Western Digital WD TV HD Media Player - a HTPC replacement??

[illusion]

Yes, the new firmware had that option so I love it. Didnt try the custom one as I dont have any external DVD my WD is happy with Max 1TB

Nice a external dvd rom official update will really push up sales of the player but I dont see that happening as WD TV HDD sales will then fall !

 

[unleash_me]

What Hi-Fi? Sound and Vision - Western Digital HD TV as a transport, quick test

 

[madbullram]

Very true, the WD TV audio out is really nice compared to my regular DVD and CD Player. With the new firmware, the album art is enabled and its really lokos pleasing.

 

[spirovious]

Very true, the WD TV audio out is really nice compared to my regular DVD and CD Player. With the new firmware, the album art is enabled and its really lokos pleasing.

MBR waiting for your review with stereo playback.
Can you try WD with music system & get he review pls.?

 

[spirovious]

some Mp on ebay which are without HDMi,but can be used for music,SD playback.-

eBay India: Digital Media Player-MEDIAGATE-35(Video/Audio/Photo) (item 230338989950 end time 30-Apr-2009 19:06:03 IST)

eBay India: TV SD MS MMC Card Reader MP3 WMA JPEG DIVX MPEG Player (item 270377327366 end time 27-Apr-2009 12:49:35 IST)

 

[madbullram]

WD TV 1.2.7 released:
WD TV Product Update

Here are the change logs for all the pre-release version. Now I love the On/Off for Substitle even in embedded DVDs


Changelog of 1.02.03:

* Windows-1250 Central European encoding added
* Subtitle rendering quality improved
* AVI loading time improved
* Fixed an issue where thumbnails weren't loading sometimes
* Thumbnail loading times improved

Changelog of 1.02.04:

* 23.976 FPS video playback in 24Hz should be much better now.
* The issue where the last subtitle in each movie didn't show up should be fixed.
* Some .avi files were still loading slowly. This should be improved.
* Subtitle outline rendering like in 1.01.02 (black border) (see screenshot)
* Windows-1254 (ISO 8859-9) encoding support (Turkish) added for subtitles

Changelog of 1.02.06:

* Subtitle outline thicker (see screenshot)
* Drives spin down when ejected (seems to work for some, but not all drives)
* bugfix: Thumbnails don't refresh to reflect changes until WDTV is power cycled
* bugfix: "Now Playing" screen doesn't show up
* bugfix: 2x Reverse goes very fast
* unofficial: several people report faster drive recognition and scanning

Changelog of 1.02.07:

* Added option to toggle subtitle default to 'On' or 'Off' (should affect all subs, external, embedded & DVD)
* Added subtitle outline thickness selection ('Thin' or 'Thick')
* Added hard drive spindown on WDTV power off
* unofficial: several people report ext2/3 filesystem is working!

 

[anm]

Is it a possibility that the RAM of this device be increased? Does it run firefox?

 

[Dushie]

I am impressed with this player and the WD team, as there response towards improving the product through new firmware updates has been phenomenal, waiting to get my player it arrives next month

 

[madbullram]

Is it a possibility that the RAM of this device be increased? Does it run firefox?

RAM - NO

FireFox - I have tried alternate firmware yet, do check the Wiki page
Unofficial firmware - WD TV Wiki

 

[magma]

help with some clarifications

below is the link of the wdtv site
Western Digital US Online Store - Product Information

please can you guys help with a few clarifications
(ive almost decided to buy the player pending a few queries)

Question1
in the rear of the player what is the socket between the 3 composite RCA outs and the HDMI out ?
it looks like an optical digital socket
however there is absolutely no mention of such an output on the entire website. How come?-the website only states composite RCA outs and an HDMI out

Question 2
if the above is actually an optical digital out can it be used as an input to a
DAC?

Question 3
the website states that the device has 2 usb ports
i can see one at the rear where is the other ?
I cant seem to see if one exists at the front face of the device

 

[spirovious]

Re: help with some clarifications

below is the link of the wdtv site
Western Digital US Online Store - Product Information

please can you guys help with a few clarifications
(ive almost decided to buy the player pending a few queries)

Question1
in the rear of the player what is the socket between the 3 composite RCA outs and the HDMI out ?
it looks like an optical digital socket
however there is absolutely no mention of such an output on the entire website. How come?-the website only states composite RCA outs and an HDMI out

Question 2
if the above is actually an optical digital out can it be used as an input to a
DAC?

