- Play Full HD 1080p video, music and photos on your HD TV
- Supports widest variety of file formats and devices
- Network capable for easy access to the newest content from PCs, network drives, internet favorites
- Play network and internet content
- Full-Function remote control
Product Features |
Product Information
Technical Details
| Brand Name | Western Digital |
| Item Weight | 10.7 ounces |
| Product Dimensions | 3.9 x 4.9 x 1.6 inches |
| Item model number | WDBAAN0000NBK-NESN |
Additional Information
| ASIN | B002KKFP9Y |
| Shipping Weight | 3 pounds |
| Shipping | This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S. |
| Date First Available | October 13, 2009 |
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Product Description
From the Manufacturer
WD TV Live - Play a world of HD media on your TV.
HD video, photos and music - they're on your computer, on your USB drives, on the Internet, but how do you enjoy them on your TV? Now it's easy! Play a world of Full-HD, 1080p media on your big screen TV with the WD TV Live network-ready HD media player.
Play network and Internet content. Stream content from Internet sites like YouTube, Flickr, Live365 and from your home network. | Full-HD 1080p resolution. Experience spectacular Full-HD video and crystal-clear digital audio. | Enjoy your media instantly. Supports a wide variety of the most popular file formats. No need to spend time transcoding. |
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Full-HD 1080p video playback and navigation - 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.
Play a wide variety of file formats - WD TV Live supports a wide variety of the most popular file formats. No need to spend time transcoding.
Play videos, music and photos from the Internet on your big screen TV - Explore and watch YouTube videos and Flickr pictures on the big screen. Rock out to thousands of radio stations via Live365 and discover new music with Pandora radio.
Access files anywhere on your home network - Play movies, music, and photos from any PC or drive on your home network. The Ethernet port connects this player to your home network through a wired connection or via popular, supported WiFi adapters (sold separately). Ideal for use with WD's My Book World.
Turn your USB drive into an HD media player - Play content from most popular USB drives, and digital cameras, camcorders, and portable media players that can be recognized as mass storage devices. Optimized for My Passport portable hard drives.
Collect without limits - There's no limit to the size of your media collection; just add more USB drives for more space.
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.
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.
Advanced navigation options
- Thumbnail and list views – Browse your content by filename or by thumbnails of photos, album covers and movie cover art.
- Media library – This unique feature lets you view all your media by media type in one menu regardless of its location in folders or drives. You can view your content by categories such as genre, album, artist and date.
- Search – Search by genre, title, artist, filename and partial filename.
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Photo viewing
- Create custom slide shows with a variety of transitions and background music
- Zoom and pan
- Search by filename, partial filename, most recently viewed and date
Movie viewing
- Fast forward, rewind, pause, zoom, and pan
- View subtitles
- Search by filename, partial filename, most recently viewed and date
Music playback
- Fast forward, rewind, pause, shuffle, repeat
- Search by filename, partial filename, most recently viewed and date
File Copy
- Copy files between USB drives
HDMI 1.3, composite video and component video output - The HDMI port lets you connect to the highest quality HD TV 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.
| Online Services Play a world of media on your TV! WD TV Live supports a list of popular online services that delivers Internet content onto your HD TV. YouTube - Broadcast yourself. World's #1 video sharing website. Pandora - Free, personalized Internet radio playing only the music you love. Enter your favorite songs or artists, and enjoy stations created just for you. Rate songs as they play, because Pandora caters to your tastes and adapts stations to your feedback on the spot. Flickr - Share your photos. Watch the world. Live365 - Listen to thousands of commercial-free Internet radio stations! Live365 has broadcasts from Radio Disney, Santana, David Byrne, Pat Metheny, and Paul Oakenfold, as well as stations created by music lovers just like you! Easily browse through popular genres such as rock, hip-hop, jazz, and new age. Or discover treasures in some of the less-traveled styles such as gospel, comedy, anime, Hindi, trip hop, 30s, glam, tribal, Celtic, and 100s more. |
WiFi ready- Supports wireless network connection with optional USB wireless adapter.
Ultra-compact design - Fits easily into your entertainment center.
File formats supported
Video:
AVI (Xvid, AVC, MPEG1/2/4), MPG/MPEG, VOB, MKV (h.264, x.264, AVC, MPEG1/2/4, VC-1), TS/TP/M2T (MPEG1/2/4, AVC, VC-1), MP4/MOV (MPEG4, h.264), M2TS, WMV9
Photo:
JPEG, GIF, TIFF, BMP, PNG
Audio:
MP3, WAV/PCM/LPCM, WMA, AAC, FLAC, MKA, AIF/AIFF, OGG, Dolby Digital, DTS
Playlist:
PLS, M3U, WPL
Subtitle:
SRT, ASS, SSA, SUB, SMI
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System Requirements
- My Passport portable hard drive or other USB storage device with supported video or audio content stored on it.
- Standard or high definition television with HDMI or composite video connections.
- Home network and broadband connectivity for online services.
Compatibility
HDMI, Full HD (1080p), AAC, MP3, JPEG, USB 2.0, H.264, SimplayHD™, Energy Star®, Dolby Digital, DTS, DLNA, Bonjour, AVCHD, Windows Vista®
Note: Compatibility may vary, depending on user's hardware configuration and operating system.
What's in the box
HD Media Player, Compact remote with batteries, Composite AV cable, Component AV cable, AC adapter, Quick Install Guide.
