Western Digital WD TV HD Media Player

Let's start with the BAD things - this won't take long
Some say that the name is too long and non-catchy. Well ok - does that really matter?
It takes all the technical aspects out of getting digital content to your TV. Yes that is true. This makes life unbelievably simple. Some advances users don't want to transfer each movie to a flash drive and walk it to the WD TV HD box. There is no streaming feature available but that is not what it is trying to do.
Its 'glossy' finish attracts fingerprints, and dust - but I have had it out 2 weeks and it has needed 1 attack with a duster.

Ok let's get on with the good stuff!
It will play about any format that you can throw at it. I have a Creative Zen (see my review) and I LOVE it. I used that to watch things on my TV. Simply transfer to the Zen, plug into TV, and watch. The Zen played 13/15 files - hey I could live with that. But this? This hasn't failed once. 270 gig of storage, films, music, photos etc - all worked.
(so far: MP3, WMA, OGG, WAV/PCM/LPCM, AAC, FLAC, Dolby Digital, AIF/AIFF, MKA, JPEG, GIF, TIF/TIFF, BMP, PNG, MPEG1/2/4, WMV9, AVI (MPEG4, Xvid, AVC), H.264, MKV and MOV (MPEG4, H.264))

You can watch in either standard-def or Full HD. No HD cable included - but they don't cost much.
It also auto converts files to intended ratio - so you don't get stretched images. That does mean you get black bars at the side of the pic sometimes, but it's not a deal breaker. I actually like watching the correct aspect ratio.

Ok the installation - lets take you through that in case someone finds it hard:-

Get WD TV box. Plug into TV (AV or HDMI). Get External harddrive. Plug into USB on WDTV.
..........
That. Is. It.

You can use a flash drive if you want. It has 2 ports - so you can have youer "permanent" one attached to the back and use the side one when you have someone wanting to show you anything. Goodbye having to see holiday photos on a PC.
There's no software to install and no reason to ever connect it to a computer.

There is a remote control included (2 x AAA batteries - included). It is small - and some might not like this - I found it quite charming though
FULL High-definition video support (up to 1080p so feel free to watch BluRay rips) and a REALLY nice intuitive user interface. Cleverly laid out, you can have it split into relevant folders, and see your videos, music, and photos - or you can see a representation of your folders on the harddrive.
ONLY bad thing is that there is no "page down" button - so if you have a massively cluttered drive - it takes an extra 10 secs to get to where you want to get to! You can also look at it as thumbnails or a list format.

This was crazily easy to use. My 65 year old mum would find this a doddle, and she needed lessons on her TV. I would seriously consider buying her a 16 gig stick, load it with family pics, movies and music, get her this aswell and let her figure it all out.

This is REALLY cheap for what it does and at £80 is a bargain. It looks good too and to some people this matters. It is built well and is attractive, small and classy. 2 little white lights on the front representing "on" and "drive plugged in".

This is an essential if you have any sort of media you would like to watch on a TV, especially if you have downloaded films and television.

Please note that for mkv films in dts the sound comes out in digital so you will need either a dvd cinema player with an optical input via a digital optical cable (just for sound), or you will need to plug it into an a/v cinema amplifier via digital optical cable because otherwise you will get no sound, not even in stereo) mkv's in dts will play in to a dts decoder or not at all (or hdmi through something that can decode dts).....
I go hdmi in to the tv for picture
Digital optical cable into my a/v amplifer for sound (some dvd cinema systems also have optical inputs in the back if ya lucky)

Dolby digital 5.1 films can be played in stereo in most cases. So before you buy, check all your audio inputs.
And get yourself up to date with latest firmware from western digitals web site.

Summary: Great unit, it's only £90, get the update and it'll play anything! Remember if you get a hard drive you'll need 2 more plug sockets! Unless you get a portable usb powered hard drive. I got a wd 500gig for around £90. But you can get them for around £50 for about 250gig.

Hope this info helps!

After alot of thought about which media player to get, this popped up at the 11th hour and i took the plunge. I bought myself a 1tb wd elements external drive, filled it up with tv shows/movies/music and awaited this player. Got it setup today, dead simple. Took a few minutes for it to load all my files, but once it did it works a treat. Played my mkv files/vob/avi/wmv/jpeg etc without any problems. Watched a few tv shows and not one jump or sound out of sync. It is a little slow loading the files initially, (maybe 3 to 4 secs. big deal). A bargain buy

i had lots of issues playing video files on my xbox and laptop so invested in this mysterious little black box, which has played everything ive chucked at it so far, including AVI, XVID, MPEG and ISO files.
Im very impressed with the quality of the picture and audio and I cant recommend this product enough!

Bought this unit a month ago so I could watch my TV-series on my flatscreen TV instead of on my PC screen. The user friendly interface and compatiblity that covered ALL my different formats (After the supereasy firmware upgrade that even my grandma could do) made this my number one favorite product in my house. Adding subtitles is not a problem either. Just put subtitle file in the folder (and give it the same name as the moviefile) and you're up and running. Only negative about the unit is that it uses power even in standby (atleast the unit is medium hot while "off"), so you have to unplug it to make sure its not consuming electricity. Not a big issue really. (most units do this) Just keep in mind that this unit has no storage (HD or flashmemory). You have to connect a portable HD or flashmemory. It "eats" anything with an USB cord really. I prefer to connect a WD Passport HD since its small and doesnt require a external power supply.

If you're looking for a easy way to look at your Hires movies/pictures on your TV for a fair price, then this is your product. :)