Buy Western Digital WD TV Live Network-ready HD Media Player WDBAAN0000NBK-NESN

First things first. It works! That is not always a slam dunk with electronics.

I have several WD NAS (network attached storage) devices, and a fair amount of ripped video (WMV, AVI) that I wanted to display on a second TV. This seemed like an ideal solution.

This product worked right out of the box. I connected it to my TV with the included composite video (red/white/yellow plugs) adapter, plugged in a network cable, and pressed the power button. It identified itself to my network, and in 30 seconds I was watching Hogan's Heroes.

The good points:

It works!

Picture image seems fine. I am using it on a 23" LCD (not HD).

It has the ability to look at all my NAS drives, even the ones that are not set up for public access. There are screens to enter login/passwords to access these drives.

The on-screen controls are laid out in a sort of grid, and are a little bit unusual-but fine once you get used to them.

In three weeks, only one system hangup/crash. Pulled the power plug for a second, and worked fine afterwards.


The bad points:

The on-screen menus are in a relatively small font- at least on a 23" TV. Can be hard to read.

I have lost network connectivity once or twice in a few weeks. No big deal, except it is not obvious what has happened, because it evidently "remembers" the file structure from the last time it was connected.

The fast-forward button seems a little squirrely. It doesn't advance the video all that quickly, and there seems to be some random amount of "recoil" after you release the button.


Summary:

I started ripping video to watch on my xbox. This provides a way to take advantage of that library on a number of other TV's for a very minimal cost. The disadvantages are minor compared to what it does well.

As a bonus, it also plays my entire library of audio (FLAC) that is set up for my Sonos system. I have also used it to browse pictures stored on my network. One thing that would have been so cool is a random slide show that would grab photos from the entire collection.
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