Here's another review of it:
http://www.tweaktown.com/reviews/1742/western_digital_s_wd_tv_hd_media_player_video_review/index.html
*Final Thoughts*
You can currently pick up the *WD TV from Newegg*
<http://www.dpbolvw.net/click-3333140-10440897?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.newegg.com%2FProduct%2FProduct.aspx%3FItem%3DN82E16822136325%26nm_mc%3DAFC-C8Junction%26cm_mmc%3DAFC-C8Junction-_-Hard%2BDrives%2B-%2BExternal-_-Western%2BDigital-_-22136325&cjsku=N82E16822136325>
for a very reasonable $109.99 USD shipped to your door; $20 less than
what it's going for at the WD Shop. We would like to see it drop in
price to around the magic $99 USD mark, but we cannot have everything
our way.
However, if you consider the cost for even building the most basic HTPC
that can do the same as the WD TV, things begin to look a whole lot
better for that asking price. Inside the package of the WD TV, Western
Digital also include a $20 USD off ticket (promo code) when you buy a My
Passport Essential portable USB hard disk drive, as well as 20% off on
protector cases for the drive. The WD TV does come with a nice matching
black stand to seat your My Passport Essential drive - sneaky Western
Digital, but a nice idea. Also in the package is a CD which includes
ArcSoft MediaConverter 2.5, some demo files to try out and the manual.
Really, we tried to make the WD TV fail during our testing; we tried
thinking of bad points for this product, but came up almost empty
besides just a few small issues. First on the list is it is a slight
disappointment that there is no Ethernet networking to stream content
from a file server or your PC. We would also like to see a price drop
and maybe a HDMI cable included in the package, but besides that,
Western Digital's WD TV is a brilliantly designed product for what it is
intended to do. For anyone looking to add basic HD movie playback and
more to their lounge room, _this is pretty much as good as it gets and
best of all, it's affordable for many people_!
Robert Martin Jr. wrote:
I hadn't seen that one before. My HTPC is really just used for video capture so
I have a fairly minimal system. I also run a few websites off the same box
along with MisterHouse for home automation. I use an Avel Linkplayer2 (network
DVD player) for playback and it can handle HD content no problem. I've had it
for years and it still does better than a lot of the new players.
lopaka
--- On Tue, 2/3/09, Stan Zaske <[email protected]> wrote:
From: Stan Zaske <[email protected]>
Subject: [H] Western Digital TV HD
To: [email protected]
Date: Tuesday, February 3, 2009, 6:54 PM
Have any of you seen this new product from WD? You can turn any USB storage
devise into a media player in your living room without the complication and
expense of building an HTPC. Much more versatile that the nVidia ION in the
number of file formats it supports. Cheap too!
http://www.itreviewed.co.uk/rev.php?id=902
