WD choose to do so. The lack of external controls on the case means you need to take care of that remote! The remote is simple and comfortable to use, but I finally programmed its functions into my learning remote and put the WD remote away for safe keeping.The picture and sound it creates are quite good. I have not viewed any hi-def material yet, but judging from the quality of standard def I doubt there would be any disappointments in that regard. I have a lot of my video (movies, etc.) ripped to 320x240 (saves space) for my Ipod Touch 2G (mp4 format), and the picture quality from the WDTV is what I would expect from that format - entirely suitable. Some material that is in a higher pixel format is understandably better. I was pleased enough with it to give my opinions through this review.One interesting thing I found is that although it will not play protected m4v movies purchased through itunes, it will play non-protected m4v's - I watched some podcasts I downloaded - I was pleasantly surprised to find that it would play the music albums downloaded from itunes, in protected m4a format I assume. It's really great to have my music library available at my fingertips this way!Although it supports a number of different video formats, I have found some files that it cannot play even though they are in the proper formats; AVI WMV MPG, etc. This is simply due to the variations in encoding formats. If you're into digital video you should already be familar with transcoding formats, so that is just more of the same. Not everything you get off the Internet, or even have previously created yourself, is going to be ready to "Plug and Play" in this device, or any other. Not a real issue. There is software supplied for this purpose, although I have not had to use it yet. Out of about 1200 or so videos it will take a bit of time to find them all!Overall, it does what it's supposed to, and does it well enough to make my cable box start to feel a little lonely!UPDATE: The Hi-Def video clips that come on the supplied disc look phenomenal! The same difference I noticed when first watching hi-def channels on my cable box.I had begun ripping my movies in AppleTv format (640x480 mp4) and the clarity was much improved. I then began ripping to AVI in 640x480 and found the same high quality. The switch to AVI was because I noticed that the few AVI's that I had did not "skip" after fast forwarding or rewind as most of my mp4's do. VOB's also don't skip. Playing VOB's does give a true DVD picture, but the files are much larger - 4 GB's or so. I find a 1 GB mp4 or AVI gives a very acceptable picture in a minimum of space.The Arcsoft conversion software that comes with the unit is a bit tedious as it converts in real-time, recording the video as it plays it into the new format. A bit too slow for me. I don't find that a negative since they do GIVE you conversion software!Nothing has changed my opinion of this little wonder. It will even play recordings made in Windows Media Center, which I use when I can to record movies and TV shows since I can't get them out of my cable box DVR without recording them to a DVD then ripping them. Being able to just copy over the Media Center recordings to my Passport and play them on the WDTV is a gift in itself!

I've thought of building my own media player. After researching for barebones pc, it can easily cost $550 and above. Finally, I decided to look for a media player. I found this one with the right price, and it is HDTV too. It is a small box that easily sits next to all my other equipments (note: it has a picture clearly says do not put it on other video/audio equipments for fear of overheating).This player works really well. It plays all my MP4 in HD. AVIs that are in lower resolution plays well too. I tried playing MKV files, which are in HD. However, it doesn't play the whole "container". I played the anime files that contains translation. It plays video, audio but not the translated text.I like for the fact that it takes whatever USB drives that I attach to it. It can easily switch between the 2 USB ports.The remote that comes with it is responsive, albeit a little slow. I don't consider it a deal breaker.There are 2 negatives I've seen so far. When I try to locate the video files, I need to read the filenames on the bottom screen. It would be nice for the player to automatically generate thumbnails from the video files, like the JPGs.The other negative is that you have to control everything from the remote. There is nothing to push on the box itself. I've multiple remotes in my living room and I can tell you that the remotes have legs and they run off and hide. If I lose this remote (I have 3 young kids), I do not know how to operate the player.Otherwise, this is a great product and I highly recommend it.June 17, 2009 Addendum to my previous reviewWestern Digital released a firmware update 1.1.07 which resolved some of my negatives I noted above. The update includes ability to show thumbnails of the movies using JPG saved in the same storage unit. For example: Movie.avi will show thumbnail of the movie if Movie.jpg exists. Showing the thumbnail is slow though, which I'm OK with.Another update is to play MKV files with subtitles. I have yet to test this to give my feedback.I've seen a lot of criticism of this player being slow and not able to play movie files correctly. I am totally satisfied with this player because of its flexibility. If you can sit down on a sofa to watch a movie, you are not in a hurry to do anything else. The responsiveness of the player is not an issue. I purchased a car inverter that enables me to plug in this player in my car dvd player using the Aux input. Instead of lugging 80 DVDs for my kids, not I just need this small player.This is the best product I ever bought.