Perhaps a glutton for punishment, I'm constantly on the lookout for the perfect home media server solution. Nothing bothers me more than clutter, with the greatest culprit those pesky DVD's, CD's, and anything/everything else classified as 'hard copy entertainment.'
I come to the itty-bitty Western Digital (WD) TV Live a veteran of a very difficult configuration process for a Trekstor MovieStation Maxi t.u (88570) 1TB Multi-Media SATA Hard Drive. While worth the effort, the former lacks HDMI and network attached storage capabilities. Does the WD HD TV improve on this pesky predecessor? Yes, but with some caveats.
Setting up the WD TV Live was a snap, even via wireless access point to free it from hardwire shackles. The Device seamlessly picked up my network, and within minutes I was browsing both YouTube and my Pandora account. Advantage: WD TV Live.
The HD cable - routed through an HDMI Switcher - produced terrific audio and video quality, a slight notch (albeit not as significant as I expected) above the composite video and digital audio outputs of the Trekstor. Still, the ease of HDMI is worth its weight in gold.
Configuring my Mac to speak with the Network Storage option, however, was a tad more tricky. It took several Google searches and configuration attempts to establish proper networking protocol. Even when synced, the WD TV Live was a tad finicky, requiring a restart to re-sync music folders on my Macbook. Still, the cool factor abounds, as cover art transferred along with easy access to an iTunes library. Attaching the Trekstor to the WD TV Live - once indexed - produced equally simple access to every/any movie I had previously transferred. Good stuff. Advantage: None.
Still, I was left hoping for more. For a device capable of communicating with several Web sites (Pandora, YouTube, Live365), I quickly lamented its inability to truly stream Internet content via Flash and/or other video protocol. I envisioned this device a useful way of playing embedded video content wirelessly, especially sports and/or Hulu-type content. This option - to date - is nowhere to be found either in base firmware or custom versions.
Moreover - and while a tiny little bugger - a necessity to purchase outside storage seemed a bit odd. At its price point - and being a WD product - one would think some form of storage would come inside the unit (e.g. SATA 500GB HD) as default. Even if this would raise the price point $20-30, it would be well worth it. Advantage: Trekstor.
As a whole, however, it's hard not to like the Western Digital TV Live. While there are other media players on the market, it does what it promises...and well. Even with network share speedbumps, excellent user interface and connection ease make the WD TV Live product a winner.
Get more detail about Western Digital WD TV Live Network-ready HD Media Player WDBAAN0000NBK-NESN.
No comments:
Post a Comment