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WD TV: HD Media Player now $99 - it plays everything

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Joel Was Right

Joel Was Right

Member
I owned a HD-PVR recorder and it produced videos in either .TS or .m2ts files. Sometimes it would be a problem trying to get any of these to play on my PS3/360 either due to codec issues or the FAT32 limitation. Hi-Def video playback is a big thing for a lot of people on the Interent who own these consoles and I came across this device today which just blew my mind.

It's the Western Digital TV: HD Media Player. It supports both FAT32 and NTFS formatted drives and is solid with 1080p playback. In fact, here are it's full list of codecs that are supported now.

Video: AVI (Xvid, AVC, MPEG1/2/4, WMV9, VC-1), MPG/MPEG, VOB, MKV (h.264, x.264, AVC, MPEG1/2/4, WMV9, VC-1), TS/TP/M2T, (MPEG1/2/4, AVC, VC-1), MP4/MOV (MPEG4, h.264), M2TS, WMV9.

Photos: JPEG, GIF, TIFF, BMP, PNG

Subtitles: SRT, ASS, SSA, SUB, SMI

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

From reading user impressions and reviews, it pretty much plays everything. And best of all it's only $99. Wow.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B001JZFQU4/?tag=neogaf0e-20
 
D

Darkflight

Member
We have one downstairs, its brilliant, quick to boot, easy to navigate menus and plays everything I throw at it. Only issue is it won't play DTS over HDMI so I have to convert those files, but XenonMKV makes that a doddle.

The pre-release firmware is here, no problems so far:

http://www.wdc.com/wdtvprerelease/
 
R

Rainy Dog

Member
Darkflight said:
We have one downstairs, its brilliant, quick to boot, easy to navigate menus and plays everything I throw at it. Only issue is it won't play DTS over HDMI so I have to convert those files, but XenonMKV makes that a doddle.

The pre-release firmware is here, no problems so far:

http://www.wdc.com/wdtvprerelease/
Click to expand...

Yep, best piece of AV gear I've picked up in years. About the DTS issue, Darkflight; it will send it via. HDMI as bitstream for an amp/receiver to decode. Just doesn't decode it internally so it can be sent to and heard through your telly's speakers that's all.
 
V

Veidt

Blasphemer who refuses to accept bagged milk as his personal savior
Man, if it wasn't for my PS3, I'd buy one today.
 
R

Rur0ni

Member
Yeah. PS3 is doing the job right now streaming from my PC (using PS3 Media Server). Though maybe to have something else to play with I'll get one. :)
 
S

shinjijai

Member
i'll probably pick up the newer version or an xtreamer. i have a ps3, and use ps3 media server, but i don't want to have my computer on while watching media off my server.
 
P

Phobophile

A scientist and gentleman in the manner of Batman.
Just checked the Amazon page. It also supports HFS+ file system (no journaling).
 
K

kamorra

Fuck Cancer
Liu Kang Baking A Pie said:
Because it's atrocious.
Click to expand...

Well it's just a container for h.264/mp3/aac. The bitrate of most flv isn't as good but that's not the fault of the container.
 
K

kamorra

Fuck Cancer
Kowak said:
I have been thinking of getting one of these, gets great reviews.
Click to expand...
It's a ok Mediaplayer, but far from perfect. I've used a Xbox before and I wish my WDTV had the same features like XBMC. But a lot of things are missing like a sleeptimer, ability to adjust of out of sync videos, ability to adjust of out of sync subtitles, better/faster FFW/RRW handling and so forth. It's not a bad device and I use it every day but it could so much better. I think I will probably end up buying a Popcorn Hour C200.

Littleberu said:
But there's no Ethernet plug on this device?
Click to expand...
No.
 
D

delirium

Member
WDTV is coming out with another device (WDTV Live) that has an ethernet jack and will support native DTS downmixing.
 
S

soundahfekz

Member
Own one also, wasn't it going for 99 on new egg like 6 months ago? i paid like 110 for mine a while back. HD playback is butter smooth.
 
K

kamorra

Fuck Cancer
This is a very good custom firmware.

WDLXTV is a souped up unofficial firmware for the Western Digital WDTV. It is based off of the 1.02.10 firmware, but with many extra features. Similar to my dvdmod firmware, this is a permanent flash, just like an official upgrade. This firmware is an option for those whos hardware is stable with Zoranders ext3-boot, or those who don’t do much firmware programming to take advantage of ext3-boot. Once again, ext3-boot is for (sorta) pro’s and testers whereas WDLXTV is for everyday use. Rest assured, WDLXTV like ext3-boot, can still be extended and customized in many ways.

