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
Disassembling the WD TV Plus reveals a passive heatsink design, which is preferred in this class of device since there is no fan noise to distract from the viewing experience. The heatsink found within the unit is comparable to the size of a standard northbridge heatsink found on modern motherboards. The device is well built, the plastic is thick and durable, and the chassis has very little wasted space, which helps it keep a very small footprint. The device also uses metal foil tape to connect the tray to the metal portion of the frame of the device which may also help to distribute some of the heat. Once the heatsink is removed we can see the Sigma Secure Media Processor in the center of the mainboard. Also of note, we see that the unit uses Hynix DDR memory chips, and a RTL8201EL Realtek NIC controller. The Realtek RTL8201EL is a single-chip/single-port Fast Ethernet PHYceiver that is capable of operating at 10/100Mbps, full/half duplex, auto-negotiation and power down modes.
The WD TV Live Plus uses the same clamshell style design that many of their HDD products such as the MyBook line.
Within the plastic casing, a metal tray and cover exist to hold the mainboard
The heatsink and mainboard
The back end of the mainboard.
The processor and memory chips uncovered.
The WD TV Live Plus has a Sigma Media Processor, a chip designed for IPTV, cable, thin clients and media players. This processor architecture is built for low power operation and boasts advanced content protection, digital rights management and a wide list of media format capabilities.
The WDTV Live Plus is almost identical to the WDTV Live, the only apparent difference being the change in processor model number. The Plus version utilizes a Sigma SMP8654 media processor, while the previous WD TV Live version utilizes the SMP8655. Although the SMP8655 has a higher model number, the additional digit actually signifies that it is the Non-Macrovision version. Utilizing the SMP8654 Sigma processor rather than the SMP8655 previously used in the WD TV Live HD is essential for doing the two things that the Plus version of WDTV Live is capable of doing in addition to the features it's predecessor already supported, namely Netflix streaming. We reason that WD had to release the WD TV Live Plus with a new processor because there is no content protection available otherwise for the composite output. This output is analog in nature, and Macrovision is meant for analog output protection. On HDMI, HDCP is more than enough. It is likely that the older WDTV Live HD could have supported Netflix with just a firmware update, but would not have been able to protect the content over composite signals.
Here is a layout of the Sigma Processor architecture followed by a list of features and specifications:
The SMP8654 media processor has 1GB of built in DDR-667, and has interface support beyond the capabilities that it is utilized in WDs implementation. One of those features that would have possibly added value to a device like the WD TV Plus is the SATA IO support. This capability could have possibly been utilized to provide an eSATA interface, allowing further support for Western Digitals HDD products such as the eSATA myDVR expander and other eSATA devices supplied by Western Digital.
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EarthwormJim - Thursday, July 29, 2010 - link
The size is nice, but I don't see how this can really compare to the ~$200 ion systems you can get/build. Sure it's cheap, but it's so much more limited than a full computer.kmmatney - Thursday, July 29, 2010 - link
It's much easier to use than a full computer, and has a remote control. My wife can use this as easily as a DVD player. I looked into getting an ION system, but was going to be $250 for the cheapest system (book size), whereas the WD Live was $109 when I bought mine. It works great - has played everything I've tried. It also has excellent zooming features.Phynaz - Thursday, July 29, 2010 - link
This.An easy to use appliance that doesn't require any effort on the users part as far as education.
greenguy - Sunday, August 29, 2010 - link
Exactly. I have a WD TV live, and it has been awesome. It uses next to no power, and plays pretty much everything (other than Thomas the Tank Engine) we have thrown at it. Very impressed, very easy to use.wdtvblogger - Saturday, August 7, 2010 - link
It has a great iPhone application that acts a remote control (http://www.wdtvremote.com) - much easier than the hardware remote control. It also allows extra features on your WDTV such as playing SHOUTcast radio...EarthwormJim - Thursday, July 29, 2010 - link
I forgot to add, I do thoroughly enjoy reviews like this though. Even if the product is crummy, bring on more!!beginner99 - Thursday, July 29, 2010 - link
So this thing is like identical to the non-plus version which I own. The wmapro thing is a non-issue. It's almost never used and there is a converter available online to mkv which is pretty sweet (=works and is fast).The issue I have is mainly the network problems. If you intend to use it in a network, well prepare for issues. I use it wireless. Bandwith is no problem but connection just drops now and then. see wd forum. it's a common issue. supposedly also happens in wired mode. It' s not really reproducable. Sometimes ti just works, sometimes it drops several times during a movie.
The limited youtube content can also be an issue because what often is blocked are offical music videos and trailers. Eg. the things you would actually want to watch on the tv. Fun stuff, normally in crappy quality, I usually get to by links when browsing on my pc. For me this is not a killer, I bought it for streaming but after a short look at the youtube feature I never used it again.
kmmatney - Thursday, July 29, 2010 - link
This website lets you create thumbnails for movies to make browsing through the folders more interesting. It creates a file with the same name as your movie, which the WD Live knows to use as a thumbnail for the moviehttp://www.wdtvc.com/2009/04/04/wd-tv-movie-thumbn...
This is good for doing a few movies at a time. There is also a thumbnail generator for auto-generating thumbnails for a whole movie collection:
http://www.softpedia.com/get/Multimedia/Video/Othe...
nubie - Thursday, July 29, 2010 - link
I notice you did image quality tests on 1080 output, what if you are using a native 720p screen, such as a projector?Do these caveats still apply? I would assume less so because the down-conversion should happen after the de-interlacing.
Excellent review, this thing is on the short list of simple gadgets for HD video that the Luddites in the family can operate (and not break doing so.)
probedb - Thursday, July 29, 2010 - link
I'd be interested in a review of the Play!ON as it appears to be a much better player.I'm also surprised so little attention is paid to deinterlacing in these devices. I rip my DVDs to MKV without compression meaning the streamer must deinterlace so surely it wouldn't hurt for a manufacturer to a good quality one with maybe some ABT chipsets in there?