Over the years, I’ve tried quite a few devices that allow you to watch and listen to your digital media through your television set. Some of these devices have included WiFi, some included hard drives, some required that you stream the content from a computer to the player and some required that you convert the content to a format that the player could handle. For one reason or another, I stopped using all of those devices except for the AppleTV. I really like the AppleTV’s user interface, but have never really liked the fact that I have to convert the files and then ‘send’ them from my desktop computer to the AppleTV in the living room. I’m all about simplicity, and while the AppleTV comes close, it doesn’t quite get there. I think I’ve found a device that does get there tho. It’s the WD TV HD Media Player from Western Digital.
The WD TV doesn’t include YouTube or allow you to rent movies, but it does play the video, audio and image content that you already have, and does so in a really user friendly way.
Hardware Specifications
File Formats Supported:
Music – MP3, WMA, OGG, WAV/PCM/LPCM, AAC, FLAC, Dolby Digital, AIF/AIFF, MKA
Playlist – PLS, M3U, WPL
Photo – JPEG, GIF, TIF/TIFF, BMP, PNG
Video -MPEG1/2/4, WMV9, AVI (MPEG4, Xvid, AVC), H.264, MKV, MOV (MPEG4, H.264)
MPEG2/4, H.264, and WMV9 supports up to 1920x1080p 24fps, 1920x1080i 30fps, 1280x720p 60fps resolution
Subtitle -SRT (UTF-8)
USB 2.0 ports: 2
External Drive Formats Supported: FAT32, NTFS, HFS+ (no journaling)
Video Interface: HDMI, Composite A/V
Physical Dimensions: 1.57 x 3.94 x 4.94 Inches
Weight: 0.67 Pounds
Package Contents
WD TV Player
Remote Control
2 AA Batteries
AC Adapter
Composite A/V cable
Passport USB Drive stand
Instructions
The WD TV unit is small, allowing it to fit into even the most cramped areas of your entertainment center.
It’s made of shiny Black plastic and lacks buttons, dials and switches.
On the Left side, you will find a USB port and a reset switch.
On the back side, you’ll find an AC power connector, another USB port, an HDMI connector, TOSlink Optical audio port, and composite A/V connectors.
A small remote control with real buttons is also included along with the batteries to power it.
The WD TV doesn’t include its own hard drive like some players (AppleTV, MVIX). Instead, it has two USB ports in which you can plug in thumb drives or even WD’s own USB Passport drive.
There’s a little stand included specifically for the Passport drive, so that you can set it next to the player.
I tested the WD TV with my 32GB Kingston flash drive and a WD Passport drive. The cool thing is that you don’t have to specify which USB drive you want to view content from. The software in the WD TV reads both drives and creates one list of all the content.
Setting up the WD TV with your TV is a snap. A composite A/V cable is included in the package, that you can use to connect to your TV. While this works fine, you can get MUCH better video quality by using an HDMI cable (if your TV has that capability). The only bad thing is that you’ll have to go out and buy your own HDMI cable. Tip: Don’t go to Walmart, Target, Best Buy or other local stores to buy an HDMI cable. They will charge you $25-$30 for one, which is robbery when you can buy the same thing from NewEgg for less than $10.
After you connect the WD TV to your television and power it on with the remote, you’ll be presented with a simple user interface. You can scroll up and down to choose the main function (Photos, Video, Music, Settings) and then side to side to pick options for that specific mode.
In Photo mode, you can view images on the attached USB devices by thumbnails or a list of file names.
You can click on an image to see it in full screen. You can also rotate, pan and zoom. You can view the images in slide show mode and even have music playing in the background.
In Music mode, you can easily play your tunes. Even the album art will display on the screen while music is playing. You can choose music based on Artist, Genre and Album.
Photo and music modes are nice additions, but my main use for a device like this is to easily view my video content on my TV. I have to say that I think the WD TV does this easier than any device I’ve tried so far. Save your videos on a USB device, plug it into the WD TV, scroll through the list of files, press play on the remote and away you go. The best part for me is that no time consuming file conversions are needed. This is something I had to do all the time with the AppleTV in order to play video that I’d downloaded from the internets. I much prefer downloading the file, copying it to a USB stick, plugging the stick in the WD TV, sitting down and watching it. Easy!
Video quality using HDMI is great to my eyes. Of course it will really depend on the video itself. If you have low resolution video, it won’t look the best on a large TV.
The WD TV impressed me after I had downloaded an AVI video that wouldn’t play on my MSI Wind and wouldn’t play on my iMac using VLC, without VLC having to reindex it. I thought for sure it wouldn’t play on the WD TV either, but I was wrong. It worked just fine. The only video file that would not play for me was a really old .WMV file that I had created using Movie Maker on a Windows PC. The WD TV comes with some software that you can use to convert files if necessary. I didn’t try it, but I bet it would have fixed that file for me.
One nice feature is that you can resume playing a video if you stop it and want to go start it again later. The player will automatically remember where you left off.
While watching video, you can rewind and fast forward at four speeds (2x, 4x, 8x, 16x). I wish there was a feature to skip ahead so many minutes or to go to the end of a video. Just nit picking here though…
I really like the WD TV HD Media Player from Western Digital. Its small size and ease of use has me sold. It’s definitely going to stay in my entertainment center until something better comes along.
