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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bah12 - Thursday, July 29, 2010 - link
But does it work? Or did you not try at all?ganeshts - Thursday, July 29, 2010 - link
Cameron will try them out and update by today evening :)bah12 - Thursday, July 29, 2010 - link
Good deal thanks! Ripped my collection a few years back (old Media Center HTPC + MyMovies). MyMovies DB got corrupted so it basically just sits there. Waiting for an inexpensive streamer and some sort of software to catalog the movies. Easier to just grab the DVD off the shelf. Pity really, because it was a lot of work.Hoping something like this would do the trick, it would be nice to see the cataloging options. My project was a few years back, and getting the meta data (album art, genre ..) was a pain. Has it progressed enough today so that it can do it off of folder name? Or better yet even track sampling like .mp3's do when they auto get the album info.
cbutters - Friday, July 30, 2010 - link
This test that was suggested is now updated in the article.AgeOfPanic - Sunday, August 1, 2010 - link
Does Blu-Ray folder playback also mean that you can hookup an external Blu-Ray player (e.g. the ones that you can buy for a laptop) and browse through the folders of a Blu-ray disk?ganeshts - Sunday, August 1, 2010 - link
This is usually not possible on most devices because AACS is unsupported in these type of devices (sub-$200). You need Blu Ray players such as C-200 or the Dune Prime for folder playback on attached Blu Ray drives.pjladyfox - Thursday, July 29, 2010 - link
You guys get major kudos from this girly geek and prove why Anantech is the first place I usually come to for reviews followed by everyone else. This has got to be, by far, the most detailed and comprehensive testing suite I've EVER seen regarding NMT's and media streamers. Now I'm dying to see a roundup from you guys, using this testing suite, to see how the other boxes stack up. ^_^To other review sites: THIS is how you not only build a testing suite but review a NMT and media streamer.
JNo - Thursday, July 29, 2010 - link
Hi great review - love the detail on the compatibility and also video quality - that's rare.I would urge you guys to google then get and review the Xtreamer. It's made and sold directly by a Korean company but is really great value and powerful. It has a very active user community, some of whom who work directly with the manufacturers on the new firmware updates.
As for streaming - I'm all for it... in theory. Apart from being rubbish at understanding and setting up networks, I won't even consider wireless streaming of hd content with all the problems I keep reading about. And whilst wired network streaming is a lot better, it can still have issues and relies on your computer being on for this to occur (noise, power etc) - and not all of us are dedicated enough to have a home NAS system.
I simply put a 500Gb 2.5" HDD in my xtreamer which, while costly initially, allows me just to transfer films and tv shows to it knowing that I, or my wife, will be able to watch them stutter free whenever, whether or not the computer is on. Once you've got a bit of a collection on it, the streaming thing becomes irrelevant.
ganeshts - Thursday, July 29, 2010 - link
JNo, Thanks for your suggestion.Xtreamer has been on our sights for quite some time now. We are taking steps to see whether we can test it out, but no guarantees :)
docent - Thursday, July 29, 2010 - link
my one year old ASUS HDP-R1 can play DVD menus from ISO files, what's interesting it can even play menus from BD - functionality that is still not supported on WD media players. WD TV Live Plus is an inferior products - Asus HDP-R1 or newer model HDP-R3 ( with embedded WI-FI ) are much better