Western Digital Media Player is much better than expected!

[Mark42]

Wanted a good media player to go with the home server (running Windows Home Server PP3) now that it is loaded with home video, music and photos. Read many reviews about the Western Digital TV Live Plus, and it consistently got good reviews.

Hooked it up using a HDMI cable (not included) to the tv, and an RJ45 cable for lan access. That took about 2 minutes.

Next was configuring the player for the network. It automatically detected the network, and I had to add a user account on the server for the WDTVLIVEPLUS and set a password for it.

After that, all the video, photos and music played perfectly.

The big surprise is how great the DV home videos that were captured as MPEG played. It was clearer than when it plays on the laptop.

HDMI video at 1080p (30fps) looks outstanding!

Even the Youtube and netflix services work better than expected. Netflix plays better than the app on the Wii.

Screen navigation is fairly straight forward, nothing fancy, but I wish there were some short cuts between the video, music and photo menus.

It's not wireless, but it does accept wireless USB adapters.

For about $89 on Amazon, its really hard to beat this product. If you need one with a hard drive, look at the WD TV LIVE Hub.

 

[ezmobee]

Re: Western Digital Media Player is much better than expected!

Thanks for posting this Mark. I've been considering one of these type of products to the replace the aging PC I currently have hooked up to my TV in the living room. I was looking at the Apple TV but it had file format issues, the Boxee box, and the WD.

 

[Mark42]

Re: Western Digital Media Player is much better than expected!

Thanks for posting this Mark. I've been considering one of these type of products to the replace the aging PC I currently have hooked up to my TV in the living room. I was looking at the Apple TV but it had file format issues, the Boxee box, and the WD.

I'm pretty sure that Boxee Box is a bit lower on the scale than the WD media player. I did read reviews about it, but it fell off my scale of the top 5 or so players pretty fast. It also just looks stupid, so unless it was the best of the best, I would not buy it. The Apple TV product looked good too. You need to do a side by side comparison to which is best. Unless you are a die-hard Apple person, I would lean to the higher rated WD player.

For me the decision came down to the Asus Oplay vs the WD TV Live Plus. The WD player does what I needed, the Oplay was a close second.

You might find numerous complaints that HD video stutters and chuggs on the WD player. But that is from people using a 54G wireless interface. If you go wireless, be sure to use wireless N, and even that may have issues, depending on your particular environment. I am hard wired, no playback issues with a 20 meg 1080p p high def playback. Smooth as silk.

I strongly suggest a hard wired net interface if you have the option.

 

[ezmobee]

Re: Western Digital Media Player is much better than expected!

I strongly suggest a hard wired net interface if you have the option.

I have a wired connection already there for the PC so I'm good there.

 

[Mark42]

Re: Western Digital Media Player is much better than expected!

What sort of media do have to play?

I ask because probably 90% of the file space on the server is used for home video. If you want to get all those family video tapes into one location so they can be played when family visits, then a good capture method is needed.

There are a few USB interface devices that will capture video, but of the methods I tried, a good fire-wire capture card (under about $50) will capture the video, then a software product like Roxio Video 8 will convert and save it as MPEG2. There are many capture cards and many software packages, but the Roxio makes the largest file (and therefore the best picture) of any product I tried. I did NOT try video capture cards that convert to MPEG2 directly. These are reported to work well also, in fact, better than most software products.

The PC I capture on has a P4 3.06Mhz processor (already old stuff you can buy cheap) and 1 gig memory. The CPU runs at between 80-90% the entire time it is capturing. Before upgrading the CPU from 1.8 to 3.06 and more memory, it used to run flat out at 100% and dropped frames left and right. So be sure the capture PC has a decent processor, at least what I listed above.

I was going to spend more $$ on a better capture card and software, but that would have been a few hundred, plus a new motherboard, bigger dual core processor, memory, etc. Would have spent about $400 just to get capture quality that is just a little better than what I have now.


BTW, video of the boats looks FANTASTIC on the big screen! I could watch the rooster tails and listen to the motor whine for hours..... Ahhhhhh......

 

[ezmobee]

Re: Western Digital Media Player is much better than expected!

Primarily I stream TV shows and movies that have been downloaded to my upstairs PC. I am also interested in the Netflix capability as I am afraid to pirate movies anymore these days.

 

[jkust]

Re: Western Digital Media Player is much better than expected!