Product Information
| Price: | 129.99 |
| Manufacturer: | Western Digital |
| Pros: |
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| Cons: |
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The latest firmware has resolved the earlier issue of the audio/video sync problem with VC-1 files which has made my day. Also the toggle function for subtitles is a very welcome touch as I was fed up of having to switch the subtitles off each and every time I started a film. Spindown for the drives is useful but I wish they could do something about the drives powering down when the Wd is switched off as I’m sure that being left plugged in for any length of time can not do them any good at all. Thumbnail support seems to be more fluid since this update appearing quickly as you scroll through screens.
The firmware appears to be very stable and I think most people should be happy to install it as more file formats are now supported. Especially useful for people trying to play video files from cameras etc as this was supposed to be addressed in a big way in this release…. I’m sure the main release won’t be far away either.
Julie,
Is there a way to plug this unit in to a router or plug a usb wireless NIC on it?
Thanks,
Thanks Jeff for the info on the new firmware update. Unfortunately the new update didn’t solve the problem. My Panasonic TZ5 says the video files are .mov but I did a search on codecs for this video file and it says it is a M-JPEG type video file with a codec id of jpeg. My next question is does anybody know of a media conversion program that would convert this to another HD type file that would play on the WD TV. A free shareware program would be nice but would be willing to put out a few bucks if the program worked.
Thanks again for all your help
Hi Gari.
I’m really suprised you are having problems with that. I also had issues playing video captured with my Canon ixus30 and Canon 860is early on but all that has been solved with the various firmware updates.
When I was still having problems someone on this site put me onto a great free program called “any video converter”. I think it works really well and you get a large selection of video and audio formats to choose from including staying with “original” for either video or audio.
The other interesting thing I found was that it was the audio that was causing my problems not the video format. So to fix things in the end I kept the video as “original” and changed the audio to mp3. After that all videos from each camera played fine. But as I said, now I dont have to do that as new firmware updates have solved any problems I had.
Have you installed 1.02.07? As Andy said it seems very stable and has fixed some other issues. Give it a try if you havent already.
Good luck and let us know how you go. I share your frustration, I was there about 2 months ago when I first bought the WD HD Media Player.
Gari, this probably wont help you but may help explain. I took this from another forum….
“Just got the WD media player. A nice player unit. However, I am surprised to find it can’t play my .mov video shot with my Panasonic LX3. As I kow, a bunch of other brand cameras (Nikon and others) use mjpeg .mov format for their video too. Any chance WD will include this popular format in the supported video format in its firmware update? Thanks.”
(answer)…
I think it has more to do with the licensing of the .mov files. I believe it was said before that in order to officially support this (much like DTS downmixing) WD would need to pay Apple so that they could add it. IMO like DTS, DVD Menus, ect…, we may never see .mov file support officially if ever. Hte more things they add to this unit that require a license to work the higher the cost is for them. This would in turn most likely increase the cost of the unit, which IMO is one of its strong selling points.
Not sure if people here are aware, but the wd tv hd is already being modded for extra functionality – wired and wifi support and more. Read more at http://www.wdtvc.com
Does The WD TV HD Media Player support and external card reader
Joseph — your question of “Does the WD TV … support an external card reader?”
Based on my test, the answer is yes and no.
I have a single slot card reader for a secure digital card; that works fine — just like a USB thumb drive with the WDTV.
I also tried a four slot card reader. The only way I could get it to work was…
1. Insert only one card into the card reader at a time.
2. Connect the card reader to the WDTV AFTER inserting the card into the reader.
I could not get it to work with two or more cards inserted. Also, when I tried to Eject the card reader from the WDTV, that didn’t work right. I pressed the Eject button on the remote and was then asked which of TWO USB devices I wanted to eject. I had only the one card reader connected to the WDTV so the WDTV was confused. I selected one of the devices to eject. The WDTV appeared to hang in a never ending eject mode. I didn’t wait a long time — maybe about 2 minutes — and then tried to turn the WDTV off with the remote. It wouldn’t turn off. Since the WDTV would not respond to any keys on the remote, I finally disconnected power from the WDTV and then removed the card reader.
I just got a WD TV for my birthday (yesterday) and upgraded the firmware.
I’ve spent the last 48 hours trying to figure out how to fix the MKV/DTS issue. My device is connected to my TV via HDMI and I added the TOSLink thinking that the audio might work itself out. For one, I wish Western Digital would address why this does not work, whether its licensing, conversion issue, or just a bug that will be fixed in a future firmware. It seems like many of us our facing the same issue.
Unfortunately, I am a Mac user and I cannot simply convert the audio portion using “Popcorn” or other software that many of you have recommended. I look to this post, as this is probably the biggest community of WD TV supporters, to find a solution. Thank you.
Has anyone out there had a problem with (.wpl) Music Playlists?
I just can’t get them to play the tracks in the order that I have saved them in Windows Media Player. WDTV lists and plays them in the order the files are named ie. Alphabetical or numerical. (Just like when you browse by the Album Menu)
Have contacted Western Digital and they don’t seem to understand what I’m saying.
This I find irritating as Music is my thing. If anyone has worked out how to fix this please please can you let me know?
