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Western Digital Introduces Sneakernet Home-Media Device

Posted 11/03/08 at 08:00:00 AM  by Nathan Edwards

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"Never underestimate the bandwidth of a station wagon full of tapes speeding down the highway." - Andrew Tanenbaum

Western Digital's bringing back the sneakernet with a media player that displays video, audio, and photos from your USB devices on your TV - no networking required.

WD TV

In fact, the WD TV HD Media Player doesn't have any networking capabilities at all. Instead, this little device plays files from your WD Passport (or other USB devices, although WD would love it if you used their portable hard drives) on your TV screen, in glorious 1080p resolution.

The WD TV includes an intuitive on-screen menu, not unlike a less-cluttered version of the PS3's home screen, wherein users can sort by filename, date, and other tag info. It also has a thumbnail and list view.

WD TV

We had a chance to check out the WD TV last week at the W Hotel in San Francisco, and, although we were skeptical at first, the idea makes sense. After all, many people have huge amounts of music, video, and photos on their computer but lack either the time, the equipment, or the patience to set up media streaming in their home. Being able to drag your files to a USB drive and take them with you to the living room is a good move.

After all, non-techies understand taking media on a physical object into the living room and playing it. It worked for VHS tapes, CDs, DVDs, even laser discs. It's intuitive. Home networking, well, not so much.

WD TV back
The WD TV's outputs include RCA video/audio jacks, optical out, and HDMI.

It helps that the device will play a metric buttload of video formats, from .avi to .mov to XviD, DivX, H.264, even .isos and .vob rips. And that it supports HDMI.

The WD TV is on sale at shopwd.com starting today for $130. It's an interesting idea, but is it worth it? We're on the case. Look for a full review here within the next few weeks.

COMMENTS:5
TAGS: usb, news, Western Digital, Media Player, HDMI, hardware, wd tv
COMMENTS
avatarLooking forward to the full review as well...

Submitted by cubesteak on Fri, 12/05/2008 - 11:37pm

Maybe its a little wonky, but I think it actually has some good value.  Unfortunately, my digs do not allow me to run hard wire between my office and the 65" big screen, or the 42" plasma in my bedroom.  I've never heard of any wireless networking gear that can guarantee that I'll be able to stream HD content to both of those TV's without interruption.  This little contraption may be the perfect answer.

Another great use: How do I get my home movies shot with my Canon HD video camera to my TV?  Now its easy: fast transfer to one of my existing jump drives and walk it up to the TV.  No PS3 or blue-ray burner required. Just saved myself nearly $500.  Will I get those things eventually? Sure, but their usefulness has just been halved...

The real neat configuration question would be - are there any NAS units out there that have USB as well that would work with both simultaneously?   You could transfer files to the NAS and then access them from the device via USB, removing the actual "sneaker-net" part of this whole equation.  While its not as immediate as buffering over WiFi, at least the NAS means there would be no interruption once the movie is there.

If the quality is there, I think this could be a very nice head end to a cheap, low electricity consumption 1080p media server.  Maybe I'm being crazy, but if you are going to store all the HD media on a NAS unit anyway for "deep archive", this could really be a cool way to have constant access to it on the big screen.

If there was any way to try that setup in the review, that would be great!  :D

Cheers,
CS

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avatarI cannot wait for the

Submitted by Khaled on Tue, 11/11/2008 - 11:01pm

I cannot wait for the review, I got a lot of media on hard drives and it's easier if I had a device like that instead of a single hdd enclosure media player or a small computer.

 

As long as it can handle mkv files with 720p movies ;)  

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avatarFirmware

Submitted by bland on Mon, 11/03/2008 - 12:25pm

In the review can you check if the firmware will be upgradable to include new, and updated codec's for the future.

 

Also I see people complaining about the lack of network support already.  A simple solution might just be a usb network adapter, since one of the 2 usb ports can be spared.

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avatarAwesome idea but this needs

Submitted by RedBrain on Mon, 11/03/2008 - 9:16am

Awesome idea but this needs to cost less than half of what they're asking. $59 Should be about right.

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avatarUh... My tv, in glorious

Submitted by Keith E. Whisman on Mon, 11/03/2008 - 8:35am

Uh... My tv, in glorious 1080p? Sha I wish.... My TV is an analog CRT based contraption. The remote still works and the cable still plugs in the back.

My 75yo dad has a better TV than I do and I'm the tech freak. God life sucks..  

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