WD TV Live Streaming Media Player Review

By 12stringpc, 31st May 2012 | Follow this author | RSS Feed | Short URL http://nut.bz/2jyzani3/
Posted in Wikinut>Reviews>Technology>Peripherals

This document reviews the Western Digital TV Live Streaming Media Player. After owning the device for about one week, I have some comments to make on its performance.

Setting up
Wireless
Netflix, Facebook, Youtube
Comments and Future Testing

Setting up

Connecting this unit to my old CRT 32" TV was simple. After connecting the TV with a single cable (mini video/audio - to - RCA), connecting the power adapter and fitting the two supplied AAA batteries into the remote control, I was ready to turn the unit on. I turned the unit on with the remote. A white LED showed up on the lower front right of the device as expected. I turned the TV on and set the language to English.
This device may be connected to an HDTV instead if one is available (cable is not provided).

Wireless

I had a USB (Belkin b/g) wireless adapter available and plugged this into the rear USB. The adapter was recognized and two wireless networks appeared, the strongest signal being from my own network. I entered my WEP 128-bit security code for the network and within several seconds, I was connected to the internet. This was very straightforward.

Netflix, Facebook, Youtube

As I had previously subscribed to Netflix and had only been watching this on my 22" PC LCD monitor, I was excited to get this (above all) working on the device. After entering the required username and password, the wireless worked pretty quickly and without a problem. I use the wireless connection to stream reasonable (easily watchable, decent quality) video to my TV. We have watched several movies so far without glitches.
I signed onto my Facebook account and was able to see various aspects of my FB account, although with the poor TV display resolution, this was not a great experience. Signing in to Youtube worked well, and I was able to navigate my account and search for videos as well. Video quality for all of these services was very acceptable but I will be happier when I have an HDTV for display. Searching without a keyboard (with the remote) is a tad slow and a bit cumbersome. I will be trying a USB keyboard connected to the device in the future to see if this is a better way. The second USB connection on the front of the device will allow interfacing USB drives and accessing the data on them. I have yet to test this feature.

Comments and Future Testing

Although I have been successful in accomplishing what I set out to do, I am having difficulty displaying videos from my PC. I believe this is my incomplete understanding of what I need to do. I can and have viewed images from the PC and have streamed music from the PC using Media Center from J.River successfully. I do feel that I have only scratched the surface of the capabilities of this device and will be testing the remaining features in the near future. A full printed manual did not come with the device, and I have downloaded a PDF copy from WD's website. This will help a lot, I am sure.

Overall, I am very happy with the performance of this WD TV Live device and even if we do soon update to a Smart HDTV with these capabilities built in, I will still use this device in our rec room for viewing there.

I hope to provide an update to this brief review in the coming weeks.

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