Results 1 to 15 of 15

Thread: Western Digital HD Media Player – Dirt Cheap HTPC!

Hybrid View

Previous Post Previous Post   Next Post Next Post
  1. #1
    Freddie's Avatar The Voice of Reason
    Patrician

    Join Date
    Oct 2004
    Location
    UK
    Posts
    9,534

    Default Western Digital HD Media Player – Dirt Cheap HTPC!

    The Western Digital HD Media Player



    US - $99.99

    UK - £79.99
    Canada - $149.99 (*points and and gives a 'ha ha' in the style of Nelson Muntz*)
    Euro Zone - €91.00

    Western Digital TV HD 1080P Media Player

    Western Digital WDAVP00BE TV HD Media Player Combined with a USB portable drive (sold separately), this player is the most convenient way to play HD movies or user-generated videos, listen to high-quality digital music and show high-resolution slideshows of your family photos on your TV. Also works with popular USB drives, and digital cameras, camcorders, and portable media players that can be recognized as mass storage devices.

    Play content from most popular USB drives,and digital cameras, camcorders, and portable media players that can be recognized as mass storage devices.
    Full HD video playback and navigation - up to 1080p - Experience the spectacular picture quality of HD video and crystal clear sound clarity of digital audio. Use the included remote control to navigate through your entertainment choices using our crisp, animated HD menus.
    Collect without limits - There's no limit to the size of your media collection; just add more USB drives for more space.

    Advanced navigation

    * Thumbnail and list views – Browse your content by filename or by thumbnails of photos, album covers and movie cover art.
    * Media Library – This unique feature lets you view all your media by media type in one menu regardless of its location in folders or drives. You can view your content by categories such as genre, album, artist and date.
    * Search – Search by genre, title, artist, filename and partial filename.
    From what I've read this little device can play all of the popular video formats - MPEGS, DIVX, XVIDS, WMV, AVI (and HD movies) etc and apparently is can read and play DVD .iso files (DVD rips) which is really exciting as it means you won't have to convert your DVD library into another format which is very time consuming. The video reviews I've seen show this play back all of the above without any stuttering or playback issues. It also plays virtually every music and picture format you think of. It also comes with it's own remote control which is very handy to navigate the apparently simply interface.

    This is everything I've been looking for in a HTPC (the only thing it lacks is a TV card and PVR but for the price I can live without it), so much so I've gone ahead and bought one an hour ago (along with HDMI to component lead). I'll let you know how good it is out once I've got this up and running.

  2. #2

    Default Re: Western Digital HD Media Player – Dirt Cheap HTPC!

    Cool, but it takes away the fun (and excuse) of building a HTPC

    Might look into buying one however. I need to save my cash. I would like to build a HTPC but I need the money for when I go and study in Germany - Oh the sacrifices I make

  3. #3

    Default Re: Western Digital HD Media Player – Dirt Cheap HTPC!

    Quote Originally Posted by Tharros View Post
    Cool, but it takes away the fun (and excuse) of building a HTPC

    Might look into buying one however. I need to save my cash. I would like to build a HTPC but I need the money for when I go and study in Germany - Oh the sacrifices I make

    Oh trust me - If what I've heard about what goes on in Deutschland is true, your neighbors will be entertainment enough.

  4. #4

    Default Re: Western Digital HD Media Player – Dirt Cheap HTPC!

    Edit. Wrong thread.

  5. #5
    Freddie's Avatar The Voice of Reason
    Patrician

    Join Date
    Oct 2004
    Location
    UK
    Posts
    9,534

    Default Re: Western Digital HD Media Player – Dirt Cheap HTPC!

    Just to update you all on this, the Media player arrived today and I quickly set it up before I went out this evening. It's only running of composite (via SCART) only because the HDMI to component cable has yet to arrive but even on composite the playback quality is very good and that's viewing DVD rips to XVIDS on a 32" screen so I'm very happy.

    The remote isn't very impressive, it's very small and the buttons are all close together but you don't have to hold it for long. The only over problem I have with the setup which is my fault is the my directory of films, at the moment all 188 of them are lumped into one folder and arranged alphabetically and trying to find what you want can be a long winded process, it would also help if each of the films had cover art on them rather then the generic stop gap logo. Other then that so far so good and when the HDMI cable arrives it will be even better.

    I'll post some images latter of it in action.

  6. #6

    Default Re: Western Digital HD Media Player – Dirt Cheap HTPC!

    Sounds interesting - too bad about the remote but it can't be deal breaking thought. Luckily I already have all my stuff organised

    Can't wait for those images
    Last edited by Tharros; May 02, 2009 at 11:45 PM.

  7. #7
    Freddie's Avatar The Voice of Reason
    Patrician

    Join Date
    Oct 2004
    Location
    UK
    Posts
    9,534

    Default Re: Western Digital HD Media Player – Dirt Cheap HTPC!

    Quote Originally Posted by Tharros View Post
    Sounds interesting - too bad about the remote but it can't be deal breaking thought. Luckily I already have all my stuff organised

    Can't wait for those images

    It's a shame my Dad has lent his camera to some guy as work so the images will have to wait.

    I watched a movie of it last night (Rise of the Foot Solider), the image quality of the XVID was amazing when viewing on a large TV (rather then a monitor) and you would have never have guessed it was a compressed DVD rip and that's running of a composite to scart so the quality will only improve once I get my HDMI to Component cable

    BTW I can confirm it will play DVD .iso files but it only plays the actually film but not the menus. I'll check WD website latter to see if this can fixed via a firmware update.
    Last edited by Freddie; May 03, 2009 at 03:18 AM.

