WD TV Live Digital MultiMedia Player

Reviews - Featured Reviews: Notebook | Compact PC

Written by Olin Coles

Monday, 09 July 2012

Table of Contents: Page Index
WD TV Live Digital MultiMedia Player
Closer Look: WD TV Live
WD TV Live Test Results
WD TV Live Games and Services
WD TV Live Conclusion

Page 1 of 5

WD TV Live Media Player Review

Manufacturer: Western Digital Corporation
Product Name: WD TV Live Media Player
Part Number: WDBHG70000NBK-01
Model Number: WDBHG70000NBK-HESN
UPC: 718037784410
Price As Tested: $89.99 (Newegg or Amazon)

Full Disclosure: The product sample used in this article has been provided by WD.

NOTICE: Since the WD TV Live Media Player was first introduced on October 2011, it has been marketed under the same product name despite design changes and hardware revisions. This article pertains to part number WDBHG70000NBK-01 with model number WDBHG70000NBK-HESN, using firmware version 1.09.10 (released 6/5/2012).

Ours is a modern world where physical products have been replaced with digital clones, allowing personal entertainment to reach a new level of convenience. Music, photos, movies... they're all just a small part of the multimedia library that we save and collect. Most of us have been downloading files onto our computer for as long as we've had Internet access, and purchased discs promptly get converted into stored backup copies.

Until recently digital multimedia could only be enjoyed on the computer, and with some extra effort it could be shared onto a portable electronic device. But high-definition movies and music are really best enjoyed on a home theater system, with larger screen and powerful speakers. Now that HDTVs and wireless networking are commonplace an era of attached digital media players has begun, and the WD TV Live helps make the transition easy.

The WD TV Live Media Player is compatible with every modern file format used to play back multimedia items saved onto local storage devices or connected networks. Watching broadcast television and DVD/Blu-ray movies is old-school, and have been replaced with streaming web content and downloaded multimedia files. In this article Benchmark Reviews tests the WD TV Live high-definition digital media player, and we evaluate how well it entertains us.

WD TV Live Specifications

Source: Western Digital Corporation

File Formats Supported

Video: AVI (Xvid, AVC, MPEG1/2/4), MPG/MPEG, VOB, 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), M2TS, WMV9, FLV (h.264)
Photo: JPEG, GIF, TIF/TIFF, BMP, PNG
Audio: MP3, WAV/PCM/LPCM, WMA, AAC, FLAC, MKA, AIF/AIFF, OGG, Dolby Digital, DTS
Playlist: PLS, M3U, WPL
Subtitle: SRT, ASS, SSA, SUB, SMI
Video: Format NTSC

Notes:

MPEG2 MP@HL up to 1920x1080p24, 1920x1080i30 or 1280x720p60 resolution.
MPEG4.2 ASP@L5 up to 1280x720p30 resolution and no support for global motion compensation.
WMV9/VC-1 MP@HL up to 1280x720p60 or 1920x1080p24 resolution. VC-1 AP@L3 up to 1920x1080i30, 1920x1080p24 or 1280x720p60 resolution.
H.264 BP@L3 up to 720x480p30 or 720x576p25 resolution.
H.264 This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it and This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it up to 1920x1080p24, 1920x1080i30, or 1280x720p60 resolution.
An audio receiver is required for multi-channel surround sound digital output.
Compressed RGB JPEG formats only and progressive JPEG up to 2048x2048.
Single layer TIFF files only.
Uncompressed BMP only.
For details, please refer to the user manual.

File Formats Not Supported

Does not support protected premium content such as movies or music from the iTunes Store, Movielink, Amazon Unbox, and Vongo

Physical Interfaces:

10/100 Ethernet
High-Speed USB 2.0
HDMI 1.3
Composite A/V
Wi-Fi N
SPDIF Optical audio

Physical Dimensions

Height 1.20 Inches / 30.0 mm
Depth 3.9 Inches / 100.0 mm
Width 4.9 Inches / 125.0 mm
Weight 0.42 Pounds / 0.19 kg

Environmental Specifications

Operating Temperature: 41° F to 95° F / 5° C to 35° C
Non-operating Temperature: -40° F to 149° F / -40° C to 65° C

Electrical Specifications

AC Input Voltage 100-240 VAC
AC Input Frequency 50-60 Hz

Kit Contents

Streaming media player
Remote control with batteries
Composite AV cable
AC adapter
Quick Install Guide

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Comments

# Will it step through folders? — Papoulka 2012-08-20 14:15

One shortcoming I have noticed even in the higher-end "Popcorn" media players is the inability to step through folders. Suppose I have a parent folder of "Rock Music", and beneath that a folder of "Dylan Songs 1" and another of "Dylan Songs 2". I begin playback with the first track in Dylan Songs 1. When the last track in that folder has been played, I want playback to continue with the first track in Dylan Songs 2. And to continue until all folders in "Rock Music" have been played through.