Product Description
The WD TV Live HD Media Player from Western Digital has everything you need to play your HD media collection and the fun stuff you find on the web in brilliant HD 1080p on your big screen HDTV. Because it supports a wide variety of file types, you can instantly enjoy all your home digital media, regardless of the file format. Get direct access to a huge selection of video, photos, and music from popular internet sites like YouTube, Flicker, Live 365, and Pandora (U.S. only) right from the beautifully easy WDTV navigation screen.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
499 of 529 people found the following review helpful
Amazon Verified Purchase
After much anticipation, WDTV Live is finally here! I'll get right to the point, because I know there are a lot of questions from current Western Digital WD TV HD Media Player owners and those sitting on the fence about the capabilities of the Live in comparison to other media players on the market. I also considered the ASUS O!Play ($99) while waiting for the Live's release or the Seagate FreeAgent Theater+HD ($135). The WDTV is a proven quantity and for the Live, I had high expectations.
Cosmetically, not much has changed. Not even the box. The Live is nearly identical to the WDTV except in color, being matte grey instead of shiny piano black. Ease of setup and usage carries over from its forebear, so WDTV users will be right at home with the Live's interface and settings. At the rear, the ports have been slightly rearranged to make room for a LAN port and component out. HDMI is now 1.3 instead of 1.2, capable of a color depth of 12 bits per pixel. Batteries are included in the box, as are component and composite cables, but bring your own HDMI or LAN cable.
Building on the strengths of the original (and successful) WDTV, WD has made an already excellent player even better. They listened to users and addressed two of the biggest complaints of the WDTV, namely: lack of network connectivity and lack of DTS down-mixing.
I am pleased to report that on these two counts, the Live is a winner, packaged inside the same compact form factor as its predecessor and sold at a very reasonable price. The most exciting thing is network connectivity because the Live can be made wireless!
1) Network connectivity: out of the box, the Live connects via CAT-5. I have no interest in connecting USB hard drives to the Live because it limits my mobility. I have 2 NAS (Network Attached Storage) devices (D-Link DNS321 2-Bay SATA, RAID 0/1 Gigabit Ethernet Port Network Storage Enclosure and D-Link 2-Bay Network Storage Enclosure) and have been streaming movies wirelessly to my PlayStation 3, but I don't like the PS3's lack of MKV support and wasteful energy consumption. My PS3 can now go back to being a dedicated game and Blu-ray machine.
I was surprised to discover that my AirLink 101 AWLL6070 150Mbps 802.11n Wireless LAN USB 2.0 Adapter (purchased for a failed WDTV networking hack attempt) worked. I plugged it in, changed the Live's setting to wireless and it saw my wireless network with no fuss. I really have to hand it to WD for making the device open-ended, unlike the NETGEAR Digital Entertainer Live (Black) (which I tested and returned), which requires a proprietary $40 Netgear dongle. Other dongles will work too with the Live, and WD has a forum listing them.
2) DTS down-mixing: this was another shortcoming of the original WDTV. The Live down-mixes DTS to 2.0 so you don't need to slave it to an audio receiver anymore. Many of my MKV's are encoded with DTS, so this is another huge improvement. DTS Master Audio does not seem to be supported, but I am not very concerned as DTS MA is rarely encountered in the wild (though that may change in the future). All my files are MP3, AAC, AC3, or DTS audio streams, which all work on the Live. Many of the tested MKVs have multiple audio streams for different language tracks. You can also mux additional tracks and subtitles into the MKV file with the free and awesome mkvmerge GUI program. Subtitle files can be downloaded from sites like DivxStation.
DTS downmixing means now I can take a portable drive of movies over to a friend's house and not worry about compatibility, greatly increasing the versatility and value of the Live. The inclusion of both component and composite outs removes the worry about older TV's. And like the WDTV, the Live will downsample to standard def for non-HDTV's. However, if you have an HDTV and an AVR, you'll want to use them for maximum enjoyment.
But the most biggest selling point for me is wireless. After discovering WiFi connectivity, I lost all interest in using the Live as a wired device. With just $20 (cost of AirLink), I now have a wireless player that easily out-competes more expensive ones like the Popcorn Hour A-110 HD Networked Media Tank (EU), and can enjoy the freedom and convenience of putting this player anywhere in my house. I don't have messy and dangerous wires all the floor to trip over (I killed a 1 TB hard drive full of movies this way) and I don't need an audio receiver. All the 720p/1080i/p videos I had on my NAS played perfectly with the except of one 1080p .mp4 which had intermittent hiccups every minute or so.
The Live saw each device 2x on the menu, as a media share and a network share. With media share, the files are divided into 3 categories: video, photos, music. Only some of my movies showed up (WMV, MP4, AVI, TS), no MKV's. With network share, all the files are listed. This is the listing option to use if you have a NAS.
3) Additionally, third complaint on the WDTV was lack of support for 1080p24. This format now plays. VOB is now also supported, for those of you who make DVD archives.
USABILITY:
The WDTV had the most attractive and usable interface of any of the 10+ media players I tested over the years, and WD didn't mess with a winning formula. Graphically, the Live retains the blue cool-toned look and easy-to-use navigation of the WDTV. It adds a third listing option, Preview mode. Movies will now start playing in a smaller window on the right if you pause over the title for a second or two (with audio). Every movie I tested plays in preview. The remote control is the same as the WDTV. Navigation long directories is still somewhat of a pain because of no Page Up/Page Down button, but if you hold the up or down button down, it'll scroll by a page at a time after a second or two. Commands are fast and responsive. No spinning dials that plague the Netgear Live Entertainer.
