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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noncomputer person,
I think updating to the latest firmware would be the best start. Let us know if that helps and we can proceed from there.
As a matter of interest, do you know what firmware it currently has?
To: Noncomputer Person
The 1.02.07 firmware plays MJPEG format files from Canon digital cameras correctly. Some earlier versions of the firmware did not play the Canon files correctly. What version of the firmware is installed in your WDTV?
This page should lead you to the various firmware versions that are available: http://wdtv.wetpaint.com/page/Firmware+1.02
If you can post a sample of your video I will be glad to try to play it on my WDTV and let you know the results. I have firmware version 1.02.07 installed.
–David
Hi all,
I have noticed that the WD can play VTS.VOB video/audio files but every couple of minutes it has drop outs or “clipping” then it resumes and does it again every few minutes until the end of the file. I do not have this problem with avi files. I also updated to the unofficial firmware version 1.02.10 so i don’t know if that has anything to do with it.
Is there any way i can roll back the firmware update to say 1.02.07 to see if if this version plays VTS.vob files without the problem of dropouts? or is it once you update you cannot go back to earlier versions?
Thanks,
Kal
Okay folks,
I reinstalled the firmware 1.02.07 official version instead of the beta 1.02.10 ( i had wanted this version for greek subtitles.) i played again the same VTS.VOB files for a good half hour and didn’t seem to have the drop out problems like with the beta 1.02.10 version.
(* i reinstalled the 1.02.07 version by tricking the WD player into thinking it was a version 1.02.11 by re naming it using notepad and it worked fine. after the update the WD states it is the 1.02.07 version in the “about” info of the WD menu. Very handy if anyone else wishes to roll back an update from a beta version to a previous official version ) .
Kal
Hi all, Love this product, but one serious area of concern that WD must fix. When you play MP3 files it shows a static image on the screen with only the tags scrolling. If you use this on a PLASMA TV for any length of time it will BURN an image and ruin the screen. All plasmas suffer from burn-in if you have static images. So be carefull. WD have to ensure the player shows a screensaver type of moving image while playing music.
David,
The WD TV does has a screensaver with adjustable settings. Maybe yours is turned off.
Look for it in settings then system.
noncomputer person
Firmware 1.02.07 will play MJPEG files correctly from Canon digital cameras. Earlier versions of the firmware played the video but garbled the audio from the same Canon cameras. So the .07 firmware MIGHT play your video correctly.
–David
David Ball
Why would you buy a Plasma anyway. Everyone knows they suck cause of this. LCD all the way man.
Hi all,
today i received my audiophile optical cable – see link below:-
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=350140455775&ssPageName=ADME:B:EOIBSA:GB:1123
I must say that the WD player playing flac music files is extremely enjoyable with a good quality optical cable. The music is more airy , soundstage more pronounced and greater detail in instruments and vocals. I have difficulty to say that pc streaming music flac files using xp and asio4all is any better than this great little WD media player. I would highly recommend this cable as it seems to offer very good synergy with the WD player.
Movies also sound much much better with this optical cable. i don’t agree with a review above to buy a cheap optical cable. if you want the best audio reproduction from this player go for a good optical “all glass” cable with good connectors to reduce phasing and jitter issues that may arise from an inferior optical cable.
Kal
HELP! I have just bought a WD Media player; connected to the TV using HDMI cable and the sound to my home theatre with an optical cable. The DVD ripped movies work fine; however the BluRay ripped movies (5.1) doesn’t have any sound! The setting on the WD for sound is set as digital. Somebody please help. The format of the movies are in MPEG-4 format.
Hi Naveed
you need to convert the audio first…use the audio converter popcorn to do it…then it will work !
The WD Media Player is great, except it won’t play multiple VTS’s in the same VIDEO_TS folder. I have a number of DVDs on a USB drive and I want to play them (so I don’t have to be constantly switching DVD disks). However, the MP will only play one of the VTS sets. For example, a particular DVD has the following files in the VIDEO_TS folder: VTS_01_0.VOB, VTS_01_1.VOB, VTS_02_0.VOB, VTS_02_1.VOB, VTS_03_0.VOB, and VTS_03_1.VOB When I select any of the VOBs to be played, the Media Player somehow chooses VTS_02_0.VOB and then plays that entire VTS set. It will not continue on to the VTS_03 files, nor will it play the VTS_01 files. I have updated to the 1.02.07 firmware, no change.
Hi Guys,
Does WD Media player have the option of loading subtitles(srt) as a seperate file.Im an english teacher and need to show stuff with subtitles always and shifting and pausing very often between language tracks and subtitles.I have got a large collection of hollywood movies but the subtitles have to be downloaded as a seperate file very often since they are not always a part of the video.So far Ive been using vlc mediaplayer on my computer which gives the option of loading subtitles seperately….welcome ur comments!!!