Appart from this detail am very happy with WDTV
@ FreshKicks
Have you changed the audio setting in the WD HD TV to Digital? You have the choice of ditital or stereo.
@ Paul James
If I understand you correctly it is the same problem I have with photos. It shows the photos alphabetically rather than in order of when taken. Only solution I have come up with is to re label everything starting with 1,2,3,4 etc or A,B,C,D etc. A pain I know but I don’t have any better ideas sorry.
Firmware 1.02.07 now released as a final release…….
http://www.wdc.com/en/products/wdtv/
What’s New?
Release 1.02.07 (4/27/2009)
(includes all previously released updates)
* Enhanced cover art, album art, and thumbnail support for media files and folders
* Additional subtitle languages and decoding support
* Improved media playback and navigation
* More audio formats for MKV container
* Fixed bugs reported by the WD TV user community
@ Jeff
Thanks Jeff for the response.
Yes, I go into the settings and change the audio setting from stereo to digital. When I do this, I lose sound on all files. I bought this optical wire hoping that it would fix the problem.
I have both the HDMI and Optical Audio connected directly to my television (I don’t have a stereo system to route it through).
I’m looking for either a Mac software solution to convert MKV files to AC3 5.1, without to much hassle (I don’t want to convert the videos, just the audio) or firmware update that fixes this issue.
Can you plug this in to WDA4NC40000 NAS storage. If so what type of a wire would you use. USB A MALE to A MALE?
PLEASE HELP!
THANKS!!!
@FreshKicks
Theres your problem. Unless your TV processes the DTS audio and I doubt it will you will get no sound. You need to run it through a reciever that accepts DTS.
Sry guys this thing isn’t worth 25 $.
Bad points.
- extreemly slow menu and remote control.
- can’t handle external Hard drives like 500 Gb because it keeps scanning the disk (WD my book) for about 2 hours.
- after disconnecting it from power supply it loses all settings.
- TV composite signal is very bad.
- i tried display port to HDMI for my monitor i don’t get signal (not supported) so i have to connect it to composite to change settings to hdmi, but as said after cutting power it loses settings?
- too expensive for worthless thing.
- limited functionalities.
No good points found
@Kurt
It’s up to you Kurt if you like this thing or not. I don’t work for WD so it doesn’t really worry me. Having said that though, you either have a faulty unit or you are doing something drastically wrong. I use this device for my photos, movies and music without a problem.
* On the current firmware update 1.02.07 the menu and remote are not slow.
* I’m running a WD My Book 600gig external hard drive and it reads it in less than 30 seconds even after I have had it disconnected and added new content. I know of people successfully running 2 TB HDD.
* Mine doen’t lose settings after disconnecting power . In fact it doesn’t lose settings ever.
* I run mine direct to my TV via HDMI and it is perfect. I have tried the composite cables and the picture was fine. The device recognised both immediately without me needing to do anything with menus or settings.
* For less than $200AUD I think it’s fantastic value. Can’t find anything that comes close.
* It does all the functions that are claimed by WD. Can’t expect to it to do more.
Sorry, but I can’t find a bad point. Best thing I have bought for ages and I have had mine since early Jan this year.
Robin, thanks very much for the link to WDTV modding site:
http://www.wdtvc.com
I’m not brave enough to try the custom firmwares or other tricks yet (eg a gadget to allow viewing apple 1080p trailers on the WDTV!) but did find a lot of interesting info.
The site makes it clear that WDTV will never allow DTS downmixing to stereo as the DTS license is too much for WD to support. Interestingly, although the WDTV outputs DTS, I gather that it is not “officially” supported by WD. Site therefore emphasises that best thing to do is use the MKV popcornhour audio converter to convert DTS to Dolby Digital AC3:
http://www.networkedmediatank.com/showthread.php?tid=20887&pid=178585#pid178585
This allows DD 5.1 output to go over hdmi/phono downmixed to stereo.
Having bitten the bullet, I can say it’s fantastic software and kudos to the author – includes links to an easy to understand tutorial. You can still keep the DTS track there in case you upgrade your equipment in future. Only drawback (for my personal circumstance) was that it made the new AC3 track the default but you can change the track priority easily using mkvtoolnix. In fact the author of the PCH audio converter is looking to support DTS/AC3 prioritising in a future release anyway!
As an aside, I’ve upgraded to the 1.02.07 firmware. It seems stable and it is now good to see the jpegs for movies etc although not exactly nippy in the navigation stakes. My converted DTS tracks used to have intermittent pauses/stuttering but as a bonus, they play perfectly with this firmware! Good to see new subtitle settings – especially the ‘outline’ option as it does make them a lot clearer IMO. Also, ffw and rwd’ing of 1080p mkvs seems smoother and having mkv chapters is also useful…
Finally, this media player is now beginning to support everything I want! Apparently new firmware spins down the disk when player is off but I was disappointed to see that it still remains on but maybe that’s ok if no mechanical wear & tear. @Kurt Callebaut I have no probs with my external 500GB hard disk which is packed to the brim – media database is read/constructed in only a min or two at most. I have never lost settings on power down. Your tv has display port but no hdmi?! Unusual but am surprised it doesn’t pick up the hdmi signal. TV composite signal is bad because composite is ancient not because of of the player….