For rewinding, the preview sometimes does not match the time-code. The timer was counting down, but the screen showed video from the opposite direction. If you stop rewinding and resume again, it'll show the proper preview. This is a small nuisance that I hope WD fixes soon in a firmware update.
Subtitle support via embedded or external still works great for Western and non-Western character sets because of Unicode. Embedded subs are pre-tagged with the language code, so the device will display "Subtitle 1/3 - English". For external .srt files, I discovered that if I name them the same as the movie and include a dash, then the language (e.g. "MOVIENAME - ENG.srt"), the WD will display the part after the dash as the language name.
INTERNET STREAMING:
For YouTube, the videos looked really good. The Live will select HD streams if available. I was surprised at the video quality of some of the ones I loaded, particularly one music video. Startup was fast, if not instantaneous, and I did not notice a buffering delay. Currently, YouTube is the only site supported, and searching is only in Western characters. The onscreen keyboard is arranged in row, A-Z, with 0-9 at the bottom. (Plugging in a USB keyboard did nothing.) I'm hoping for Hulu, Vimeo, and more in the future, like a WDTV Live Channels Guide or something like that, organized by interests (sports, history, science, news, etc), or regions of the world. It would be a very useful feature for people like my dad, who doesn't know how to use the web and he'd be able to watch shows from other parts of the world. Maybe in a future firmware update.
I didn't test Pandora or Live365 (internet radio) because I'm not interested in listening to radio/music out of my TV. Noticeably missing is NetFlix support, a feature prominent on some networked media players, Blu-ray players, and gaming platforms (Xbox 360), though word is that WD is at work on an update.
FINAL THOUGHTS:
Next on my wishlist is RMVB support. This is the last thing missing from the long list of supported formats, because then I can throw out the really crappy RMVB player I have. Sadly, it seems to be hardware related and cannot be added with a firmware refresh.
Lastly, if the Live came in new colors like fire engine red like the Western Digital My Passport Essential 320 GB USB 2.0 Portable Hard Drive WDMER3200TN (Real Red), or banana yellow, that'd be hot. I don't particularly care for the Live's matte grey exterior and prefer the glossy finish of the WDTV. It's not solid grey. It's sparkly like glitter, a rather odd choice for a finish.
To sum up, this is the device you've been waiting for! It is a great little player for the price. It now does everything I want it to (minus RMVB playback) and is truly the versatile and unfettered player that I have been hoping for. As a gadgets guy and early adopter, I wasted several hundreds of dollars testing out disappointing players and can say definitely that WD makes one of the best players on the market.
UPDATE 1: 10/24/09:
1. Read more ›
Cosmetically, not much has changed. Not even the box. The Live is nearly identical to the WDTV except in color, being matte grey instead of shiny piano black. Ease of setup and usage carries over from its forebear, so WDTV users will be right at home with the Live's interface and settings. At the rear, the ports have been slightly rearranged to make room for a LAN port and component out. HDMI is now 1.3 instead of 1.2, capable of a color depth of 12 bits per pixel. Batteries are included in the box, as are component and composite cables, but bring your own HDMI or LAN cable.
Building on the strengths of the original (and successful) WDTV, WD has made an already excellent player even better. They listened to users and addressed two of the biggest complaints of the WDTV, namely: lack of network connectivity and lack of DTS down-mixing.
I am pleased to report that on these two counts, the Live is a winner, packaged inside the same compact form factor as its predecessor and sold at a very reasonable price. The most exciting thing is network connectivity because the Live can be made wireless!
1) Network connectivity: out of the box, the Live connects via CAT-5. I have no interest in connecting USB hard drives to the Live because it limits my mobility. I have 2 NAS (Network Attached Storage) devices (D-Link DNS321 2-Bay SATA, RAID 0/1 Gigabit Ethernet Port Network Storage Enclosure and D-Link 2-Bay Network Storage Enclosure) and have been streaming movies wirelessly to my PlayStation 3, but I don't like the PS3's lack of MKV support and wasteful energy consumption. My PS3 can now go back to being a dedicated game and Blu-ray machine.
I was surprised to discover that my AirLink 101 AWLL6070 150Mbps 802.11n Wireless LAN USB 2.0 Adapter (purchased for a failed WDTV networking hack attempt) worked. I plugged it in, changed the Live's setting to wireless and it saw my wireless network with no fuss. I really have to hand it to WD for making the device open-ended, unlike the NETGEAR Digital Entertainer Live (Black) (which I tested and returned), which requires a proprietary $40 Netgear dongle. Other dongles will work too with the Live, and WD has a forum listing them.
2) DTS down-mixing: this was another shortcoming of the original WDTV. The Live down-mixes DTS to 2.0 so you don't need to slave it to an audio receiver anymore. Many of my MKV's are encoded with DTS, so this is another huge improvement. DTS Master Audio does not seem to be supported, but I am not very concerned as DTS MA is rarely encountered in the wild (though that may change in the future). All my files are MP3, AAC, AC3, or DTS audio streams, which all work on the Live. Many of the tested MKVs have multiple audio streams for different language tracks. You can also mux additional tracks and subtitles into the MKV file with the free and awesome mkvmerge GUI program. Subtitle files can be downloaded from sites like DivxStation.
