Western Digital - WDTV

[4x12]

Have you guys seen this cool little device ? My uncle sent me a link to it
and I think its pretty cool. Anyone here know about this unit ? have you
tried it or have any feedback ?

http://www.wdc.com/en/products/products.asp?driveid=572

[crackinhedz]

I have one and I really like it!

It plays every file type Ive tried on it...avi, .iso, .mpeg, .mkv, .mp4 etc.

Its very small, can fit right in your pocket. But you have to pair it with an external HDD.

I have a WD 500gb Passport HDD. In my honest opinion, this drive is the best. Its usb powered so you don't need any extra cables to power it. I don't know if any other brand drives are usb powered? But the Passport is also small and pocket size.

Overall, its a great media streamer.

The only cons I have:

The user interface is extremely generic and not very well thought out. (But who cares right?)

The remote control that it comes with is like a "keychain" remote, I mean, its built for little kid hands. But that's fine with me because its mainly for my son, so even if he breaks it I won't care...I believe my Harmony One remote can control it as well.

[4x12]

Originally Posted by crackinhedz

I have one and I really like it!

It plays every file type Ive tried on it...avi, .iso, .mpeg, .mkv, .mp4 etc.

Its very small, can fit right in your pocket. But you have to pair it with an external HDD.

I have a WD 500gb Passport HDD. In my honest opinion, this drive is the best. Its usb powered so you don't need any extra cables to power it. I don't know if any other brand drives are usb powered? But the Passport is also small and pocket size.

Overall, its a great media streamer.

The only cons I have:

The user interface is extremely generic and not very well thought out. (But who cares right?)

The remote control that it comes with is like a "keychain" remote, I mean, its built for little kid hands. But that's fine with me because its mainly for my son, so even if he breaks it I won't care...I believe my Harmony One remote can control it as well.

So the unit decompresses and upconverts to 1080P or lower ? And hows the audio ?

[Max Mike]

A neat little unit but if you want one you might want to wait a bit as the new WD TV Live is due to hit the streets any day. Pretty much the same thing but adds network playback over Ethernet and DTS audio decoding.

http://electric-echoes.blogspot.com/...8/wd-tv-2.html

http://www.engadget.com/tag/WdTv-2/

[Phil Taylor]

I came across the WDTV unit while looking for a device that would serve a very large library of video files for on demand viewing in a theater. It looks real nice but has a 2TB per drive limit (total of 4TB with its two USB ports). I'm needing around 16TB of storage so now I am deciding between a WD TV mini which has no such limit or the Popcorn Hour networked media tank that can take an NAS of whatever size needed that would allow RAID storage for protection of the media.

I'll probably go with the Popcorn Hour C200. It allows external skin apps like the YAMJ (yet another movie jukebox) which is a pretty slick GUI. Looking at the CybertronPC MAGNUM line of big-storage for NAS.

[4x12]

Originally Posted by Phil Taylor

I came across the WDTV unit while looking for a device that would serve a very large library of video files for on demand viewing in a theater. It looks real nice but has a 2TB per drive limit (total of 4TB with its two USB ports). I'm needing around 16TB of storage so now I am deciding between a WD TV mini which has no such limit or the Popcorn Hour networked media tank that can take an NAS of whatever size needed that would allow RAID storage for protection of the media.

I'll probably go with the Popcorn Hour C200. It allows external skin apps like the YAMJ (yet another movie jukebox) which is a pretty slick GUI. Looking at the CybertronPC MAGNUM line of big-storage for NAS.

Theres a decent price difference between both units dude... the WDTV is $119.99 while the C-200 is $299.99

Price wise you can't beat the WDTV.

[azncarbos]

I love my WDTV after seeing my father had one... i was like I want too and it nice for me when I'm buiness trip and I have movie store in my 500GB passport and just plug it Tv at the hotel and watch a movie....

[prabhdyal]

Play Anything on WDTV HD Media Player

Hi,

There have been a lot of questions about WDTV’s ability to seamlessly play HD content.
In my experience(as a user) there are some major problems:

1. All MKV files written with MKV Merge won’t play.
2. DTS and even AC3 soundtracks won’t play.

Solution:
Here is a guaranteed solution for playing all HD content without losing even 1% quality.