Players that won't do this are less useful than my old CD changer, which would at least play one disk after another.

What does this WD TV Live box do in such cases?

Thx

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# RE: Will it step through folders? — Olin Coles 2012-08-20 14:24

It plays from either a single directory in 'Directory Browsing' mode, or it will play from a list of all scanned media.

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# RE: Will it step through folders? — Papoulka 2012-08-20 21:17

Is it then correct to say that it will step through folders as I wish, but only if I have allowed it to scan all the media and create a list? Then I can start it where I want in the list?

Can I restrict its scan to one folder and below? I will have music as well as movies, and have a great interest in stepping through the former, and no interest in stepping through or playing lists of the latter.

Thanks for your reply and any further time you can take to clarify this. The cost of such a unit is not as important to me as its ease of use and intelligent interface.

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# RE: RE: Will it step through folders? — Olin Coles 2012-08-20 21:28

It actually scans for ALL media when you power on, so your choices are one directory or all media. However, to be clear, I haven't done much with the play list function.

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# RE: WD TV Live Digital MultiMedia Player — Mick P 2012-09-20 00:08

This may sound daft, but where are the files held? On an external HD or computer?

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# RE: RE: WD TV Live Digital MultiMedia Player — Olin Coles 2012-09-20 07:34

This device has internal memory to store the firmware, but all of your multimedia files reside on some other external storage device you provide. I use USB flash drives and an external USB hard drive, but it can see other network storage folders as well.

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# A question — Gustavo 2012-09-22 13:17

What operating system has this unit?

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# RE: A question — Olin Coles 2012-09-22 15:43

This device uses a proprietary Operating System developed by Western Digital.

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# Linux — Wombat 2012-10-25 02:10

The OS is based on Linux. So, there's alternative firmware, WDLXTV-Live, which can add a lot of functions including torrents.

I've had my WDTV Live for about 2.5 years now. I rarely have problems playing videos through it. Occasionally I run into something encoded with the wrong aspect ratio; that can be fixed using mkvmerge, or MPEG4 Modifier. Header compression has sometimes been a problem with mkv files, but mkvmerge can be used to fix that. The zoom function is particularly valuable for dealing with letterboxed (non-anamorphic) widescreen DVDs, after ripping them to mkv using Makemkv.

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# NAS access? — Harry 2012-10-01 10:00

Will this product be able to access any NAS devices on my home network?
eg: like the Seagate GoFlex Home 3TB Network Attached Storage device.
thnx

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# RE: NAS access? — Snoop 2012-10-01 15:46

Yes. I have a D-link 2TB NAS and it picked it up immediately

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# RE: RE: NAS access? — Srikanth 2012-10-03 10:38

Does it also index the files on the NAS?

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# RE: RE: RE: NAS access? — BobR 2013-05-19 11:00

If you map to the folder and browse it as a folder it just browses it as file explorer would. If you add it to your media library then it creates an index on the NAS and has the option to retrieve content information from the web. IE the filename is Black Swan it will look up the date released, play time, genre, director, actor and synopsis then add that information to your library.

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# Does not play VOB files — Harry 2012-10-09 09:18

Tried the device, am returning it today. It cannot play most of the ripped DVDs movies that I have - WD could not fix the issue. converting the movies to ISO or AVI works, but that's a lot of work.
I got a cheep older laptop with an HDMI connection instead and running VLC - works perfect.

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# RE: Does not play VOB files — BobR 2013-05-19 11:02

It plays my DVD rips flawlessly, just as if I put my disc in the drive. I had everything in folders of MOVIETITLE/Audio_TS and MOVIETITLE/Video_TS. I simply used POWERISO with a single right click and add to ISO it put those two folders into a file called MOVIETITLE.iso and then I deleted the originals.. took me about 2 days to turn 400 movies into ISO's.. small price to pay. WDTV is the best device I've ever owned more media playback.

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# I dont get it — alex smith 2013-02-05 10:23

Obviously many people like this device, and it gets decent reviews. However, I just dont get it. I was given this device as a gift and upon hooking it up I find that the only streaming it can do are for pay sites. I am not a member of any streaming media site and do not pay for anything. I like Hulu (not plus) and Comedy Central, along with the normal over the air stations (public broadcasing, ABC, NBC, CBS, etc). I dont have cable or an Xbox. In addition, my DSL is only 1MB/S, which means that if this device insists on streaming full HD then it will basically be buffering more than playing. If you want to stream, why not just hook up your laptop to your TV? Infinitely more possibilities.