DTS downmixing means now I can take a portable drive of movies over to a friend's house and not worry about compatibility, greatly increasing the versatility and value of the Live. The inclusion of both component and composite outs removes the worry about older TV's. And like the WDTV, the Live will downsample to standard def for non-HDTV's. However, if you have an HDTV and an AVR, you'll want to use them for maximum enjoyment.
But the most biggest selling point for me is wireless. After discovering WiFi connectivity, I lost all interest in using the Live as a wired device. With just $20 (cost of AirLink), I now have a wireless player that easily out-competes more expensive ones like the Popcorn Hour A-110 HD Networked Media Tank (EU), and can enjoy the freedom and convenience of putting this player anywhere in my house. I don't have messy and dangerous wires all the floor to trip over (I killed a 1 TB hard drive full of movies this way) and I don't need an audio receiver. All the 720p/1080i/p videos I had on my NAS played perfectly with the except of one 1080p .mp4 which had intermittent hiccups every minute or so.
The Live saw each device 2x on the menu, as a media share and a network share. With media share, the files are divided into 3 categories: video, photos, music. Only some of my movies showed up (WMV, MP4, AVI, TS), no MKV's. With network share, all the files are listed. This is the listing option to use if you have a NAS.
3) Additionally, third complaint on the WDTV was lack of support for 1080p24. This format now plays. VOB is now also supported, for those of you who make DVD archives.
USABILITY:
The WDTV had the most attractive and usable interface of any of the 10+ media players I tested over the years, and WD didn't mess with a winning formula. Graphically, the Live retains the blue cool-toned look and easy-to-use navigation of the WDTV. It adds a third listing option, Preview mode. Movies will now start playing in a smaller window on the right if you pause over the title for a second or two (with audio). Every movie I tested plays in preview. The remote control is the same as the WDTV. Navigation long directories is still somewhat of a pain because of no Page Up/Page Down button, but if you hold the up or down button down, it'll scroll by a page at a time after a second or two. Commands are fast and responsive. No spinning dials that plague the Netgear Live Entertainer.
For rewinding, the preview sometimes does not match the time-code. The timer was counting down, but the screen showed video from the opposite direction. If you stop rewinding and resume again, it'll show the proper preview. This is a small nuisance that I hope WD fixes soon in a firmware update.
Subtitle support via embedded or external still works great for Western and non-Western character sets because of Unicode. Embedded subs are pre-tagged with the language code, so the device will display "Subtitle 1/3 - English". For external .srt files, I discovered that if I name them the same as the movie and include a dash, then the language (e.g. "MOVIENAME - ENG.srt"), the WD will display the part after the dash as the language name.
INTERNET STREAMING:
For YouTube, the videos looked really good. The Live will select HD streams if available. I was surprised at the video quality of some of the ones I loaded, particularly one music video. Startup was fast, if not instantaneous, and I did not notice a buffering delay. Currently, YouTube is the only site supported, and searching is only in Western characters. The onscreen keyboard is arranged in row, A-Z, with 0-9 at the bottom. (Plugging in a USB keyboard did nothing.) I'm hoping for Hulu, Vimeo, and more in the future, like a WDTV Live Channels Guide or something like that, organized by interests (sports, history, science, news, etc), or regions of the world. It would be a very useful feature for people like my dad, who doesn't know how to use the web and he'd be able to watch shows from other parts of the world. Maybe in a future firmware update.
I didn't test Pandora or Live365 (internet radio) because I'm not interested in listening to radio/music out of my TV. Noticeably missing is NetFlix support, a feature prominent on some networked media players, Blu-ray players, and gaming platforms (Xbox 360), though word is that WD is at work on an update.
FINAL THOUGHTS:
Next on my wishlist is RMVB support. This is the last thing missing from the long list of supported formats, because then I can throw out the really crappy RMVB player I have. Sadly, it seems to be hardware related and cannot be added with a firmware refresh.
Lastly, if the Live came in new colors like fire engine red like the Western Digital My Passport Essential 320 GB USB 2.0 Portable Hard Drive WDMER3200TN (Real Red), or banana yellow, that'd be hot. I don't particularly care for the Live's matte grey exterior and prefer the glossy finish of the WDTV. It's not solid grey. It's sparkly like glitter, a rather odd choice for a finish.
To sum up, this is the device you've been waiting for! It is a great little player for the price. It now does everything I want it to (minus RMVB playback) and is truly the versatile and unfettered player that I have been hoping for. As a gadgets guy and early adopter, I wasted several hundreds of dollars testing out disappointing players and can say definitely that WD makes one of the best players on the market.
UPDATE 1: 10/24/09:
1. Read more ›
61 of 61 people found the following review helpful
I bought this player to stream 720p and 1080p MKV files over my network from WHS SMB shares to an HD television. I did not try Youtube or the other internet features.
The unit had some trouble properly detecting my displays, even with the most recent firmware. I first tried it with a Dell 2408 WFP 1900x1200 display using a DVI to HDMI cable. The player defaulted to a low and pixelated resolution, and I was unable to force it to use anything higher. I then tried component inputs, with success setting to 1080i. While very good, there was still apparent text aliasing, and the analog nature of the input locked out a number of advanced display options. It's possible an HDMI/HDMI cable would have fared better, but I didn't have one to test at this location.
