WDTV - Future Media Player
Bought this WDTV recently after a fierce search for a multimedia player that can play my *.mkv files. found this Western Digital media player (not many players support this format).
if wondering what's this device all about!!!. in nutshell, this is the future of home media player, soon DVD, Blu ray players would be history.
This is small box to which you can hook your hard disk containing all your downloaded/ripped movies and play on your LCD tv straight away. no more scratch disk, storing disc and buying expensive blu ray disc.
this had HDMI interface as well as composite video.
*,mkv files are the high def blu ray rip video format.
if you have questions, I am happy to answer.
PS: I am no way associated with WD, except as a consumer FYI :-)
so after you tweak the orig. firmware, what did you get? any additional option or features?
any difference between tweak and upgrading it which is available from WD official site?
in Dubai shopping festival sales I could see a range of players able to play many formats ranging from 450 to 550 riyals.. i bought a network player for steal, its unpopular but does a decent work with online wireless streaming. so keep looking. WDTV live, buffalo to name few players.
that's news.. btw, any media player can play any files provided they have the right codec!!!
VLC Media Player software plays .mkv files if your computer has sufficient power.
I must admit, its great. I purchased one (WD TV Live) and the quality is great.
The firmware just got updated, but of course if you have the Live one, it is connecetd to the internet and you get prompted automatically.
H.264 plays with the original firmware itself.. no need to tweak it.
and i have a normal WDTV not the mini, i didnt try mini for shear reason it doesnt suppot H.264 nor MKV. also its not full HD and no HDMI support i guess..
You mentioned you tweaked your WD. Did the H.264 file play after or before you twewked it.
And you mean the WD mini right, it's the one you have?
"Don't look back in anger"
with WDTV Live you can stream the online clips from youtube..
free agent doesnt support all the format, its supports MP4, Divx etc.
also WDTV if full HD, 1080p and not 1080i. this makes it different. I havent seen another full HD 1080p in Qatar market (not sure about LG). one downpart is that this WD doesnt come with any storage.
You are right m8....At those stores its the mini version one.
I think the TV version will do very nicely since the difference between this and the live one, is that the live one can be connected to internet and you can watch youtube clips etc on line and of course through sharing you can also access the films / clips on your laptop etc.
I have also seen the free agent one (I think) at Careffeour, but not sure it would support many formats as the WD does. I cant remember the price.
what i need now is money to buy that box hehehehe
no need to convert anymore.. what you download from web can be played straight away. no loss in quality and waste conversion time..
deepb - most of the laptop nowadays do come with hdmi port so this is an option always.
this is good news! i won't be converting those .mkv and HD64 file formats anymore!
Or you could just get a video card with HDMI output for the pc and use that.
@georgeyk - the tweaks I am talking about are jainbreaking the WD alike iPhone, if you are familiar with. or to put things simple... its a custom firmware written over the original existing one....
@ hyrcania - in lulu and careffeour could find only the mini version not the full HD stuff...
@ memphis7 - i tried H.264 format and it does work... and as in mention at the moment WDTV is the only player supporting *mkv file. many others support MP4, H.264, Xvid, Divx, etc.. so look for these in the pack before buying..
now new Asus Hg is available for 80% of WD cost, but yet to reach Qatar... Asus is very similar to WDTV and can stream online content with all format support...
Because WD has 3 WDTV players: The Mini, Live TV and plain WD TV. Have you tried playing an H.264 formatted video on it?
"Don't look back in anger"
I think you can get them in supermarket as well.
Lulu, Careffeour (not sure about the spelling!)etc...
hello shyams, what are these few tweaks that you are talking about. is it freely available in jarir. i believe there is a new WD player with wifi streaming do u know about that
I bought this for 449, its around $100 in us. here i could find it nowhere else but only in Jarir. i searched everywhere for this. there are quite few tweaks to get it work better (not mandatory). let me know if you have bought one. i also cracked the firmware too alike jailbreaking iPhone :-)
I bought a lacie drive for similar reasons. My little magic box...
good info thanks for that. How much and where in Doha did you purchase? Cheers