WD TV Live Plus: Western Digital's Latest Media Player Reviewed
by Cameron Butterfield on July 29, 2010 1:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Home Theater
- Media Streamer
- WD
- WD TV Live Plus
Our piece on media streamer platforms indicated that we were in the process of assembling a test suite of media files. With the help of feedback from readers and some members from AVSForums, we managed to assemble a set of 44 test files covering various media streamer / HTPC scenarios for v1.0.0 of the AnandTech Media Streamer Test Suite. Weights have been assigned to each stream based on how frequently one might encounter them in a home theater setting. The table below indicates the various aspects tested by each file, the assigned weight for the stream, and the score obtained by the WD TV Live Plus depending on the success it had with playback.
WD TV Live Plus: AT Media Streamer Test Suite | |||||||
File Name | Aspects Tested | Max. Score | WD TV Score | Notes | |||
001-1080p30.x264.AC3.m2ts | H.264, AC3, M2TS |
8
|
8
|
||||
002-480i30.MPEG.ASF.dvr-ms | ASF, DVR-MS |
2
|
2
|
||||
003-1080p24.WMV9.WMAPro.6Ch.wmv | WMV9, WMAPro |
8
|
0
|
WMAPro doesn't play | |||
004-1080p60.x264.8ref.mkv | 60 fps L5.1 H.264 |
8
|
8
|
||||
005-1440x1080i30.SonyAVCHD.m2ts | HD Camcorder Clips |
10
|
10
|
||||
006-1080p24.x264.16ref.mkv | L5.1 H.264 |
8
|
8
|
||||
007-1080p.x264.DTS.6Ch.mkv | DTS |
10
|
10
|
||||
008-DTS-HRA.8Ch.m2ts | DTS-HRA Bitstreaming |
8
|
3
|
DTS core bitstreaming | |||
009-TrueHD.6Ch..m2ts | TrueHD Bitstreaming |
8
|
8
|
||||
010-1080p24.x264.AAC.mp4 | AAC, MP4 |
8
|
8
|
||||
011-FLAC.6Ch.ASS.Subs.mkv | FLAC, ASS Subs |
8
|
4
|
Stylized Subs not displayed | |||
012-1080p24.Vorbis.ogg | Vorbis, OGG |
4
|
0
|
Unrecognized Format | |||
013-352p25RV40.RACook.rmvb | Real Media |
8
|
0
|
Unrecognized Format | |||
014-1080i25.AVC.AC3..MPEG-TS.trp | TRP |
2
|
2
|
||||
015-360p24.XVid.12LanguagesSRT.Subs.mkv | UTF Subs |
8
|
2
|
Language Orientation issues. | |||
016-1080i30.MPEG2.HeavilyInterlaced.ts | Deinterlacing for MPEG-2 |
8
|
2
|
Flickering Issues | |||
017-1080p24.TrueHD.PGS.Subs.mkv | PGS Subs, TrueHD Bitstreaming from MKV |
12
|
0
|
||||
018-480p.TVCapture.wtv | WTV |
4
|
0
|
Unrecognized Format | |||
019-240p.H264.AAC.m4v | M4V |
8
|
8
|
||||
020-1080p30.x264.AC3.m2ts | H.264, AC3, M2TS |
10
|
5
|
Slight Choppiness | |||
021-442p30.DivX.AAC.mkv | DivX in MKV Container |
8
|
2
|
Sync Issues | |||
022-DVDISO.iso | DVD ISO |
10
|
10
|
||||
023-BluRayISO.iso | Blu Ray ISO |
10
|
5
|
Unable to play menus / Other Issues* | |||
024-1080p24.x264.DTS-MA.7Ch.mkv | DTS-MA Bitstreaming from MKV |
4
|
0
|
No Audio | |||
025-720p24.x264.DTS-MA.6Ch.mkv | DTS-MA Bitstreaming from MKV |
4
|
0
|
No Audio | |||
026-1080p24.VC1.AC3.mkv | VC1 in MKV |
10
|
10
|
||||
027-1440x576p25.WVC1.wmv | WVC1 |
8
|
8
|
||||
028-720p60.WVC1.WMA3.6Ch.wmv | 60fps WVC1 |
8
|
0
|
WMA No Audio | |||
029-1080p60.AVC.AAC.MP4 | HD Camcorder Clips |
10
|
1
|
Choppiness | |||
030-272p.VP6.MP3.FLV | VP6 in FLV, MP3 |
10
|
0
|
||||
031-854x480p30.H264.AAC.flv | H.264 in FLV |
10
|
10
|
||||
032-1080p.VP8.Vorbis.webm | VP8, WebM |
10
|
0
|
Unrecognized Format | |||
033-480p24.MPEG1.mpg | MPEG-1 |
4
|
4
|
||||
034-1080p24.xvid.avi | HD Xvid, AVI |
10
|
10
|
||||
035-672p30.DIVX.MP3.divx | DivX |
10
|
10
|
||||
036-720p60.MPEG2.m2v | MPEG-2, M2V |
2
|
2
|
||||
037-1080p30.MPEG2TS.ts | TS |
2
|
2
|
||||
038-1080p25.AVC.AAC.6Ch.MOV.mov | MOV |
10
|
10
|
||||
039-1080p24.RV40.Cook.rmvb | HD Real Media |
8
|
0
|
Unrecognized Format | |||
040-Anamorphic.MultAud.MultSubs.mkv | Anamorphic, SSA Subs |
10
|
9
|
Subtitle Issues | |||
041-1080p24.VC1.DTSHD-MA.m2ts | VC1 in M2TS, DTS-HD Bitstreaming |
6
|
3
|
Only passed DTS | |||
042-1080p24.VC1.TrueHD.AC3.m2ts | VC1 in M2TS, TrueHD Bitstreaming |
6
|
6
|
||||
043-1080i30.H264.HeavilyInterlaced.ts | Deinterlacing for H264 |
8
|
2
|
Flickering Issues | |||
044-1080i30.VC1.HeavilyInterlaced.ts | Deinterlacing for VC1 |
8
|
2
|
Flickering Issues | |||
022-DVDISO.iso extracted to folder | Video_TS/VOB Playback | 4 | 4 | ||||
