Western Digital Black TV HD Media Player

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So much better and easier than transferring your photos and home movies to DVDs. I recently bought a 1 Tbt HD and have been downloading all my photos, home movies and music on it. I plan to keep it with the Media Player. Only complaint is that when you turn it off, it actually stays powered...Don't understand that. Solution: use a power strip with a switch. Quality using a HDMI is superior to composite. Overall, best way I've found to view all your media on our TV.

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I bought this for my parents since they needed an easy way to watch movie files on their tv, with as little clutter and cables as possible.This unit is perfect for what I needed, and works without a hitch. I updated the firmware straight away and haven't had any problems.Two things I hope are addressed in future updates are: that it can combine sequential avis so that they appear as a single file. And that thumbnail images are cached so that they load much more quickly. A row of a half dozen movies will load a folder image a second.Otherwise haven't had issues with codecs, mainly use xvid and mp3.Go for it, it's cheap, easy, and looks sexy.

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This unit was bought to service a bedroom TV and not for the main unit, on which I use an XBox360 streaming from a PC. However, I'll likely be buying a second one for the main unit as this is one of the coolest little gadgets I've messed with yet. I've been a user of many media players for my home theatre ranging from Media PCs to Xboxs and a few in between. This little gem easily wins in terms of the performance to hassle ratio. Plug it into an HDMI cable and thumbdrive and you're watching.The latest firmware update  available online fixes a lot of what made me initially hesitant about this unit.For the brave among us who would decry its lack of networking ability, there's an unofficial firmware that will allow USB Ethernet and another which enables USB Wi-Fi.Overall - great piece of equipment that would have saved me countless dollars in gear and headache medication had it existed 5 years ago.

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Had a Masscool Media Player before I bought this, and had nothing but trouble with it. I have had the WD for about a month now, and it plays virtually every media format I have thrown at it. No hiccups, no problems. Highly recommended.

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I have this unit teamed up with a WD 1T external drive and it works flawlessly. I have also used several thumb drives and it works great too. I found that to update the firmware I had to load the file on my thumb drive before the unit would recognize it even though I had the same file on my external USB drive. I discovered that you can use a SD card flash drive as well when connected to a USB reader. I have over 240 movies converted to Divx and they play great on this unit. All in all, I love this WD Media Player. It sure beats the heck out of fumbling through stacks of DVDs!

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My AppleTV is wonderful on my HDTV but what about my old 32" Toshiba SDTV? Can't get any AppleLove for it so I tried the WD device. Fantastic! I can take my HFS+ formatted portable drive, add whatever movies that will play on my iPod or AppleTV or even AVI's(!) with subtitle files(!) and they all play perfectly on my Toshiba through this wonderful WD device. Any HD formatted as NTFS, FAT, or HFS+ will work just fine with this WD player. You only have to remember to push the "eject" button on the remote before unplugging the drive...and don't lose that remote because that's the only way of controlling this unit. WD sells separate remotes so you can keep one locked up for an emergency, if you wish. My Toshiba SDTV was connected using the Red/White/Yellow plugs but there's an HDMI port where you may connect the WD player to your HDTV (you supply the cable). So should you buy Apple's AppleTV or this WD Player? Both serve different purposes. I own both and love 'em.