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# RE: I dont get it — Taikomann 2013-02-05 10:25

I just bought the latest generation WD TV Live to replace my 2nd gen device (which had replaced my 1st gen WD TV device 3 years ago) and so can be called a loyal and satisfied user of the product line. When the product first came out, it's main purpose was to serve as a media player for streaming videos(home made or otherwise)/music/photos from a locally attached drive or from a NAS to a centrally located TV. In subsequent reiterations of the product, more and more online/internet sites and services were added and have now become, more or less, a co-feature of the device. The most probable reason you 'don't get it' is because you are not using it for the primary purpose it was made, and, if you don't subscribe to any of the paid online streaming services, the utility of the device is even more reduced. I'd be happy to take the unit off your hands if you'd like!! :)

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# RE: I dont get it — BobR 2013-05-19 11:07

Actually, I believe your problem is not understanding that the WDTV isn't supposed to replace a laptop or the functionality of one. Rather, it's purpose is to give you a convenient GUI and simple connectivity that doesn't require you to dedicate a $500 laptop to a job that a $60 device can do. And as Taikomann said, it's real original purpose was to stream locally recorded media to the TV Screen. I have 11tb of movies/tv shows and music on my server and WDTV boxes on each of the TV's in the house. We are now able to watch any show or movie from any room of the house at the simple click on a remote. Then I use my MediaPC to record live TV shows to the drive and watch those. Plus I do pay for Netflix and Hulu and the addition of those two features really make the WDTV the best media box you could ever buy..

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# I dont get it either — weissert 2013-02-20 08:02

I bought this thing to playback movies and music from external USB HDDs, but I found it almost unoperable. I sold it after two weeks. The keys on the remote have been placed in an unpractical order, and there are not many "shorthand" keys. It's missing several important functions, for instance it has no instant replay, no ralenty (or at least they can't be accessed by a single key like in every other remote). Also, you have not the possibility to control the viewing ratio of movies (e.g., you can't view a 4:3 movie stratched to fill a 16:9 screen), etc. The Firmware was full of bugs (many default setup setting were not "kept" or were ignored), with a very "Windows Style" look-and-feel (pop up windows coming up continuously with the most obvious warnings). The manual I downloaded from the web was very generic, and a lot of functions were just mentioned, but not explained. Also, it was very, very slow, taking forever to connect to the WiFi network, as well as to load an external Drive. To save some time, I had to leave it always on..

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# RE: WD TV Live Digital MultiMedia Player — sargeboon 2013-02-22 11:16

Is this player compatible with/does it recognize a WD external USB Hard drive that is 3TB or more?

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# RE: RE: WD TV Live Digital MultiMedia Player — Olin Coles 2013-02-22 11:23

That is a very good question. Unfortunately, I do not have a 3TB external hard drive to test with. Perhaps you can contact WD to get their answer?

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# RE: WD TV Live Digital MultiMedia Player — HJ Fischer 2013-03-07 19:24

I have a 1 TB xternal HD and it is recognized but takes a long time to load.

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# question — george 2013-04-01 05:02

does wd tv live recognize and play videos from my PC over WiFi?

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# RE: question — Olin Coles 2013-04-01 06:57

This was discussed in the review.

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# RE: WD TV Live Digital MultiMedia Player — Ron 2013-04-03 16:48

I just installed one this evening. Is very snappy traversing the videos on my DLNA server, though configuring it was initially puzzling. It didn't like my Linux NFS exports, since they are Read Only. Thanks for the tip regarding AccuWeather.

This unit replaces an Iomega 35045 ScreenPlay TV Link media player with a consistently balky remote control. We have another one plugged into a different TV and it plays dlna-served video perfectly. Since it's remote control works great, we're keeping it.

The WD can list 16 videos on screen at once, while the Iomega can only display 8. The Iomega has a large r/c with a qwerty k/b and volume controls.

One other point is that the Iomega has a "fast boot" mode, which is probably in actuality "wake from sleep". Whatever is happening behind the scenes, though, it's ready to work much faster than the WD.

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WD TV Live Media Player Review

WD TV Live Specifications

File Formats Supported

Notes:

File Formats Not Supported

Physical Interfaces:

Physical Dimensions

Environmental Specifications

Electrical Specifications

Kit Contents

Previous Page - Next Page >>

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