Home > Consumer Reviews > Western Digital WD TV HD Media Player

I bought WDTV after I already own the IOMEGA Screenplay with built in harddrive. The prices are about the same when they are on sale. The WDTV is a beautiful device and the user interface is fluid and attractive. It's also cheap and can read ISO files where the IOMEGA device so far can't. However, some shortcomings other reviewers fail to note are. (1) the device doesn't have any buttons and so everything relies on the remote control. If you break, lose, or run out of battery on your remote control, the device is rendered useless. The Iomega device with built in harddrive has buttons directly built into the the device and a separate remote control the size of a credit card you can store under the drive. (2) The WDTV is buggy, it freezes on my and I lose control of the device when I try to fastforward my iso file. Imagine the only way to stop the device from going crazy is to unplug the power supply, because non of the buttons on the remote control is responsive. (3) It doesn't have a skip feature for movies. So, if you are watching a movie 2/3 of the ways and decided to come back to it at a later time, you will have to watch from the very beginning or press fastforward and wait until you come to the spot. (4) it doesn't have a chapter view, so you can skip to the chapter you want. IF you watch a VOB file, it doesn't continue to the next file. Imagine having to press a button each time you want to continue the movie... It's still very BUGGY and as of today, Western Digital has not come out with a firmware update. I like the photo viewing features as the color is rich and clear. However, when hooking up a large harddrive with lots of files, expect to wait a long time to see any content on the screen. It doesn't allow you to view partial loads of the files and wanted to fully scanned the entire drive before you get to do anything with it.

I like this device somewhat for it's attractiveness and the ability to read iso files, but having some disappointments because it does not meet my expectations. If there is another device out there that is better, could someone please let me know? Thanks..

Released with little or no warning, this little box can playback just about any multimedia file that you can throw at it. It supports way more video codecs than any "divx compatible" DVD player that I've ever used (I've owned several). The most impressive thing I've seen so far is the Quantum of Solace trailer in .MOV format in full 1080p without the slightest glitch. It can even read NTFS-formatted drives. Wow!

As many reviewers have already stated, this little box seems to do it all. I've tested it with ISO file of both HD and SD as well as VOB and other video formats. It handles huge High Def 1080 ISO files perfectly. That's a challenge for even a high end PC because not only does it have to decode the correct files contained in the large single ISO file, it must handle the high stream of data as read from the hard drive at the same time. It does that perfectly. In fact, the two USB2 connections on this box will work with a USB hub!!....Yep......connect 2-3-4, etc... drives or other USB memory devices to it and they will all be accessed and usable through the hub. One thing this box can't handle is True HD audio found on some Blu-Ray DVDs (Disney).....As some other reviewers pointed out, there's a few (and very few) audio formats it can't handle. I've also tried both Mac and Windows formatting of my WD external self powered hard drive.....this box handles either system format with no issues and no apparent difference in performance. Video quality is as good as an upscaling DVD player. The menu for video includes "auto" or manual selection of video output from SD 420 up to 1080i/p as well as a variety of refresh rates for different LCD TVs/Displays. "Auto" for me seems to work just fine. I own a current Sony Blu-Ray player and visually, there is no difference in output of picture quality between the WD Media box or the Sony player. Same quality of sharpness, low noise levels and color accuracy. Also, the box automatically selects english audio tracks (you pick the default language in system setup and leave it there) and you can select which audio track you want to hear. the default as per original movie, or with directors comments, different language, with or w/o sub-titles, etc. No DVD top menu is there as in a DVD player or pc software player, just the "main movie" starts when you begin to watch the video title originally from a DVD, but, for $100, and the ability to watch it all from Hard Drive or other USB storage device and have many movies on a small external drive (great for travel!) , the WD TV HD is well worth the investment and does deliver performance well above expectations.

I bought this about a month ago and it was riddled with bugs depending upon what you were using it for. My primary use was to play DVD and BD backups. They just released their first firmware update and it is a HUGE improvement- enough to render most of the negatives others wrote about no longer true. Check out the firmware release notes on WD's site and keep in mind they threw in a few 'extras' not mentioned- namely VC-1 (WMV9AP) playback. In one day I went from "oh well, it was only $100" to considering getting another one for the bedroom. And WD promises continual development for this product/ line of products (one of their product development guys frequents blogs and forums) and they have backed it up! I have used a Maxtor IDE HD inside of a 3rd party enclosure and a WD MyBook Pro and have had no problems with the units interfacing with it. I can't wait for them to support DVD/BD menus- for now it's pretty much movie only.

I have tried and own the Iomega, Tvisto and other hard drive based media player, after much frustration with other devices this one is the best so far for codec and USB compatibiliy. I recommend it without hesitation.