For months now, I have been trying to play .MKV and other video files on my living room front projector. At first I tried to connect a laptop directly to the TV. But this didn’t always work, the audio was crappy, and it was awkward to have a laptop connected to the projector.
I started using my XBOX 360 to play video files. At first I wanted to stream the files across my network. This worked every once in a while, but mostly it was an exercise in frustration. And I got miserable fast forward and rewind capability because of the network bottleneck.
Then I tried using my Neuros OSD for this. That was a non-starter as the OSD only has a composite video out port and I wanted to play high definition video.
Eventually I started copying video files to big fat thumb drives and plugging them directly into the XBOX. This worked very well for a lot of video files, but didn’t work at all for high definition files because they were mostly over 4GB in size (the XBOX 360 only recognizes FAT32 formatted drives, and FAT32 doesn’t allow for more than 4GB per file).
I then started investigating the black arts of video transcoding. I looked for tools that would allow me to convert the video formats I found on the internet into something that was XBOX 360 friendly. But most of the automated tools were a compromise. If it converted the video into something XBOX friendly, and under 4GB in size, the audio would be downgraded to 2 channels (from 5.1). And I would run my computer for hours converting video, and many times something would go wrong and the file wouldn’t play on the XBOX.
I was banging my head against the wall trying to figure this out.
One Fall afternoon, Western Digital announced the WD HD TV Media Player. It promised to play high definition video over HDMI and optical audio, up to 1080p, all for about $120 street price. I was skeptical at first that such a tiny and inexpensive device would solve all of my months of video headaches. But any skepticism disappeared once I hooked the gizmo up to my projector and in about 20 seconds I was watching glorious high definition 1080p with DTS sound.
Basically the WD HD TV Media Player (horrible name, by the way) will play just about any video format you throw at it. You put the videos on any USB mass storage device, like a thumb drive or an external hard drive, and plug it into the device. It recognizes the files on the drive and plays any video, audio, or photo files it finds. It comes with a handy remote control, and the software interface is very simple and easy-to-use. The box has 2 USB ports for you to plug in any combination of mass storage devices. Even better, it supports the NTFS file format so you are not limited to files that are under 4GB.
I loaded up an external hard drive with all manner of video files and plugged it into the Media Player. Using the remote control I navigated the on-screen menu and chose several different file formats to test. The little black box played each of the files beautiful. The playback was smooth, even in fast action sequences. The digital audio worked flawlessly and it even supports subtitles. I tested a variety of 720p and 1080p and 480p files. I couldn’t find a single one the device had trouble with.
I connected the Media Player via optical audio and HDMI. It also supports composite video with analog audio, but I did not test those ports.
I was also pleasantly surprised by the compact yet powerful remote control. I hid the tiny Media Player box behind my media cabinet in the back of the room where my projector is. And I didn’t think the remote control would be able to hit the device, but sure enough I just pointed it at the ceiling above my head and it worked very nicely, registering each key press.
I love this little black box. It singlehandedly solved my video playback problems and ended months of frustration. People will gripe about the lack of network support, but I personally have no desire to stream high definition video over my local network. Direct hard drive or thumb drive connections ensure fast and reliable playback and controls. Simple and fast, the WD HD TV Media Player is a powerhouse solution in a tiny and affordable package.
I work for Geek Squad and I tested one of these yesterday and they work flawlessly, have no idea why the customer returned it.
This is just the kind of device we need - I’ve been through the same hassles of connecting a laptop, using the Xbox 360 and transcoding on the fly, and even the Apple TV. A Mac mini might have been the temporary solution, but I wasn’t going to spend money on it (I experimented with those from what others owned, didn’t buy them). This seems like a very good solution.
Also, I think this day might be coming sooner than I expected - being able to rent movies on a flash drive. This is the first step. Imagine if instead of picking up DVD’s at Blockbuster, you took in your flash drive, picked movies, and they were transferred to this device, which them plays at your home. The next technological leap is obviously streaming it over the web, but I don’t know how well that’s working yet for a lot of people, particularly because of bandwidth concerns.
