WD TV Live Plus 1080p HD Media Player

by 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

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Product Description

From the Manufacturer

WD TV Live Plus - Stream movies and Internet video to your HDTV.

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. Don't 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.

Enjoy your media on your TV in Full-HD.
Experience your movies, music, and photos in spectacular 1080p Full-HD video and crystal-clear digital audio.

Access Internet favorites and stream movies.
Access Internet sites like Facebook, YouTube, and Deezer. Instantly stream movies and TV shows with Hulu Plus, Netflix, CinemaNow, and Blockbuster On Demand.

Play a wide variety of file formats.
Play your movies, music, and photos from your home network, USB drives, and other devices. This media player supports the most popular file formats.

Features at a glance Network-ready media player with Full-HD 1080p video playback and navigation Stream movies from Hulu Plus, Netflix, Blockbuster On Demand, and CinemaNow Play media from your home network, USB drives, and Internet Works with the most popular video, photo, and audio file formats 1-year limited warranty

Full-HD video playback and navigation - up to 1080p - This is the real thing; Full-HD 1080p playback. Sit back and enjoy the spectacular picture quality of brilliant high definition video and the crystal clear sound of digital audio. Use the included remote control to make your entertainment choices using our crisp, animated navigation menus.

Enjoy popular movies, classics, and TV episodes instantly - Don’t wait for the mailman to deliver your movies and don’t settle for streaming to your small computer screen. Choose from over 10,000 titles from Hulu Plus, CinemaNow and Blockbuster On Demand, or access your Netflix unlimited membership and watch TV episodes and movies on your big screen.*
*Hulu Plus subsription (US only), CinemaNow account (US only), Blockbuster online membership (US only), or Netflix unlimited membership required (US and Canada only).

Play videos, music and photos from the Internet on your big screen TV - Play YouTube videos, access Facebook, see your photos on Flickr, play music on Pandora, and watch daily video podcasts from CNN, NBC, MTV, ESPN, and other online content.

Play almost any type of media - WD TV Live Plus HD media player supports a wide variety of the most popular file formats. No need to spend time transcoding.

Access media anywhere on your home network - The Ethernet port lets you connect this media player to your home network through a wired connection or an optional wireless connection.

WiFi ready - Supports wireless network connection to your home network with an optional USB wireless adapter. Or, get the speed you need to stream HD with a WD Livewire powerline AV network kit—it extends your Internet to any room in your home using your electrical outlets.

Supports DVD Navigation- View all the content included on your DVDs, including complete menu navigation, chapter listings, special features, and subtitles.

Turn your USB drive into an HD media player - Play content from most popular USB drives, and portable media players that can be recognized as mass storage devices. Optimized for My Passport portable hard drives.

Play media seamlessly from multiple USB drives - Two USB ports on the player let you connect multiple USB storage devices and access them simultaneously. Our media library feature collects the content on all the drives into one list sorted by media type.

Control your media from your computer - This media player is Windows 7 compatible, so you can use the “Play To” feature to easily stream your Windows 7 computer’s files to your TV through your WD TV Live Plus HD media player.

Transfer files easily - Copy, move, or delete files stored on a USB drive, a network drive, your camcorder, or a camera to the attached USB drive using the on-screen menus.

Show photos and movies directly from your digital camera or video camera - Works with digital cameras, digital video cameras, in fact, any digital imaging device that supports Picture Transfer Protocol.

HDMI 1.3, composite video and component video output - The HDMI port lets you connect to the highest quality HDTV or home theater. Additional composite (RCA), and component outputs ensure compatibility with virtually all television sets.

SPDIF digital output- The optical audio output sends digital signals to your AV receiver for the best surround sound experience.

Ultra-compact design - Fits easily into your entertainment center.

This product features Adobe® Flash® technology. For further information, visit http://www.adobe.com/software/flash/about

Ideal for

• Full-HD video playback and navigation
• Watching movies and TV shows from Hulu Plus, CinemaNow, Blockbuster On Demand, or Netflix
• Playing media stored on computers and USB drives connected to your home network
• Accessing popular Internet sites such as Facebook and YouTube
• Playing virtually any media file without transcoding

What's in the box
HD Media Player, compact remote with batteries, composite AV cable, component AV cable, AC adapter, Quick Install Guide.

