RSSWestern Digital gives its drives a set-top box
By Tim Conneally | Published November 3, 2008, 1:07 PM
First appearing over the weekend on BestBuy.com, Western Digital has officially debuted its WD TV HD Media Player -- a way to expand the reach of its portable hard drives into the DTV realm with the aid of USB.
Introduced as a companion to WD's My Passport portable media drives, the WD TV player acts as a TV docking station for USB storage devices. Photos, movies, and music can be navigated on the user's TV through HD menus with the included remote control. Up to two USB storage devices can be simultaneously hooked up.
The device outputs a 1080p HD picture via HDMI, and also has RCA outs for SD connections. With a footprint of only 4.9" x 3.9" x 1.6", it is smaller than both AppleTV, and Roku's Netflix Player, two of the smaller standalone set-top boxes on the market.
It is also currently resting upon the magic price point. The WD TV HD Media Player has an MSRP of $129.99, but is currently on sale for $99 at Best Buy.
Where it takes up only a small amount of space and isn't prohibitively expensive, it lacks wireless connectivity -- the most important feature of the majority of other media streamers, like Vudu, or DivX Connected, or even the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 video game consoles.
Wonder why these devices don't come with a "record to" feature. If that was in there, yeah it would be worth it!
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|Why not just hook your computer to your TV?
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|I think the primary selling point of these set top boxes is size and noise produced. Most desktops wouldn't fit into the furniture most people have for their a/v equipment. Most desktop machines produce more noise than most people find desirable for a media center.
I definitely think that a more traditional computer has a lot more functionality that any of these boxes but if you have a very small size requirement a regular desktop might not be a good choice.
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|...Not to mention a small factor called "cost".
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|LONG overdue!
Wireless connectivity means little if it does not support at minimum USB3 with UWB technology and where the majority of receivers fail to support it!
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|Shows MKV and H.264 support, nice. Lots of boxes like this on the market though, not sure how many more the market can honestly handle.
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|Agreed. This might be attractive for someone who has a small bus powered hard drive or SSD lying around but I think most people would rather have a box with a HD built in.
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