Prayer's Answered? Western Digital HD TV

Barks · 2 Mar 2009 at 23:00

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=HD-269-WD

WD TV HD Media Player turns your USB hard drive, into a HD media player. Connect your USB hard drive to this device and play crisp HD movies, listen to high-quality digital music, and watch slideshows of your family photos on your TV. No need to figure out complicated home networking or reconnect AV and power cables. What could be simpler? There’s no limit to the size of your media collection; just add more drives for more movies. Supports Full HD 1080p video playback and navigation.

- Full HD 1080p video playback and navigation
- Dock-and-play convenience
- Collect without limits - no need to delete movies, just add more USB drives
- Interfaces: USB 2.0, HDMI & Composite A/V
- Warranty: 2 Years

I figured that looks good, and then the selling point...

File Formats Supported
Music - MP3, WMA, OGG, WAV/PCM/LPCM, AAC, FLAC, Dolby Digital, AIF/AIFF, MKA
Graphics - JPEG, GIF, TIF/TIFF, BMP, PNG Video -MPEG1/2/4, WMV9, AVI (MPEG4, Xvid, AVC), H.264, MKV, MOV (MPEG4, H.264)
Playlist - PLS, M3U, WPL Subtitle -SRT (UTF-8)

That is mightily impressive. Given I have all my videos on an external hard drive, the prospect of just moving it beside the TV and watching a film is appealing. Even the idea of buying an 8GB pen drive and transferring something I want to watch across is appealing.

Do any of you have one of these? Is it "cheap" or does it do the job well?

Cheers,

slylittlefox · 2 Mar 2009 at 23:06

Why's it only got one USB port? Surely it should have at least half a dozen? Looks interesting anyway

DigitalReaper · 2 Mar 2009 at 23:12

Official specs page: http://www.wdc.com/en/products/products.asp?DriveID=572

Looks interesting, although the lack of analog 5.1 output is somewhat annoying for people without a standalone decoder

It has 2 USB ports btw, one front and one back I think.

Barks · 2 Mar 2009 at 23:13

The price alone is impressive though, and I know a lot of people have AV receivers so 5.1 isn't a problem.

ben_moore34 · 3 Mar 2009 at 16:36

I have one of these.
So far it's been great. It will play all of my video and audio files.
I've tried it with a number of high definition files too and it will play them without a hitch.
If the file is DTS you will need an external decoder or AV amp (there is an optical out).
If you get one, update to the latest firmware from WD's site as there have been a lot of improvements over the past few months.

DrDee · 3 Mar 2009 at 17:00

Is it networkable?

Datamonkey · 3 Mar 2009 at 17:22

Would be the bee's knees if it is networkable.

HEADRAT · 3 Mar 2009 at 17:24

Well I guess if you connect it to a NAS drive then it's networkable

Could be interesting!

Barks · 3 Mar 2009 at 18:36

ben_moore34 said:
I have one of these.
So far it's been great. It will play all of my video and audio files.
I've tried it with a number of high definition files too and it will play them without a hitch.
If the file is DTS you will need an external decoder or AV amp (there is an optical out).
If you get one, update to the latest firmware from WD's site as there have been a lot of improvements over the past few months.

Mate have you tried it with MKV files. Apparently if there are subtitles it plays them and there's no way to get them off so you have to manually rip them out the file.

True?

Cheers

ben_moore34 · 3 Mar 2009 at 20:02

No it's not networkable as far as I know unfortunately. It just has 2 USB ports. You can plug in a USB external drive, I use a 16GB flash drive. It comes with a little stand especially for a WD passport drive.
I have tried a MKV file you could toggle subtitles on and off.
For what it is and the cost I think it's great, feels solid and of good quality, very compact too. I use my XBMC mainly for music and downloaded tv & this for High Def stuff.
If you do get one you'll have to supply your own HDMI cable as there isn't one included.

fendi · 4 Mar 2009 at 00:15

have 2, both connected to 1tb externals. there is firmware that makes it work with networks. avforums.

lsg1r · 4 Mar 2009 at 00:32

Looks pretty good to me, would prefer it to be networked too personally.
This review seems pretty positive considering the cost.

Slogan · 4 Mar 2009 at 00:34

Would a USB device be able to handle 1080p?

Hatter The Mad · 4 Mar 2009 at 00:40

Slogan said:
Would a USB device be able to handle 1080p?

Obviously yes

Katoom · 4 Mar 2009 at 06:30

The Xbox HD-DVD drive is USB

Harbz · 4 Mar 2009 at 08:15

any ideas how well this will work with a Dell W2600 LCD tv? The TV only has DVI no HDMI port. Its not 1080p, just 1280 x 728 (or something like that). Will the device be able to select the correct resolution? Also how will I be able to get sound to the tv?

Pinkeyes · 4 Mar 2009 at 10:56

This device is Networkable. Apparently you can add a Wii Network adapter, which is USB to RJ45 and add a small bit of software and you then get a network port.

I'll try and find some links for this - looking into buying one of these devices to replace my media PC too and the networking was an issue to me.

valve90210 · 4 Mar 2009 at 12:52

That certainly looks like an interesting piece of kit!!!

Currently using XBMC for downloaded vids etc in the bedroom and was considering one for the lounge too, however, I intend to get an HD TV sometime soon, so this would be a really great device.

I'm assuming an external USB hard drive is fine for linking up to this?

ssmacc · 4 Mar 2009 at 13:04

With the release of this a version including a BlueRay Drive cannot be far away? Throw in a Network adapter and you really have all basis covered.

Saying that I’ve got used to browsing the Web in my living room so don’t think I’d replace my HTPC…

Pinkeyes · 4 Mar 2009 at 13:40

Here is the link which talks about USB Network adapters.

I do not know how this will effect warranties and such, as it is for unofficial firmware releases. I Can see quite a few coming out for this as it is Linux based.

Still very tempted