The second display was a Sony E50A10 720p projection television from 2006. No picture was visible when I connected the WDTV with an HDMI/HDMI cable. Neither composite nor component worked properly either, showing a rolling menu in gray tones. Resetting the unit didn't help. After consulting the manual, I used the extremely poor composite picture to manually select the right HDMI mode. I then switched to HDMI to confirm the choice, and the unit worked properly from there. Component also worked via manual selection at this point; image quality is identical to HDMI on my 720p screen.
Once operational, I plugged a Belkin 802.11g USB network adapter from WD's recommended list into the unit. It detected and became a choice in the network screen almost immediately. That screen is well-designed, and it was simple to input the proper password and settings for my WPA2 network. For the remainder of testing, I never lost the network connection.
I tried AVI and MKV files in the following sizes:
700 MB AVI - perfect and immediate play
1.4 GB AVI - perfect and immediate play
4.7 GB MKV - perfect play until high-motion scenes, then stuttering
8.3 GB MKV - same result in less time
11.0 GB MKV - same result in less time
14.0 GB MKV - almost immediate stuttering
The problem was the 802.11g adapter. Even connected at 54 Mbps with maximum signal strength, it isn't capable of playing a file larger than perhaps 3.5 GB without stuttering. I was confused by this at first because the 4.7 GB files had an average bitrate of only 7 Mbps or so; it turns out variable encoding makes for spikes of up to 20 Mbps. That's apparently too much for 802.11g, because my laptop with an Intel adapter connecting to the same WRT54GL router fared even worse.
The WDTV buffers very little, so you're at the mercy of any device sharing the 2.4 GHz band that 802.11g and most 802.11n networks use. Microwaves, baby monitors, cordless phones, nearby networks, and activity on your own network can all cause temporary dropouts. I'd look hard at 5 GHz 802.11n hardware, ethernet-over-coax, or powerline networking if a direct cable run isn't possible.
The natural followup was to try a wired network. Since I had no interest in the internet features and my router wasn't nearby, I ran a cable directly from my file server to the WDTV. A crossover cable was not required; ordinary CAT-5/e/6 will do. I then set the server network adapter's TCP/IP settings to:
IP: 10.0.0.1
Subnet: 255.0.0.0
All other settings blank. And the WDTV, I set to:
IP: 10.0.0.2
Subnet: 255.0.0.0
All other settings blank.
Though the internet check failed (no DNS server; of course it would), I could immediately access the server's shares just as before. While the WDTV has only a 10/100 Mb adapter, it was more than sufficient to perfectly stream all of the files above. I saw a maximum of 45 Mbps on my network monitor with the 14 GB file. A more aggressively-compressed 7GB animated feature peaked at 55 Mbps. Because a wired network can operate at full line speed, the probability of hitching is minimal with almost any 1080p content, Blu-ray or otherwise.
Wireless is drastically more variable. Even if there isn't a surly neighbor on your channel or three floors and two hundred feet separating the client and access point, most 802.11g hardware won't manage more than 20 Mbps. 802.11n will sustain 15-25 Mbps with cheap hardware, the 2.4 GHz band, and no channel bonding. Good hardware and channel bonding will get you to 50 Mbps with 2.4 GHz. 5 GHz and a close client can push that to 70 Mbps, but rarely more and occasionally less than 2.4 GHz (2.4 penetrates walls better than 5). In all circumstances, regardless of the connected speed reported by adapter driver (e.g., "300.0 Mbps"), a 100 Mbps wired connection will be superior. Boiled down: an 802.11g connection will get you through many DVD-sized films. 802.11n configured properly will work for almost all recompressed films, but not Blu-ray. And a 100 Mbps wire will handle anything.
Picture quality on the WDTV is excellent, perhaps even better than my BD player. Playback is aided by basic zoom controls, but the zoom function apparently occurs later in the processing chain than the downsampling of the source to fit the screen. So, if you're playing wide 1080p content on a 720p screen, zooming in to fill the black bars will upsample the 720p image instead of adding back resolution from the 1080p source. Fast-forward and rewind are very responsive over a wired connection and only slightly less so with wireless.
I've encountered two persistent negatives. The first is an inability to set favorite places; I have to drill down to my movie folder from the top menu every time I boot the unit. The second negative is share discovery. While my WDTV has no trouble sustaining a connection or playing a film, it's a crapshoot whether it'll find my network drive. Detection works for perhaps 4 in 5 tries. The release notes for firmware version 1.02.21 (3/30/10) suggest this latter issue may have been fixed, though I haven't had a chance to find out. Since the "just works" vibe is a major draw of the WDTV, I'm reluctant to recommend it to the non-tech-savvy crowd until I'm certain it will work consistently. WD's commitment to improving the product is nonetheless admirable.
=== Technical notes ===
File sizes are described in bytes, big B. Transfer rates, in bits per second, small b. There are 8 bits to each byte. To transfer a 5 GB file from point to point at 100 Mbps, for example, it would take 400 seconds.