Anyway, this is pretty neat, I think I might wait for their second version to come out or for this to drop in price before I make the plunge.
If you really want to rent in your flash drive (which is a good solution), why take your flash drive to the store? One should just be able to pick and download (or maybe even stream) encrypted content from your computer that you can play for a certain time period.
I love it so much, I sleep with this product at night.
I’ve got one of these as well, sweet little box. I was going to go the streaming media over wifi from a NAS route but this was a much cheaper, no-headache solution.
Did you try Tversity for your 360? The only thing it hasn’t handled for me are files in Matroska containers.
Can you install Xbmc on it? http://xbmc.org …. It’s the best media centre software I’ve ever used. Works with Samba shares, UPnP, internet video, everything….
I read somewhere that the WD player also uses the same Sigma chip that the PopcornHour (A-100 and A-110) uses. If that’s the case, there might be future chances of hacking (modding) this player to include the Ethernet port or Wifi over USB!
Lack of streaming is a deal breaker for me and the cost of A-110 is the deal breaker there. Looking for something in between.
This is a nice little box. But I ended up going with Popcorn Hour for it’s RSS Bit Torrent abilities. They both have the same media chips. Competition is good for the consumer. So, the more venders that join this media market, the merrier.
I have both the Popcorn Hour and the WD HD TV ..
The popcorn is a whole lot more versatile … you can play movies from network or usb and add things like a movie jukebox and Playon server for Netflix and Hulu. Then there is the option for usenet nzb and bit torrent without having your computer running.
The WD is nice and plays videos well but removing the usb to add stuff all the time is a pain. I too liked the WD remote but I’d like to use my photos as a screen saver instead of the WD logo and some zooming utility for SD TV would be nice. I got mine for $100 during black Friday week.
its worth having it,i bought mine from
http://www.truehotdeals.com/2008/11/western-digital-wd-tv-hd-media-player/
till now i didnt encountered any prob with tat device,i think now it costs too much ,i bought it during the black friday
just add the usbs and have fun with d movies
What, you couldn’t find a $1 bill to compare the size?
This is a nice little box. But I ended up going with Popcorn Hour for it’s RSS Bit Torrent abilities. They both have the same media chips.
I like the price of the WD TV HD. I was looking to have a simple way to play my 1080P video with out haveing to connect my laptop to my HDTV.
This was a great solution. It is inexpensive, small, and simple to use. I connected it to my 1080P TV and plugged in my USB flash drive with some movies on it and was watching it on my TV in minutes.
It is awsome.
Peter probably still has his $50s because he got this instead of the Popcorn Hour!
Good review. Both are great products, though.
I am going to Best Buy to get this box tomorrow. If I am ripping my DVD collection to turn it all digital- will the box play the files like a complete DVD- with options, and commentaries and all that?
no it will not.
I copied the vob files directly and it played…
This is a FANTASTIC piece of gear. I suggest a 1 TB WD hard drive to complete the package. Then, you’re “on the go” media center is complete. WOW!
NICE work Western Digital.
Add an ethernet jack, and make the usb port work with USB wifi sticks, and I will buy one of these for every room in my home.
Will it play AVCHD files continuously with no gaps? My Popcorn Hour will not and it is very frustrating.
Ive got a problem.
The latest update doesn’t work. The wd tv keeps rebooting and the update indicator stays at 0 procent.
I didn’t take the usb disk out or put the power of.
Someone a solution for me???
greetins Heralt
heralt, try plugging in a flash drive with the firmware update files
hearlt
mine is doing the same thing,now i have just a wd screen and no usb actitive and remote does not work.tech support is running up my cell phone bill.
is there a fix for this i have reset it and had it off for 10+ min.