I can’t understand why anyone can moan or grown about this device it does exactly what it says in the description plus more…….. yes it has its flaws but it doesn’t claim to be a Popcorn hour for example and trust me this little thing is a damn site easier to use than most other media players that are available.
The WD is a simple to use and simple to set up answer to the requirements of the most basic needs for a media player. I also don’t work for WD but give them many thanks for this great little machine they have come up with.
*MESSAGE OF THE DAY*
READ THE BOX —— IF IT DOESN’T DO WHAT YOU WANT IT TO DO ::::DON’T BUY ONE IN THE FIRST PLACE…… OH AND IF YOU STILL GO AHEAD AND BUY IT STOP WHINING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
“*MESSAGE OF THE DAY*
READ THE BOX —— IF IT DOESN’T DO WHAT YOU WANT IT TO DO ::::DON’T BUY ONE IN THE FIRST PLACE…… OH AND IF YOU STILL GO AHEAD AND BUY IT STOP WHINING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”
Good stuff. i’ve been wanting to say this since january.
Man this thing rocks. Nothing wrong with it at all. So far I have 75 movies, 8 tv series, 1080p movies trailers loaded up on a 400gb WD Elements drive. Thumbnails a great. Surround sounds works perfectly. No loss in any area what so ever. Ther good thing is, if it breaks you can buy another cause they are so cheap. I can’t think of one wrong thing except for the remote but seriously who cares about that…..only nerds I guess. Good stuff WD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Hi guys.
In case you haven’t noticed, Western Digital has graciously allowed me to giveaway one of these players in a contest here on the site. Go sign up: http://the-gadgeteer.com/2009/05/06/win-a-wd-tv-hd-media-player/
Today I just found new product that has the same ability (I think), it’s Argosy ( http://www.argosy.com.tw/product-detial.php?prod_id=133 ) but if you buy argosy, it’s seems that you can plug the HDD into the body of Argosy. Which one is the best ?
@ Andre —–
The most obvious thing to mention at first appearance is that the Argosy only supports 1080i which is a massive difference in quality to true HD whcih is 1080p. This thing is almost twice the size of the WD and does not support as many audio or video formats…. the beauty of the WD is that it is such a small and compact piece of kit you can almost hide the thing totally out of view (in fact i know people have used velcro to attach the device to the back of their TV’s). Take the plunge the WD is a cracking piece of kit and is only getting better as the firmware updates are released.
Not to be picky Andy however you must have super eyesight to notice the difference between 1080i and 1080p. I can hardly notice a difference between watching a dvd to watching blu ray. I don’t see the fascination in needing TRU HD when the differences are hardly noticeable. Put a movie in and watch it. As long as it plays it shouldn’t really matter what the quality is like.
anyone knows how to make one of the picture come up in folder mode? tired of generic gray folder.
magycman2000 – Update to the latest firmware. Read instructions for said firmware. WD has provided pretty decent instrucitons on how to generate thumbnails. I do assume your reference to folder mode = thumbnail mode?
steve – you’re funny. You either need new equipment or glasses. How can you “hardly” notice the difference between watching a dvd (480P) and a blu ray (1080p)……Come on now…
WDTV Version 2 is apparently coming:
http://www.homecinemachoice.com/blogs/team+hcc/western+digital+confirms+wdtv+version+2+adds+ethernet+sneakernet+hit+08+05+09
Hi all
thumbnails work great but can they be made bigger, or to fit the folders, or increase the size of the folders would be better, as some of the cover art
is difficult to see because of the small size has anyone had any luck with this
nick
Hi all
thumbnails work great but can they be made bigger or can the folders be made bigger so as to increase the size of the cover art as some of the pictures appear to small it would be nice to enjoy the covers in their original full size. has anyone had any luck with this
nick
Millertimewest -my eyesight is fine and my equipment is state of the art. I do notice a difference but it hardly squabling over like that Andy fella. Seriously just be happy that you can see the damn videos. Only geeks with no girlfriends pick at crap like this. Are you a one of these people?
Hello all.
I’m concerned that my WD TV is faulty.I bought back in February and play all i want and all because recently i notice interference in the image.I used composite video and i would like to know if the problem could be from my TV or in fact my WD TV has become faulty.
Could someone help me and tell me what i can do=?
Thanks
An update to my problem if i change the pal setting to ntsc i don’t notice so much but only one of my tv’s supports this and the rest is pal tv’s.Please help.
@Steve,
I am a geek and I have partner and child and I can instantly see the difference between standard and high definition video. Sky hi def is poor as limited by bandwidth but BBC freesat HD and blu-ray rips are very much more detailed than SD. I have better than 20/20 eyesight and it is easily worth ‘squabbling’ over. Yes, artistically, the film is more important than the resolution, but you can have both and the whole point of having the WDTV for me is that I have easy & cheap access to 720p/1080p videos! Anyway, enjoy decoding this message from morse code wireless telegraph… oh you’re using the internet now are you?
Noli
Man your a nerd. Nothing more to say. Have a beer with some mates, put your feet up and watch the bloody TV…..OH SORRY, nerds don’t have friends. Their too busy worrying about the difference in picture quality to realise their is more to life. Crunch those numbers geek!!!
