Digital Media Player Guide Review – Western Digital WD TV Live HD Media Player
If you are looking for more bang for your buck then the Western Digital WD TV Live Network-ready HD Media Player WDBAAN0000NBK-NESN has some of the best features and capabilities on the market. The WD TV live is a very popular digital media player, and is highly rated by its owners for ease of use and functionality. The latest player released by Western Digital on October 13, 2009, the WD TV Live added some key upgrades from the previous release from Western Digital, the WD TV. This player is network ready, provides video playback up to 1080p TrueHD and digital sound. One of the biggest improvements were to the menu system for selecting your media.
Western Digital Network Ready WD TV Live HD Media Player
Price: $119.99 USD
The Western Digital WD TV Live gives you the ability to stream your media files like video, music, and photos from your digital media player to your home theater entertainment system. The WD TV Live unfortunately does not come with an internal hard drive from the manufacturer, so you will have to connect it to an external USB mass storage device (UMD) or your existing wireless home network. There is a recommended external hard drive from the manufacturer, the Western Digital My Book Essential 1 terabyte model, which will give you loads of space for your media files. So your WD TV must be hard wired to your home network, or there is also a wireless adapter, the Linksys Range Plus Wireless USB Compact Adapter is recommended by Western Digital, that will give you the ability to go wireless and stream your media anywhere in your house.
The WD TV Live media player has it’s work cut out for it by competing with similar players on the market. It is very similar to both the HDX1000 Network Media Tank and the Patriot Media Player. One difference is that the WD TV Live does not offer the ability to install an internal hard drive, like the HDX 1000 and the Patriot Box Office. If you don’t plan on installing an internal hard drive, then the WD TV Live is a great value for the price and is a great HD media player. You will still be getting the latest features like 1080p True HD and Dolby Digital and DTS Surround Sound. Here are the specifications for the WD TV Live:
* Includes HDMI 1.3 port, Supporting up to True HD 1080p
* External hard drives can be connected directly via USB
* USB Port
* Audio Supported: WMA, WAV/PCM/LPCM, MP3, FLAC, AIF/AIFF, AAC, MKA, OGG, Dolby Digital, and DTS
* Videos Formats: MP4/MOV (MPEG4, h.264), WMV9, M2TS, MPG/MPEG, VOB AVI (Xvid, AVC, MPEG 1/2/4) MKV (h.264, x.264, AVC, MPEG1/2/4, VC-1) TS/TP/M2T (MPEG1/2/4, AVC, VC-1)
Photo formats: BMP, PNG, JPEG, GIF, TIF/TIFF
* Connections: Audio: S/PDIF Optical Digital Audio; Video: HDMI v1.3 (up to 1080p), Composite Video Out; Other: 10/100 Ethernet.
* Remote Control.
Learn more about what a Digital Media Player is at Harold Jones’ site where you can find more free information about the WD TV LIVE HD and other digital media players that are on the market.
