Western Digital, WD TV Mini Media Player

by Western Digital

Product Details

• Product Dimensions: 3.6 x 3.6 x 0.8 inches ; 1 pounds
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Shipping: Currently, item can be shipped only within the U.S.
• ASIN: B002KG0JMG
• Item model number: WDBAAL0000NBK-NESN
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (44 customer reviews)
• Date first available at Amazon.com: August 17, 2009

Product Description

From the Manufacturer

From the Manufacturer Turn your USB drive into a media player. An easy, affordable way to supersize your digital media on your big screen TV. Simply connect the player to your TV, plug a USB drive into the player and you're ready to enjoy all your digital media in DVD quality playback, including RealVideo.

Plug and play to instantly enjoy a wide variety of media on your TV in DVD quality, including RealVideo.

Browse through your media with crisp on-screen menus.

WD TV Mini Media Player Highlights

Turn your USB drive into a media player
Play DVD-quality content from your USB drive. Optimized for My Passport portable hard drives. Also works with most other USB drives, digital cameras, and camcorders.

Supports an extensive list of file formats
Plays back a wide variety of DVD-quality file formats without the need to transcode, including RealVideo.

Simple, intuitive user interface
Use the included remote control to navigate smoothly through your entertainment choices using the DVD-like navigation. Supports video chapters, trick modes, and subtitles.

Collect without limits
There's no limit to the size of your media collection; just add more USB drives for more space.

Automatic play
Set the player to play a selected media file automatically when the unit is turned on. Perfect for living art on your HD TV or for digital signage.

Small and portable
Small enough to take with you. Play video at home, at a friend's house or while you're travelling.

Advanced navigation

Thumbnail, list and video previews – Browse your content by file name or by thumbnails of photos, album covers and movie cover art. Preview videos while you browse your content.

Media Library – View all your media by media type in one menu regardless of its location in folders.

Search – Search by filename.

Photo viewing

--Create custom slide shows with a variety of transitions and background music
--Media library –View all your media by media type in one menu regardless of its location in folders
--Zoom and pan
--Search by filename

Music playback

--Fast forward, rewind, pause, shuffle, repeat
--Search by filename

Composite video connection - Composite (RCA) outputs ensure compatibility with virtually all television sets.

Component video connection - Component (Y Pb Pr) output delivers high definition resolution to your HDTV.

Optical Audio - Optical audio output high fidelity audio or pass-through digital audio signal to your AV receiver for surround sound experience.

File Formats Supported
Video - AVI (Xvid, MPEG1/2/4), MPG/MPEG, VOB, MP4/MOV (MPEG4), RM or RMVB 8/9/10
Photo - JPEG, GIF, TIFF, BMP, PNG
Audio - MP3, WAV/PCM/LPCM, WMA, AAC, FLAC, MKA, OGG, APE
Subtitle - SRT, SSA, SUB, SMI

Note:
- RMVB supports up to 1024x576x24, 1024x576x30, or 800x600x30 compressed video resolution
- MPEG1/2/4 supports up to D1 resolution (720x480 in NTSC, 720x576 in PAL)
- MPEG2 ML/MP conforming to ISO-13818
- MPEG1 ML/MP conforming to ISO-11172
- An audio receiver is required for multi-channel surround sound via the digital optical output

Formats not supported -- Does not support protected premium content such as movies or music from the iTunes® Store, Cinema Now, Movielink®, Amazon Unbox™, and Vongo®

External drive formats supported -- FAT32, NTFS, HFS+

Languages supported -- User Interface: English, French, Italian, German, Spanish, Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, Korean, Japanese, Russian, Portuguese

Subtitle: English, French, Italian, German, Spanish, Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, Korean, Japanese, Thai, Greek, Russian (KOI8-R & Windows 1251), Portuguese, Central European, Turkish, Vietnamese, Bahasa, Hindu

System Requirements: My Passport portable hard drive or other USB storage device with supported video, photo, or audio content stored on it. Television with composite or component video connection.

