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
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.
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ganeshts - Thursday, July 29, 2010 - link
Niall,Have you tried playing Blu-Ray backups in MKV or M2TS formats on the Amlogic chipset? I believe the Amlogic chipset uses IP from Chips & Media, and that IP is just not powerful enough to decode Blu-Ray spec encodes (high bitrates). Admittedly, the last time I did research on this was 6 months back.
That said, we will try to get hold of such devices for review here provided they have a presence in the US. One of the Realtek streamers is up next :)
Decaff - Friday, July 30, 2010 - link
Care to announce which Realtek streamer that is?ganeshts - Friday, July 30, 2010 - link
The only one supporting Netflix :) No guarantees when it is going to appear though :Ptech6 - Thursday, July 29, 2010 - link
Another great home theater review - keep them coming. AT is one of the very few sites that actually does any meaningful testing of HT devices beyond taking them out of the box and switching them on.EddyKilowatt - Monday, August 2, 2010 - link
Agree. The tech-blog scene needs more *reporters* and fewer *stenographers*.I've read several reviews of the WD Live family, and this is pretty much the first time I've seen the Video Quality issues mentioned, at least in any objective way.
I'll be picking up one of these gadgets in a few months, but sure hope they'll fix the networking bugs as I'll mostly be streaming from a Windows Home Server.
Mumrik - Thursday, July 29, 2010 - link
"For those who value low power consumption this device certainly fits the bill, consuming almost 8 times less power than an HTPC at idle and 5 times less power at load."That kind of expression really does make no sense at all when you talking about using LESS. One time less would be zero - are you talking about 1/8 and 1/5 of the power?
SlyNine - Monday, August 2, 2010 - link
And yet, our amazing human mind made perfect sense out of it. Also it didn't detract from the article at all.But I guess technically you are correct.
Ninjahedge - Thursday, July 29, 2010 - link
I have an older model. I primarily use it when going down to the shore.It is TINY and fits easily into a backpack. the only problem being file storage. Getting the external HD, power cord and other things can be a real PITA.
But that may also be a thing of the past as SD gets cheaper. Carrying a few 32's and an adapter may make bringing Anime and the like much easier.
The only problems I have with the older one was lack of network connectability. It is all USB. Having something that can be hooked up to a router and stream whatever you have (along with custom subs) is a godsend.
I am just pissed that most of these guys came along AFTER I made my $700 Shuttle box a year or two back!
I have not read the full atricle yet, but I am guessing the Pandora Playing is just their Pay service (like Slimline?)
Has Logitech jumped on this bandwagon? Can we get comparitive reviews soon? Can you mow my lawn?
;)
puckalicious - Thursday, July 29, 2010 - link
I noticed the test suite contains only 1 test for DVD playback, and only from an ISO file. What about DVD video_ts folders on a hard drive?ganeshts - Thursday, July 29, 2010 - link
puckalacious, We will add this in the next version of the test suite:1. DVD folder playback
2. Blu-Ray folder playback
Thanks for your suggestions.