Mark –
Update to 1.02.10 and see how that goes. They work fine for me.
Richard –
Yes I am pretty sure it will do what you want. I have avi files with a seperate file for subs and they work fine.
Does this thing play x264 files ? (I know it should, but for me this is crucial – I have a huge collection of them lol)
-Jeff
Thanks for your info and I just bought a WDTV.Its a pretty nice gadget which is really easy to use.Ive come across a problem though!!!
Ive got a lot of video files encode in MKV format with DTS sound and the WDTV seems to be giving the DTS signal only through the optical cable.There is no sound through my TV(32”Philips LCD) which is connected to WDTV with HDMI.Ive tried changing the settings in in WDTV from digital to stereo but it didnt seem to help.Video files with other audio output(ac3 etc) seem to work fine.There isn’t a problem with my TV cos I play blu-rays on my PS3 with DTS and even connect my laptop to the TV with HDMI and they all play normally.
Ive upgraded the firmware to 1.02.07
pls advise !!!
Richard,
Yes DTS is a problem that has caused a few people to be upset. The short answer is WD has never claimed it will play DTS but the word is that it may come in a future firmware update. I have heard it is because they would have to pay a license fee or something similar. In the mean time I think your only alternative is to convert the audio.
Tsudo,
It plays H264. But I’m not an expert on all the different file types, so if X264 is different then there is no mention by WD of X264. So if they are different then I would suggest it won’t play them. Maybe do some research on the specs.
Yes Tsudo is does play x264, although it doesn’t say it anywhere… I was questioning that myself before i purchased mine and never got the answer until i tried it out myself and it looks freaking amazing.
Tsudo
Just buy the damn machine a find out man. Its not that expensive plus most places will refund or give you store credit if it does not suite your needs.
Richard
Sorry, I forgot one thing. DTS sound will work through the optical cable connected to a reciever that will decode DTS. It will not work through HDMI connected straight to your TV.
It’s true this is a very good player for the money though it does have buggy issues as many have reported. Too bad western digital has not released a firmware version yet to fix these problems. once they do this will be a hard to beat player since it can do ALMOST everything you would want it to do. Seems there are two types now: with and w/o hard drive. those with HDD like the Mediagate or Popcorn hour are a good choice. those w/o hard drives like the WD TV, IOMEGA Screenplay are good too but you have to attach some sort of external usb storage anyway. So choose wisely. If you are looking for something that may be better than the WD TV, search for this: “Mediagate MG-M2TV”. this is the newest player from Mediagate which can do everything the WD TV can but actually supports more formats like RMVB (real video) for many Asian videos. so this is one item i’m really looking forward to. hoping the reviews are good on this one.
I just bought mine yesterday,
and I am pretty happy with it.
I am using a passport elite with it.
I programed my logitech harmony with no issues.
Comments:
Music playback:
——————
Would be nice if we could select the menu font size.
I am using the music playback using my old 27 inches without comb filter (don’t care about the picture).
I found that when pressing the skip button, while in random mode, the delay is a bit long, but still acceptable.
Video playback:
—————–
@Julie “I wish there was a feature to skip ahead so many minutes or to go to the end of a video”
while in FF, you can skip 10 minutes by pressing NEXT
this was released in a firmware update after you reviewed the product.
Question to ALL:
——————–
Why is it so difficult to support wmv format ?
neither MY DVD player with USB port or the “WD TV HD”
can playback this….
thank you,
Benoit
REF: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_Media_Video
OK review, but as this test is principally about video there are a lot of functionality aspects missing that the reviewer should have explored. Just have to appeal to the more-informed commenters, as usual
So, is the WD TV dual (110-240) voltage? Does it recognise the comon formats people will rip from their DVDs (i.e., TS folder with VOBs, ISOs)? Does it play PAL as well as NTSC video (i.e., 720×576 as well as 720×480)? What does it do with PAL video on an NTSC television via composite (i.e., does it up frame rate to 30 fps / do pull-down)? If not , audio and video are out of sync. Does it support anamorphic video? If it caters for these, it’s a portable worldwide winner… Roll-on 500 GB pend drives and SSD.
Need help! Just got my wd tv and upgraded the firmware already. Why is my video playing slow motion and the audio suddenly disappears? Video was recorded from my Nikon D90 (avi, 720p). Does it have anything to do with the ram of the wd tv? How can I resolve it? Do I need to upgrade the firmware again?
Thanks.
Daryl
What firmware are you now running?
