WD TV Live Plus: Western Digital's Latest Media Player Reviewed

Online Content accessibility is a very desirable feature for this type of media device. The ability to access the likes of Netflix, YouTube, Pandora and other sources was once reserved for full blown HTPC systems, and more recently for Xbox 360, Wii and PS3 owners. While an ever increasing number of Bluray players, DVRs and televisions themselves have also begun to integrate Netflix streaming features, it serves to reduce some of the perks of building or purchasing a HTPC system vs. an integrated consumer media playing device.

Netflix

The Netflix portion of the WD TV is fairly straightforward. Upon using the Netflix menu option for the first time, the user is asked if he is a current Netflix member. If he answers in the affirmative, an activation code to link the Netflix account with the device is provided. To proceed further, the user needs to have access to an Internet enabled device. This shouldn’t be a problem for anyone who is actually wanting to stream video to this device over the Internet anyways. Once the code is entered on Netflix, there is no waiting and the user is able to watch movies instantly either from the “Instant Queue” or browse from categories that match with the categories one would find on the Netflix website. Menu navigation is straightforward. The arrow keys are used to choose a category and enter it, while the OK key is used to view a movie. One feature that would be nice to have, but does not exist here, is the ability to modify or add to your Netflix Queue, or see what is inside any of the queues other than the Instant Queue. The WD TV Live Plus will not be able to replace the complete PC Netflix experience.

The videos streamed from Netflix started playing as quickly as they would on a normal desktop PC. Within a few seconds from the time the movie is selected to play, the stream starts up. Obviously some of the experience a user has will depend on the speed of the Internet connection. Wiith regard to the actual video streams, there was no discernible difference in the buffering, video quality, or viewing experience from a PC Netflix video viewing experience.

YouTube

The Youtube experience on the WD TV Live Plus supports a wide range of features including:

• Signing in with your user accounts
• Viewing videos by the standard YouTube categories (favorites, top rated, most viewed, most popular, featured)
• Video Search
• Ability to rate videos
• Ability to change country/language settings
• Zoom and Pan

While this section of the WD TV Live works well, some of the features that a PC user is used to are absent. These include comment viewing and posting, changing the resolution and/or the quality of the video feed. Also, some videos on youtube are marked as not viewable on TV connected devices. This is a choice that is decided by the person who publishes the YouTube video. The YouTube video publisher must make a conscious decision to not allow their videos to be viewed on a device such as the WD TV Live, and most casual videos do not have this limitation. However some larger YouTube content publishers have restricted the ability to view their videos using television connected devices. Any potential user of the WDTV Live Plus must be aware that some of YouTube’s content will not be available on the device.