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

The picture quality and sound quality are ok with this player, but they do not match up with each other. If you don't mind the lips not matching the words coming from people's mouths, then this system is for you. I contacted Western Digital about this, and they assured me that if I updated the firmware, the problem would be solved. I did just that, but the problem did not go away. You would be better off using an ipod video to watch your video through the TV, because it does not have this problem.

I had high hopes for this machine but I had to return it. With the TiVo files that I converted to mpeg, I was getting no audio at all. Strange thing was the mpeg2 files that I recorded on my computer played fine. I also had difficulty playing vob files. The video and the audio were way out of sync.

Maybe the next firmware upgrade will resolve these problems.

Jim

What a great product idea, what a lousy product. It does pay movies, music and show pictures but the on screen user interface is awful. Either you keep drilling down into folders or you have to scroll through thousands of videos to find what you are looking for.

For example, music can be selected by artist, genre, folder date and album. A nice feature. So, you decide to listen by artist. If you have a large collection (say a few thousand songs) you can have hundreds of artists. They are listed alphabetically and you can only scroll through 5 at a time. I have 586 artists on my hard drive (there's a lot of one hit wonders out there). So, to find say The Hooters I will have to click the down arrow about 30 times. That is if they are under "Hooters". If they are listed as "The Hooters", they are closer to the end of the alphabet, so I'll be clicking about 70 times. See the problem?

If you have say 200 movies in a folder, same problem.

One final complaint. When I registered my product I had to set up an account with WD. They asked for my name, address, phone number, e-mail and had a 15 question survey. All of it is mandatory, including the survey. This is an online security issue. Why do they need all of that?

So, 4 stars for playback and not having to hook my laptop up to the TV anymore. 5 stars for the HDMI connection. 1 star for the online registration nightmare and all of this is overshadowed by the piss poor interface that gets 0 stars. Final result is about 2.1 stars.

I'd wait a year or two and see if a better system comes along. I think this idea will catch on and someone will come out with a superior interface.

If you do buy this player : I think the new players are being shipped with firmware version 1.01.02. I tried to update my firmware and nothing happened. When I looked at what firmware my system had it was already 1.01.02.

To check your version: On the settings screen select system and then scroll down and select about. This will tell you what version you are using.

****NEW REVIEW****
Okay im sorry for the old review. I jumped the gun and pulled the trigger too early. I finally got it working with some 1080p files and man it looks beautiful. I have a 65" mitsubishi and it looks beautiful when playing my movies.

One example of a movie it played flawless.
video:1920x1080_2500kbps_23.976fps_H.264/AVC -- audio:640kbps_6channel_48000hz_AC3

Pros
- SIMPLE & small media player and remote
- best bang for the buck! (beats the price of a ps3/xbox)

Cons
- usb power is ALWAYS ON!!
- needs more support for other codecs
- a little bit of a delay with the remote and menu screen (not that bad)

it will play .mkv files perfectly with the "right codecs". DTS audio codec not supported which is found in a majority of 1080p/720p movies.

Hopefully one day there will be a third-party firmware release that will make this little box unstoppable! 8-) And maybe someone will invent some kind of wireless USB connection to stream directly from your storage area on a home network.

*** TIP: have your videos encoded correctly with the supported codecs and you wont be disappointed in your WD TV HD Media Player.



****OLD REVIEW****
This media player doesnt even come close to High definition. I have it connected to my 65" mitsubishi with an HDMI cable and it just lack in every way you can think of. I have the "Latest Firmware Update - version 1.01.02 (12/2008)" straight off of their website[...]

If you have a small tv and want to use the RCA cables as your connection to the tv. or maybe a tv with HDMI and with a low resolution screen. I guess i could recommend it becuase it will "get the job done". The crappy quality in video would be less noticeable on a smaller screen.

For people with LARGE TV screens. DO NOT PURCHASE! I have played .mkv files with 1280x720 at 30fps and it looks like crap!! and on top of that, it lacks some codecs to read the audio on some .mkv files.

This little box is cute and all but it lacks a lot in performance. Dont purchase unless your buying it for looks.

I kno my review may sound a little harsh but im speakin the truth with the help of disappoint =oP

maybe i should have read the specs on this box before purchasing... my mistake!

Western Digital WD TV HD Media Player
Received this player very quickly and in good condition. Thanks Amazon!
Now for the bad news. KEEP YOUR PACKAGING!
I bought this player to connect to my new Samsung LCD HD TV so I could play all my MP-3's, AVI videos, and pictures from my Cannon camera.
My music played but was distorted, album art did not display in music view, AVI videos were fine but the sound was distorted. Pictures also played and looked good but were extremely slow to display. Another problem was when playing pictures my Music album art also showed up which was very annoying and when I tried to view the album art the player locked up and had to be reset. I tried using video cable that came with the player and also an HDMI cable, both had the same results. When I turned off the player with the remote I could not turn it back on and had to reset the player again. I checked the firmware and I was the latest version. I returned the player for a refund and will continue to use my Samsung TV's USB connection to play music and my laptop to play videos.
April 7 2009. Update.I returned this product to Amazon on Mar 31st which was a very simple process at no cost to me. They received it a few days later and refunded my money on April 7! This kind of service makes it an easy to decision shop Amazon.com.