Can you attache a SATA hdd via USB ?
Will it play Blu Ray files ( .ts ) off of the HDD ?
Craig – not sure why not. You’d just need a sata to usb cable. You can buy this for $15 bucks from any computer parts store. It will also include the power adaptor.
An external hard drive is just an normal hard drive in an external enclosure.
Your only issue may be whether your hard drive is compatible with the WD unit. That being said I haven’t heard many issues with compatibility. (I only used WD drives so I can’t be of help here)
Cheers
HI,RECENTLY BOUGHT wD MEDIA PLAYER ,HAPPY WITH VIDEO,BUT NOT WITH AUDIO QUALITY,CAN ANY ON SUGGEST HOW TO IMPROVE AUDIO OUTPUT?
SS
It will depend a lot on how you have it connected and what you have it connected to. I have mine connected through toslink to my home theatre system and the sound is first class.
I also have it connected direct to my Plasma via HDMI which sounds as good as the TV ever does.
As I said it will depend on equipement and how you have gone about connecting it.
SS
I have my WD player connected to an external DAC( digital audio converter) via a high quality all glass optical cable(see my previous post above re: optical cable) which gives amazing audiophile quality music reproduction playing loosless wav and flac music files. I am using a heavily modified older tc 7510 beresford dac but i would recommend the newer tc 7520. here it is…
http://www.beresford-dac.com/
this also has a top headphone amp for those who prefer headphones.
I listen to two channel audio , music or movie audio. but you could use an av amp , use those internal dacs of the amp( connecting optical cable directly to av amp) and not bother with an external dac. All depends on what top audio reproduction you wish to achieve, 5.1 surround or 2 channel stereo. whatever path you decide to take audio quality will always be interdependant upon the quality of your amplification, speakers, interconnects/speaker cables and the quality of component power supplies used.
Kal
I have not been able to figure out why my music files did not transfer properly from my Windows Media Center to the WD TV HD. The wav files transferred fine but on each song I play via WD TV, I don’t see the info for artist, album, album art, genre and date.
Help! Any ideas?
Thank you.
I really like my WD TV.
My question is, does anyone know if the WD Passport HD will turn off with the WD TV power when connected to the unit as it would if it were attached to a computer… I specifically bought one just for my WD TV but I noticed the WD Passport stays on even after the WD TV unit has powered off. Perhaps there’s a setting I’m unaware of?
If anyone can confirm if the Passport does or does not power off with the unit, I’d much appreciate it.
Otherwise, very cool device…
Cheers,
TS
Samson,
I am using the WD passport HD, Yes, it does turn off once you turn off the media player, but the Hdd light is still on but the Hdd motor is not spinnng. You need the new frimware too. Firmware 1.02.07
WD TV has problem with playing VOB files. I want replace my DVD collection of movies by this device, but I’m dissapointed.
WD TV freeze or jump into another position during playing movie.
I can’t convert DVD format into other format (mkv, ….) – it takes too much time.
I hope that WD repair DVD format support very soon.
Used last firmware.
Bob
Not sure what your doing but my entire dvd collection (700 movies) are all on a WD usb and they all work fantastic. No problems at all. Perhaps it is the USB you are using. I would use a WD USB. Make sure when burning a dvd to a usb that the files stay in the Video_TS folder before viewing otherwise the movie will not run continuously. Hope this helps. WD do not need to fix anything. The player is perfect.
Herman,
I updated to the latest firmware but when I turn off my WDTV, the WD Passport drive is still vibrating until I unplug it from the WDTV. If it’s not the motor, then what is causing the vibration?
Seriously people. Just unplug the USB’s. I do everynight before bed and turn the machine off at the wall. Its note even worth metioning. Just don’t be so lazy.
I think I faced the same issue as Daryl’s, the video (720p avi) recorded by my Nikon D90 camera can not be fully supported by WDTV media player, my firmware version is 1.02.07 which is the latest on the official website, does anyone know how to solve this issue? Thanks.
There is a pre-release firmware website for WD TV HD device at:
http://www.wdc.com/wdtvprerelease/
The beta firmware is currently at 1.02.10.
Has anyone noticed any overheating problems
WDTV wouldnt turn on, if i unplug it then plug it back in, the light on the front flashes for a second then goes off, I left it unplugged for a couple of hours and seems to work fine now. Going to unplug it in the future
What happens if you loose the remote. Doesn’t look like there is any controls on the actual box!
A friend of mine wrote a great little program to get the cover art for your movies for this WD media player.
Find out how he wrote it and the app itself here:
http://www.seesharpdot.net/?p=157
Enjoy!
