Sunday, November 2nd 2008
Western Digital WD TV HD Media Player for USB Drives Surfaces
Without any official release from Western Digital, a new product of theirs has emerged on Best Buy called the WD TV HD Media Player. It is a very small device not much bigger than the remote it comes with, but what is unique about this gadget is that it allows you to plug in a USB flash drive or USB hard disk drive (HDD), and play full 1080p high definition videos, pictures and music, on to your TV. It supports two USB2.0 devices simultaneously, measuring only 1.6x4.9x3.9 inches and weighing a mere 10.7 oz, it could be the answer for many people instead of having HTPC's or trailing cables from their main PC's. The RRP of the device appears to be $129.99, however it is currently on sale at Best Buy for $99.99.
Sources:
Engadget, Best Buy
15 Comments on Western Digital WD TV HD Media Player for USB Drives Surfaces
edit: Oops, didn't mean that stand-alones don't have problems, I'm too tired to reword that lol.
Unlikely, I think.
Sigh,....
but I think WD should really think about having some extra points
1- ability to have internal HDD
2- ability to be connected to the network, and the ability to use any NAS in the network
3- some nice ports, Firewire 400 or 800 or at least eSATA
there's some nice devices with the same and more features, they have the NAS function ( actually they work as NAS when connected to the network ), they have internal HDD, they have pleantly of ports even you can use one USB port to install optional USB WiFi adapter
hope to see this device a start for the next feature rich devices :)
www.freecom.com/ecproduct_detail.asp?ID=3750&CatID=8060&sCatID=1147078&ssCatID=1147078
I have it connected to my TV by Composite Video and RCA Stereo audio because its an older CRT Sony and it only has SCART, Composite and S-Video inputs. I had the streaming over the wireless set up on my old XP PC but haven't got round to doing it on Vista. The NDAS works, but its actually pretty slow for file transfers - many users on the Freecom forums seem to use the built in FTP server or Samba.
If I have something on the PC I want to watch on the TV I tend to plu in a Flash Drive in the back, and then every few weeks I take it to my PC and synchronise the Media Librarys over USB.
maddhat.com/?p=31
Nice pix of the WD Media Player,......pr0n!