Mine did not update as well. My drive was 1 TB. You can not use a drive bigger as 320 GB. I’ve use a flash stick, worked fine! Great update!
Good luck.
Say what? A media center released in 2008 that does not support drives > 320gb??
i have a 1 TB on mine and it works great. just takes about a minute to recognize all the files each time i turn it on.
Just upgraded mine without a problem. Removed the USB/HD, copied the update files to the root of a Flash Drive and all went well.
I bought this but the audio on some of my TiVo files, which I’ve converted to mpeg2 files, won’t play. But the audio will play on the mpeg2 files I created on my computer.
Jim
Will this play AVCHD?
Yes it will play AVCHD.
The WD-TV looks really nice but without network connectivity and no support for connecting an USB hub, I imagine it will be a hassle to switch cables all the time to add content to the disk.. You don’t want to be messing around in your media cabinet all the time..
It seems that even when an external drive is ejected, the drive motor is still running. As there is no other power source, except from the WD-TV, applied to my WD portable drive, this seems to be something that could be addressed in the firmware. At the present time I have to disconnect the drive or remove power by unplugging the WD-TV.
Is there a program that will add cover art to the list of my dvd collection so I don’t have to look at the generic square where the cover art should be?
if i buy wdtv and a 500gb passport can i rip my dvd collection and place on passport and watch the movies
that’s what i did with a 1tb
Will wdtv play a card reader to show jpeg photos from a card reader?
yes it will
But does the WDTV play .flv files - These are video files downloaded using realplayer?
Any idea if we compare WD TV HD media player with Multimedia ScreenPlay HD of Iomega (500GB and 1TB)?
Yeah just wondering about the same thing that John asked, will it play from an SD Card plugged into a Card Reader that’s plugged into the WD HD Player ? =D
yes theres a lot of plugging involved =P
Yes, USB card reader works on my WD TV. Can someone address the cover art question?
Not only will it play jpeg from card reader, but it will also play your AVCHD natively from your SDHC card reader. Make sure you update to the latest code release on WD HD TV.
regarding your comments about xbox only recognizing fat32 based file systems: this is not correct. They also recognize HFS+. This is why ipods work with xbox 360’s, and I suspect the ipod is the only reason why it does work with HFS+. The advantage of formatting an external drive for HFS+ with the 360 is that you can then see files larger than 4.7 gigs in size. I know this because this is how I use my external WD 500. I plug directly in to the 360 and it works like a charm. The drawback would be: if you don’t have a mac, you’ll need software like macdrive or something along those lines to access the drive.
does anyone know what the best format is for this player? If you have all your Movies on a ex hard drive it would be nice to know which format is the easiest to play from and still get the high quality.
avchd gives the best quality for size.. but any re-compression loses some quality. Avchd does take 4x the time to compress as xvid and for only 20-30% better compression. Same=as= source files lose no quality. mpeg2, avchd vc1… flac or hib bitrate mp3 for music 256k+
I have a WDTV , AppleTV ( atvflashed ) and MacBook Pro all connected to my plasma
WDTV is great but i dont know my 1 tb HFS+ does not connect my 320Gb laptp drives connetcs properly
I like the audio channels choosing option since i have some mkv’s english is secong channel. It consumes less power than the apple tv and laptop and emits less heat. Infact I have 1 WDTV in my bathroom with is connect to my 14: LDC monitor ithbuilt in speakers to playback some podcasts.
Apple TV interface is great you tube and podcast integrationa and airtunes to send audio. I use my iphone to choose music videos , podcast. My wife loves the apple remote and atv interface.
My macbook pro is also connected the advangae i can play games sitting on my bed and surf and check mails ocationally also downloading happens.
wdtv is welcome product would also like to try PCH and or iStar a god media centre box.
cheers
anand
Many complain about WD HD TV does not not networking/wireless/streaming capabilities, but this “little” device is perfectly setup for people who are not technically savy. I got one and set it up in my home gym. Now my wife just download any media she wants on a thumb drive, plug it in, turn on WDTV…and presto!