Features included in WDLXTV:

* external dvd drive capability with cd-manager-0.7 **fixed**
* ext2 & ext3 filesystem support ** (un)officially supported now **
* ext2 & ext3 hotplugging
* all media (including network shares & optical devices) can be viewed in ‘All Videos’
* USB Hub support
* mounting of WDTV Optware package (if available) at boot, for access to ~1300 additional programs
* mounting of app bin packs (if available) at boot, for plugNplay addtional functionality
* mounting of OSD overlay (if available) at boot, for full theming (sample)
* limited USB Ethernet support
* IP via DHCP (by default, configurable)
* Samba/CIFS support aka windows share mounting (requires Samba app pack)
* Experimental wireless adapter support (thx to Zorander) (requires wireless-mod-wdlxtv app pack)
* Ximeta NDAS device support (requires ndas app pack)
* Telnet server
* pure-ftp server (requires pure-ftpd app pack)
* configurable to automount NFS shares (requires nfs app pack)
* user customizable background & screen saver images ** new **
* selectable 4/8/10/12/21 video thumb view (see Changelog)
* selectable 4/6/8 file list view (see Changelog)
* sleectable 10/15 photo/music thumb view (see Changelog)
* user customizable init.d scripts for full os customization ** new **
* emergency flash recovery
Click to expand...
 
mr stroke

mr stroke

Member
anyone having good luck with playing stuff off a hard drive with this? There is a lot of hate for this over at AVSforums, saying this thing is buggy as hell, won't play some files, and can't play subtitles correctly(deal breaker there)

I want to jump in as its only $100, but a little concerned?
 
O

Overlee

Member
mr stroke said:
anyone having good luck with playing stuff off a hard drive with this? There is a lot of hate for this over at AVSforums, saying this thing is buggy as hell, won't play some files, and can't play subtitles correctly(deal breaker there)

I want to jump in as its only $100, but a little concerned?
Click to expand...

I have one and have never had any problems playing any file off an eternal hard drive with it. I mainly bought it to play hd movies in .mkv format.

As far as subtitles go they seem to play fine for me. I don't have any anime or foreign films in my catalog so I don't know if its a problem thats associated with those types of films.


I did just upgrade to a htpc though so if anyones interested I would be willing to part with mine for $80 or so?
 
D

delirium

Member
mr stroke said:
anyone having good luck with playing stuff off a hard drive with this? There is a lot of hate for this over at AVSforums, saying this thing is buggy as hell, won't play some files, and can't play subtitles correctly(deal breaker there)

I want to jump in as its only $100, but a little concerned?
Click to expand...
I have it and if you upgrade to the latest beta firmware 1.2.10 its pretty good. It will play every video you throw at it that Is L4.1 or less (for 1080p). Anything above will have frames dropped and large artifacts. It will play subtitles but people were bitching that it didn't support every language under the sun.
 
O

Overlee

Member
Kevin said:
How well does it do 720p and 1080p MKV files?
Click to expand...


I have a 720p tv so thats all I play but every video I've ever played worked flawlessly. I have it connected to a 1tb external drive and it streams all the files via USB2.0 without a delay.

It handles fast forwarding and reminding smoothly as well. I believe you can ff or rw at like 2x, 4x, 8x or 16x intervals

The only problem I have is my WDTV is running straight into my TV via HDMI rather then running through a receiver and then my TV, so any video file thats only encoded with DTS audio wont play the sound. Its a pretty simple solution though, I run a program that adds a AC3 stream into the .mkv file so it will play the sound. That way I have both DTS and AC3 sound files within the file so when I do get a receiver I can utilize the DTS audio.
 
G

giga

Member
If this did DTS audio it would be perfect. Damn.

I run a program that adds a AC3 stream into the .mkv file so it will play the sound. That way I have both DTS and AC3 sound files within the file so when I do get a receiver I can utilize the DTS audio.
Click to expand...
Link me.
 
S

swoon

Member
we have one in our bedroom and it's great. i just sync it back to my pc every few weeks. it keeps track of recently added files really well and the subtitle support is awesome. i don't have a DTS system, but i just do optical out into my receiver and it does whatever to play those files fine without remuxing.

and it does play DVD isos.
 
T

Toby

Member
I ended up buying one for my moms birthday, but ended up returning it (unopened) once I found out she wanted more of an HTPC (Netflix instant and what not). The cheapest I have really seen these for is when they go on sale for $99.99 at Staples. The thing about getting it through Staples though is that you can use one of their many $25 off $75 or more, bringing the final cost closer to $80. I also believe their free shipping service would be faster than the free amazon service (at least in my experience).

Anyway, if you do want a media streamer, the WDTV is capable of it when modded with the right firmware. Kind of wish I would have played around with it, but I just didn't need it.
 
The Faceless Master

The Faceless Master

Member
the MSRP may be $99 now, but these always sold for $99 a many retailers and even as low as $80 online. with a custom firmware, they will work with certain USB Ethernet adapters, and one of the chipsets supported is the one that Wii supports.
 
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