5 GB = 5000 MB
100 Mbps = (100 / 8) MBps = 12.5 MBps
5000 MB / 12.5 MBps = 400 seconds
To derive my file size estimates in the earlier text, I calculated as follows:
Maximum sustained real-world bandwidth:
802.11g: 20 Mbps
802.11n: 20 - 85 Mbps
100 BASE-T: 95 Mbps
Peak bitrate: 3X the average bitrate for a given file
Average bitrate: file size / file length
Average file length: 90 minutes (5400 seconds)
e.g.
20 Mbps * 5400 seconds = 108,000 Mb
108,000 Mb / 8 = 13,500 MB
13,500 MB / 3 = 4500 MB = 4.5 GB
We would expect 802.11g to just barely handle 4.5 GB files, though as I discovered, that turned out to be optimistic. There's a fudge factor here because the peak bitrate multiplier depends on the aggressiveness of the H.264 encoder. I've seen a range of 2X to 6X, so it's possible that a smaller movie could stutter while a larger one plays without issue. 3X remains a fair approximation for most files. Some routers support channel-bonding and frame-burst algorithms that may improve bandwidth and playback results.
You can also calculate the bandwidth required to play a particular file.
e.g.
10 GB file
5400 seconds in length
10000 MB / 5400s = 1.85 MBps
1.85 MBps * 8 = 14.8 Mbps
14.8 MBps * 3 = 45 Mbps
For this 10 GB, 90 minute film, we can expect it to stutter over 802.11g, but play smoothly over a decent 802.11n network.
The unit had some trouble properly detecting my displays, even with the most recent firmware. I first tried it with a Dell 2408 WFP 1900x1200 display using a DVI to HDMI cable. The player defaulted to a low and pixelated resolution, and I was unable to force it to use anything higher. I then tried component inputs, with success setting to 1080i. While very good, there was still apparent text aliasing, and the analog nature of the input locked out a number of advanced display options. It's possible an HDMI/HDMI cable would have fared better, but I didn't have one to test at this location.
The second display was a Sony E50A10 720p projection television from 2006. No picture was visible when I connected the WDTV with an HDMI/HDMI cable. Neither composite nor component worked properly either, showing a rolling menu in gray tones. Resetting the unit didn't help. After consulting the manual, I used the extremely poor composite picture to manually select the right HDMI mode. I then switched to HDMI to confirm the choice, and the unit worked properly from there. Component also worked via manual selection at this point; image quality is identical to HDMI on my 720p screen.
Once operational, I plugged a Belkin 802.11g USB network adapter from WD's recommended list into the unit. It detected and became a choice in the network screen almost immediately. That screen is well-designed, and it was simple to input the proper password and settings for my WPA2 network. For the remainder of testing, I never lost the network connection.
I tried AVI and MKV files in the following sizes:
700 MB AVI - perfect and immediate play
1.4 GB AVI - perfect and immediate play
4.7 GB MKV - perfect play until high-motion scenes, then stuttering
8.3 GB MKV - same result in less time
11.0 GB MKV - same result in less time
14.0 GB MKV - almost immediate stuttering
The problem was the 802.11g adapter. Even connected at 54 Mbps with maximum signal strength, it isn't capable of playing a file larger than perhaps 3.5 GB without stuttering. I was confused by this at first because the 4.7 GB files had an average bitrate of only 7 Mbps or so; it turns out variable encoding makes for spikes of up to 20 Mbps. That's apparently too much for 802.11g, because my laptop with an Intel adapter connecting to the same WRT54GL router fared even worse.
The WDTV buffers very little, so you're at the mercy of any device sharing the 2.4 GHz band that 802.11g and most 802.11n networks use. Microwaves, baby monitors, cordless phones, nearby networks, and activity on your own network can all cause temporary dropouts. I'd look hard at 5 GHz 802.11n hardware, ethernet-over-coax, or powerline networking if a direct cable run isn't possible.
The natural followup was to try a wired network. Since I had no interest in the internet features and my router wasn't nearby, I ran a cable directly from my file server to the WDTV. A crossover cable was not required; ordinary CAT-5/e/6 will do. I then set the server network adapter's TCP/IP settings to:
IP: 10.0.0.1
Subnet: 255.0.0.0
All other settings blank. And the WDTV, I set to:
IP: 10.0.0.2
Subnet: 255.0.0.0
All other settings blank.
Though the internet check failed (no DNS server; of course it would), I could immediately access the server's shares just as before. While the WDTV has only a 10/100 Mb adapter, it was more than sufficient to perfectly stream all of the files above. I saw a maximum of 45 Mbps on my network monitor with the 14 GB file. A more aggressively-compressed 7GB animated feature peaked at 55 Mbps. Because a wired network can operate at full line speed, the probability of hitching is minimal with almost any 1080p content, Blu-ray or otherwise.
Wireless is drastically more variable. Even if there isn't a surly neighbor on your channel or three floors and two hundred feet separating the client and access point, most 802.11g hardware won't manage more than 20 Mbps. 802.11n will sustain 15-25 Mbps with cheap hardware, the 2.4 GHz band, and no channel bonding. Good hardware and channel bonding will get you to 50 Mbps with 2.4 GHz. 5 GHz and a close client can push that to 70 Mbps, but rarely more and occasionally less than 2.4 GHz (2.4 penetrates walls better than 5). In all circumstances, regardless of the connected speed reported by adapter driver (e.g., "300.0 Mbps"), a 100 Mbps wired connection will be superior. Boiled down: an 802.11g connection will get you through many DVD-sized films. 802.11n configured properly will work for almost all recompressed films, but not Blu-ray. And a 100 Mbps wire will handle anything.
