I was looking for a convenient way, to organize my videos (DVDs, Home Videos, Tivo Recordings etc.). My final two choices were the Apple TV (ATV) device or the Western Digital WD TV Live.
I finally decided, to go with the Western Digital WD TV Live. Where the Apple TV has a beautiful interface, and integrats nicely into a Mac environment (iTunes, Airport Extreme etc.), it does not allow you to stream the variety of media types that the Western Digital WD TV Live does. Also, the WD solution is quite a bit cheaper.
The first thing that was surprising to me, when I opened the box was, how small and portable the WD device is. This is definitely another plus in comparison to the ATV. Hooking up the device was easy, using the HDMI cable. However, I was never able to get the Component output to work. Be warned: I initially set up my WD device using Composite, and then changed the output settings to Component. The Component output did not work and I had to navigate through the flickering picture, until I finally was able to change the settings to Composite again.
But if you use HDMI, you will not run into any issues.
The next issue was, that as soon as I connected the device to my Home Network, the Western Digital WD TV Live asked me to download a firmware update. I did so, and after about 20% of the download, the TV screen turned black. I waited for about 30 minutes, but nothing seemed to happen anymore. I had to unplug the WD device, and then restart it again. The firmware update then completed without any further issues.
Network connections worked easy. The Western Digital WD TV Live found all my shared folders on my PC and on my two Mac computers right away, and was able to stream the media. One drawback is, that the WD does not recognize my iTunes. It only recognizes the mp3 and aac files. It does not play the file protected aac files, purchased from the iTunes store.
The YouTube and Pandora integration also worked without a problem. However, entering text, using the remote control
is very cumbersome (but that is also true for a PS3, Tivo unit etc.).
Speaking of Tivo : Since I am using a mac, files transferred from a Tivo unit to my Mac use a .tivo file format, which is not recognized by the Western Digital WD TV Live. These files need to be converted to mp4 or m4v format.
Which brings me to my last section of my review : Copying your movies to a Hard Disk. For Apple, using the free software Handbrake is almost essential. I recommend, to use the preset 'Apple Universal' which will either create a mp4 or a m4v file of your DVDs. Both formats work flawless with the Western Digital WD TV Live.
When you export your home movies from the old iMovie HD, the application will create a .dv file, which is not recognized by the Western Digital WD TV Live. Again, these files need to be converted.
However, the new iMovie 9 creates a .m4v file which works perfect.
The WD device recognizes all types of HD formatting, in my case, I use the Apple Journaled format.
The Western Digital WD TV Live connects to your home network through a network cable, or you can purchase an additional USB device (~ $ 20.00) which will let you connect through your WiFi router.
The HD Picture is beautiful. However, this of course always depends on the compression that you use, when converting your movies. I compress all my DVDs to about 2 GB, and the picture quality is still very good. However, for my home movies, I use uncompressed, true HD, which looks perfect on my Sony LCD TV.
Conclusion : The price/value ratio for this product is outstanding. There are still a couple of issues that will probably be resolved in the future, with new Firmware updates.
A couple of nice to haves would be the integration of Netflix streaming, or access to Hulu (which is possible, streaming the media through your PC using a media server).
The user interface is nice, but ATV is miles ahead of everyone else (i.e. PS3, Tivo etc.). But I am very happy with the Western Digital WD TV Live - it does exactly what I want, and then some more.Get more detail about Western Digital WD TV Live Network-ready HD Media Player WDBAAN0000NBK-NESN.
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