Western Digital - WD TV HD Media Player for USB Storage Devices

[BobDiaz]

Western Digital seemed to slip this out with little fanfare...

This device turns your USB drive into an HD media player, allowing you to watch your favorite HD movies on your TV.

Product Features

• Compatible with My Passport portable hard drives and other USB storage devices
• Full HD 1080p video playback and navigation
• Dock-and-play convenience
• Provides access to 2 USB drives simultaneously
• HDMI and composite video interfaces for easy connection to a TV
• Ultracompact design for easy portability
• Includes My Passport hard drive stand, compact remote with batteries, composite A/V cable, AC adapter, media converter software and owner's manual

Here's the list of supported file formats:

Video: MPEG1/2/4, WMV9, AVI (MPEG4, Xvid, AVC), H.264, MKV, MOV (MPEG4, H.264), Subtitle SRT (UTF-8)

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

Audio: MP3, WMA, OGG, WAV/PCM/LPCM, AAC, FLAC, Dolby Digital, AIF/AIFF, MKA Playlist PLS, M3U, WPL

It's selling at Best Buy for $99.99


I don't know how good or how bad it is, but it does look interesting as a means of playing HD files.


Anyone tried it yet???




Bob Diaz

[Ed Kishel]

if I could be sure it played Pana AVCHD right off a card reader, I would pick one up yesterday

[Evro]

This is definitely a funky player! And don't forget the HDX900 & PCH 100A which are also HD media players (aka Network Media Tanks) that can play all of these HD formats but at much more competitive price albeit sacrificing the fancy menu systems ;)

[DM_rider]

hmm looks interesting.

[Ed Kishel]

it does play HMC150 footage! But you have to rename the file designation from .mts to .m2ts

so the device does support AVCHD at full resolution, it just wont recognize the Pana flavor until you rename it to the Sony flavor. Perhaps a firmware update someday...?

Otherwise its a great little player for final renders without the need for an HTPC. Smooth interface, easy setup, small footprint and power use. Def worth $99

[David Saraceno]

it does play HMC150 footage! But you have to rename the file designation from .mts to .m2ts

so the device does support AVCHD at full resolution, it just wont recognize the Pana flavor until you rename it to the Sony flavor. Perhaps a firmware update someday...?

Otherwise its a great little player for final renders without the need for an HTPC. Smooth interface, easy setup, small footprint and power use. Def worth $99

Are you saying I can transfer the HMC150's bare MTS files to a fast USB thumb drive or other device after changing their extensions to .m2ts, and this device will play them without issue out to a HDMI TV?

[Ed Kishel]

yup, I did it last night. The player supports h.264 AVC, but only if there is a "2" in the files name designation.

It has upgradable firmware, so I hope it will soon understand the .mts designation. If anyone here gets one be sure to send the request to WD tech support:

http://wdc.custhelp.com/cgi-bin/wdc....nduser/ask.php

I also called up tech support at WD and asked them to include it, and the guy said he would send the req and to look back in a month for a new firmware update. That may or may not happen. The important thing is that it plays the clips, its just a pain to keep going through my laptop first. I want to just stick the SDHC card in a reader and attach it to the player.

BTW- bestbuy jacked the price from $99 back up to $130 but newegg has it cheaper w/free shipping. Got mine in 2 days.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...25&Tpk=wd%20tv

Now, I can download the fests to hard disk and then play them throught my home theatre instead of off my laptop.

[David Saraceno]

We purchased one of these yesterday and it works as described.

Love it, except for its menuing system, which needs a rework

Plays footage back from the HMC150 with the extension change which we achieve with a copy using Adobe Bridge.

[ilauzirika]

Plays footage back from the HMC150 with the extension change which we achieve with a copy using Adobe Bridge.

I think that the avchd viewer also changes the extensions.

[Justyn]

so there's an automated way to change the extensions? That might make this a real purchase for live presentations. Would be sweet if they upgraded the firmware so no laptop is needed in the field. Just pop from camera and display..