Picture quality on the WDTV is excellent, perhaps even better than my BD player. Playback is aided by basic zoom controls, but the zoom function apparently occurs later in the processing chain than the downsampling of the source to fit the screen. So, if you're playing wide 1080p content on a 720p screen, zooming in to fill the black bars will upsample the 720p image instead of adding back resolution from the 1080p source. Fast-forward and rewind are very responsive over a wired connection and only slightly less so with wireless.
I've encountered two persistent negatives. The first is an inability to set favorite places; I have to drill down to my movie folder from the top menu every time I boot the unit. The second negative is share discovery. While my WDTV has no trouble sustaining a connection or playing a film, it's a crapshoot whether it'll find my network drive. Detection works for perhaps 4 in 5 tries. The release notes for firmware version 1.02.21 (3/30/10) suggest this latter issue may have been fixed, though I haven't had a chance to find out. Since the "just works" vibe is a major draw of the WDTV, I'm reluctant to recommend it to the non-tech-savvy crowd until I'm certain it will work consistently. WD's commitment to improving the product is nonetheless admirable.
=== Technical notes ===
File sizes are described in bytes, big B. Transfer rates, in bits per second, small b. There are 8 bits to each byte. To transfer a 5 GB file from point to point at 100 Mbps, for example, it would take 400 seconds.
5 GB = 5000 MB
100 Mbps = (100 / 8) MBps = 12.5 MBps
5000 MB / 12.5 MBps = 400 seconds
To derive my file size estimates in the earlier text, I calculated as follows:
Maximum sustained real-world bandwidth:
802.11g: 20 Mbps
802.11n: 20 - 85 Mbps
100 BASE-T: 95 Mbps
Peak bitrate: 3X the average bitrate for a given file
Average bitrate: file size / file length
Average file length: 90 minutes (5400 seconds)
e.g.
20 Mbps * 5400 seconds = 108,000 Mb
108,000 Mb / 8 = 13,500 MB
13,500 MB / 3 = 4500 MB = 4.5 GB
We would expect 802.11g to just barely handle 4.5 GB files, though as I discovered, that turned out to be optimistic. There's a fudge factor here because the peak bitrate multiplier depends on the aggressiveness of the H.264 encoder. I've seen a range of 2X to 6X, so it's possible that a smaller movie could stutter while a larger one plays without issue. 3X remains a fair approximation for most files. Some routers support channel-bonding and frame-burst algorithms that may improve bandwidth and playback results.
You can also calculate the bandwidth required to play a particular file.
e.g.
10 GB file
5400 seconds in length
10000 MB / 5400s = 1.85 MBps
1.85 MBps * 8 = 14.8 Mbps
14.8 MBps * 3 = 45 Mbps
For this 10 GB, 90 minute film, we can expect it to stutter over 802.11g, but play smoothly over a decent 802.11n network.
97 of 103 people found the following review helpful
Amazon Verified Purchase
There are already some very well-written informative reviews on this player, so I'll try to focus on the "out of the box experience" since mine is literally just out of the box today. Because my order on Amazon for this product was backordered for a month or more, I called all the local Best Buys until I found a WD TV Live that was not showing up on their "store availability" page and purchased it for $119 plus tax (oh how I missed Amazon when the tax was added on at my local store!). The price on Amazon has gone all over the place the last few days, from $119 to $149. I'm assuming we'll see it at $99 after the initial release period is over since several media players are now priced at that point.
I went home, unpacked the box and in my haste I didn't even see the installation CD that came with the unit. (I just ran it now so I could tell you about it - it includes a utility which allows your computer to "see" the WD TV, as well as the manual and some other fluff).
I plugged the WDTV into an ethernet jack on my router, used the supplied cables to attach to my TV, plugged in the power cable and literally minutes later I was watching videos stored on my computer! The WD TV immediately logged onto our computer network and saw both of our computers (Windows XP), and I was able to watch media stored on both. Wow. Very easy. Then I navigated to Pandora, punched in my account information, and 30 seconds later was listening to my Pandora music stations. Next stop was YouTube (another menu option), I plugged in my YouTube name and password, and was able to see my YouTube subscriptions.
I then went into the settings menu and clicked on "update firmware" just to make sure I had the latest firmware installed. After about 5 seconds of the unit checking with Western Digital, it confirmed my firmware is up to date. Again, very easy. I was also able to register the unit from the onscreen display, and received a confirmation email. I found the onscreen menus very logically laid out and easy to use.
Watching movies stored on my computer and accessing YouTube/Pandora was great - but I wanted to see if I could access Hulu. So, I navigated to the "media server" menu and it saw my Tversity software program running on one computer. I clicked on that and minutes later I was watching "Glee" (a program on ABC). The only issue I ran into was that fast forward would sometimes cause the program to freeze and I would need to re-start. Given that this media player is brand new and basically in what feels like a beta release, sold out just about everywhere, I'm assuming that a firmware upgrade in the coming weeks will fix that bug as well as any others I come across. I tried a few other programs and was only able to replicate the issue intermittently. However, pause caused no problems. And, I don't expect Western Digital to support Tversity, which may be the root of the problem (vs the WD player) so I'm not taking off marks for that one issue. I'm just happy I can watch a variety of shows streamed from Tversity on the WD TV. (A google search on Tversity will take you to the download site for that wonderful free to try program).