Steve,
I bought Toshiba 1TB external HD. If I discover these problems, I bought WD 1 TB external HD (but why do anoyne write about bad USB? Does WD have problem with standardized USB devices?)
But problems remain.
I tried place my vob file/s into folder VIDEO_TS.
I discovered, that WD need other DVD files (ifo, bup) although WD TV doesn’t know work with them.
I joined all movie vob’s into one. This joined vobs are 100% correctly played by PowerDVD and other players.
WD TV can play joined vobs correctly. But some new movies maybe has somehow different structure, and WD TV doesn’t know roeproduce them correctly, for example ‘Monster house’ or ‘Wall-e’.
If I put full copy of DVD rip into WD HD, WD TV doesn’t freeze in 3th minute(in ‘Monster House’), but in this place skip a few seconds, or play them accelerated.
I use:
1. WD HD (1TB)
2. Actual firmware
3. DVD rip, which is ALWAYS, and 100% correctly played on PowerDVD
4. But WD TV play some movies (maybe 20% of my 200 movies) with problems.
WD TV probably use some own DVD format manipulation methods, which is different than common methods in software and desktop players.
If I play my DVD movies 100% without problems at desktop and software DVD players, and then if I use just WD hardware for playing the same files with problems, there is just one possible problem: WD TV.
I’m dissapointed.
I bought WD, because it isn’t ‘noname’, but it have basic problems with playing DVD format.
I don’t mention other minor problems – strange thumbnail orientation, and a lot of others – people vote which of them will WD repair.
If you do not have problem, I don’t undestand how it is possible. But it is possible it is good luck you don’t encounter DVD movie with such structure, which HD TV play with problems.
Bob
The best program to rip dvd’s is DVD Shrink. Rips all movies and works perfectly with WD TV. Garruntee 100% of your movies will work using this program. You should not need to join any vob files together at all when using WDTV. The vob files will play as one if in VIDEO TS folder.
Thier is no problem at with playing dvd movies through this devise. If you are ripping the entire disc (special features, trailers) then this will cause isues as WD does not recognise the DVD structure and menu format. Only rip the movie itself and nothing more. Everything should be fine then. Can’t see the point in the extras anyway. If you desperately need to see the extras then convert back to using your dvd player. WDTV is for movies only, not the extras.
Thubmails are excellect so their should be no issue with this. Just read the latest firmware manual to get thumbnails.
Would this device work well as a digital picture frame that can show pictures and videos in a random order? I would like to hook this up with a small TV and leave it on like a picture frame. Will this work only on a TV or can it also work on an pc monitor? I have been shopping for a digital picture frame but they are either too small in size or do not have good reviews.
I use HandBrake to rip dvds and WD TV doesn’t support fast forward on these files!
Excellent device.love it but with a small problem no volume control on remote as i am using separate amplified speakers. i have to control sound from speaker’s control.
Steve,
thank you for advices.
I use DVDFab. This is very good software. I try DVD Shrink – result is – of course – the same – with problems.
Because WD TV doesn’t know to play vob file alone (but other software players know), and need folder VIDEO_TS ( but WD donesn’t know DVD menu, and just play vob files), I rip my movies again. I leave my movies in VIDEO_TS folder. And now I try to show thumbnails. It seems, that WD TV is unable in this case (for example: USB1\Movies\Australia\VIDEO_TS\*.vob) to display thumbnail. (Or show it on inappropriate place – after I enter into movie directory – through VIDEO_TS to first of vob file. All this navigation is senseless.)
I’m shocked how low quality product WD sell.
Here – lbuglist of WDTV: http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=1100499
WD TV has basic problems. It seems that WD now invent DVD format and have to solve all child problems.
But truth is, that any video player has solved all such problems – very very long ago, except WD TV.
I hope that WD repair all basic problems.
But it seems that it will be very long.
Ash,
I use my wd player to view 12megapixel jpeg photos on a sony bravia lcd. They do look very good with crisp colours and a 3d presentation. I also have music files playing simultaneously.
However i took the wd player to a friends house and hooked it up to a full hd jvc projector and tried some 23megapixel photos. The results were amazing and on par with that of 35mm slides if not better!!
Also blu ray movie rips from hard disk played via wd player and through the projector gave a sense that one would never need to go to the cinema theater ever again – it was that impressive!!
As for using a pc screen I have not tried this so can’t be of any help. I don’t personally see the use of a pc screen with a wd player as I view my photos(on pc) with pc software such as acdsee or the windows fax and picture viewer.
So yes I would recommend the wd player instead of a digital frame since the wd player upsales to 1080p for jpeg photos aswell.
