First off, I LOVE this device. Love, as in it has become my favorite new toy. The last time I liked a device this much was my very first iPod back in the day. The reason is pretty simple: it does everything it says it will and does it well. Many of the negative reviews of this product are dinging it because either the firmware killed the device (an understandable reason to be upset--I would be to if that happened to me) or because it doesn't have features the purchaser would like it to have (unreasonable in my opinion). This is NOT an internet browser for your TV--if you want something that does that, buy a media center PC. It also doesn't have built in WIFI. If you want WIFI, be prepared to buy a wifi adapter to connect to the USB port. If not having WIFI built in is a problem for you, then DON'T buy one! Is the WD Live perfect? No. Does it do a lot of things really, really well? Yes.
Ok, now on to what makes the WD TV Live so awesome:
1) Codec support for virtually any media file. I've thrown Xvid, divX, MKV, .AVI, FLAC, mp3, etc. files of various sizes at it and all work perfectly. I've played Blue Ray rips at full 1080p streaming from my NAS and the picture is truly fantastic. Dolby Surround decoding is flawless. This thing just works and I've yet to find a CODEC that I use which it doesn't support.
2) Ease of netwrok set-up. I don't understand people having issues with network connectivity. I plugged this into my network switch, turned it on, ran the auto network configuration, and was all ready to go. If you are not able to stream files from your Windows PC, the issue is almost certainly with permissions on the files (assuming you have them shared). Even if you share them you sometimes need to set the permissions to 'everyone' for them to be accessible (right click on the shared directory, go to 'permissions' and select everyone). You also need to make sure you either turn off 'password protected sharing' OR configure the WD Live with the correct password for each PC you want to stream files from. I am currently streaming from two different windows 7 PCs (a notebook over wireless and my personal PC over LAN) as well as my NAS and all work seamlessly. If you don't know how to properly set up a home network and are having issues with connectivity, don't blame it on this device. Do some reading first before assuming that the WD Live is to blame.
3) HDMI out with full audio pass through. No need to attach all sorts of audio cables. 1 HDMI cable to your receiver and you're done.
4) Easy to navigate connectivity to your network shares. The WD Live sorts by directory NOT meta tags, so if you want to be able to search your media files easily use iTunes or Windows Media Player to auto-organize them into files. A good naming structure is something like Music\Artist\Album. Another tip would be to download mp3tag (freeware) and use it to not just tag your files correctly, but rename the files themselves with a good naming architecture so that the file name INCLUDES the meta data. This is advice for media file management in general, but if you do it, it will make using the WD Live even more enjoyable. Since my music library and video collection is already organized and named correctly, my experience using the GUI to find and play files has been great. If you put all your files in one massive directory, you will have to sort through a long list of files to find what you want to play.
5) Support for USB hard drive/flash drive. It's not essential to have a network connection. You can use a hard drive or USB drive full of you media files. This is a great option for those who just want access to their music/video library and don't care about web streaming capability.
6) Responsiveness is great. Playing and pausing media files is instant, even a massive 12GB Blue Ray rip. Menu navigation is smooth and glitch free. It's nice when things work well, and the WD TV Live just works.
A few complaints:
1) It would be nice if the GUI supported a search function. It would also be nice if it supported meta tags. It would be even nicer if supported a keypad so that typing things in wasn't the tedious process that it currently is.
*****CORRECTION*****12-13-2009*****
The WD TV Live DOES support Meta Tags if you upgrade the firmware AND you are streaming from a NAS or PC that supports media extension. Currently I am using a D-Link DNS-321 upgraded to the most recent firmware and I am now able to sort media files by artist, genre, etc. Unfortunately the way the WD Live displays files inside these categories is by the ACTUAL file names, so for example everything in my Alternative Rock Genre is lumped together and sorts by file name. It's not broken down by artist or album, so it's really not that useful. If you rename all your files so that the first word of the file is the track number, you can at least sort by album and have songs play in the correct order instead of alphabetically. The real weakness of the WD TV Live is it's poorly designed sort features when using META tags. However, as I stated earlier in this review, I sort my media by file location, so for me it is virtually a non issue.
2) I wish the WD Live supported HULU and other web pages. The problem is that there is no built in web browser (Firefox, IE, etc.). That would require a lot more code--what is supported (Flickr and Youtube) are API applications that don't require a full browser. My guess is that WD pursued specific licensing with both Flickr and Youtube to allow their applications--that's why there isn't more diverse support for online content. My recommendation is that if this is a deal killer for you, you probably really need a HTPC not a media streamer. It would be awesome if some intrepid coder would make an alternative firmware with an API plug for HULU and other media streaming pages. Not sure if the firmware WD puts out is open source or not. My gut tells me not.
3) With only one USB in, you can't connect a wireless dongle and a USB hard drive at the same time. You might be able to use a USB hub, but I've never tried it.
4) No external power buttons. This isn't a big deal, but I really like to be able to turn things on and off when the remote is absent.
Conclusions:
This is not a perfect device. It won't bring about world peace or solve the US budget deficit. It doesn't come with every conceivable feature that anyone can imagine. It won't troubleshoot your network or let you browse the net from your recliner. Metatag sorting is not great, and if you rely solely on metatags to sort your media, you will likely be unhappy unless you take the time to properly name/sort your media files. On the other hand, it will allow you to play just about any media file known to man with breathtaking video and sound quality. It will make streaming your media collection from a PC or a NAS easy. It will provide you with wonderful versatility in your AV set up. For the price, I personally believe it is well worth buying, and while not perfect, it's very, very good.
4.5/5 Stars. Get more detail about Western Digital WD TV Live Network-ready HD Media Player WDBAAN0000NBK-NESN.
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