I've had the WD Plus for several months now and I like it. What I didn't realize was that it can't connect wirelessly to the internet out of the box so had to move my cable modem (wireless G) upstairs into the bedroom where the WD is so I could hard wire it in. I really wanted it for netflix and I find that of the three netflix, tv connected devices we have being Xbox slim, WII and the WD the WD has the worst netflix interface. There is no search function on the WD for a netflix movie while the others have it. That has me baffeled. Also many time while I'm watching a movie the audio will go out and sound garbled while this has never happened on the xbox or wii. The funny thing is as soon as I hooked the WD up it instantly read and categorized the content of my laptop downstairs. The Xbox which is made by microsoft is supposed to do the same thing using media center and it simply doesn't work. I've gotten it to connect but so slow that is it useless. I read online that the teams that developed the extender for xbox didn't talk to the team who did the media center while the WD does it like a pro. Lastly no matter which device I use the video is actually pretty bad being fuzzy with a ton of artifacts. The WII actually seems to provide the best video i presume because the wii can't deliver content in HD and for some reason HD doesn't look good on my tv's. Maybe because my cable internet package is the lowest speed available and the actual speed is really low.

 

[Mark42]

Re: Western Digital Media Player is much better than expected!

I've had the WD Plus for several months now and I like it. ....... I really wanted it for netflix and I find that of the three netflix, tv connected devices we have being Xbox slim, WII and the WD the WD has the worst netflix interface. There is no search function on the WD for a netflix movie while the others have it. That has me baffeled. Also many time while I'm watching a movie the audio will go out and sound garbled while this has never happened on the xbox or wii. .....

You may need a firmware update. The Netflix app has search on my box. The audio and poor video may be firmware, but because the WD tries to play everything HD, it may have problems with some (most) netflix because they are not HD. Try a firmware upgrade. If that does not solve the problem it is probably your internet connection quality. Or call WD for support, its free for the first few months IIRC.

The wii may actually perform better because it is the lowest resolution of all netflix interfaces. So it does not put demands on your internet connection like better grade interfaces do (xbox and wd).

 

[jkust]

Re: Western Digital Media Player is much better than expected!

You may need a firmware update. The Netflix app has search on my box. The audio and poor video may be firmware, but because the WD tries to play everything HD, it may have problems with some (most) netflix because they are not HD. Try a firmware upgrade. If that does not solve the problem it is probably your internet connection quality. Or call WD for support, its free for the first few months IIRC.

The wii may actually perform better because it is the lowest resolution of all netflix interfaces. So it does not put demands on your internet connection like better grade interfaces do (xbox and wd).

The WD actually notifies you of Firmware updates. I'm betting you got at least one when you plugged it in out of the box. I've done/received two so far and have one pending I haven't gotten to yet but I am waiting for the one that adds the search function. I think you hit it on the head why the WII looks so much better and that says a lot or I suppose very little about the others since the 480p wii is playing content over an HD TV which generally don't look good when playing Standard def content. In other words if the wii on an hd tv looks better than hd content on an hd tv, I've got problems. The APPs on the WD are some strange ones to me too. Other than Facebook, and a couple others, they are all foreign to me. What the heck is Deezer? I'd love HULU and a few others on there. The tactical control of the content we can access on any given device kind of bugs me when it is all available on your PC. Of course accessing Netflix on an xbox costs you an extra nine dollars a month for their 'Gold XBOX Live' membership just to get to the Netflix app which costs another 8 dollars a month.

 

[ezmobee]

Re: Western Digital Media Player is much better than expected!

jkust, so would you or would you onot recommend the WD device? I don't have an xbox. I am looking for a cheaper alternative to buying a new PC for the TV.

 

[jkust]

Re: Western Digital Media Player is much better than expected!

jkust, so would you or would you onot recommend the WD device? I don't have an xbox. I am looking for a cheaper alternative to buying a new PC for the TV.