Kal
Bob
I am not sure what you are after then if you don’t find this machine magnificant. It does everything with ease. Plays dvd movies with ease. Shows each movie with coverart with ease. DVDFAB is ok but shrink is better in my opinion. I only use FAB when shrink can’t get past the copywrite protection which is hardly ever. I really don’t know what you are hoping for with your moviesif you can’t get it this simple process right.
1. All you do is burn a dvd (movie only) to a USB.
2. Add a coverart image named folder.jpg to a new folder.
3. Copy the Video_TS folder to this new folder with the jpg. in it (Do not add the jpg to the video_ts folder. This needs to be separated.
4. Plug in your USB and you should see the cover art for your movie. Click once to open the folder . Click again to open VIDEO_TS folder. Click again to start movie.
Thats all you need to know to view movies with this awesome devise. If your not happy with those 4 simple steps then I reckon you never will be.
I suspect you need to read a bit more on what you want before you buy.
99% of the reviews in this forum think this machine is the best. You must be doing something wrong of have faulty equipment.
I’m with Steve. This is a great device and it does all the things Steve describes. It also shows your jpeg photos awesomely well on a big screen TV.
I even play my music through it and the sound is fantastic.
Best investment I have made in a long time!
I have a WDTV and it’s awesome. Plays the MOST variety of video formats of the other media players. Wired Magazine rated it VERY High when it graded various players. The WDTV player is a BARGAIN at less than $125. I have absolutely NO complaints about it —
To skip ahead by 10 min intervals just press the fast forward button then the skip button. I figured this out while messing around with it! makes it neat that i can skim around fast enough!
Hi,
Just bought my WD Tv yesterday an tried playing my video collection. I specially bought it to play my HD video files from my canon IXUS camera which records at 720p in H.264 format. However to my dissapointment it plays video but shows a message Audio 1 unsupported. Can anyone suggest how can I fix this?
One more thing, I had a ripped blu ray in 720p in DTS audio. The video got played but no audio. My WD is connected to tv through HDMI but to test it out I additionaly connected it thru optical audio cable and the sound came out perfectly. So a tip, for DTS audio, try playing it through optical cable and it works.
For my other issue, please help.
AJ
AJ
First thing to check is what firmware your unit is running?
Jeff,
Its the latest one that WD has to offer. Just downloaded it today and updated it, but still the same.
Just tried using DVD shrink to back up one of my DVD’s however it doesn’t seem to ‘Shrink’ the film very much. Can any one tell me how to shrink a DVD (just the film) down to under a 1000 GB ?
Thanks
Simon
AJ
I had trouble playing video from my Ixus 860is Canon early on. (I have had my WD TV for over a year now) but later firmware updates fixed my problem. I am now running 1.02.10 firmware without any issues.
To fix my early sound problems I used a software package call Any Video Converter (free) to keep the video the same but convert the audio to a file that worked on the WD TV….mp3 I think. But of course this is a lot of work and a bit of a pain.
My suggestion though is keep mucking around with the sound options within the unit…stereo, digital, optical cable etc and see how you go. Go into the settings section and change the audio settings….see if that helps.
Also contact WD direct. You can call them which might be helpful.
Hope it does. Sorry I dont have a magic fix.
Simon
I thought shrink allowed you to shrink to any size you want. In other words compress the film to a size that suits you.
Simon
DVDchrink does not let you shrink below 50% of the movie which is about 2.5gb. I use AutoGardianknot to compress my movies down to 700mb, 1.4gb etc to an avi format. I did this with a lot of my dvd’s to get more movies on. For my favourate movies though I did not shrink at all. Wanted to maintain full quality. Also you can you Divx Converter. Compressing them down this low though takes a long time. About 6 hours sometimes. Download the program free and read the manual to help you get it write. I always start with a tv episode I have on dvd to see if it works. That way your not wasting hours to find it didn’t work for you.
Anyone out their got problems with audio for their Video camera files just convert it to MP4 using Nero Recode. Baic and simple. works evertime.
Jeff,
I have the 1.02.07 version. Will try updating it again with 1.02.10. Thanks for the help.
Hi everybody,
my WD TV is connected to Philips HTS 8140 via optical cables and I still have no sound when playing mkv format files. Firmware is upgraded to latest version. Can anybody help?
Thanks
Neno
Is the audio DTS?
Hi everybody,
Have went through the entire forum but I’m still a bit confuse regarding the audio playback. Maybe the fallowing questions will be stupid but :
The hardware solution: If I need external DAC to convert the DTS should I connect it via Optical and in the same time to use the HDMI for the video?
The software solution: Is the above mentioned popcorn software similar to nero? Do I just need to pass the movie through the program, set the parameters for audio and save the result?
