Digital Media Player Guide Review - WD TV Live Western Digital Network-Ready HD Media Player

By Harold Jones

The Western Digital WD TV Live HD Media Player (Model # WDBAAN0000NBK-NESN) is truly a great value for your money, especially if you have a lower budget for a media streamer, and has some of the most popular capabilities and features out on the market today. Highly rated by its owners because it is easy to use and for the functionality it provides, the WD TV Live is an extremely popular media player. Released late in the fall 2009, Western Digital added some upgrades to the Western Digital WD TV, the previous version. The WD TV Live HD Media Player plays video up to TrueHD 1080p and has digital sound with Dolby Digital. The biggest improvement was to the menu system making it easier to select your media.

WD TV Live Network Ready HD Media Player

Priced: $119.99 USD

The WD TV Live digital media player allows you to stream your media like video, music, photos, and more to your HD TV and play your digital music through your home theater sound system. This media streamer does not come with a built in hard disk drive, but must be connected to an external USB mass storage hard drive or wireless network wherever your media files are stored. Western Digital recommends the Western Digital My Book Essential USB Desktop External Hard Drive that has 1 terabyte of storage space available for storing your media. Right out of the box from the manufacturer, the WD TV Live must be hard wired to your network. There is also an optional wireless adapter, recommended by Western Digital is the Linksys Range Plus Wireless USB Compact Adapter, that will allow you to go wireless and connect to your home or business wireless network.

The WD TV Live media player has it's work cut out for it by competing with similar players on the market. It is very similar to both the HDX1000 Network Media Tank and the Patriot Media Player. One difference is that the WD TV Live does not offer the ability to install an internal hard drive, like the HDX 1000 and the Patriot Box Office. If you don't plan on installing an internal hard drive, then the WD TV Live is a great value for the price and is a great HD media player. You will still be getting the latest features like 1080p True HD and Dolby Digital and DTS Surround Sound. Here are the specifications for the WD TV Live:

* HDMI 1.3 port (Supports 1080p TrueHD)

* Connect external hard drives directly or connect to your network to view movies, photos, and music

* USB port access

* Audio Supported Formats: MP3, WMA, WAV/PCM/LPCM, FLAC, AAC, AIF/AIFF, MKA, OGG, Dolby Digital, DTS

* Video file formats: AVI (Xvid, AVC, MPEG1/2/4), MPG/MPEG, VOB, MKV (h.264, x.264, AVC, MPEG1/2/4, VC-1), TS/TP/M2T (MPEG1/2/4, AVC, VC-1), MP4/MOV (MPEG4, h.264), M2TS, WMV9

Photo formats: BMP, PNG, JPEG, GIF, TIF/TIFF

* Connections: Video: HDMI v1.3 (up to 1080p), Composite Video Out; Audio: S/PDIF Optical Digital Audio, Other: 10/100 Ethernet.

* Included Remote Control.

About the Author:

Learn more about Digital Media Players is at Harold Jones' site where you will find photos, videos, and more free information about the WD TV Live Media Player and other digital media players that are on the market.