At $89 I would but not at $120 which is how much I paid from Best Buy (but had a gift card so I splurged). To be honest I looked around a little and I'm no Apple fan but the Apple TV which was the other one Best Buy carried was cheaper but didn't play full HD which I can't really harness anyway. At the end of the day most of the Blu Ray players have similar App capabilities for a similar price but also play discs. I am of the opinion that Blu Ray didn't take off as much as I originally thought since on demand came on the scene so opted for the very compact WD device. I think the WD is really a crutch until all tv's simply have the capabilities built in. The biggest downside is the lack of out of the box wireless which limits where you can use it in my opinion. All the WD competitors will be missing one of two of the apps that the other has so I think that is a wash. The WD can never match a PC for content but for the other stuff it does a respectable job considering I think we are at the infancy of these devices. When I bought the WD the store guy said a lot of people are simply buing the 4 gig Xbox which ignoring compatability issues I suppose makes sense but having to pay $9 per month to access any online content does not. I'm not a gamer but my kids are and the xbox and the stuff it does is really quite amazing for $200. My final thought is that I have a WD back up Terabyte hard drive and it is the most frustrating piece of equipment I've ever encountered and so buying the WD hub was a leap of faith.

 

[Mark42]

Re: Western Digital Media Player is much better than expected!

The WD actually notifies you of Firmware updates. I'm betting you got at least one when you plugged it in out of the box. I've done/received two so far and have one pending I haven't gotten to yet but I am waiting for the one that adds the search function. I think you hit it on the head why the WII looks so much better and that says a lot or I suppose very little about the others since the 480p wii is playing content over an HD TV which generally don't look good when playing Standard def content. In other words if the wii on an hd tv looks better than hd content on an hd tv, I've got problems. The APPs on the WD are some strange ones to me too. Other than Facebook, and a couple others, they are all foreign to me. What the heck is Deezer? I'd love HULU and a few others on there. The tactical control of the content we can access on any given device kind of bugs me when it is all available on your PC. Of course accessing Netflix on an xbox costs you an extra nine dollars a month for their 'Gold XBOX Live' membership just to get to the Netflix app which costs another 8 dollars a month.

I think you should go with the latest firmware. The previous version was chock full of bugs and everyone complained about it. But WD does let you pick and choose which firmware version you run. Most people consider the latest the best, and I just double checked, and netflix does have a search. It even worked with the wireless keyboard.

These media players have been around for quite a few years now. The WD has the best reviews for playing the most type of media without problems. I have no idea what most of those other apps it comes with are, I just use Netflix, the weather, Youtube and thats about it.

If you want to play your media on the TV, then this is the unit to get. If you have other priorities, there are many other products to choose from.

 

[jtmarten]

Re: Western Digital Media Player is much better than expected!

I have 2 hard drive based media players. My 400 DVD changer has long been full, and I had about 800 more movies sitting on spindles. Would have cost me over $700 for 2 more changers, plus a ton of space.
One of my players has 2 USB ports to hook up additional external hard drives. We've used it several times on the boat and it works great. 12v, 5a input, or use it with an inverter. I get about 225 movies on a 1tb drive. I have another I bought for $20 w/shipping on ebay that now has a 1tb drive, but no USB host ports.
I'm looking at some of the 'mini' media players on ebay to be dedicated for boat use, they hold a 2.5" HD, have a 5.6v, 2a input, and are about as big as a desktop hard drive. Even a 500gb HD will hold over 100 movies and lots of music, plenty for a weekend on the water!

 

[jkust]

Re: Western Digital Media Player is much better than expected!

I think you should go with the latest firmware. The previous version was chock full of bugs and everyone complained about it. But WD does let you pick and choose which firmware version you run. Most people consider the latest the best, and I just double checked, and netflix does have a search. It even worked with the wireless keyboard.

These media players have been around for quite a few years now. The WD has the best reviews for playing the most type of media without problems. I have no idea what most of those other apps it comes with are, I just use Netflix, the weather, Youtube and thats about it.

If you want to play your media on the TV, then this is the unit to get. If you have other priorities, there are many other products to choose from.

How do you select which firmware you can utilize? Also then how and why would you use a wireless keyboard? Hook up a wireless usb and the unit recognizes it? Since it isn't like google tv and you are limited to just the apps, are you using the keyboard for Youtube? I saw there is a Blockbuster app that appeared with my last firmware update. Given the limited/b and c grade movie selection on Netflix, I wonder what Blockbuster is like.

 

[ezmobee]

Re: Western Digital Media Player is much better than expected!

Well I signed up for my Netflix account yesterday and added a bunch of titles to the queue (mostly fishing and boating stuff for the moment ). I was anxious to see if my current "home theater" PC could handle the streaming. FAIL. Bad stutter. The new laptop and the older dual core upstair handled it fine. So I guess that thing is history. It's an older P4. I'll probably order a WD box next week.