Steve,
I only meant my message in jest but if that wasn’t obvious, then I am sorry. I think I was just trying to object to your assumption that “only geeks with no girlfriends” care about stuff like picture quality. If you read this whole thread you’ll find that most posters here actually do care about stuff like that and so might find your assumption a little out of place. I find it a little surprising that you bothered to buy “state of the art” equipment, “surround sound” and fill a 400GB drive with thumbnailed movies including 1080p trailers no less and then declare that “it shouldn’t really matter what the quality is like”. Really?
I could argue that only men with really small penises and inferiority complexes have to spend time on internet forums belittling others’ interests to boost their ego and justify their own views but that would be stooping to your level wouldn’t it?
Enjoy watching tv with all your mates, beers and girlfriends you complete man you.
Thats right Noli. I am the man and don’t you forget it geek….with no penis whatsoever.
I have been thinking about getting one of these as well and setting it up for wifi.
Well said Noli! I really don’t understand why anyone would want to make wide-ranging assumptions about a person based on whether or not they prefer 1080p over 1080i! How ridiculous. Any credibility he had about ANYTHING was gone from that moment on. Probably just a troll and we should ignore it’s posts, or just laugh at them. :O)
@ Steve,
What is your problem with someone pointing out something as simple as 1080P being better than 1080i. I at no point made reference to me preferring 1080p just merely stating that that it is better. I personally only use 720p for most of my videos so the difference between i and p was merely to help the person asking the question to choose.
Why do people insist on coming onto this forum and posting abusive and derogatory comments about people that they know nothing about……. is it one of those LOOK AT ME I’M GREAT THINGS. Or is it just that in their own virtual world they want to feel important than they really are. Also isn’t the same person that is slagging me off for making a clearly obvious helpful comment the same person that posted on here saying this device was great and that he had 1080P movies on his drive, then after my post states that he cant see the difference between Standard DVD and 1080P.
* CAN ANYONE ELSE NOT SEE A DIFFERENCE BETWEEN 480 AND 1080P *
I THINK THE MORAL OF THIS POST IS CLEARLY *****GROW UP STEVE***
Andy
So you’re thinking now. Don’t hurt yourself.
That just simply proves my point doesn’t it !!!!!
“That just simply proves my point doesn’t it” (sarcasm with a girly voice)
The only point boywonder is that you have no point at all. HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHH
Maybe time to move on now children…..
Word is there are some exciting upgrades on the way for the WD TV HD. Looking forward to them.
Ok guys, can we try to act like adults in here please? Thank you.
@ Julie
Don’t you have any way of blocking these annoying people from posting on here. Most have us have constructive comments and opinions to post that merely get snubbed by these rude and obnoxious individuals!
@Andy Once a person has been approved to post comments, they can post without moderation from then forward. I can delete offensive messages if they get out of hand and block the person from posting any more. I have to be honest that I don’t read every single message in this forum as it’s pretty active. But if someone would like to volunteer to be the moderator, they can send me an email with people that continue to be offensive and I’ll block them and/or delete their messages.
I am prepared to take on the role if it would help. I would love to eradicate these pathetic people that come on here and belittle people that they don’t know. It just makes for a forum for people to vent their stupid opinions on life rather than the constructive comments most people tend to post.
I have a problem with my WD HD media player. When i have it powered off for a couple of days and then try to turn it back on via the remote, it wont turn on.
If i unplug the power supply and then plug it back in, it turns on and off and i have no problem.
Has anyone experienced this problem?
Cheers
Harry
Sorry Harry but no I haven’t. Mind you I use mine nearly every day but I’m sure there have been occasions when it has sat for 2 days without use.
Have you contacted WD? Also what firmware are you using?
Hi Jeff,
I have not contacted WD and firmware version 1.00.01
thanks
Andy
No shock you are running to the teacher to assist ratting out people. I bet you did this in school too. Geeks always follow this type of behaviour. Proves MY point yet again. HA HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH
Harry,
Try this, I think you will find it helps. Read the text and you will see you will get a lot of other benefits as well.
http://www.westerndigital.com/en/products/wdtv/
Let us know how you go.
Hi everyone, somebody told me that there is a cheat for HD Media Player to make it wireless by putting a usb wireless adaptor. Is it possible? I was searching web but I could not find it. If there is any please let everyone know to get more out of this beautiful media player.
I was reading a couple of days ago that WD already have a second edition of the media player in the pipe lines which will fully support wireless networking… how true this is I don’t really know yet!
Leo,
You will find all the “unofficial” downloads for the WD HD TV here….
http://www.wdtvc.com/
Haven’t tried any myself so cant comment on how good they are.
Andy,
Yes there is plenty of chat around that there will be a heap of new features coming soon but no one seems to know if it will be via a firmware upgrade or a mark 2 version of the player. Clearly existing owners hope its the former!