Package Contents: Media Player, compact remote with batteries, composite AV cable, component AV cable, AC adapter, Quick Install Guide

Product Description
WD TV Mini media player is an easy, affordable way to watch digital media on your big screen TV. Simply plug in WD's My Passport portable hard drive, or similar USB drive, and play movies, music, and photos in a wide variety of file formats, including Real Media (RMVB) format. There's no limit to the size of your media collection; just add more drives for more movies. Supports DVD-quality video playback. Also works with most popular USB drives, digital cameras, and camcorders.

Product Description

WD TV Mini media player is an easy, affordable way to watch digital media on your big screen TV. Simply plug in WD’s My Passport portable hard drive, or similar USB drive, and play movies, music, and photos in a wide variety of file formats, including Real Media (RMVB) format. There’s no limit to the size of your media collection; just add more drives for more movies. Supports DVD-quality video playback. Also works with most popular USB drives, digital cameras, and camcorders.

Plug and play to instantly enjoy a wide variety of media on your TV in DVD quality, including RealVideo.

Browse through your media with crisp on-screen menus.

WD TV Mini Media Player Highlights

Turn your USB drive into a media player
Play DVD-quality content from your USB drive. Optimized for My Passport portable hard drives. Also works with most other USB drives, digital cameras, and camcorders.

Supports an extensive list of file formats
Plays back a wide variety of DVD-quality file formats without the need to transcode, including RealVideo.

Simple, intuitive user interface
Use the included remote control to navigate smoothly through your entertainment choices using the DVD-like navigation. Supports video chapters, trick modes, and subtitles.

Collect without limits
There's no limit to the size of your media collection; just add more USB drives for more space.

Automatic play
Set the player to play a selected media file automatically when the unit is turned on. Perfect for living art on your HD TV or for digital signage.

Small and portable
Small enough to take with you. Play video at home, at a friend's house or while you're travelling.

Advanced navigation

Thumbnail, list and video previews – Browse your content by file name or by thumbnails of photos, album covers and movie cover art. Preview videos while you browse your content.

Media Library – View all your media by media type in one menu regardless of its location in folders.

Search – Search by filename.

Photo viewing

--Create custom slide shows with a variety of transitions and background music
--Media library –View all your media by media type in one menu regardless of its location in folders
--Zoom and pan
--Search by filename

Music playback

--Fast forward, rewind, pause, shuffle, repeat
--Search by filename

Composite video connection - Composite (RCA) outputs ensure compatibility with virtually all television sets.

Component video connection - Component (Y Pb Pr) output delivers high definition resolution to your HDTV.

Optical Audio - Optical audio output high fidelity audio or pass-through digital audio signal to your AV receiver for surround sound experience.

File Formats Supported
Video - AVI (Xvid, MPEG1/2/4), MPG/MPEG, VOB, MP4/MOV (MPEG4), RM or RMVB 8/9/10
Photo - JPEG, GIF, TIFF, BMP, PNG
Audio - MP3, WAV/PCM/LPCM, WMA, AAC, FLAC, MKA, OGG, APE
Subtitle - SRT, SSA, SUB, SMI

Note:
- RMVB supports up to 1024x576x24, 1024x576x30, or 800x600x30 compressed video resolution
- MPEG1/2/4 supports up to D1 resolution (720x480 in NTSC, 720x576 in PAL)
- MPEG2 ML/MP conforming to ISO-13818
- MPEG1 ML/MP conforming to ISO-11172
- An audio receiver is required for multi-channel surround sound via the digital optical output

Formats not supported -- Does not support protected premium content such as movies or music from the iTunes® Store, Cinema Now, Movielink®, Amazon Unbox™, and Vongo®

External drive formats supported -- FAT32, NTFS, HFS+

Languages supported -- User Interface: English, French, Italian, German, Spanish, Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, Korean, Japanese, Russian, Portuguese

Subtitle: English, French, Italian, German, Spanish, Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, Korean, Japanese, Thai, Greek, Russian (KOI8-R & Windows 1251), Portuguese, Central European, Turkish, Vietnamese, Bahasa, Hindu

System Requirements: My Passport portable hard drive or other USB storage device with supported video, photo, or audio content stored on it. Television with composite or component video connection.

Package Contents: Media Player, compact remote with batteries, composite AV cable, component AV cable, AC adapter, Quick Install Guide

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

36 of 38 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Small and attractive but limited capabilites compared to WDTV, September 5, 2009

By 

buru buru piggu (New York, NY USA) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Western Digital, WD TV Mini Media Player (Personal Computers)

Pros:

+ very small and minimalist design, akin to the Apple TV. It's square and flat. Measures 3.6 x 3.6 x 0.8 tall.