Can somebody clarify this for me.
Anyways I’m very happy with the device. And I strongly recommend it.
Thank you,
Can anyone confirm or deny that styled .ass subtitles play in their original format or does WDTV convert them all into a bland generic looking white format.
Hi Jeff,
Audio is DTS or at least I think it is. Any suggestions?
Thanks
Neno,
I doubt your TV will decode DTS so hence no sound. So you need to run the audio through a reciever that decodes DTS with a toslink cable.
Thats how I have mine set up and it is perfect.
Hi Jeff,
my WD TV is connected to Philips HTS 8140 Home theatre system via optical cable and to Philips TV via HMDI cable. Home theater should decode DTS but looks like it doesn’t. I am not trying to play audio straight to TV.
Thanks
Neno
Ah I see….I thought you had connected straight to TV. Sorry about that. You will need to check if your reciever decodes DTS.
I run mine through a Pioneer and it has written on the front of the unit both Dolby Digital and the DTS symbols.
To all,
I was pleasantly surpised and extremely delighted that the WD player can play lossless 24 bit / 96Khz flac music files. The audio from this type of music file is even better than 16 bit/ 44.1khz . What a great piece of kit this is for the price!!!
Kal
I also rip my DVD’s with handbreak for WD media playback purposes and DOM, you are right, for some reason it DOES NOT allow you to fast forward or rewind, WHY NOT!??!? Any help here would be GREATLY appreciated!! JR
Hi,
I have problems with HD 1080p playback. After sometime audio is lost and subtitle is shown for a blink of second. Also, video is slowed down and become “shaky”. My brother have box also and have same problems. It looks to me that WDHDTV have problems with throughput and is not able to process that volume of information. This is happening on files coded with f.e. 15-20Mbps in size over 20Gb. I’m talking about mkv files. I think its not ripping problem, ‘cos files are played perfectly on PC.
Can anyone state what are maximum capabilities in Mbps?
Can this be due to firmware or it is just hardware limitations.
I tried with 1.02.07 and 1.02.10 firmware and same behaviour.
Interesting thing is when this is happening, pressing brief Back and after that Play would put it back in normal (audio and video) until next audio loss which can occure in 30 seconds or so.
Please can eny1 advice?
Thanks,
Neven
I have had the player for a few months now, and it is a gr8 piece of kit. The only issue that i have, is that i have connected it to my LCD using a HDMI cable, but when i turn the WD on, and flick through the AV channels to the corresponding HDMI channel, i don’t see the WD screen. The only way around this is to disconnect and reconnect the HDMI lead from the TV. Any thougts??
CHeers.
Manj
You could have a faulty HDMI cord or plug in your LCD. I too use LCD for this and I have never had a problem. Have you checked that your settings are correct to show HDMI and not composite cables. I reccomend trying another HDMI cord to check.
Neven
Would love to help but your grammar is appalling and I can’t understand your complaint.
J Ryan, DOM
It hink its quite obvious that Handbreak (never heard of it so it must be crap) is a crap dvd ripper. Use DVD shrink or HD DVD Decrypter. Never fails and you can fastforward/ rewind on the WD with this.
Is there any way to stop the WD from picking random pictures for my folders, I have the folders split up into categories, ie films for the kids, films for me etc, and have the jpegs with each film, but for some reason it picks a picture for the category folder as well, even though it is named something else
Only a minor gripe I know, but I cant really fault it for anything else
Dont bother answering Ive found for myself, OH wait, you didnt!!!
Steve,
WD TV has half the price than similar devices.
Performance of this device corresponds to its price.
I am surprised that you write that WD TV works with ease. You reminded me of how my WD TV Works: Loading discs takes sometimes minute. Viewing coverart? This is terrible slow.
It gets gradually coverarts after 2-3 seconds.
Responses to the remote control? Take sometimes 5-8 seconds.
Slowness is the most typical feature of WD TV.
Or self resetting of WD TV during playing movie. Sometimes, not at the same point of the movie.
Or unable to remember movie position (it last after power off).
Why has WD TV access to TB discs, if he is unable to write movie position?
I am glad that WD add the possibility to move a movie by 10 minutes.
Without it was WD TV almost unusable.
Hooray.
Thank you for advice on how to rip movies, but I am not new to the technology of processing DVD movies.
To make sure, try for example, Monster House “(2006), or” Get Smart “(2008) in DVD format. Doesn’t depend if you rip it via DVD Shrink or something else.
Surprised me as you consider WD TV as perfect.
It is not. Maybe WD TV has good price / performance ratio. Low price, low performance.
