First off, this is exactly what I've been waiting for a long time. I had my PC connected to my HDTV & surround sound and was getting "good" results. The problem was that the maximum resolution my 1080p HDTV would display content was 1440x900 since I was running it through a splitter connected to my monitor. The best I could get out of audio was stereo since it was only analog. I also didn't like to have to get up to change a show on my PC because I didn't have remote access. Not anymore.
The WD TV Live has so far played every file I have thrown at it. I've played everything from standard def files to 720p & 1080p mkv. files and it works flawlessly. Everything is automatically upconverted to your TVs native resolution, so that's a plus. This device also supports Dolby Digital 5.1 and supports DTS(2.1 only). The Youtube support is pretty nice and if you are playing an HD/HQ video on Youtube it will automatically select the best quality version. If you have PlayOn on your computer, you can use Hulu on it as well!
Now the issues I have...the remote is one. First off it looks and feels like something you expect to get with a $20 DVD player. It's also not extremely responsive but for the most part it does the job. The other problem is a big one though. The WD TV Live's big upgrade over the older model was suppose to be its networking capabilities. When it works, it works great. No need to transport an HDD back and forth because just as long as you "share" your external HDD to your network, the WD TV Live will read directly from it...that is if the unit wants to see your network.
I've been running into the issue that whenever turn off the unit and turn it back on, it won't connect to my network. This is really annoying because I have to do stupid random stuff to get it to work again. So as of right now, I'm just going to keep it on all the time until this gets a firmware upgrade. I have no doubt there will be a firmware upgrade because it's an extremely popular device. If they fix that I'll give this thing a 5/5 because the remote issues aren't enough to set back from all the positives. And if you are experiencing networking issues please know that the option is always there to connect your external HDD for the time being. For the price this little gadget can not be beat.Get more detail about Western Digital WD TV Live Network-ready HD Media Player WDBAAN0000NBK-NESN.
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