023-BluRayISO.iso extracted to folder | Extracted BluRay Iso | 4 | 0 | One Video Stream at a time only. | |||
Total |
200 out of 344
|
The WD TV Live Plus has some drawbacks when it comes to media compatibility, especially compared to an HTPC system which due to its flexible software options which lets it play virtually anything. (For instance the ASRock Core100HT-BD HTPC scored 336 out of 344 in our media compatibility test suite). The WD TV Live Plus acheives a score of 200 out of 344 here (58.14%). Some of the key shortcomings in media compatibility include failure to decode WMAPro audio codecs and RMVB, poor deinterlacing capabilities, some subtitles problems and a few issues with choppiness on certain test files.
While the device does have full WMV support, it does not have support for WMApro audio codecs. Several of our WMV test files played perfectly but without audio; including a de-facto WMV-HD test file from the WMV showcase website. There are many users who do not utilize any windows media codecs in any shape or form and so this will not bother many people. However, this could mean major compatibility issues with users who have previously encoded much of their video content to WMV for Xbox media streaming purposes. RMVB is not listed as a supported format and indeed the rmvb files do not even show up in the folder when browsing through the content. Deinterlacing performance on the WD TV Live was sub-par and most of the deinterlacing test videos had flickering issues. A drastic improvement was seen when offloading the deinterlacing to my HDTV's deinterlacing processor by setting the WD TV Live to 1080i and allowing the television itself to interpolate the fields. If you are going to be using the WD TV Live for watching interlaced content, you might do yourself a service to do the same.
The WD TV Live does support subtitles and has a wide range of language/region options. The SSA subs worked fine on most content, but some of the stylized subs were not visible on our test file. PGS subtitles did not play from MKVs. Also, some languages that read right to left were displayed incorrectly. Other lost points in this test suite came from a few test files that had choppiness issues such as some of the HD camera clips and a Panasonic demo reel.
Blu-ray menus are not supported at all, but the device does ask if you would like to play the video within the ISO, and it is possible to view the video stream inside the ISO. This worked on our test Blu-ray ISO that only included one video stream, but when attempting to do the same with our HQV Blu-ray ISO, it resulted in only one video being played, although there were several video streams inside. Most likely, the WD TV attempts to play the largest video stream and that is all. Some points were docked for this issue.
With the incompatibilities and other issues noted, the WD TV Live Plus does support a wide range of files and plays them very well. With a few exceptions, the content that the WD TV Live advertises as being compatible with plays smoothly even at high bit-rates and full 1080p resolutions. Dolby TrueHD is supported, although only in the mt2s container (strangely, this is not listed in the manual as supported). DVD ISO playback seems flawless including full menu support. Even Blu-ray ISO files work on the device, with certain quirks, as mentioned above.
[UPDATE]
Due to reader feedback, we have added an additional test to the benchmark suite to determine if the player is capable of playing extracted Blu-Ray and DVD ISO formats. The WD TV Live Plus was capable of playing the DVD with menus just fine after clicking the first file in the Video_TS folder. The extracted Blu-ray ISO could be played one video stream at a time by navigating into the folder structure of the extracted ISO, no Blu-Ray menus were available. Please note the updated scores.
81 Comments
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Decaff - Thursday, July 29, 2010 - link
I definately second this.Most of the commentaries I've seen around point to the PlayON being a far better player, though some people claim the WDTV to be better, but doesn't back it up.
