You can also add specific feeds to your dashboard to be shown as tickers so you never miss a thing. The manual is extensive, surprisingly well-written and organized, well worth referring to in order to get the most from the product. The unit comes with a brief pictorial quick start sheet. The hookup to the home network can be either wired or wireless, This took all of five minutes, spent mostly in getting access to the back of the gear.
Accessing files on other computers was just a matter of ensuring folders are shared on the network, with or without password protection, which if used, the WDTVL will remember next time. Modems, TVs, PVRs, mobile phones, cameras — almost all techno gear, in fact — can have complex and non-intuitive operating systems that make the out-of-box experience challenging and frustrating. The default screen that presents itself at turn-on is reminiscent of a Windows desktop background.
The menu options are in a full width bar across the bottom, and always present on the home screen, with the center box clearly highlighted as the chosen one. It is pleasant and functional. It turns out that like a Windows desktop, the background image can be easily changed.
There are a couple dozen built-in image options, and you can easily upload your own photo, as well. The background can be changed to any photo of your choice. This is the top level of the setup page, which drills down a few steps deeper in each sub menu.
Many video output options are available in a scrolling menu under AV Output. This was reset to p 24Hz for best movie viewing. Though capable of 5. Setup of wired networking is virtually automated and not worth going over here. Wireless networking is a little more complex to set up, but this only reflects the difference between wired and wireless; the need to input long-ish passwords, for example, can be a bit tedious with the remote control and on-screen keyboard.
I plugged in an optical USB all-in-one keyboard and keyboard inputs via the IR dongle were accepted without a hitch. A comparison was made streaming content through the WDTVL via the gigbit wired ethernet versus the With photos and music of any file size on hand, there was no difference.
Both wired and wiress connections worked smoothly. A bit more variation was seen streaming video files. Only a couple of p files were tried, and not in any systematic way, but no differences were apparent.
With p video files, there was rarely any difference betwen the two network routes. Both worked smoothly without hitches, although the video preview window became active more quickly with gigabit, but this was a minor issue.
With p files, however, the wireless network was consistently more glitchy, with random starts and stops and sometimes crashes on some files. This means as long as the unit is connected to AC, it is constantly on. It probably does not differ that much from other media streaming devices. And no, noise was not measured, because even with the unit held to my ear, there was little I could hear from it.
It took only a bit of time and handling to learn how to navigate the menus with the remote control, which has good ergonomic design. Buttons are well-placed, though perhaps a bit tall, and a contoured underside provides a natural groove for the index finger of either hand to grip comfortably.
The option button acts a bit like the right mouse button inWindows depending on what screen you are on when it is pressed, providing detailed information and options. The setup button is a quick shortcut to that page, which is on the top menu level but can requires a bit of a scroll if using the arrow buttons, as there are eight choices: Scrolling to the right, starting arbitrarily from Videos, there is Games, RSS, Services, Games, Files, Setup, and Photos.
The colored A, B, C, and D buttons are normally keyed to the function of similarly colored icons on the screen, but they can be reprogrammed as desired. This will make more sense when you see more menu screen shots. You start by selecting Music, Videos, Photos or Files on the main screen. The first time, you need to select from several content sources:. The network share or media server are likely to be key for most users, as the essence of media streaming is to access and play a media file remotely.
Keeping the shared media folders password-free makes most sense to me, but passwords can be negotiated with the WDTVL, and remembered after first use. Some users might keep all of their media on a portable self-powered USB drive, however, and move it around the house for simplicity. In contrast, on the gigabit wired network, the shared videos folder with nearly a terabyte and hundreds of movie files in the main HTPC storage drive was visible in a few seconds.
This was not tried; there are too many bottlenecks between those points for such an operation to be speedy for transferring something like a big HD movie file. All the comments regarding file access are specific to computers running Windows 7 and Vista, but I had similar results with a couple of Windows XP machines still on the network, and WD claims native Mac OS Leopard or Snow Leopard functionality as well.
There are several different view options for each of the different types of media. Videos have the most number of view options. In the list views, a small icon image shows up next to the highlighted files.
For videos, the most interesting option is Preview , which actually plays the highlight video file in a small window above basic properties information about the file.
The Subtitle function is found here, although there is also a dedicated button for it on the remote. Subtitle files must be located in the same folder and have same filename as the video file. We could also beam the screen of our Android phone wirelessly to the WD TV thanks to its newfound Miracast support, with only fast-moving 3D games proving slightly glitchy. Its range of online media streaming apps is less impressive for UK viewers. There's the BBC iPlayer and YouTube, but the Netflix link on our own homescreen was dead, and the rest of the channels had a distinctly international flavour.
See also: Roku 3 review: media stream offers handy features at a price. The interface is much less user-friendly than that of the Roku and Apple devices, too. It took us a while to work out how to pin apps to the homescreen use the Option button on the remote , and navigation is generally clunky. It's not helped by a sizeable, old-fashioned remote control with buttons so pudgy that you're never quite sure whether a press has registered or not.
