Monday, December 14, 2009

Digital Media Player Guide Review - Western Digital WD TV Live HD Media Player

By Harold Jones

If you have a lower budget for your media player, then the Western Digital WD TV Live HD Media Player (WDBAAN0000NBK-NESN) is a great value for the price, and it still comes jam packed with all of the popular functions and features of the more expensive players out on the market. Because of its functionality and ease of use, the WD TV Live is very popular among digital media player owners. Release in October 2009, Western Digital made some great upgrades from the previous version, the WD TV. Now, the WD TV Live HD Media Streamer can support video playback up to 1080p TrueHD and supports Dolby Digital sound through the optical audio output or the HDMI output. The menu systems have also been upgraded in the new WD TV Live model making it easier to navigate to your media.

Western Digital WD TV Live Network-Ready HD Media Player

Priced: $119.99 USD

The WD TV Live digital media player allows you to stream your media like video, music, photos, and more to your HD TV and play your digital music through your home theater sound system. This media streamer does not come with a built in hard disk drive, but must be connected to an external USB mass storage hard drive or wireless network wherever your media files are stored. Western Digital recommends the Western Digital My Book Essential USB Desktop External Hard Drive that has 1 terabyte of storage space available for storing your media. Right out of the box from the manufacturer, the WD TV Live must be hard wired to your network. There is also an optional wireless adapter, recommended by Western Digital is the Linksys Range Plus Wireless USB Compact Adapter, that will allow you to go wireless and connect to your home or business wireless network.

Either wired or wireless this digital media player has it's competition cut out for it. It is very similar to the Patriot Box Office HD and the HDX1000 Network Media Tank, but it doesn't offer the feature of adding your own internal hard drive to the media player itself. If this isn't a concern then the WD TV Live is really a fantastic media player. It offers the latest and greatest including 1080p true high definition through HDMI and Dolby Digital and DTS Encoders. Here are the goods, on the WD TV Live:

* Supports up to 1080p True HD video playback through the HDMI 1.3 port

* You can connect external hard drives directly or connect to your network wirelessly with optional adapter

* USB port for USB drives

* Audio Supported: WMA, WAV/PCM/LPCM, MP3, FLAC, AIF/AIFF, AAC, MKA, OGG, Dolby Digital, and DTS

* Videos Formats: 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), MP4/MOV (MPEG4, h.264), WMV9, M2TS

Photo formats: GIF, TIF/TIFF, JPEG, BMP, PNG

* Connections: Video: Composite Video Out, HDMI v1.3 (up to 1080p); Audio: S/PDIF Optical Digital Audio, Other: 10/100 Ethernet.

* Remote Control Included. - 23815

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