Also, the Popcorn boxes are often regarded as being superior (probably due to the higher pricetag), but I haven't seen any solid confirmation of it anywhere.
So keep up the good work. I'm loving these articles.
jo-82 - Thursday, July 29, 2010 - link
Why would i want to let my normal machine run all the time? If i use a USB-attached one i have the mess auf more Cables and an additional device.Dear WD: Put a 2,5" Drivebay (Hotswappable would be nice) inside and we have a deal. Especially as a Device for Parents und and Friends...
probedb - Thursday, July 29, 2010 - link
Some of us have these things called fileservers or NAS boxes. If you want an internal drive why are you even looking at this as that's not what it's for???dvinnen - Thursday, July 29, 2010 - link
These type devices are geared toward people who have media servers (i currently use a 7 year old machine running linux and a ton of storage and it works great). Also to get you to purchase a WD external HD.Internal storage wouldn't work unless they added NAS functionality to it. Hot swapping drives to put media on it and bring it back to the player just sounds like a bad idea.
saiga6360 - Friday, July 30, 2010 - link
Did you happen to see the price tag? You want something like, you will have to pay more for like a Popcorn Hour or a Dune.Finite Loop - Thursday, July 29, 2010 - link
I had been looking for the WD TV Live, but it was sold out everywhere and nobody had any backorders for it. I went with the AC Ryan Playon HD mini.It would have been nice if the article discussed playback over the LAN connection. The AC Ryan performs well over its (100Mb) LAN connection except for 1080p content where fast action scenes may exhibit block-effects. The only content the AC Ryan doesn't seem to play (whether from LAN or USB) is stereoscopic video which causes the player to freeze.
I was hoping this WD "Plus" version would have a gigabit connection. Without gigabit, the increase in price in comparison to the previous version doesn't seem to be justified. Additionally, the AC Ryan comes with an HDMI cable which I would have had to purchase separately had I gone with a WD TV Live model.
It's interesting the article mentions the chip(s) in the WD TV Live Plus however a comparison with chips used in other devices would be appreciated. Why does this device require 1Gigabyte of memory while the AC Ryan mini operates with only 128MB? What's the difference between the video decoding chip in this player and other players?
cbutters - Thursday, July 29, 2010 - link
You can get the WD TV Live Plus for 119 at newegg with a free 8GB thumb drive.I'm not entirely sure that gigabit is an important feature here, with bluray video streams maxing out at 40mbps and averaging less than 30, there seems to be little benefit of increasing the 100mbps connection to 1000 as the bandwidth would go unused. However this is something that we hope to examine further in future articles.
Saltbread - Thursday, July 29, 2010 - link
I'm assuming that the Core 100 refers to the Asrock product reviewed before and the column should actually be labled Live Plus or something like that. My apologies if I am incorrect.ganeshts - Thursday, July 29, 2010 - link
This has been fixed. Thanks for pointing out.ned14 - Thursday, July 29, 2010 - link
These low end media boxes mainly come with one of two chipsets: Sigma and Realtek with the former being more expensive. The problem isn't the hardware, it's more the manufacturer supplied firmware where the Sigma one is good, whereas the Realtek one was written by incompetent chimpanzees. Anyone who has used both types of box will know exactly what I mean.There is a brand new third option though - the Amlogic chipset. Its firmware is spartan, but due to its simplicity is seems to "just work" and it looks better than the Realtek's but not as good as the Sigma. The specs of the Amlogic I bought is detailed here at http://www.iboum.com/pr/nation2.php.
My first problem with the WDTV Live, as with anything costing more than US$70, is that for that price it really ought to have an internal drive bay so you don't have to faff around with external USB drive solutions. My second problem is with anything costing more than US$100 when for less or even not much more you can pick up a second hand P3 based quiet computer off ebay or a second hand games console both of which are far better media playing solutions. After all, Boxee and/or XBMC can be downloaded and installed on most things, so a DIY solution is often better here.
The only remaining argument is that these boxes are small and easily transportable e.g. to a friend's house in a way that PCs and game consoles are not. And here's my third problem with these boxes: top end smartphones are increasingly able to serve content either through HDMI or DNLA or both, and you can't beat a phone for portability.
Now if you can pick up a tiny light box for US$70 AND it has an internal drive bay AND it can play off of a DNLA server such as a phone - e.g. the Amlogic box I bought - then you might be on to something because it can act as a simple TV driver for media living elsewhere while still having the flexibility to act as a cheap NAS box too if desired. And what few bugs it has in its firmware have been fixed quickly as they seem to be operating a quarterly firmware release schedule. Personally I have been pleasantly surprised considering the price.
Oh, and it plays RMVB just fine. I have a huge collection of South Park in RMVB, and while they're a little blocky on my 1080p TV due to the low bitrate that is hardly the player's fault!
Cheers,
Niall