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

It simply works. If you know how to back up your DVD's ;) and convert them to any format then this is the device for you. I mainly wanted this thing because its easier store multiple movies in a portable HD, than search for discs. At first I was looking at Lacies LaCinema but the price was way too steep, and I liked the interface of the menu screen better on the WD's Media Player. Another feature that also sold me to this unit was Western Digitals updates on "firmware". Another review commented on being not being able to return to an area on the movie where you might have left off. You can now with the newer firmware update. Just to make sure I tried it... I was watching Fan Four, stopped it and started to play Eagle Eye... stopped that movie and went back to Fan Four. A pop up then asks you if you would like to "resume playback", so it works...very nice feature.
The unit comes with ripping software so you can transfer your DVD's to your "own" external hard drive. I opp to go ahead and buy the WD's Portable Essentials Hard Drive, which is a Fat 32 format with a 5400rpm HD. I was kinda worried about the rpm, but it works perfectly and I can hook it up to a Windows or Mac no problem to transfer files. I honestly did not like the sync software thats a built in feature because I like to do things manually, so I don't use it. To me its bloatware! :OBlah!!!
Other things I don't like about the unit. You are totally dependent on the remote, so if it breaks your screwed, and you can't control the unit without it because there are no controls on the unit itself! Scary!!! I almost want to see if you can buy another remote from Western Digitals Website.
One other thing I learned about the unit, if you buy movies off of iTunes you "WON'T" be able to play their movies, or music on this unit! So all I can say is you have to know what your doing to make it work!!!
Overall I am very pleased with my purchase and hope it lasts for a long time! Oh did I mention it has component & HDMI ports and can upconvert to 1080p! I'm not 100% sure but I read some where it can play Blu-Ray format. OH... and its small so it wont take up too much space, and its easy to connect to your TV! I give it 4 stars and would recommend anyone to buy this thing.

Western Digital WD TV HD Media Player

This is an awesome player, highly recommend it to those that want to watch digital files on TV. I previously used an Archos 604 wifi at 3 times the price, and it doesn't even compare to the WD HD TV Media Player.

Pros
-Simple set up - takes 2 minutes to hook up a ac power and HDMI cable, then it's ready to play
-Plays all common files without skipping a beat. I mostly use AVI and MKV at 720p HD.
-Can add subtitles to your files and it will play them too.
-Small size makes it portable.
-External drives makes it easy to load/transfer files. I've tried wireless before with my Archos and it was a pain to set up and the stream would stutter depending on the file size.

Cons
-Thumbnail Browser display - This feature is weak. Thumbnails have to be embedded into the file and it doesn't work on MKV files. Looks better in list view.
-Media Library - not really sure the point of this feature. Much easier to turn this off and use folders.
-No skip Rewind/Fastfoward - There is no skip rewind/forward feature. If you have a 2 hour movie and you want to get to the middle of it, you need to fast forward at 16x. It takes minutes to get there. Very surprising that this awesome piece of equipment would lack such a basic feature that is on every DVD/media player on the market.
-Remote Control - slow response
-Slow scroll speed in List View - There is no skip up/down feature on the list view. If you have 200 files not in folders, you need to click through each one. Should be able to click a button and jump to next page.


Even though this item is missing some basic features, it is still worth the money. It's the best media player on the market and hopefully WD will add some of the basic features in future firmware updates.

I can confirm John's finding:

"This baby even will play .m2ts files (avchd)!"

It will play back Blu-Ray files and at 1080P/60 if your viewing equipment can handle that!

Can anyone confirm whether it will also playback HD DVD files(.evo?)?

BTW, WD continues to deny the m2ts capability for some reason or another.

It is an elegant and simple solution with which to view DVD libraries and view photos.

I am using mine with a 2 terabyte Cavalry external drive that is nearing capacity far more quickly than I expected.

Harry Zee

This product plugged in and worked without a hitch. My only complaint would be the menu. If you plugged in a hard drive with 100's of files, it would be cumbersome. What I do is load an 8 gig stick and plug it in.

I first bought this about 6 months ago along with a 52" HDTV. Initially, I was blown away by the quality, especially if you can find files in 720p or 1080p - it's crystal clear in HDMI. So, why the 3 stars?? Well, a couple reasons:

1. About 15-20% of my multimedia collection won't play properly on this media player - even though it's in the correct format. I have several .avi files that play fine on the various computers, but on this system they lock up. This could easily be fixed by a firmware update, but every week I look (http://www.wdc.com/en/products/wdtv/), and every week it's still the old firmware from 4/27/09 - which helped with some files and features, but still locks up too often.

2. The rewind/fast forward feature also needs a firmware update. How many times are you watching a recorded TV show or a movie and you missed what someone said and want to hear it again. Many times, with this media player, you hit rewind, wait about 5 seconds, and hit play, and it starts AFTER where you left off. Ex. You're at 22:45 in a show and hit rewind until it reads 22:32, and then hit play and it suddenly skips ahead to 22:48 - VERY ANNOYING (also, this can happen the other way around where you just want to go back 10 seconds, but instead you go 30 seconds back, or you skip the opening credits and hit play and then it suddenly leaps forward 20 seconds. It RARELY BEGINS where you hit play - it's about plus or minus 15 seconds on average.

3. Finally, there are several times where this product, when turned off, won't turn back on again without a fuss. A couple times, I tried hitting the power button on the remote like 10 times, even very close to the set, and it wouldn't turn on. I figured it was the batteries, even though they were pretty new, and replaced them, but when it STILL wouldn't turn on, I realized something was wrong. I had to unplug the unit and plug it back in to get it to work. This has happened several times and I've learned the only workaround is just to leave the unit on constantly and then it will work fine.


When I bought this, I realized I was purchasing one of the first media players like this (at this price) and expected there to be a few quirks - no big deal. However, I also hoped that Western Digital was going to be responsive in working out these quirks and so far it looks like they are not. If you can get passed these things and don't expect an update, then go for it. But if these things would annoy you like they annoy me, I would recommend trying to find a media player that puts out more frequent firmware updates.