Container:

We need to choose the right container among MKV, MP4, AVI, M4V, M2TS.
As observed and mentioned above MKV is not always playable on WDTV HD Media Player.
Always use MP4 container which I can guarantee will definitely play on WD.

Tool used to write MP4 file: YAMB(freeware)

Video:
MP4 container is the best option which will pick up the original Video Stream from your source Video file (mostly AVC in case of 720/1080/p/i movies downloaded from the internet).

Now since we are picking up the original Video stream as such, there will be no quality loss.

Audio:
This is the area where WDTV stays behind. BUT WE HAVE A SOLUTION !!

Now because we are choosing the MP4 container we have limited options in audio formats. MP4 container supports following audio formats:
• MPEG-2/4 (HE)-AAC
• MPEG-1/2 Layers I, II, III (MP3)
• AC-3
• Apple Lossless
• ALS (MPEG-4 Audio Lossless Coding)
• SLS (MPEG-4 Scalable to Lossless)
• Vorbis(with private objectTypeIndication)

The best option is AAC.
You can use any tool for converting DTS/AC3(unsupported) soundtracks in MKV containers to AAC (2.0/5.1). But this might result in some quality loss.

I suggest to use tools like Wavepad sound editor. This will take some time in opening your original file(mkv directly can open in Wavepad sound editor). Then you can write a new AAC file with desired bitrate and Sampling frequency.

If we choose 640 kbps or even 512 kbps bitrate and 48000 Hz sampling frequency, the quality will be exactly like original DTS or AC3 file – You can even compare the DTS and AAC waveform by opening in any sound editing software.

Procedure:

1.Open YAMB, on LeftHandSide choose creation and select the first option from the right hand side(Create a MP4 file….) Double click.


2.MP4 File creation windlow will appear. Click on Add an add the original MKV file containing the Video stream. Now add the manually created AAC file also.

3.Now select the original Video stream, the converted AAC Audio and the required subtitles(if already present in MKV container).


Select the desired folder and click on next.

This will create an MP4 file which will 100% play on your WDTV HD Media Player.

Enjoy !!

[karlosfunkster]

NO!!


THAT's TOTALLY WRONG!!!

ALL content made with mkv merge GUI will work, as long as you REMOVE HEADER COMPRESSION!

If you have a file that doesn't work just remux (add the file and remove the header compression - it's a box that you change - as simple as that) and redo it. Takes around 6 mins.

WDTV is an amazing player!

I will post a proper methodology for this procedure later, hope that helps?

[karlosfunkster]

Originally Posted by Phil Taylor

I came across the WDTV unit while looking for a device that would serve a very large library of video files for on demand viewing in a theater. It looks real nice but has a 2TB per drive limit (total of 4TB with its two USB ports). I'm needing around 16TB of storage so now I am deciding between a WD TV mini which has no such limit or the Popcorn Hour networked media tank that can take an NAS of whatever size needed that would allow RAID storage for protection of the media.

I'll probably go with the Popcorn Hour C200. It allows external skin apps like the YAMJ (yet another movie jukebox) which is a pretty slick GUI. Looking at the CybertronPC MAGNUM line of big-storage for NAS.

You can know creat skins and sheets - it's a patch you can download!

[MrFattBill]

Originally Posted by karlosfunkster

You can know creat skins and sheets - it's a patch you can download!

That was probably a little harder to do when he made that post almost 2 years ago.

Mods I ask again, can we please get some type of message when some one digs a post over 6 months old.

Bill

[crackinhedz]

Originally Posted by prabhdyal

1. All MKV files written with MKV Merge won’t play.

as already mentioned, this statement is completely wrong.

using MKVMerge you have to remove header compression (under the "extra options" tab), as its not by default. Also, MKVMerge is set for 25fps, you have to manually set to native rate of the file.

After that, there is no issue.

[prabhdyal]

Hi Friends,

I tried that but didn't work; please suggest any other way to make a mkv file with FLAC sound playable in WDTV.

Thanks

[crackinhedz]

Originally Posted by prabhdyal

Hi Friends,

I tried that but didn't work; please suggest any other way to make a mkv file with FLAC sound playable in WDTV.

Thanks

did you set "compression" to "none" for both audio and video parts? (also subtitle parts)

also, you need to make sure you set the frame rate as it defaults to 25fps.


I have no issue with FLAC audio. (are you playing from a connected hard drive, or trying to stream from the PC via network share?)