Hello,
I bought one yesterday, and tried it. Works with lots of videos except the most important: my camera’s AVI. Playing it, but the sound is loud-noisy. (Fujifilm finepix S1000, and a Canon A60)
Btw, now, i cant try the firmware upgrade, because the remote controller wont working (or the device wont receive its commands) …and yes, i tried with new batteries…
Good points:
– brilliant HDMI/optical output
– nice, easy menu
– setupable…
– 2 region adapter (UK,EU)
Bad points:
– bad HDMI connector (the cable can slip out)
– after using hours, get warm (and the pens too)
– camera’s AVI not fully supported (maybe fixed in the new firmware)
– only has remote control…
Jesus Buzal why don’t you just throw it in the bin. Bitch bitch bitch mate. Nothing wrong with HDMI connector. Mine has nver slipped out. Your obviously not putting it in right. All machines get warm after a while so naturally this will as well. It doesn’t get that warm to be honest. Pens? What the hell are you talking about. Only has remote control. What other way would you use it. Did you expext it to work by using your mind or something. Some people really are hard to please.
@Buzal
I had the same issues with camera videos. They were all fixed with firmware updates. Would be interesting to know what firmware you currently have? Clearly you will have to get the remote fixed before you can continue though.
The getting warm bit is normal…doesn’t seem to effect how it performs so don’t be concerned.
Hopefully that is a bit more helpful than the previous response.
Today, I went back to the storage, and had a miracle, the remove control has worked.
I tried at home, worked fine.(just checked the power on/off).
I plugged in the HDMI: not working anymore. The device worked properly (detect, boot), but unuseable without RC.
Now I tried with RCA with a hard-reset. The RC working again.
I updated to the new firmware…now working with HDMI too, and the sound issue is fixed
So dear Steve: i had a real problem, that i cannot check the hardware w/o an RC (i mean, no next/play emergency button on the back or somewhere)
Btw, the HDMI not fixed – its a hardware problem. Not slipping out realy, just a bit. Have to touch the cable and no video signal…(Noooo, the cable is fine, used with PC and BluRay as well)
Ps. pens: pendrives, like my Kingstone 32GB. My pen wont get warn in a PC, but in the WD HD TV…maybe caused the airflow…
Does anyone know how to cover art to the movie files so your not staring at blank albums trying to squint out the file names?
thanks in advance, please email..
Pre-release firmware 1.02.08 released
What’s New?
Prerelease 1.02.08 (includes all previously released updates)
•Enhanced cover art, album art, and thumbnail support for media files and folders
•Additional subtitle languages and decoding support
•Improved media playback and navigation
•More audio formats for MKV container
•Fixed bugs reported by the WD TV user community
Hello,
I have one of these units on the way…pretty excited.
I had heard that it can play WMV HD files (formatted for an Xbox 360) but that it can’t play the audio (I believe its WMA 10). Anyone know if this has been rectified in the latest firmware releases?
Thanks
I have hundreds of movies on 2 usb drives hooked up which are in individual folders so as to display thumbnails however i have to choose which usb to view those movies. Is their a way of viewing all movie folders from both usb’s in 1 go. I know you can view all media content in 1 go but this does not display the folders they are in whcih defeats the purpose of thumbnails. Please advise.
To quote another Steve on this site………..(is this the same one?)
“Seriously just be happy that you can see the damn videos. Only geeks with no girlfriends pick at crap like this.”
LOL.
To answer your question though, I don’t know of any way of getting around this. It is a slight inconvenience that we have to make that extra click but as you’ve correctly pointed out the alternative ‘all media’ solution is not viable since you loose the pretty pictures that we all wanted so badly.
Cheers
Hi all,
As per previous discussions with MillerTime77 & others, I have ripped all my dvd’s to vob. However when I went to watch them, they stop after the first vob and and do not automatically continue onto the second. I then have to press play on the next vob to continue watching.
From memory, you guys get them to play one after the other without stopping. Is there something I am missing here? Is there a setting I should have set on the wd unit?
Any help would be greatly appreciated as I wouldn’t want all the time spent to go to waste.
Cheers, ducer
Ducer1
Make sure that the multiple vob files for each movie are in separate folders. Mine are in Video_TS folders and they play straight through no problems. Try that.
Thanks heaps Steve,
I will give it a go now.
cheers, ducer
Ducer1
Steve is bang on. I enountered the same thing when I tried to minimize the number of folders I had to dig into. If I changed the ‘native’ DVD file structure it would play each VOB file individually. Once I put it back to the Video_TS folder it worked like a charm.
The one I’m still trying to figure out is my Home Video Camera. I have a Sony HDRTG1 which is 1080 and captures in .mt2s. When I watch from the camera it plays the videos captured in series, but when I pull the files to the WD it plays each one seperately……its a little frustrating.
Cheers
I gearing towards buying the WD TV as it seems like a great stand-alone media player… however, I would like to know if I can plug a usb DVD-rom drive and play a DVD from there? If it is, then i’m sold. Thanks a bunch!
Hey everyone,
So nobody has any info on it’s ability to play WMA 10 audio?
Thanks
does this work well with PAL TV [using Composite A/V cable] or it is good only for US NTSC ??
I understand HDMI makes it universal but little concerned about Composite A/V cable thing as I would like to use it outside US.
Thanks
Jolly. There is a PAL/NTSC option in the menu so I’m not sure why it wouldn’t work just the same. Of course being in North America I haven’t tried PAL…….
Cheers
QUOTE: Einzberr23 May 29, 2009 at 5:54 am
I gearing towards buying the WD TV as it seems like a great stand-alone media player… however, I would like to know if I can plug a usb DVD-rom drive and play a DVD from there? If it is, then i’m sold. Thanks a bunch!
