Western Digital WDTV

Can this barebones jukebox compete with feature-rich rivals?



The WDTV from Western Digital is a digital media accessory that, unlike most rivals in this field, doesn't offer network access or built-in storage. Instead, you must connect external storage to one of the two USB2 ports to view media. With an HDMI and digital optical port alongside standard composite at the back, it's well prepared for modern HDTVs and supports playback of resolutions up to 1080p. Media files stored on attached devices are separated automatically into video, music and photo menus, with each offering a nice degree of control over how files are sorted and browsed, including a search function to filter large collections

The WDTV offers some impressive file support that includes standards such as H 264, Mov and MKV and Ogg and Flac for audio, alongside more traditional formats, and is one of the most impressive we've seen in terms of handling the wide range of file types prevalent in today's market. Performance is also good, with little or no buffer time when a file is opened or during playback. Responsive pause, resume and browse controls make it a true joy to use. The interface is excellent and in addition to being
well designed and easy to navigate, it offers a nice degree of control, both through the settings menus and during playback to zoom, pan, adjust subtitles and audio support, with repeat and shuffle functions for audio and slideshow control for photos.

The only real issue we have with the WDTV is the lack of support for digital rights management-encoded content, but then again few rivals include this.


Overall, this is an excellent device that's well designed and reasonably priced enough to make a genuine argument for using your own external devices for storing and playing back media and should be considered a serious competitor to more feature- packed streamers in this market. Paul Lester.

Contact Western Digital www.wdc.com
Specifications Audio support: MP3, WMA, Ogg, Wav/PCM/LPCM, AAC, Flac, Dolby Digital, MKA • Video support MPEG-1/2/4, WMV9, AVI (MPEG-4, Xvid, AVC), H.264, MKV, Mov (MPEG-4, H.264) • Photo support: JPEG, GIF, TIF, Lifv1P. PNG • Connectivity: HDMI, Digital optical. Composite. USB2 • 303g • 40x100x125mm (hxdxw)

Personal Computer World February 2009
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