My previous media server, the D-Link DSM-320 D-Link DSM-320 Wireless Media Player, Audio/Photo/Video, 802.11g, is not nearly as nice... I spent hours and hours and hours (days) configuring it and getting it to "see" my home network. I also found the user menus to be very cumbersome with navigation almost an afterthought. In contrast, the WD TV is a dream come true and definitely feels like the "next generation" of media servers.
I've tried a number of video and music formats, and they've all played with no problem (except for the fast forward issue above). I watched a slide show of pictures stored on one of my computers. All of this without reading a single manual or going to a single internet help forum. Literally, plug and play.
So, overall, I'd say this is a strong unit, and I'm very happy with it. Since I am reviewing the unit much sooner than I normally would, I do commit to the Amazon community that if I experience issues with the WD TV I'll return to update this review. But based on my experience with other media servers and other hardware setups, I think this is a winner. Highly recommended.
Hope this helps!
UPDATE 11/12/2009: Almost a month later and I'm 1000% happy with this player... no issues. Works great... fast..great interface... I'm going to give one or two of these as holiday presents this year. I've replaced my DVR on my second TV and no longer pay the cable company $14 per month for a DVR... this little gizmo is going to pay for itself!
LAST UPDATE 12/5/2009: I was experiencing video freezing with Hulu using the Tversity software on my computer... I switched to Playon and am really glad I did! Flawless performance on Hulu streaming and TONS of content (i.e. you can watch tons of old TV shows like Dynasty and Mary Tyler Moore). Still very happy with this unit. I do agree with other reviewers - it would be nice if remote had a volume control, and some of the navigation screens are a bit "clunky" but overall very happy.
I went home, unpacked the box and in my haste I didn't even see the installation CD that came with the unit. (I just ran it now so I could tell you about it - it includes a utility which allows your computer to "see" the WD TV, as well as the manual and some other fluff).
I plugged the WDTV into an ethernet jack on my router, used the supplied cables to attach to my TV, plugged in the power cable and literally minutes later I was watching videos stored on my computer! The WD TV immediately logged onto our computer network and saw both of our computers (Windows XP), and I was able to watch media stored on both. Wow. Very easy. Then I navigated to Pandora, punched in my account information, and 30 seconds later was listening to my Pandora music stations. Next stop was YouTube (another menu option), I plugged in my YouTube name and password, and was able to see my YouTube subscriptions.
I then went into the settings menu and clicked on "update firmware" just to make sure I had the latest firmware installed. After about 5 seconds of the unit checking with Western Digital, it confirmed my firmware is up to date. Again, very easy. I was also able to register the unit from the onscreen display, and received a confirmation email. I found the onscreen menus very logically laid out and easy to use.
Watching movies stored on my computer and accessing YouTube/Pandora was great - but I wanted to see if I could access Hulu. So, I navigated to the "media server" menu and it saw my Tversity software program running on one computer. I clicked on that and minutes later I was watching "Glee" (a program on ABC). The only issue I ran into was that fast forward would sometimes cause the program to freeze and I would need to re-start. Given that this media player is brand new and basically in what feels like a beta release, sold out just about everywhere, I'm assuming that a firmware upgrade in the coming weeks will fix that bug as well as any others I come across. I tried a few other programs and was only able to replicate the issue intermittently. However, pause caused no problems. And, I don't expect Western Digital to support Tversity, which may be the root of the problem (vs the WD player) so I'm not taking off marks for that one issue. I'm just happy I can watch a variety of shows streamed from Tversity on the WD TV. (A google search on Tversity will take you to the download site for that wonderful free to try program).
My previous media server, the D-Link DSM-320 D-Link DSM-320 Wireless Media Player, Audio/Photo/Video, 802.11g, is not nearly as nice... I spent hours and hours and hours (days) configuring it and getting it to "see" my home network. I also found the user menus to be very cumbersome with navigation almost an afterthought. In contrast, the WD TV is a dream come true and definitely feels like the "next generation" of media servers.
I've tried a number of video and music formats, and they've all played with no problem (except for the fast forward issue above). I watched a slide show of pictures stored on one of my computers. All of this without reading a single manual or going to a single internet help forum. Literally, plug and play.
So, overall, I'd say this is a strong unit, and I'm very happy with it. Since I am reviewing the unit much sooner than I normally would, I do commit to the Amazon community that if I experience issues with the WD TV I'll return to update this review. But based on my experience with other media servers and other hardware setups, I think this is a winner. Highly recommended.
Hope this helps!
UPDATE 11/12/2009: Almost a month later and I'm 1000% happy with this player... no issues. Works great... fast..great interface... I'm going to give one or two of these as holiday presents this year. I've replaced my DVR on my second TV and no longer pay the cable company $14 per month for a DVR... this little gizmo is going to pay for itself!
LAST UPDATE 12/5/2009: I was experiencing video freezing with Hulu using the Tversity software on my computer... I switched to Playon and am really glad I did! Flawless performance on Hulu streaming and TONS of content (i.e. you can watch tons of old TV shows like Dynasty and Mary Tyler Moore). Still very happy with this unit. I do agree with other reviewers - it would be nice if remote had a volume control, and some of the navigation screens are a bit "clunky" but overall very happy.
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