END QUOTE
The unmodified WDTV does NOT support USB DVD-ROM drives. However, someone has written an unofficial (that is, not from Western Digital) firmware upgrade that does allow the use of such a drive. You can check it out here: http://b-rad.cc/wdtv-firmware-dvd-enabled.
Since this already has optical Audio port will it be possible in the future to out put 5.1ch sound just by software updates?
I think it uses HDMI version 1.2. Can this help produce 7.1ch sound in future just by software updates?……………just thinking……
……Can you also make it cook my dinner in the next upgrade? HEHEHEHE
Quote:
Millertimewest May 27, 2009 at 10:05 am
Ducer1
Steve is bang on. I enountered the same thing when I tried to minimize the number of folders I had to dig into. If I changed the ‘native’ DVD file structure it would play each VOB file individually. Once I put it back to the Video_TS folder it worked like a charm.
This works fine and dandy with me too except i can’t get the pictured thumbnails to work when i do this. So for me its either a pictured thumbnail with multiple stops for each VOB or 1 VOB continous play with no thumbnail. Ahhh anything else I can do?
Richard,
The cover image should be in the main folder not in the Video_TS folder. IE. The following structure should exist :
[MAIN FOLDER] (Movie Name) –inside this folder–> [Audio_TS] + [Video_TS] + folder.jpg. Where [...] indicates a folder
There is typically nothing in the Audio_TS folder and all the .vob files are in the Video_TS folder
I have a 2TB drive of movies all like this and the thumnails as well as continuous play works fine.
I trust you have the latest firmware update as well as thumbnails “on” for video….right
Cheers
Quote:
Millertime77 June 4, 2009 at 9:16 pm
Richard,
The cover image should be in the main folder not in the Video_TS folder. IE. The following structure should exist :
[MAIN FOLDER] (Movie Name) –inside this folder–> [Audio_TS] + [Video_TS] + folder.jpg. Where [...] indicates a folder
_________________________________________
Millertime77,
For some reason I can’t get it done.
This is what I have. A direct DVD rip.
Example:
[Main Movie] (Matrix) -> [Video_TS] + [Audio_TS] + Matrix.jpg(DVD Cover art I added)
[ ] = folders
This is real frustrating to me. Thanks Millertime77 for all your help. I hope hope to enjoy a cool one once I get this done.
Hi Richard
To explain it a little easy all you need to do iS the following for eg the Matrix movie.
1. Folder titled “The Matrix”
In this folder you should include your jpg picture named “folder”
You should also have 2 folders in “the matrix” folder called “Video TS” and “Audio TS”
Remember that the picture should always be named “folder” and in jpg format to view. Also ensure that you have installed the latest firmware updrade.
This should definately work. Let me know how you do.
Quote:
“steve June 5, 2009 at 8:20 am
Hi Richard
To explain it a little easy all you need to do iS the following for eg the Matrix movie.
1. Folder titled “The Matrix”
In this folder you should include your jpg picture named “folder”
You should also have 2 folders in “the matrix” folder called “Video TS” and “Audio TS”
Remember that the picture should always be named “folder” and in jpg format to view. Also ensure that you have installed the latest firmware updrade.
This should definately work. Let me know how you do.”
__________________________________________________
Thanks Steve and Millertime77 for your patience and not clowning on me. My problem was naming the picture folder.jpg. IDIOT. I have the file extentions turned off so I was naming it with a .jpg. hehe. This should work. Cheers you 2.
Remote switching is not a problem got my WDHD synchronized with my Logitech remote works like a charm
Steve & Millertime77,
Started using DVD shrink again & the vob files are playing continuously. Thanks
Any idea if chapters are available via either the vob file or wd hdtv?
I know that if you get rid of the audio & video ts folders that you can use each vob file as its own chapter, however you cannot watch the dvd continuously.
Look forward to hearing from you soon.
Thanks yet again, ducer
PS – I am assuming that MillerTimeWest & MillerTime77 are different people? :S
Hi Guys,
I’m really planning on buying the WDTV but i can’t afford adding a WD external HDD anytime soon. I have a backup 320GB HDD connected to my USB 2.0 port thru a HD enclosure. Has anyone tried connecting an enclosed HDD? I just want to know if it’ll work.
Thanks a bunch!
An internal HDD is no different to connecting an external drive! after all they are exactly the same thing just one is made by you. By the way you don’t need to buy a WD external drive as most are compatible and alot of other manufacturers are cheaper than WD. For example I recently bought an LG XD1 500 gb esata drive which works excellently, it still connects to WDTV by USB but has esata for transfer of files from PC which is much faster.
Has anyone tried to see HD videos taken with a Sony HDR-SR12 which uses the MPEG-4 AVC/H.264 format?
Diego -
I haven’t tried video from that specific camera but I do have the HDR-TG1 HD video camera and I believe its the same file format as yours. I can confirm the videos play fine on the WD unit. The one issue I have is I haven’t figured out how to get it to play the files continuous like it does when I hook the camera directly to my TV. I can only get it to play the individual clips. So if you take 10 2minute videos of trip/event you will have to start each one individually.
Let me know if you figure out an easy way. I’m sure you can mux the video but I’m far too lazy to deal with that. I’m all about native and simple drop it in and play.
