The interface:
When you first start the device you need to go into the settings and make sure everything is set correctly,
If you’re using component video you will be limited to 480i (you can still choose wide screen under 480i.) HDMI is where the WDTV really shines allowing you to choose 1080i or 1080p @ 60Hz
UI home screen
When I first started using the device I felt as though the menu was a little sluggish, after spending some time and changing the batteries on the remote I found it was passable, not amazing but not a deal breaker for me. The device was pretty quick to go through the 300 gigabytes of movies I had stored on an USB external 7200RPM drive the User Interface and remote allow you to browse through all the folders on the drive as well as search for part of the file name, the search is done much like you would do with a console (such as an Xbox or PS3) you select each letter of the file name you want to search when you’re done it will parse your movie collection looking for the file, I found this to be pretty respectable and was pleased to discover that you can do the same with music. The other option is to view all movies, this will pull any folder that has a movie on it regardless of where it is on the drive, a word to the wise if you have movies you don’t want shown while in the WDTV, I suggest you remove them from the drive or compress the folder, it wouldn’t do to have grandma accidentally stumble upon your spring break video. That being said, the playback was pretty smooth and with exception of a bug I ran into with one movie where the device suddenly stopped working (resetting fixed it) I believe this bug was caused by a the file as subsequent files using the same codec did not exhibit the same problem.
Testing: (Both test were run under Component video and HDMI on a Toshiba 42 inch LCD TV)
Standard Definition play at 480i and 1080p
I loaded a standard definition copy of: Iron man
Playback was smooth but the component video was really lacking in quality showing minor artifacts and a general decrease in quality, upgrading to HDMI drastically increased the quality and subsequently my enjoyment of the film, colors looked better and the image looked like it was supposed to ( DVD quality )
Unfortunately pictures really show little to no difference and thus aren’t worth trying to compare here on the site.
BluRay at 480i and 1080p
I loaded a BluRay copy of: Iron man
Playback was very similar to the standard definition complete with several artifacts but while I experienced the same degradation in overall image quality the images were still better looking. This decrease in quality was to be expected using such a low quality cables.
When using 1080p the playback was flawless showing a true BluRay image. I must say I was very surprised at how well it handled the near 30 GB file and even more surprised that this device could handle play back of this level.
1. I have a WD TV USB player. Problem: Some YouTube downloads in FLV format have time lags between video and audio. I therefore use my FLV Downloader’s conversion programme to convert the videos to MP4 – which shows no such time lags
2. Is there a machine which records TV onto USB sticks?
Is there a Hard disk in the Media Player?
I changed the video settings and now I get a “input not supported” message, how do I go back to the main menu to change it back? is there any “reset” settings button?
Thanks
can i hook this up with my ps3 and xbox 360??
Electro,
The player only supports USB based media in the WDTV’s stock firmware. I am aware that there has been a decent following in the community regarding modding the WDTV and supposedly there is firmware that will allow USB based CD drives. I have not heard of support for USB HD media players working.
Does the HD player supports for playing of movies from BlueRay disks?
The WDTV since I reviewed it has replaced my cable bill I download the shows I want to see copy them all over to an external HD and watch them in upscaled 1080p its awesome.