+ plays RMVB @ 1024x576x24, 1024x576x30, or 800x600x30

+ $20 cheaper than WDTV

+ great support for various music formats, including the lesser known FLAC (free loss-less audio codec), OGG, and APE

+ retains the look and feel of the WD TV interface (mostly)

Cons:

- no HDMI output

- no MKV support

- 1 USB port

The $20 price difference does not make this an attractive buy when compared to its fully-featured big brother, the popular Western Digital WD TV HD Media Player. The only reason you might buy this instead of the much better WDTV is for RMVB support, but the trade-off simply does not add up.

A "wide variety of file formats" is a subjective term here. WD added RMVB support, but took away MKV, one of the player's biggest selling points. RMVB is only useful if you intend to watch a lot of internet-downloaded shows from mainland China/Hong Kong, as the low CPU requirements for this format makes it a popular choice for encoders there. For hi-def encodes, MKV is the format of choice.

For audio, the only new format is APE, which is very rare and unlikely to be of use to the vast majority of users. You also lose AIFF support with the Mini, but that is unimportant.

It's advertised by WD as being "small enough to take with you", but the WDTV was already compact enough to transport. The Mini flew in under the radar, just like the WD TV originally did, but it's a puzzling new addition to the product line considering the existence of the superior WD TV and the anticipated release of the WDTV's successor.

WDTV owners have been clamoring for network support for a long time, and I'm surprised WD went and devoted resources to making this new, under-powered (and un-asked for) product instead of putting all their efforts into bringing the WDTV 2 to market earlier (officially called the WD TV Live Network-ready HD Media Player).

If you need a player right now and don't need RM/RMVB support, I recommend the WDTV instead of saving the $20 here. If you can wait 2 months for the release of the WDTV 2, then wait. It will have network support (wired) and DTS-downmix (so you don't need a separate audio receiver), 2 very big and important additions requested by users. If WDTV 2 retains RMVB, it will be the best of both worlds.

UPDATE: 10/30/2009. The WDTV Live is out now. It's networked and WiFi enabled (via third party USB dongle). If you need RMVB playback and networking, you may wish to consider the excellent (if homely) ASUS O!Play - TV HD Media Player (Black)

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good media player for SD contents, October 17, 2009

By 

GG - See all my reviews

This review is from: Western Digital, WD TV Mini Media Player (Personal Computers)

Pros:

-Easy to use for people just want to play and enjoy contents. It is pretty much as easy to use as your TV. This is designed for general consumers than the techies.

-Play SD movies and RMVB materials really well. It will play the dvd menu and the entire movie if you select the VIDEO_TS folder. No need to manually play each VOB file and no need to create iso file either. I have not encountered any issues playing movies or RMVB files since I received this player two months ago. Subtitles and language tracks all played properly. This is also the only WD player that will play RMVB.

-Good video quality. When connected to my 40" LCD TV, video quality from 1080i output seems to be very good for both movie and RMVB materials. I do not see perceivable differences between the mini and my oppo dvd player in daily viewing. Quality from composite output is fine for what you would expect of such signal.

-Energy efficient. Consumes 5 watts when powering an external usb drive. 4 watts if a flash drive is used. It also cuts power to the attached player-powered usb drive when off. This player does not get hot even while powering a usb drive.

Cons:

-Video cables come with the player are short. You have to position the player close to TV and that limits the placement flexibility. These cables are proprietary design so you can not easily swap them out with regualr cables.

-No support for 1080p output. No hdmi so you have to run video and audio cables separately to your tv/receives.

This player has served me well for what I seeks. With the current going price this may be a good choice for people looking to enjoy their SD collections now and wait for better HD players and contents couple years down the road.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The way to go!, February 6, 2010

By 

Aldenys Acosta - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Western Digital, WD TV Mini Media Player (Personal Computers)

Simply put: This is the best and simplest media player ever!!!

I just transfer any movie, video clip, music, etc., to my usb drive and plug that into the media player.

I have not been this happy about a purchase in a while.