Requirements
Standard or high definition television with HDMI or composite video connections, home network and broadband connectivity for online services.

Media Players Comparison Chart WD TV Live Plus WD TV Live Hub Stream movies and Internet media to your HDTV. Store and play personal and Internet media on your HDTV.   Resolution Full-HD 1080p Full-HD 1080p   Built-in 1TB WD network hard drive     Built-in media server to stream to multiple rooms     Instantly streams Netflix and other premium content (US and Canada only)   Downloads movies and TV shows from Hulu Plus, CinemaNow, and Blockbuster On Demand (US only)   Online content Facebook, YouTube, Flickr, Pandora, SHOUTcast, Flingo, Live365, Deezer, Mediafly, Accuweather Facebook, YouTube, Flickr, Pandora, SHOUTcast, Flingo, Live365, Deezer, Mediafly, Accuweather   Connects to your home network   Windows 7 Play To Support   Supports DVD navigation   Supports most popular file formats   Plays content from a USB drive   Plays content from a network drive   DTS support   Access two drives simultaneously (drive aggregation) with 2 USB ports   HDMI connection 1.3 1.4   Composite video connection   Component video connection

Product Description

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.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

353 of 381 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Now I'm Happy with WD Live Plus July 20, 2010

By R. Fuller

Amazon Verified Purchase

I purchased the WD Live Plus HD Media Player to watch movies from my Windows Home server. I got tired of all the DVD's and no where to store them so I built a WHS from an old computer and ordered the WD Live plus. I ran a CAT5 cable to my LCD, hooked up the WD Live Plus and it automatically connected to my WHS. I was up and running in as little as 5 minutes streaming a video on the big screen. The 1st movie played flawlessly until I started to watch the 2nd movie. Towards the middle of the movie, WD Live started to freeze up. At first I thought it was my server so I rebooted the WHS and was back up and running again. Started to watch the movie and froze again. Now I'm getting very upset. Now I powered off/on the WD Live Plus and same issue. Some movies played with no issues and some movies just locked up. Now I'm getting upset with this media Player. I checked WD's website and could not find any solution to the device freezing so I ordered the "Asus O! Player" unit to replace my piece of crap WD live Plus. I was already to mail it back and connect the Asus O! Player but something told me to check the WD support website one more time before I mail back WD Live Plus HD Media Player.

I found this on their site:

"When playing a movie over a Network location on a WD TV Live HD Media Player, the video may slow down

Problem:
When playing a high bitrate movie from a Network location (computer or NAS), after a period of time, the video may slow down and jitter.
Cause:
Samba (the method the WD TV Live uses to read a network location) cannot play back high bitrate movies.
Solution:
If this problem is encountered there are two solutions:
1. Try playing the content from the Media Server selection on the WD TV Live HD Media Player. This may require installation of a Media Server on your computer. Windows Media Player 11 has a built in Media Server. There are other alternatives such as TwonkyMedia, and TVersity which may also work for these videos.
2. Copy the high bitrate content to a USB drive, attach the USB drive to the WD TV Live HD Media Player and play the content from the local drive".

I said Hmmm, "playing a high bitrate movie from a Network location", well this was my problem. I went to TVersity and they explained how the software transcodes any video depending on your network speed and devices for proper streaming settings. So I installed the software on my WHS. During the installation it prompted to install the additional AC3 codec. So I installed it on my server. After installation completed, I configured TVersity to use my Video folder on the WHS and behold video was streaming to my LCD with no issues. Actually I believe the video quality is slighter better now than it was before.

So I'll take that back about calling the WD player crap. Now I can say I'm very happy with WD Live Plus and will give it a 4 star rating now. TVersity is excellent software for streaming videos and will help any media player handle video streaming. Oh did it mention that it's free! So go ahead and purchase the WD Live Plus HD Media Player and install TVersity on either your WHS or desktop/laptop and the 2 together they'll make a perfect couple.

Enjoy.

236 of 267 people found the following review helpful

2.0 out of 5 stars Stick with the Non-Plus version - Buggy! August 3, 2010

By Scott Beauchemin

Before I get started, let me give you some background. I've owned 2 WD Live (non-plus) models for about a year. I upgraded the 2 non-plus models to (2 of them, so you can't blame faulty hardware) plus models, which was a big mistake. The reason I did this was that the WD Live is a great product and I wanted to add Netflix support.