Simple is good!
Will thid WD HD Player plays ISO files ?
If I have the ISO movies named 1,2,3,4,5….., will it play if I just select the ISO movie number on the remote control ? eg. if I press number 2 and enter on the remote control, will it plays the ISO movie number 2 ?
Thanks in Advance.
Just bought the device at a computer show in Singapore.
Yes - this device plays ISO. But it doesn’t show the DVD menu - it goes straight to the movie. I believe options such as language and subtitles may be controlled from the video settings.
I am a video artist and just got a new HD camera. The WD HD Player looks like a great piece of equipment to bypass burning video to Blue-ray and needing a Blueray burner and player. I was hoping to find out if a video file can be set to loop on the WD HD Player.
Thanks for your time,
There is a repeat icon in the options list.
However, I just tested it & it wouldn’t loop one of my video files (.mkv format). I’ve never tried music on it, but I’m going to assume for the time being that the repeat option is for music files.
So for the time being, the answer for your question is “NO, it does not appear to loop video files”.
Does the WD Player recognize or respond to the menu structure that may be on an imported DVD ISO or BDMV disc image? Or one must hunt down and play the individual VOB or m2TS stream files one by one?
I suspect that the device provides some sort of indexing and archive organization tools, but that it will not let one navigate a disc image as would a DVD or BD player. I author discs and would like to share HD work with people who may never buy a BD player but might indeed like a device like this, but the glitch may be that it won’t recognize the menus as-is.
Any one know the answer?
This device plays DVD iso’s fine. No menu but to be honest I prefer that. You can change the audion or subtitles during the movie so no problem. Use the popcorn movie converter on mkv movies with digital audio and convert to stereo then you can watch everything fine. Most mkv movies are DTS audio but a quick 10 min conversion with popcorn audio converter fixed that. If you have some problems or get an error saying tha the file format is not supported, manualy add the file extension to the end..eg .mkv and it works. Hope this helps :)
still trying to create thumbs for mkv files…anyone know how?
MIne played ISO until I firmware upgraded. Now it plays TS but the ISO isn’t recognised and no longer appears in the list.
Also to comment on cover art. Im a Mac boy. I tried this for tagging mp4, seems to do the business but very basic. Not sure about Matroska and
other formats though. Anyone ?.
It’s all in the detail, here is what I used to add mp4 artwork on me mac.
http://members.verizon.net/pucklock/vIDInfiltr8/vIDI.html
EMTEC do it better and they done it for a year but why nobody knows?
http://www.emtec-international.com/en/produit.php?categorie=STMOB&gamme=DISQUES%20DURS&ss_gamme=S120
This is exactly what I have been looking for.
Just one query, what is the maximum size of external USB drive it can support.
HELP!
Does it work with
250GB Simpletech portable hard disk
OR
1TB Seagate external hard disk
i just want to check if it will work with these before i buy.
I’ve got it attached to two 1TB WD Elements drives & it works fine. I see no reason why other brands of drive won’t work.
I’ve also used a 160GB Elements 2.5″ drive & that worked well too. I did the firmware upgrade using a Sandisk 8GB Cruizer stick, but I’m yet to try the stick with any video files.
I just purchased this unit with a 1TB WD External HD. I really hope that it supports 1TB or else the drive is going back.
Can anyone confirm that it does indeed support 1TB?
i also have a 1 rb wd external hd and it works fine.
It does support 1tb drives. Doesnt matter the manufacturer. I have a 1tb WD external and it works great and plays everything I throw at it.
In fact I plan on plugging this little guy into my 4tb WD NAS Storage device using USB. This player fing rox! Everyone should seriously own one…
Make sure you do the firmware update when you get it…
http://www.wdc.com/en/products/wdtv/
I have a lot more respect for Western Digital after purchasing this device!!!!