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Great little player. It plays almost all files I have thrown at it, even MKV (with the latest firmware). The only problem so far is with AVI encoded using ffdshow as playing these files would stutter. The included ArcSoft video converter software is slow, even on my Q9550 oc'd to 3.7Ghz, so if you have a large number of files to convert, let it run overnight. After running about 1 hour, it has converted only 15 20 minute AVI files.I have been able to connect all of my different USB drives that I own, which are all non-WD off-brand drives. Drives connected to it will power down after the unit has been turned off for a while even though the light on the drive stays on (i.e. can't hear drive spinning anymore). Reads NTFS without issues, as well as FAT and FAT32. Using 2.5" external USB drives is the most convenient as you don't need an external power supply. This unit can power these drives using a single USB port.Although this unit does not have any networking capability at all, it shouldn't be that hard for WD to incorporate it since there are hacked firmwares available that does enable networking using USB network devices. Having network hardware built-in would have pushed the price range much higher. I have no issues using it with drives but networking would be a definite bonus.The menu is easy to use and intuitive. The only thing I have not been able to make it do is play the next video file in the folder automatically. I get around this by pushing "next" on the remote before the video ends. The remote is small, simple and easy to use. My only small gripe is that it isn't lighted. Not a big worry for me since I use a Logitech Harmony 890 Pro remote which supports this player.

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Overall, the idea is good but the quality is lacking. I expected more from WD. I am waiting for the Asus O!Play. It will have LAN and RM/RMVB support

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Networked media players just don't work, yet. I have tried many and they all have fatal flaws, therefore the current crop of HDD based systems look very good. The WD TV is an excellent product and works very well for my needs which are mainly photo and Classical Music. The catalog system is particularly good for classical music, most catalogs are very basic as they are only intended for modern noise (sorry, music). The remote is small but solid, has good range and sensitivity and is very responsive. The WD TV is superior in every way to the Seagate Theater which among other things has a horrible remote. However the Seagate has one feature that the WD TV does not have, the remote has a volume control. This is very useful as you do not have to use the remote for the AV amplifier to control volume. Apart from this the WD TV is a hands downn winner. Take note WD, add a volume control to the remote.

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I do truly love this device, although I would nto say it will play everything I have put to the test on it, I have tested about dozen or more common formats that one would get from downloading torrents and it will play about 70% of them. some it has some issues with. COmmon things you will see is file not supported or it will play but not find the audio channel. ONe bug I found in the system, is that if you play a video that is not supported and then sometimes try to play somehting you know you played before it will say it is also not supported. when this happen you need to reset the system back to factory defaults and then the file that you know it will play will work again. It works great with thumb drives and I can run two external teribyte drives off it with no issues, all in all I wish I had bought another one for the bedroom and in time I probally will.

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Nice little unit. Description explains it all and can't say any more then that. Great product.

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The WD TV media player is one of the best for the price. At this price point there isn't anything that does as fine a job as this media player. It plays all 720p and 1080p video files as long as they're encoded correctly and conform to the DXVA (hardware acceleration) specifications/limitations. If you're looking for an HD media player as an alternative to building an HTPC then look no further.

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This little box that can! Plays just about every file format out there flawlessly. If it doesn't it includes software that converts videos and audio to a format that it can process.Like most WD products it does run quite warm. It can be probably attributed to the small form factor which is great for portability. Unfortunately, the external power source throws a small wrench in the portability factor. And like most electronics out there, the remote leaves much to be desired but for the price, you can't really beat it.Of special note, you can install custom firmwares on it to enable a host of other options such as using wifi adapters on the USB ports.

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My wife got me this for our 5th year wedding anniversary. This product is definately one of the best gadgets I've had in a long time. So far, it has played every video format I've thrown at it, and playback is seamless, no hitching or stepping -if you have "A" quality video, you get beautiful playback. The only 'issues' I've had are: MKV files seem to only output digital audio (the unit has a digital optical cable output) so it won't play the audio through the HDMI port -and while the unit does a decent job of 'remembering' where you left off, you cannot jump to some point in the video (by putting in time index numbers or chapter jumps) -you can fast forward (or reverse) up to x16, but thats pretty much it. Otherwise I have nothing but praise. It reads from all of my thumb drives, as well as a home-made USB drive. Updating the firmware is the easiest I've ever seen. Unzip the downloaded packet, it reads and updates itself. I LOVE this thing.