For example, WD TV is only device, which only works with vob files, and can not handle DVD menu.
Because WD TV has a lot of problems, there are an alternative firmwares for WD TV.
And exists of WD TV lacks.
After some time of investigation I found out that WD TV is Linux based device.
This can be reason of strange operation of WD TV, its slowness and unexpected problems.
The Western Digital company has surprised me. They came to market with the device, which is so cheap because it is not complete.
(The functionality in viewing pictures and music I don’t comment, I do not use it)
Sorry.
Bob
Thanks for your comments however they are no longer valid since the subject you are replying too was back in August. If you wish your comments (however misguided they may be) to be recognized you need to respond while the subject is still worth discussing. Maybe the late replay is due to you trying to work your WD devise still. Its understandable, some people just don’t know how to work electronics. Or maybe the late reply is due to you still waiting on the coverart to load. Seriously 5 seconds is sooooooooooo long. I still think your equipment and your negative attitude is to blame for half your comments above. As stated previously, 99% of the people love this machine so maybe you should get over your low intellect for electronics and be happy with it. Speak to you in December.
PS If you are going to write a big comment please ensure you check your pathetic spelling and punctuation. I was barely able to understand you. Yet another fault of your own.
I’m astonished you could read it Steve…..I gave up after the second paragraph.
@ Steve it is apparent you are a windows user: “Never heard of Handbrake so it must be crap”. Sure just speculate.
Handbrake is a ripper for a more advanced OS, Linux.
@ J Ryan- I use Handbrake and things are ok.
-My movies are transcoded with no problems. I can play them on laptops or desktops but when I transfer files to my WD 640gig Mybook for some reason they become corrupted.
If you notice Mybooks are preformatted to ext3.
I had reformat to NTFS to get all to load however some became corrupted. I installed new update version for HDMI player and still problems. I contacted Tech support from WD, they have no understanding of Linux.
I have found that Handbrake, K9, FFmpeg and all the other command line transcoders do a great job but it is the software in the HDMI player that still does not read all the linux encoding.
You can check out ubuntu forums for specific fixes.
Overall if I was running a windows system I would give the player an 8/10.
Since I am running a linux system and have a good understanding of A+ and Net+ I would give it 4.5/10.
You can just as easily download geeXboX free and install it on a new netbook for $150 more than WD HDMI Player and accomplish the same thing. + you get a netbook!
STEVO
Linux is a more advanced system you say, yet it cannot even transfer files to a simple hard drive. It sounds more advanced alright. Yes I am a windows user like 90% of the world mate. If you need tech support you may want to ensure you are using the sytem that the whole world know and not a select few geeks such as yourself. 8/10 is better then 4.5/10 so its obvious what you must do. Run Windows.
Bob,
Your comments below…………
“WD TV has half the price than similar devices.
Performance of this device corresponds to its price.”
Well I shall have to disagree here. I have compared the WD player with a popcorn media player a friend of mine has. Although the popcorn has slightly more features I can easily live without, the performance is the same IMHO – in all areas video, music and photo playback. This is no coincidence since both popcorn and WD player have the same sigma chipset inside( this is what I have read on forums so appologies if this is not the case) . Yet the popcorn cost much more than the WD player. My friend was very impressed with the WD and the only reason he went for the popcorn is that he needed component connections for his CRT tv – the popcorn has this but not the WD player. This was not an issue for me as I use HDMI for connection to LCD.
The WD player offers the performance other media players 2 or 3 times its price if you can live without features that the others offer over the WD player.
Kal.
Can somebody please list the features to come on WD HD TV player. I couldn’t find this anywhere. I bought this recently and seems to be a very good one.
And, I have few queries on the connections,
1. hdmi connection delivers only video, right?
2. for audio, to get the best output from WD HD TV, what cable do I need and how best can I use this?
Thanks
Sen
I have this media center and I have a problem, because it starts to overheat and have problems. WD needs to fix this with a fan.
Travis,
Yes the WD player does warm up even when it is swiched off from the remote.( Afriend of mine has a mac pro laptop and you should see how that heats up!!) Some here just switch off the Wd player from the mains. If you want it on stanby like I do then to To solve your problem:-
1. Re position the WD player to a better ventilated place( avoid placing in an enclosed area such as the shelf under the tv and use a longer connection lead for the tv).
2. I glued some 2 cm rubber “feet” (that audiophiles use under cd players too”) underneath the WD player( on each corner underneath, or 2 infront and one on the back to form a triangle shape underneath) to lift up from the surface it is placed on allowing ventilation from below too.( This also helps to isolate the player for audiophile purposes if you are using the player for music reproduction too.)