I just got mine this morning and tried it right away. I transferred my anime from my comp to ATA portable hard drive. It can indeed read all the anime I have, but some of the anime graphics become broken, and others become skippy, or slow frame rate, and some don’t have sounds, it says sound is not supported. I already updated it before I tried it.
Is there a solution to fix this broken picture or skippy frame rate? Do I have to connect 2 usb cable for more power, or do I have to use Arcsoft MediaConverter 2.5 first on my anime before drag and dropping my anime from comp to portable hd? Some of the anime are ok though.
Throw arcsoft in the bin!…you have to pay to unlock the advanced (usefull) features…its rubbish anyway.
This device will not play digital audio (DTS) audio! you need to use a toslink cable and decoder with it for that!…bummer!….I use popcorn converter to change DTS to stereo and it plays fine (takes 10 mins to convert). I play only mkv and iso files though. MKV for HD movies and iso for dvd’s… no need to use anything else if you ask me as mkv is best file size for quality for HD movies and iso play dvd quality just fine.
I had one mkv movie with blocky playback… deleted it… maybe later firmware will help.
I wish they would fix the thumbnails issue for mkv or iso files….come on WD pull the finger out!
btw if you want smooth playback then dont bother trying to play HD movies without USB 2.0… and remember to defrag the HDD if its an old one.
I use a 500GB mypassport and its as smooth as as silk!
Just purchased this box. I have a Panasonic video camera that uses SD or SDHC cards to record on. It records in MPEG2 format. When I plug the SD card into a card reader then in the unit no video files are found. The files are on the card as I can play them on my camera view screen. Anyone have any suggestions?
So does this baby play flv, vlc, real media files?
Media Formats
MPEG 1/2/4, WMV9, AVI (MPEG4,Xvid, AVC), H.264, MKV, MOV (MPEG4, H264), JPEG, GIF, TIFF, BMP, PNG
MP3, WMA, OGG, WAV/PCM/LPCM, AAC, FLAC, Dolby Digital, AIF/AIFF, MKA
this list you left is misleading b/c some say ISO files play and they are not listed.
Reply to: “(the XBOX 360 only recognizes FAT32 formatted drives, )”
That’s not entirely true, you can always format your hard disk into the Mac OSX filesystem, which is similar to the NTFS for Windows (putting files bigger than 4gb on it). The xbox 360 reads that just fine too.
No way this can play EyeTV files directly, can it? I know those can be exported to mpeg quickly, just wondering…
Could anyone explain to me will I be able to listen DTS with toslink cable connected to audio amplifier during watching HD movies on this WV HD media player?
Thank you!
Hey does anyone know if WD are going to enable ISO files in any updates. I am trying to decided between this and popcorn. I prefer the sound of tis but lack of dvd menu navigation compatibility is gearing me towards popcorn. Cheers
I bought this device and indeed it is a very nice designed tiny box and it has a great performance.
I use it in combination with several harddisks of 500 and 750 GB.
Nice picture and good sound (I use it also to play my CD library)
Except that there are problems with:
- subtitles added to a dvd (do not show up)
- sound of some dvd’s (crakling sound)
- sound of wmv files (not supported)
- does play m2ts selectively only, some are, some are not
All those files do not have any problem when played on my laptop with Windows Media Player or PowerDVD.
So I still have to connect my laptop to my HD projector and AV Receiver.
I hope new firmware of Western DIgital will solve this (currently I use 1.01)
I have to withdraw the remark with the sound of some dvd’s (crackling sound). This was caused by bad movie file.
The remaing problems are:
- subtitles added to a dvd (do not show up)
- sound of wmv files (not supported)
- does play m2ts selectively only, some are, some are not
I too tried m2ts files but didn’t recognize. I hope WD will find a solution for this problem soon. As I primarily bought the device to play my files from my HD camcorder which are saved in m2ts format.