Question 3
the website states that the device has 2 usb ports
i can see one at the rear where is the other ?
I cant seem to see if one exists at the front face of the device

Q1& Q2- Its opt out can be connected to DAC or AVR.

Q3- Other USB is on Ltside & not front.

MaddHat.com Blog Archive New WD Media Player Reviewed, Stripped Naked

 

[illusion]

RAM - NO

FireFox - I have tried alternate firmware yet, do check the Wiki page
Unofficial firmware - WD TV Wiki

Hmm Interesting ! You know what guys if the WD TV starts supporting Wireless USB adapter and maybe some download managers such as DAP, Bit torrent etc then this would really bring down my computer downloading electric bills !

 

[Dushie]

Well i normally leave the pc on with the monitor off for downloading and keep the pc in auto shutdown mode, once the download completes it shuts down itself.

My box should come in by end of next month, then will be planning to buy an external HDD to connect and play with the same. the way firmware upgrades are happening is fantastic, even on the forum i do see this box gaining popularity,

Credit goes for the same to our great members here and of course to MBR who has been actively helping and participating .

Keep up the good work Guys ...

 

[spirovious]

Well i normally leave the pc on with the monitor off for downloading and keep the pc in auto shutdown mode, once the download completes it shuts down itself.

My box should come in by end of next month, then will be planning to buy an external HDD to connect and play with the same. the way firmware upgrades are happening is fantastic, even on the forum i do see this box gaining popularity,

Credit goes for the same to our great members here and of course to MBR who has been actively helping and participating .

Keep up the good work Guys ...

PC can consume more power than WD.

 

[moserw]

PC can consume more power than WD.

Not really. Keep the PC in power saving mode with auto turn off of HDD, monitor, etc. and it works great.

 

[spirovious]

Not really. Keep the PC in power saving mode with auto turn off of HDD, monitor, etc. and it works great.

How?Whats the option?

 

[spirovious]

Onkyo & SOTEC(Japan) are launching HTPC.

Built on intel C2D2.8, 2/4GB ram, 500GB HD, TV tuner, webcam, ipod Dock, 1080p Display, remote, 4x Blrayp

 

[moserw]

How?Whats the option?

In Control Panel > Power Options - You can set from anywhere after 1 min for the monitor and HDD to be turned off. This is definitely recommended if you've multiple HDDs in the system as it will keep the system cool/noise levels down.

Edit - I forgot to mention it will save power too.

 

[illusion]

In Control Panel > Power Options - You can set from anywhere after 1 min for the monitor and HDD to be turned off. This is definitely recommended if you've multiple HDDs in the system as it will keep the system cool/noise levels down.

Edit - I forgot to mention it will save power too.

Well that really does not help much cause I always keep my pc off. Plus the HDD power down does save power but nothing significant as such !

However Asus motherboards have AI Gear which can control the CPU clock speeds thus saving power. Many PC come with inbuilt Intel Speedstep technology which again downclocks the cpu to save power. However the funny thing I noticed was whenever I used to downclock the cpu using AI Gear the torrent speed would fall ! Need to do some more R & D on that I guess ...

 

[moserw]

Well that really does not help much cause I always keep my pc off. Plus the HDD power down does save power but nothing significant as such !

However Asus motherboards have AI Gear which can control the CPU clock speeds thus saving power. Many PC come with inbuilt Intel Speedstep technology which again downclocks the cpu to save power. However the funny thing I noticed was whenever I used to downclock the cpu using AI Gear the torrent speed would fall ! Need to do some more R & D on that I guess ...

I've a dual core and a quad core and their CPU/power consumption is pretty low. I had a single core previously i.e. a Pentium IV 3.2 GHz with an NVIDIA graphics card that I ran overclocked and yes this system was hot most of the time, made a lot of noise along with the electricity bills. Still I feel the cost of electricity is comparatively lower than other things we pay for like cooking gas, fuel, etc. Also most people I know d/l more value in terms of movies and music than they pay for in terms of electricity, PC usage, ISP costs, etc.