This device is insanely small, so you won't have to worry about it taking up too much room. There are two USB 2. One on the rear of the unit and one at the front.
The rear USB 2. The dashboard features numerous tools to filter content to your liking. You can also specify your favorites list so you can easily find what you're looking for. Seems to work very well.
Not much to complain about here. This device plays everything I've thrown at it without any hiccups. Cons: Gets really hot during normal operation. Make sure you keep it in a well ventilated area. It just puts the device into standby mode, which means any attached storage devices will also keep running. This device remains insanely hot in this state, so I don't recommend leaving it like this for an extended period of time.
You must hold the power button for a few seconds to shut the device down completely. Takes a while to boot up after being shut down.
Not a huge problem, but this can be annoying. For some reason, my resolution settings reset every once and a while. It keeps defaulting p, even though my HDTV's native res is p. This isn't something that happens all the time, so it's just a random bug. Not sure what's going on there. Overall Review: I highly recommend this media player.
WD has released a fine product here. When it comes to media playback, this device just works. I much prefer this media player when compared to my old PS3 which I used for streaming previously.
Cons: Its not so great for viewing photos because there is a two second delay changing between each photo. Overall Review: I am writing this review because I disagree with some other reviews here. In my opinion the remote with this unit is better than most media players. The buttons work great, and I can aim the remote almost any direction and still control the media player. The User interface is also far better than most media players.
It may seem laggy at times for some people, but that has to do with the animation they are using for the icons. It does not bother me though. I've custom-encoded high-definition content using x settings that are meant to make the file as small as possible, regardless of CPU power needed to play. This plays them. It plays Everything. Cons: - Required a firmware update which was very easy once connected to wireless to play some files correctly. Some high-def movies, for example, would momentarily glitch out every minute or so.
May not be the best for large collections. Sometimes you have to wait a second to see the rest of a file name. Overall Review: For the cost of about Blu-rays, you can get or give a gift that allows one to play any media file, display any photo, or use most online streaming services. How is this not a great deal? Pros: The WD TV is a easy-to-use, easy to live with device that doesn't overheat, doesn't get loud, and is easily added to your network.
It will play local content from your Windows PCs without much difficulty if they're shared properly, and Netflix played without a hiccup. The remote is well-made and comfortable. It's a box with a couple of specific goalsto stream media from a list of services and from networked computers, and it's almost too small of a niche for me.
The lack of an included HDMI cable also is a letdown, and the menus, while simple, are also slow. In the main entertainment center, the competition is a bit fierce, especially with game systems and disc-playing devices, and the rarer full-PC option.
The WD TV product, though, isn't bad on its own merits. There is a comfort to "just pressing the on button," and it does that. What I think it really needs is a marketing partner. Hulu plus for three months, or Netflix for three months, or something similar would put this as a much more attractive option, especially in the days where over half of American households have a current-generation gaming device that can replicate a lot of the functionality.
What they don't have, though, is the ease of use, and the silence that come from this box. Pros: Very easy to physically install, integrates easily into most AV setups. Quite small and unobtrusive. Competitively priced. Pleasant and fairly flexible user interface, with many user customization and usage options available.
Video and audio clarity is quite good and very fluid the great majority of the time. Supports Dolby and DTS various audio formats. Audio is usually crystal-clear with no sync issues with the video output. Available free remote control app for Apple and Android devices, use your smart-device as a remote.
Supports dozens of languages. Connects via USB 2. Optical audio output if needed for external receiver, etc.
Cons: Slow! Even this is longer than one would expect for such a device, and considerably longer than a competitor's similar streaming-content apparatus. This unit also often lags for a few seconds sometimes several seconds between remote control input and actual response. At times the lag is so pronounced that if seems as if the input was not registered at all, so the user makes another input, only to have them both register many seconds later, which typically ends in frustration as the result is not at all what the user intended.
In particular, the video playback controls Play, Pause, Fast Forward, etc. Freezes and locks-up, particularly during Netflix sessions. A particular experience using Netflix Kids comes to mind, when each time a minute animated children's show was finished, the kids were unable to queue another show from the menu; the device simply refused to play the next program until Netflix Kids was completely exited back to the WD TV Home menu, then re-entered.
This occurred even after the device had been reset, and left the kids particularly disappointed with this unit. This is a shame, too, as the Netflix Kids interface is mostly picture-based and easy albeit slow to navigate, even for younger children. We encountered the same experience both times we tried it, to the point where the kids would rather just watch a DVD or satellite-TV show instead of wrestling with the WD TV.
This requires the user to go through the connection setup process again, further increasing the frustration factor. If the SSID broadcast is enabled, however, the unit does a good job of connecting reliably. Connects to Facebook, but steadfastedly refuses to display a single picture from my wife's photography page, returning a non-specific "browser error" message instead.
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