So let me start with the positives
*It plays practically everything
*The interface is simple and straight forward
*Support for Youtube, Pandora, Netflix
*Streams 1080p with no issue
*Really easy to setup

Now for the negatives
*The firmware is buggy. There hasn't been a single firmware released since the product has been out either.
*If your networked drive is asleep, the Plus will hang at connecting 95% of the time (non-plus wouldn't do that). You have to do something else on the device before trying again or turn it off and on again to try to connect again - It's like it caches the info
*Takes like 30 seconds to turn on (non-plus takes like 2)
*Menu navigation is slower compared to the non-plus
*It won't remember the place you stopped in a movie/show if you turn off the device (non-plus didn't have this issue)
*Netflix - you can't 'search' for a movie. You can only pick from the selection that is presented. If you want add other movies, you have to do that from you computer.
*If you drop connection while connecting to Netflix, then the device will not try the connection again after you fix network issue. You have to shut off the box and turn it back on
*You can't customize what network devices to show on the menu. It shows all devices on your network (same issue with non-plus)

So I would suggest skipping the buggy Plus version getting the WD Live Non-Plus, because that is a great unit, and do netflix via your tv, wii, ps3 or 360.

UPDATE After 6 months: Western Digital has issued updates to this device, but broke other things and made things worse. If you have bought this device, I would suggest a custom firmware from b-rad. This fixes most of the complaints I listed above.

207 of 234 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A Real Review from a Real Owner June 14, 2010

By O. Prusak

I just got the WD TV Live Plus and I have to say that I've finally found the perfect media streamer (for now).

I've had the WD TV Live (not plus version) for about 5 months and it's served me well, streaming up just about every type of movie file that I've ever encountered. When I purchased the non-plus version, the only two features that I really wanted that it was missing was NetFlix support and full DVD menu support.

Yes, I am a bummered that my existing non-plus version can't support NetFlix, but I very well knew that what I purchased it.

Please Note: Most of the non-plus version marketing material says that it doesn't support full DVD menu navigation, but WD just came out with a firmware update that DOES add DVD menu support - Kuddos to WD for listening to their customers and giving them what they want.

Regarding the NetFlix support, the PLUS version has a different chip inside of it that is required for NetFlix support (something about copy protection). The non-plus version does not have the required chip in order to support NetFlix so if you read some rants about WD trying to !@#$% their customers, it's probably non-plus owners who feel cheated that they have to buy a new product to get NetFlix support.

I understand their frustration, but the truth of the matter is that there is nothing WD can do in order to get the non-plus to support NetFlix.

On the other hand, they *have* just added DVD menu support to the non-plus version, so anyone who says that they stop supporting the older products doesn't know what they're talking about.

To the point of the review, the NetFlix supports both queue playing (when you already have stuff added to your play now queue) AND browsing.

This is my first NetFlix player (other than my PC) so I can't really compare it to other NetFlix players. I know the Xbox also supports browsing, but I think that most other stand alone players do not support browsing.

The activation process was surprisingly easy (I just went to the NetFlix site and entered a code the Plus gave me).

Regarding HD content, I'm not 100% sure if the Plus supports this, but last night I was viewing some 30 rock episodes and it looked *really* good, better than viewing a DVD.

When starting to view a NetFlix video, it took about 15-20 seconds from when I clicked on play to when the video started playing. I don't know if this is good or bad. No streaming issues once it started playing. My device is connected directly to my router.

I also played around with the new MediaFly feature. Never heard of it before. Basically it aggregates some audio and video podcasts by topic. I saw some CNN and NPR content which is cool.

Overall I'd say this is the best media streamer ->currently<- on the market.

I emphasize currently as I REALLY wanted to get a POPBOX, which sounds like a better option (at least on paper), but it still isn't out and I got tired of waiting for it to be released.

Lastly, I know I didn't cover other aspects of the PLUS, but other than NetFlix support (and I think MediaFly support) the plus and non-plus devices are identical so go read some non-plus reviews for more info :)

[UPDATE June 21]
A few people correctly mentioned that the DVD menu support for the non plus version isn't officially out yet since it's still in beta.
You can see the entire thread of people who have download the beta version and successfully played DVDs with menus on the non-plus version here:
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