I now have no problems with the WD player after doing the 2 steps above. Hope it helps you out too.
Kal
Hello All, can somebody maybe help me , i’m downloading movies and when i want to play them it shows english digital in the top of the screen when you search in the option menu.
i have a lcd tv and hdmi in my tv from wdtv and a optic cable to to sound system and it’s set on digital but i don’t get any sound.
Hope somebody can help mee greeetz
Steve,
You are no longer factual in you last answer.
You gave me the answer as “DVD Shrink” is better than DVD Fab ‘, although I have written you that I also used DVD Shrink – with the same problem results.
I wrote you a list of DVD movies that you can play to try to convince you to play the defectiveness of WD TV in certain cases. Nothing.
I wrote you a link to a list of problems this device ….
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=1100499
Nothing.
You like WD TV.
For me it’s wery poor device.
That is all.
You’re right in one – my English is not good, English is not my native language.
Bob I’ve watched both the movies you mention on my WD. You’re doing something wrong or maybe you’ve got bad originals. I use DVD fab Platinum…movie only.
Your list of problems doesn’t mean anything…you show me any product that doesn’t have a long list of people crying about it….its typical. Fact of the matter is a lot of the issues are user error……refer to comment one above.
Best product for the $$ out there in my opinion…..no question.
There is no optical connecting port from the WD TV. How do you connect the optical cable to the AV amp to decode DTS? Thanks for any help.
Please disregard previous optical connecting question. My bad.
Millertimewest
Totally agree with you. Bob obviously has no clue on how to use this machine. DVD FAB is alos a great burning tool. I use this as a backup to DVDSHRINK. Never met a DVD I could burn with these 2 programs. Bob take notes man so we don’t have to hear your winey comments any further.
Hello All, can somebody maybe help me.
I Love this product, have the WD TV Media player for a few months now, have connected it to my LCD using a HDMI cable, but one serious problem:
When i watch movie, any times suddenly stop playing, usually for 1-2 minutes. Is this a WD TV Media Player or a HDMI cable problem?
CP,
You’d need to provide a little more info. What exactly does it do? Lose picture only, lose picture and sound, freeze picture and sound, reboot unit…….?????
Very unlikely that its an HDMI cable problem assuming you’ve got it securely connected.
Have you updated the WD to the latest firmware?
Is this common to all your movies or specific ones? How were these created?
Maybe Bob can help……..LOL.
cp I had a similar problem, and it was caused by a faulty hdmi cable. Try a different cable and if it stops cutting out then you found your answer.
Hello all ,
I recently upgraded to firmware 1.02.07. Since then any video over 720p is causing a freeze after a few seconds of playback. Trickmodes are also causing freeze. Same videos were playing just fine with original firmware.
Has anybody experienced similar problems ?
thanks in advance
laszlo
Have had a WDTV for past year. Been a great little trouper and played most *but not all* 1080p files I’ve chucked at it. Have commented once or twice before on this thread.
Slight gripes with WDTV are that: slow on menu navigation.
DTS output is great to my 5.1 hi-fi but this is a great unit to chuck in a backpack and take home for xmas hols etc… except that my mum doesn’t have 5.1 hi-fi (lazy cow) so lack of DTS decode becomes apparent then. Can transcode mkvs to DD AC3 first (google “popcornhour mkv audio converter” for HeartWare’s excellent free tool that does just that – thks to those on this thread that pointed me to this).
Just ready to sell it though as have bought the excellent Xtreamer. Made by a v enthusiastic korean company. No distributors, just direct sale from internet to keep costs down (€99 or £99). Much more powerful chip and there is now a passive cooled version (a must as the fan is a little noisy).
I know the improved WDTV Live is out now but check this.
Plays all that WDTV plays plus more. Shows DVD menus. And it can decode DTS and output it either 5.1 or downmixed to stereo over HDMI or optical. No more converting. And get this: it can also output DTS-HD MA, DTS-HD HR and Dolby True HD too. Supports BluRay ISO format plus supports multichannel FLAC on movies.
Plus has ethernet adaptor +wireless-n optional adaptor antenna, plus *internal* 2.5″ HDD bay. Can use uPnP, SAMBA, FTP. Uses internet for youtube, flickr, bbc.co.uk, internet radio, has iphone remote app +much more.
Active forums with developer participation and regular updates. Costs a bit more than WDTV but so worth it. Google “xtreamer mavvy” for a comprehensive review.
Have loved my WDTV but it is inherently limited in some ways and now time to move on…. hope this may help any of you who feel the same way…
Noli
Is there anyway to change the thumbnail view from 12 to 21 on a screen. Also, can you change the wallpaper to your own custom wallpaper???
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