Western Digital WD TV Live Plus 1080p HD Media Player
by Western Digital
Our Price: $134.99
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Category: Home Theater
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Digital Photo Product Details
Manufacturer: Western DigitalBrand: Western Digital
Edition: Electronics
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Format: CD-ROM
Platform: Windows
Model: WDBABX0000NBK-NESN
Color: Charcoal
Publisher: Western Digital
Studio: Western Digital
Music Label: Western Digital
Product features:
- Full-HD video playback and navigation - up to 1080p
- Stream Netflix and other online media
- Play almost any type of media file
- Access media anywhere on your home network
- Supports DVD Navigation
- AmazonBasics Ultra-High-Speed HDMI Cable Braided (9.8 Feet/3.0 Meters)
- AmazonBasics High-Speed HDMI Cable (9.8 Feet/3.0 Meters) - Supports Ethernet, 3D, and Audio Return [Newest Standard]
- AmazonBasics High-Speed HDMI Cable with Ethernet - Braided (6.5 Feet/2.0 Meters)
- AmazonBasics High-Speed HDMI Cable with Ethernet - Braided (9.8 Feet/3.0 Meters)
- AmazonBasics High-Speed HDMI Cable (6.5 Feet/2.0 Meters) - Supports Ethernet, 3D, and Audio Return [Newest Standard]
Digital Cameras Photo Reviews of Western Digital WD TV Live Plus 1080p HD Media Player
Customer Review: all that, and a bag of chips!
Summary: 2 Stars
I bought this to replace an older HD Media Player. This is the 3rd HD Media Player I've owned (4th if you consider the DIY PC based HD Media Player I started with 10 years ago). I've grown out of my previous HD Media Players as features get added and content becomes available.
I could probably write volumes about the great features this product has. I'll leave that to the marketing people at WDC. Let me just say that it's not likely you'll find a better HD Media Player (today).
Cons: Yes... there are some things I'd like to see changed. 1) The buttons on the remote are a bit stiff. 2) I'd like a Gig-Ethernet port (instead of 10/100). 3) I'd like to hear sound while doing 1.5x and 2x playback. 4) I'd like FF and REV playback to go to 32x, maybe 64x.
For me... this thing just worked. Right out of the box, without any configuration. So far, it's played everything I've thrown at it.
Update (12/20/2010):
I've had a few more days to play with this. I'd like to add information about my experiences since my initial review.
Most (all but one) of my DVD movies are in ISO format as these are easier to manage. I discovered that the WD TV Live Plus was unable to play one of my most recently purchased DVD Movies in ISO format. When I exploded the ISO into DVD Folder format, the WD TV Live Plus was able to play the movie (sort of). My DVD Movies and other media content are stored on a NAS connected to a Gigabit Ethernet network and shared to all my media receiving devices. When I attempted to play the DVD Folder from the NAS, the video was un-watchable, and the audio cut out, or was altogether absent. I copied the DVD Folder to a USB Flash Drive, inserted the drive into the WD TV LIve Plus and was able to watch and listen to the movie without any noticeable problems. I contacted customer support, but have not heard back. I have since found that other users have the same experience when they updated to the latest firmware. I will post an update later if/when this issue is resolved.
I record HDTV OTA programs via MyHD card in a PC and store them on a NAS. When I play those video files using the WD TV Live Plus, the CC or Subtitles aren't detected. If I copy the video files to a USB Flash Drive and play them directly from my HDTV or BlueRay player, I am able to select CC or other Subtitles. I have contacted customer support. I will post an update if/when this issue is resolved.
I like to skip commercial. My DIY Media player could skip ahead/behind a configurable amount of time. My 2nd and 3rd media players allowed smooth FF playback up to 32x. The WD TV Live Plus only allows FF playback of 2x, 4x, 8x, and 16x -- only 2x and 4x FF playback are smooth. 8x and 16x are unwatchable. With my other media players, 1.5x and 2x FF playback still played the audio (though at a higher pitch). The WD TV Live Plus mutes the audio during FF playback. I have contacted customer support. I will post an update if/when this issue is resolved.
So as to avoid problems with older SMB clients or servers, I have MyHD configured to store HDTV OTA programs in 2GB chunks. A 1hour program uses 4 of the 2GB chuncks. When I play the program using the WD Win TV Plus, the video player returns to the Video Browser screen at the end of each video file rather than playing the next file in the folder. All of my previous Media Players play the next video file. My DIY Media player didn't even pause (much). I've contacted customer support. They responded quickly with instructions for configuration changes. Those changes didn't result in continuous play. I will post an update if/when there is further updates from customer support. ...OMG! I just got another message from Customer Support. They've escalated my problem to Engineering.
Update (12/21/2010):
I was taken completely by surprise this morning at 8:00. Someone from WD customer support called me to answer my questions. I was so stunned, that I didn't even remember what my questions/issues were. But... impressively, she had my support requests in front of her and we talked about them at some length.
