Western Digital has introduced the WD TV and it is I believe the very first and only product from WD that does not contain any internal storage of any kind. WD TV is a little black box that will allow you to easily bring your pictures, music and videos to your home entertainment system, and allow you to play that digital content in high definition (1080p).
“As leaders in external storage, we have become the trusted brand for storing and backing up large media collections for consumers around the world” said Jim Welsh, senior vice president and general manager for WD’s Branded Products and Consumer Electronics Groups. “Our best-selling My Passport portable drives help customers carry their media library with them anywhere but until now, there has been no easy, affordable way to access and play all that content in the living rooms. The WD TV HD Media Player effectively unlocks all that content from the storage device and lets people enjoy it on their biggest screen and best sound system.”
The first thing to notice about the WD TV is it’s size. A lot of similar devices such as Apple TV and the HP MediaSmart connect are more than double the size of the WD TV. The WD TV also has a nice stylish look to it that wll match pretty much any entertainment system.
It literally takes less than a minute to set up the WD TV.Simply plug the WD TV into electrical outlet and then the 1 HD cable to the TV (HD Cable not included with WD TV) then connect the WD My Passport to the WD TV and that was it. You do not need a WD hard drive you can use any hard drive that can connect via USB port.
The WD TV is the only device like this that supports 1080p HD content, other devices only support 1080i.
Something that is must to mention is the UI for the WD TV, the UI is probably one of the coolest looking user interfaces and it is the best for any media device like this. Much better than the UI on the HP MediaSmart connect and somewhat better than Apple TV’s UI.
Everything is easy to find and navigation is breeze, especially with the included remote that has just the buttons you need, no more no less. I have reviewed similar products whose remotes have tons of buttons but you never use half of them.
It can’t find files on network or browse the web. you have to connect an external hard drive or USB flash drive to it.
According to research firm IDC, nearly 334 million GB of photos and more than 3.1 billion GB of video will be stored on consumer desktop and laptop computers in 2008. The research firm expects that to increase to 400 million GB and 5.8 billion GB, respectively, by 2010.
These large personal digital libraries are all but trapped on users’ computers. In order to play their content on their TV, consumers have struggled with clumsy solutions such as copying onto multiple CDs and DVDs or connecting their PCs to their TV via wires or complicated home networking solutions. The WD TV HD Media Player enables consumers to easily and elegantly access their high-definition content on the biggest screen in the home.
Users leave the WD TV HD Media Player connected to their TVs and simply plug in up to two My Passport USB drives or other USB mass storage devices loaded with HD media. Using the included remote control, they can navigate and play their content with the media player’s high-definition on-screen menu. With My Passport drives now available in 500 GB capacities, users can build large collections on multiple drives, all playable by WD TV.
Because of it’s small size and it’s light weight, it pretty much can be taken anywhere. Use it to show off your family pictures at your next family reunion, or if you are a business travler, number your slides 1 – 10 and display a slide show. There are so many things that you can do with the WD TV that if you already have an Apple TV or MediaSmart connect device it would still be well worth getting one of these just for your travels.
The WD TV is available starting November 3rd 2008, and you should be able to find it at ShowWD.com and retailers across the US. The WD TV Media Player has a MSRP of USD 129.99
Features of the WD TV HD Media Player include:
- Designed for WD’s My Passport portable drives, it also plays content from WD My Book® family of drives and most popular USB drives, digital cameras, camcorders, and portable media players that can be recognized as mass storage devices.
- Full HD video playback and navigation – up to 1080p – to experience the spectacular picture quality of HD video and crystal clear sound clarity of digital audio.
- Remote control to navigate through entertainment choices using the crisp, animated HD menus.
- Dock and play convenience: just plug in a My Passport drive or other USB storage device with HD content to play it on a TV or home entertainment system.
- Collect without limits by adding more USB drives for more accessible content.
- Advanced navigation options such as thumbnail and list views; WD’s Media Library™ feature lets users view all media by media type in one menu regardless of its location in folders or drives; ability to search by genre, title, artist, filename and partial filename.
- Photo viewing features to create custom slides shows; ability zoom and pan; search photos by filename, partial filename, most recently viewed and date.
- Movie viewing with ability to fast forward, rewind, pause, zoom, and pan, view subtitles and search by filename, partial filename, most recently viewed and date.
- Music playback with fast forward, rewind, pause, shuffle, repeat and search by filename, partial filename, most recently viewed and date.
- Two USB ports on the player connects up to two USB mass storage devices and access them simultaneously while the Media Library feature aggregates the content on both drives into one list sorted by media type.
- High-Definition Multimedia Interface (HDMI®) port connects to the highest quality HDTV or home theater; additional composite (RCA) outputs ensure compatibility with virtually all television sets.
- Free ArcSoft MediaConverter™ 2.5 software to easily convert photo, video, and music files into formats optimized for use on the WD TV HD Media Player.
- Ultra-compact design that fits easily into a home entertainment center.
- 1-year limited warranty.