WD TV Live HD Media Player (Supports: Full-HD 1080p, HDMI, ethernet, Internet)

Western Digital WD TV Live is a Full-HD (1080p) media player set-top-box.
It allows to play SD and HD videos, photos and music whether they are on your computer, your USB drives (even USB hard disks), the Internet.

WD TV Live can be connected to your TV via HDMI.

WD TV Live is a streaming network media player. It can be connected to your local network via ubiquitous ethernet wired connection. You can also buy a Wi-Fi dongle and connect WD TV via Wi-Fi wireless connection.


Key Features of WD TV Live

Full-HD video playback and navigation - up to 1080p
This is the real thing; Full-HD 1080p playback. Sit back and enjoy the spectacular picture quality of brilliant high definition video and the crystal-clear sound of digital audio. Use the included remote control to make your entertainment choices using our crisp, animated navigation menus.

Play a wide variety of file formats
WD TV Live supports a wide variety of the most popular file formats. No need to spend time transcoding.

Play videos, music and photos from the Internet on your big screen TV
Explore and watch YouTube videos and Flickr pictures on the big screen. Rock out to thousands of radio stations via Live365 and discover new music with Pandora radio.

Access files anywhere on your home network
Play movies, music, and photos from any PC or drive on your home network. The Ethernet port connects this player to your home network through a wired connection or via popular, supported WiFi adapters (sold separately).

Turn your USB drive into an HD media player
Play content from most popular USB drives, and digital cameras, camcorders, and portable media players that can be recognized as mass storage devices. Optimized for My Passport portable hard drives.

Collect without limits
There's no limit to the size of your media collection; just add more USB drives for more space.

Play media seamlessly from multiple USB drives
Two USB ports on the player let you connect multiple USB storage devices and access them simultaneously. Our media library feature collects the content on all the drives into one list sorted by media type.

Transfer files easily
Copy, move or delete files stored on a USB drive, a network drive, your camcorder, or a camera to the attached USB drive using the on-screen menus.

Show photos and movies directly from your digital camera or video camera
Works with digital cameras, digital video cameras, in fact, any digital imaging device that supports Picture Transfer Protocol.

Advanced navigation options

• Thumbnail and list views - Browse your content by filename or by thumbnails of photos, album covers and movie cover art.
• Media library - This unique feature lets you view all your media by media type in one menu regardless of its location in folders or drives. You can view your content by categories such as genre, album, artist and date.
• Search - Search by genre, title, artist, filename or partial filename.

Photo viewing

• Create custom slide shows with a variety of transitions and background music
• Zoom and pan
• Search by filename, partial filename, most recently viewed and date

Movie viewing

• Fast forward, rewind, pause, zoom, and pan
• View subtitles
• Search by filename, partial filename, most recently viewed and date

Music playback

• Fast forward, rewind, pause, shuffle, repeat
• Search by filename, partial filename, most recently viewed and date.

File Copy
Copy files between USB drives

HDMI 1.3, composite video and component video output
The HDMI port lets you connect to the highest quality HDTV or home theater. Additional composite (RCA), and component outputs ensure compatibility with virtually all television sets.

SPDIF digital output
The optical audio output sends digital signals to your AV receiver for the best surroundsound experience.

Access media files on your home network
WD TV Live supports a direct Ethernet connection or a USB attached wireless connection to your home network. Click here to view compatible wireless-ready USB adapters.

Ultra-compact design
Fits easily into your entertainment center.

System Requirements
My Passport portable hard drive or other USB storage device with supported video or audio content stored on it.
Standard or high definition television with HDMI or composite video connections
Home Network and broadband connectivity for online services.

Languages Supported

User Interface:
English, French, Italian, German, Spanish, Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, Korean, Japanese, Russian, Portuguese

Subtitle:
English, French, Italian, German, Spanish, Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, Korean, Japanese, Greek, Russian (KOI8-R & Windows 1251), Portuguese, Central European, Turkish, Malay

Alternatives

• HTPC with XBMC or other software
• ASUS HDP-R1 O!Play
• Brite-View BV-5005 CinemaTube HD Media Player
• Seagate FreeAgent Theater+
• PopcornTV
• Apple TV (Only if you will watch videos and listen to music from iTunes, including rental videos)

Western Digital WD TV Live on Amazon

File Formats Supported

Video
AVI (Xvid, AVC, MPEG1/2/4),
MPG/MPEG, VOB,
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

Photo
JPEG, GIF, TIF/TIFF, BMP, PNG

Audio
MP3,
WAV/PCM/LPCM,
WMA,
AAC,
FLAC,
MKA,
AIF/AIFF,
OGG,
Dolby Digital,
DTS

Playlist
PLS,
M3U,
WPL

Subtitle
SRT,
ASS,
SSA,
SUB,
SMI

Note:
- 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@L4.1 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.

File Formats Not Supported
Does not support protected premium content such as movies or music from the iTunes Store, Cinema Now, Amazon Video on Demand, Movielink, and Vongo.


Physical Specifications
Capacity: N/A
Interface: Ethernet, HDMI, Composite A/V, Component video, USB 2.0

WD TV Live review

Pros:

• Can play AVI, MKV and MP4 videos (MPEG-4 and MPEG-4 AVC)
• Can play M2TS, TS files videos
• Can play VIDEO_TS folder from DVD
• Can play media content from your local network as well as Internet
• Can play HD videos (1080p)
• Can play HD video from YouTube
• Supports HDMI and SPDIF
• Not noisy at all
• Cheap!

Cons:

• Doesn't support flash videos
• Doesn't support DVD menu an Blu-Ray menu (although can play files from DVD and Blu Ray images)
• Remote control could be better
• Doesn't support torrents (Do you really want to download them from a set-top-box?)

I've decided to buy WD TV Live. Please let me know if any better alternatives are available.

[any ANONYMOUS forum user]

Actually I just came across that WD TV Live unit in a search yesterday, as well as a few others all at Newegg. I decided to try this unit which supports FLV directly:
ASUS HD Media Player O!Play HDP-R1 HDMI Interface - Retail

I'm about to purchase an LCD HD TV which has HDMI input of course, so if this player works out and I have good quality I won't need to bother with Blu Ray, at least for a long while.

Originally Posted by any ANONYMOUS forum user

Actually I just came across that WD TV Live unit in a search yesterday, as well as a few others all at Newegg. I decided to try this unit which supports FLV directly:
ASUS HD Media Player O!Play HDP-R1 HDMI Interface - Retail

I'm about to purchase an LCD HD TV which has HDMI input of course, so if this player works out and I have good quality I won't need to bother with Blu Ray, at least for a long while.

Thank you for mentioning this. Newegg is a very nice shop. And the player you mentioned is very good. It is harder for me to choose between WD TV Live and Asus O!Play. I've created a thread to compare them:
WD TV Live HD Media Player vs ASUS O!Play - TV HD Media Player