CC/Subtitles: It turns out that while Closed Caption and Subtitles provide similar function in some situations, they're not necessarily the same thing and they're not as universal as I thought they are. Closed Caption (CC) is mandated by USA and is decoded by the TV. My recorded programs have DTVCC streams. These aren't supported by WD. I found a really cool tool (ccextractor) that takes my Transport Stream (.tp) files and creates a subtitle (.srt) file in the same folder with the same name but differnet extensions. In fact, if my Transport Stream file has multiple DTVCC streams (for various languages, etc), it will create separate subtitle files for each. And... the WD TV Live Plus automatically finds all of the associated subtitle files for each of my Transport Stream files.
Continuous Play: It turns out I should have read the documentation closer, or paid more attention when I was reading. While navigating to a series of files to play, I used the "Navigation" buttons. In the middle of the navigation buttons is an "Enter" button. You can play a movie using either the Enter button, or the Play button. If you use the Enter button, it plays only the file selected. If you use the Play button, it will treat the folder as a play list and play all of the files in the folder starting at the highlighted file. After speaking with the customer support person, I re-read the manual. Sure enough, right there in black and white, that's what it says.
Skip: I got a message back from Customer support saying that they appreciate my request. They pointed me to a forum page that lists RFE's (Requests for Enhancements). The forum also give people the ability to vote for their favourite RFE. Thus, WD has input from it's users which new features are important. I can see from the forum that many other users want the variable skip feature as well, and it's currently marked as "Pending." I can also see that many of the things I like about the WD TV Live Plus are features people have requested using their forum. This is a great way to respond to and get feedback from your customers. Kudos to WD for this.
Update (12/22/2010):
I've downgraded my rating on this product to 3 stars. I was very pleased with the product at first, but now that I've had to use it on a day-to-day basis, I'm finding it's quirks a bit annoying.
FF/REV: I commented above about 8x and 16x FF not being smooth. I still think they should be. It shouldn't be something I have to submit as a enhancement request and then have a community vote on. But... I'll let that go. But REV playback is completely useless! It's fairly normal for me to want to jump back a few seconds in a show to catch what someone has said, or something. I've discovered that if I press the REV button, not only is playback (at 2x) not smooth, but sometimes the WD jumps back to the beginning of the video file. I have 2 other media players, they're able to play REV at 1x and play 2x and 4x REV smoothly. What's more... if you want to jump back just a few seconds... 9 of 10 attempts, you'll resume playback 2 to 3 seconds forward instead. The only way I've gotten it to work is to let play continue for 5 seconds, then press REV and hope that it jumps back only 10 - 15 seconds, and press play. But as I said... sometimes this results in starting from the beginning of the video.
Ethernet: I have 4 NAS boxes. 2 of which I paid less than $20 for just the enclosure. All of them have Gig-Ethernet. Can't WD spend a few extra bucks and upgrade the NIC to 1000bps?
Correction (12/23/2010):
I was wrong about the digital audio comment I made in my last update... and therefore I've removed it. If you previously read my review and read the comment pertaining to digital audio, you should disregard the information you read.
Update (4/14/2011):
I have all but stopped using the WD to play media. I have upgraded the firmware a number of times (with each new revision). The issues I've experienced and reported above have either not been corrected... (they remain the same), or they've gotten significantly worse. Since I'm using Gig-Ethernet, and my other 5 media players are able to play smoothly, I can only assume that the problem is the WD player. While I was very exited at first... I have become very disappointed.
I discovered that if the player is somewhere over 50% of playback of an HD file, and I press FF or REV, it almost always skips to the next file, or to the beginning of the current file. This is unacceptable. I now have 5 other media players. None of them have any problem with these HD files so it's not likely there's an encoding error in the file...
There are a number of files that I've played that have significant audio/video sync issues when played on the WD. The same file on the other media players has no such issue. In one case, the audio was delayed 10-15 seconds. There have also been a few files that have a severe clicking during playback. Again, none of the other players had any problem with those files.
Update (4/15/2011):
I'm not a big Netflix fan. I had Netflix for several months a few years ago. I discovered that I was wasting my money because I'd let a DVD sit on my desk for weeks before I'd watch it. In some cases, I'd actually return a DVD without watching it... so I cancelled my subscription. This was about the same time that they started offering Video Streaming over the net. But... the video quality was rather poor and the selection of video's was even poorer. So it wasn't a compelling reason to keep my subscription.
Anyway.... Fast forward to April of 2011: I watched a few video's streamed over the net using the WD. My son has subscribed to this service for a few weeks using his XBox. In my opinion, the WD does a better job of playing video. With the XBox, it would usually take a few minutes (as many as 10) to start playing. The WD starts almost immediately. On the XBox, it would be an interesting part of the video and suddenly the player would pause and say that it was adjusting picture quality. This would happen 3 or 4... or more times during a 1 hour video. It was very annoying. The WD did not interrupt the video. I can't say how good/bad the video quality was. It's possible the WD chooses the poorest quality of video... and sticks with it. But... for what I was watching, the quality was adequate.
In my opinion... this maybe the only reason I'll keep the WD.
Description of Western Digital WD TV Live Plus 1080p HD Media Player
WDTV LIVE PLUS HD MEDIA PLYR HDMI AV USB 2.0 ETH Play media from your home network and the Internet on your big screen TV. Plus, enjoy access to your Netflix unlimited membership and other premium content. Dont confine your movies, music, and photos to your small computer screen. Experience them as big as life on your TV in Full-HD 1080p with WD TV Live Plus HD media player.Digital Cameras & Photo Categories
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