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Who needs HTPC when you can buy this little box for 99.99$ and play almost any format out there without any problems.It is not perfect , there are few weaknesses .There is no DTS support, there is no network or wireless connection and the remote is too cheap and basic . This review was modfied by poster g 06-17-09 05:28 PM This review was modfied by poster @ 06-17-09 05:31 PM

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This thing plays all the files I throw at it with little issues. The firmware updates help eliminate bugs and they're released pretty quickly. I'm very pleased with this purchase and I recommend this unit to those looking to play their MKV's on the cheap.

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I can play my Aiptek Action-HD GVS HD Camcorder's H.264 video (1440 x 1080) with WDTV.My Canon PoweShot A590IS records movies in M-JPEG and PCM format (avi container). The first time I tried to play Canon's file in WDTV, it sounded aweful. After doing an official V.1.02.07 firmware update, everything works fine.Although it doesn't say divx is supported, I can play divx files (but no subtitles).I hope WDTV will support RMVB format in the future. This review was modfied by poster @ 06-14-09 11:00 AM

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Great price. Excellent video and sound quality when using HDMI amd SP/DIF. Super portable. As easy or easier to use as a DVD player. What more can you ask for? This is definately one of the coolest toys that I have purchased in a long time. Want to take it to your friend's house? No problem. Just plug it into an HDMI port or a composite connector on their tv and plug it into the wall. For the person who asked if speakers could be directly attached to the media player, no, unfortunatley not. But, you can connect it to your home theatre receiver with a composite or preferrably, an SP/DIF optical cable. Otherwise, you would use your TV speakers. The price here including shipping is still far cheaper than Best Buy or Future Shop in Canada. I made ISO's out of all of my BluRay/DVD disks and put them away. No chance of scratching them now. The only con for me is that I cannot seem to get the chapter breaks to work. If someone has gotten around this, please let me know

Comment:
Have been using this unit for a few months now. I've found no issues at all that could not be traced back to a poor quality video file, rhather than the player itself. If you have any issues with out-of-synch voice tracks or jerky video playback, try to find another version of the same file before blaming the unit. Subtitle support for most formats is excellent. Haven't found any problems yet. The only 2 things to get used to are: 1) the slight delay between entering a command on the remote control and the response of the unit. Slightly irritating at first, but easy to adjust too. 2)even with the player turned OFF, the USB drives stay powered and spun up. What's with that??? Solution: Use a WOODS Smart Strip power bar / surge protector with the tv plugged into the control outlet and the power is automatically cut to EVERYTHING (including the drives) when the tv is turned off. Awesome unit.

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I have a question regarding this product can speakers be directly connected to the WDTV HD player? Thanks

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For a low-cost alternative to a HTPC, this thing has inherited the throne of XBMC. It's super small, plays pretty much everything in great quality, and some great strides have been made at getting more out of it via firmware upgrades and hacks.

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I had trouble with the short wire for power and video cable for I have a rear projection tv. But once I installed it I copied my video files to My Passort, plugged it in and enjoyed. Everything I owned worked flawlessly. A great buy.

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I like that the remote uses aaa batteries and is easy to use. Works flawlessly playing mpg files. Can't seem to get wmv files to play reliably. Don't like that it defaults to 2x fast forward instead of having an option to choose default ff speed.

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If you want to watch your videofiles, view your photo albums, or play mp3's over your television/monitor this is the media player to get. It's like having a htpc in your pocket. The only real detriment is a lack of streaming which is included in considerably more expensive media players. You will need a flash drive or external hard drive connected to the wd tv to play content. Highly recommended.

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This box is looked awesome and I heard so much about it that I decided to try it out. I figured if it should be able to play properly encoded 1080p videos, it should be able to play almost anything in SD. Well, I was severely wrong. It didn't play 90% of the videos I had. The playback limitations go by the encoding standards for H264 which almost no one listens to except for the enclosed software or professional video houses. Even simple 350MB 45 minute long AVI files encoded with divx couldn't play most of the time. They'd just jitter constantly.