Ducer1 –
Millertimewest and Millertime77 are one in the same. I just changed computers and forgot my previous name. Regarding your question about chapters I’m not sure…..I’ll try it this week-end. I usually just watch a movie from start to finish so I haven’t had the need to skip through chapters. I know when I mux a blu ray there is an option to add chapters at certain intervals throughout the movie, but I haven’t even checked if that works. I guess its just a matter of me pressing the “next” button on the remote. I’ll try and let you know what I find out.
Cheers
I have had this WD player for a few days after swapping some unwanted cordless headphones for it with a friend. I was immediately interested in this player mostly for playback of flac music files i have on my pc which i put on an external hard disk too. I must say that the WD playing flac is on par with pc streaming using asio4all out and then usb into an external DAC. This is a great achievement because i can listen to all my digital music files without the need of a pc and without losing any audio quality. My only issue is that it does not have digital coaxial out aswell as optical out and i am unable to use my favourate coaxial cable for digital audio out. As mentioned above i find it a hassle to unplug the external drive everytime i switch off the WD to prevent leaving the hdd constantly spinning when not in use. Also browsing through photos is slow compared to doing this on a pc.
I experienced the viewing of a blue ray movie on a sony full hd bravia using the WD player and the material on hard disk as astonishingly good. AVi movie was on par with a good quality dvd and it was impressive to note that the WD seems to upscale movies to the native resolution of the tv used – in my case 1080p. (The inclusion of HDMI is greatly appreciated.) This feature cost me alot of money in the past from a good quality upscaling dvd player.
So all in all an extremely enjoyable and high performing little piece of kit that would be ideal for me if it had coaxial out and could power down the external attached hhd as you switch off the WD player.
I think you have hit a hole in one with this player Western Digital!
Kal
Millertimewest–
To play your camcorder files one after the other… Browse to the folder that contains the individual files. Then press the Play button on the remote control. Don’t press the ENTER button. Does that work for you?
Kal,
If you have the latest firmware you shouldn’t have to unplug the unit to turn off the ext drive. The latest firmware will spin down the drive. You will however still see the light on on your WD ext hard drive which is sometimes distracting but the drive is not spinning.
DLarryJ
I’ll give that a shot later this aft and report back…..interesting approach though and one that I didn’t think of. Thanks
Cheers
MillerTime77,
Tried the next button and it just restarts the movie. Looking forward to hearing any outcomes though. I am currently using dvd shrink to get the vobs and it doesnt seem to have a chapter option… could be wrong though.
As always thanks again for your time.
cheers, ducer
Millertime77
I updated to new firmware but the the external hdd still spins when the WD powers down . Are there any settings i need to adjust or should the WD automatically power down the External hdd with the new firmware?
Tahnks
Kal
Kal
There are no settings to play with but the latest firmware is 1.02.08. Is that the one you are using? All reports seem to be that it atomatically spins down pretty much all external HDD’s. I am running a WD HDD and it certainly spins it down.
Kal – ditto for me. I have two WD Ext HDD attached and both spin down. I too am running 1.02.08, but I also thought 1.02.07 had the spin down feature added.
What type of drive are you running?
Cheers
Hi Millertime,
I am using a hitachi travelstar model IC25N080ATMR04-0 80GB ATA/IDE MADE IN THAILAND FOR HITACHI.
This hdd is in a craft external hard disk enclosure model cooler master.
I have upgraded to the 1.02.08 version and i still cant get the hdd to power down when the WD is switched off.
Perhaps my hdd is not compatible to power down when the WD is turned off?
Thanks,
Kal
Kal – hmmm…really can’t say. I thought it would be universal. Honestly I only have WD drives so I really can’t speak to other brands. I’m sure others can comment with some real experiences…..sorry
I do feel your pain though….you don’t want your drive spinning for no reason….wasted energy and lifespan of your drives!
Cheers
Hi
Has anone figured out how to display all movie folders (from both USB’s) one screen. This can be done for individual fies but not folders. Any one accomplished this. I would like to see my entire movie catalogue on one screen instead of having to choose a particular drive.
hello Millertime77
Yep it is a pain but i just plug manually the usb cable for the external hdd each time i use the WD player. Perhaps future firmware updates would allow universal hdd to spin down when the WD is turned off. This would make it more attractive to buy if someone already has an external hdd. otherwise one would consider a hard disk media center that is not far off the combined price of a WD player and a my passport hdd.
Kal
Prerelease 1.02.10 is available now. Check it out here:
http://www.wdc.com/wdtvprerelease/. The information below is from the prerelease web page:
Fixed Items:
•Greek subtitles now render properly. Previously they rendered slowly, causing them to briefly flash on the screen.
•Korean subtitles now render properly. Previously they disappeared during video playback.
•Playlists play in the correct order. Previously they played files in alphabetical order.
Added feature:
•Metadata support for music improved over previous releases. For example, browsing by genre is broken down into artists, then albums, then tracks.
Known issues:
•A few text strings were not translated properly over different UI languages
I had 8mm movie film from the 50′s, 60′s converted to external hard drive in the MJPEG format.
Wdtv will not play it.
Any help would be appreciated. Thanks in advance
P.S. have not installed firmware updates
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