 

[ezmobee]

Re: Western Digital Media Player is much better than expected!

Ordered the WD box last night from Newegg. Can't wait to try it out!!

 

[scipper77]

Re: Western Digital Media Player is much better than expected!

I have an LG Blu-ray/surround sound all in one unit that also supports netflix, youtube, pandora, and a few other apps. I have to say that it does a pretty good job. It's a little quirky at times (poor frame rate, audio looses sync on youtube sometimes).

jkust: We were having issues with our internet connection recently (unexplained lack of bandwidth) and the netflix was horrible. I'm fairly confident that most of your complaints stem from a lack of bandwidth.

My prediction for the future of this sort of thing is that there will be a major improvement in the quality of streaming technology where resolution and frame rate will rival that of a blu-ray disk. Also there needs to be a provision for streaming audio in surround sound. Based on this I think that all of these players will become obsolete in the near future and we will all be upgrading once again.

 

[ezmobee]

Re: Western Digital Media Player is much better than expected!

Short version: I got my WD TV Plus on Friday and used it all weekend and am happy with it.

Longer version: The internet stuff worked right away (Netflix, Pandora, Facebook, etc) and I was thrilled. I had never done the Netflix streaming on any device before and I'm am extremely impressed with the service and it works fantastically on this device. However, I had a HECK of a time getting it to connect to and stream content from my Windows 7 desktop on my network. I couldn't get it to show up as a "media server" and for whatever reason the network share connection didn't work either. The most frustrating part was that it WOULD work about 1 in 5 times through the network share connection. The other times it would just churn for a while and then eventually say "no media files found" or something like that. I spent hours troubleshooting things over the weekend. I was close to giving up on it and returning it. Last night though, I started figuring out that there seems to be some issues with Windows 7 "homegroups" versus the old network "workgroups". I had put in the name of my old workgroup into the WD device. Last night I changed that to some BS value and now the Windows 7 machine shows up as a media server and everything works. I'm still not thrilled with how many clicks it takes to get from the main menu all the way into a file you want to play but I'll deal with it. I'm still happier having spent $89.99 on the WD box than a couple hundred on a newer HTPC.

 

[jkust]

Re: Western Digital Media Player is much better than expected!

Short version: I got my WD TV Plus on Friday and used it all weekend and am happy with it.

Longer version: The internet stuff worked right away (Netflix, Pandora, Facebook, etc) and I was thrilled. I had never done the Netflix streaming on any device before and I'm am extremely impressed with the service and it works fantastically on this device. However, I had a HECK of a time getting it to connect to and stream content from my Windows 7 desktop on my network. I couldn't get it to show up as a "media server" and for whatever reason the network share connection didn't work either. The most frustrating part was that it WOULD work about 1 in 5 times through the network share connection. The other times it would just churn for a while and then eventually say "no media files found" or something like that. I spent hours troubleshooting things over the weekend. I was close to giving up on it and returning it. Last night though, I started figuring out that there seems to be some issues with Windows 7 "homegroups" versus the old network "workgroups". I had put in the name of my old workgroup into the WD device. Last night I changed that to some BS value and now the Windows 7 machine shows up as a media server and everything works. I'm still not thrilled with how many clicks it takes to get from the main menu all the way into a file you want to play but I'll deal with it. I'm still happier having spent $89.99 on the WD box than a couple hundred on a newer HTPC.

I'm glad you got it working and that you like it. Your longer version sounds like the frustration I had when I tried to use the Xbox extender before I had the WD. I never did figure out why I could only connect it maybe 2 times of dozens of tries and those two times it really just sat and didn't do much. The bummer is the xbox is on our main family room tv and would be handy to have it work to watch home videos and pictures. After you spend several hours troubleshooting with no results, I just have to walk away.

 

[scipper77]

Re: Western Digital Media Player is much better than expected!

Does the WD unit support DLNA?

If you are not familiar with DLNA it's a new standard to make file sharing across a network seamless. If you have a DLNA compatible storage device, any compatible player will automatically have access to them. Also new phones are DLNA compatible so you can send HD video to your tv wirelessly from your phone. Your phone in this case acts like a remote control. I'm dumbing it down a bit but you get the idea.

Any upgrades I make to my home network in the near future will be compatible.