  8. #8

    Default Re: Western Digital HD Media Player – Dirt Cheap HTPC!

    It only works with content you already have though...you cannot watch videos on the Internet through it can you? It also lacks video capture abilities...two big losses IMO.

  9. #9
    mp0295's Avatar Vicarius
    Join Date
    Jul 2008
    Location
    Long island, NY
    Posts
    2,836

    Default Re: Western Digital HD Media Player – Dirt Cheap HTPC!

    Oh thats cool i want one. How exactly does it get it content besides USB? Do you just look over the net work for shared files/folders? If not i can deal with that. But i just thought of if it has not network connectivity is it possible to connect a wireless USB device to it then?


    Also do you use foler veiw navigation throguh folders or just it finding playable content and then aranging it


    Track & Field = Life
    http://www.last.fm/user/mp0295

  10. #10
    Freddie's Avatar The Voice of Reason
    Patrician

    Join Date
    Oct 2004
    Location
    UK
    Posts
    9,534

    Default Re: Western Digital HD Media Player – Dirt Cheap HTPC!

    Quote Originally Posted by mp0295 View Post
    Oh thats cool i want one. How exactly does it get it content besides USB? Do you just look over the net work for shared files/folders? If not i can deal with that. But i just thought of if it has not network connectivity is it possible to connect a wireless USB device to it then?


    Also do you use foler veiw navigation throguh folders or just it finding playable content and then aranging it
    At the moment it's running of an external USB Western Digital My Book hard drive (also made by Western Digital as well) and there's not network port which is bummer and I haven't thought about trying to connect it via a wireless USB key since I don't have a wireless switch/router. The only way to give it content is USB, but you can connect it directly to your PC (it's very small and light weight) and download content from the web directly to a USB stick that's attached to it (you would have to buy your own USB stick).

    Navigating is very easy, the Media Player scans your whole hard drive and see's all the folders that are on it and how they arranged, you then simply open each folder as if you were opening them in Windows Explorer with a mouse. You can either arrange your files to be viewed as thumbnails or in a list mode (I have mine in list mode due the large number of films I have on my hard drive).

    There's also some software that came with the device which I haven't tried yet, it may resolve some of the issue with how the files are arranged or deal with the lack of cover art (if it did I would then use Thumbnail view).

    I can't believe how good this is, I would never have thought a device so small could have a CPU that could playback movies as well as this can with any lag whatsoever.
    Last edited by Freddie; May 03, 2009 at 07:34 PM.

  11. #11
    mp0295's Avatar Vicarius
    Join Date
    Jul 2008
    Location
    Long island, NY
    Posts
    2,836

    Default Re: Western Digital HD Media Player – Dirt Cheap HTPC!

    By connect directly to pc do you mean take a USB cord and connect the 2? but i thought USB wasnt bi duplux...


    Track & Field = Life
    http://www.last.fm/user/mp0295

  12. #12
    Freddie's Avatar The Voice of Reason
    Patrician

    Join Date
    Oct 2004
    Location
    UK
    Posts
    9,534

    Default Re: Western Digital HD Media Player – Dirt Cheap HTPC!

    Quote Originally Posted by mp0295 View Post
    By connect directly to pc do you mean take a USB cord and connect the 2? but i thought USB wasnt bi duplux...
    Good question. I won't know until I plug it in and try but I can't see how else it can work if you need to load firmware unless you burn it to USB stick and load it on directly.

  13. #13
    Cyrus the Virus's Avatar Vicarius Provinciae
    Join Date
    Mar 2006
    Location
    Crackfordshire
    Posts
    10,884

    Default Re: Western Digital HD Media Player – Dirt Cheap HTPC!

    Sounds like a cheap version of Popcorn hour.

    "And the Heavens Shall Tremble"
    Resistance is futile™


    "ehn sewr traih-sluyrds-lairareh"

  14. #14
    mrmouth's Avatar flaxen haired argonaut
    Join Date
    Apr 2007
    Location
    Chicago
    Posts
    10,741

    Default Re: Western Digital HD Media Player – Dirt Cheap HTPC!

    I'm tech retarded when it comes to things like this. Cant you do all this stuff on a PS3, or even a 360? Aside from the .iso support...
    The fascists of the future will be called anti-fascists
    The best lack all conviction, while the worst are full of passionate intensity

  15. #15
    Freddie's Avatar The Voice of Reason
    Patrician

    Join Date
    Oct 2004
    Location
    UK
    Posts
    9,534

    Default Re: Western Digital HD Media Player – Dirt Cheap HTPC!

    Quote Originally Posted by BarnabyJones View Post
    I'm tech retarded when it comes to things like this. Cant you do all this stuff on a PS3, or even a 360? Aside from the .iso support...
    I'm not sure if you can play XVIDS/DIVS files on a console there might be a way but I'm sure it would long winded and involve breaking terms of the licence agreement. You would have to find out what video formats are supported on the 360 and PS3 and then see if there was any way to encode your DVD files to that format. The other issue you have of course is space, an Elite 360 and PS3 has what 120Gb's? That won't take long to fill up never mind all your installations and saved games for your games etc.

    Also going back to lead, the HDMI to Component lead didn't work, I wasn't able to work why until a day after it failed when I discovered that I was trying to run from a digital source (HDMI) to an analogue source (component) which won't work unless you have an expensive converter so it looks like I'll have to make do with composite for now. However even when running composite the picture quality is just as good to the eye as a DVD is unless you sit really close and look at a freeze frame you would then be able to see the drop in quality.

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •