The thing that struck me about the press release for the WD TV Live HD Media Player wasn’t the ability to stream your HD content over your network to your TV (my PS3 does that for me), but more the fact that it apparently allows you to stream Pandora internet radio here in Australia.
I was so surprised that I even double checked with WD’s PR rep, who confirmed that Pandora, along with YouTube and Flickr, all work with the WD box. That alone – if it really does work – makes this box worth checking out.
Here’s a list of features for the box:
* Full-HD 1080p video playback and navigation with the included remote control and crisp, animated navigation menus;
* Play a wide variety of file formats including support for a wide variety of the most popular file formats with no need to spend time transcoding;
* Play videos, music and photos from the Internet on your big screen TV and discover new music with Pandora Internet radio or listen to thousands of radio stations via Live365 Internet radio;
* Ethernet port for wired or WiFi connection to access files anywhere on the network to play movies, music, and photos from any PC or drive on a home network;
* Turns a USB drive into an HD media player and plays content from most popular USB drives, and digital cameras, camcorders, and portable media players that can be recognized as mass storage devices;
* Unlimited media collection, just add more USB drives for more space;
* Two USB ports for seamless media playback from multiple USB drives and ability to access them simultaneously while a media library feature collects the content on all the drives into one list sorted by media type;
* Transfer files by copying, moving or deleting files stored on a USB drive, a network drive, camcorder, or a camera to the attached USB drive using the on-screen menus;
* Picture Transfer Protocol support to show photos and movies directly from digital camera or video camera and or any digital imaging device that supports Picture Transfer Protocol;
* Advanced navigation options including thumbnail and list views, media library and search;
* Photo viewing to create custom slide shows, zoom and pan and search;
* Movie viewing with fast-forward, rewind, pause, zoom and pan, view subtitles, and search;
* Music playback with fast-forward, rewind, pause, shuffle, repeat and search;
* File copying between USB devices;
* HDMI® 1.3 port, composite video and component video output for the highest quality HDTV or home theater;
* SPDIF digital output that sends digital signals to your AV receiver for the best surround sound experience; and,
* Ultra-compact design to fit easily into a home entertainment center.
The box costs $199 and works with both PCs and Macs. The question now is whether potential Pandora access is enough to convince you to purchase?
[WD]
Rhys Kingston
October 30, 2009 at 2:24 PM
I doubt it will. On their AU site Logitech advertise the Squeezebox as working with Pandora but it obviously doesn’t.
Report PermalinkSam Pryor
October 30, 2009 at 2:45 PM
all it needs is 2 tv tuners and the ability to record tv and it’d be my dream … thing.
Report PermalinkCameron
October 30, 2009 at 4:17 PM
It might play Pandora now, until they (Pandora) realise it is and put a stop to it.
Report PermalinkJames McClimont
October 30, 2009 at 4:39 PM
I have one and it streams Pandora. Works a treat. However there are some reported Network issues. Wait until some firmware comes out.
Report PermalinkGraeme
October 30, 2009 at 8:05 PM
Are usb hard drives connected to the WD Media Player visible over the network so that I can directly transfer new media from my pc.
Report PermalinkSam Pryor
October 31, 2009 at 12:18 AM
that would be sweet Graeme, but I’m pretty sure they would advertise it as a Network Accessible Storage (NAS), but I like your style.
Report PermalinkSam Pryor
November 1, 2009 at 6:54 PM
Hey Graeme, I just read that you CAN access the hdd from your comp, check this post: http://slickdeals.net/forums/showthread.php?t=1598261&page=14#205
Report PermalinkGraeme
November 2, 2009 at 7:49 PM
With NAS access this is now starting to sound real interesting!!
Report Permalinkvic|ous
October 31, 2009 at 2:47 PM
I just bought one of these today. Really good device for streaming content from my networked computers…had it setup and running in under 10 minutes. I tried Pandora and it gives the usual message that the service is only available in the US and my IP address shows that I’m in Australia….oh well
Report PermalinkGreg
November 2, 2009 at 4:50 PM
Wonder if the “wide variety of the most popular file formats” includes Matroska/H.264, otherwise this is just another failure from WD.
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