Customer Ratings & Reviews

I originally received a WDTV about 2 years as a present from a friend who was trying to steer me away from ATV. Being a huge fan of Apple and having everything apple - i didn't think it was possible. But there are things that this little machine does better then any of its competitors and thats play just about every file under the sun. The new WDTV is just as good as the old one - featuring a new interface and a slightly different way of navigating which i hated at first but after the learning curve was over - i have to say that i love this machine even more so then the older one. If you are looking to play files that your existing media player will not play due to some kind of rediculous restriction - this is for you.

On a positive note this media player does play a lot of different file types that other devices wont. The picture quality is good. It is easy set up and very portable. It features a rear and front USB port. It can be set up with round RCA barrel connectors such as found on older televisions as well as hook up with the HDMI cable. The negatives would be as follows: This device will lock up on ocassion for no explainable reason. Not terribly often but I would say about 1 out of every 25 uses. The remote could be better laid out and is cumbersome. It would especially be nice if the remote had luminated keys. This does not offer Netflix link up which is a huge disapointment. I spent about 2 hours on the telephone with Western Digital after purchasing in order to try to get the device to stream jpeg/mp3 or mp4 from my computer. The tech support finally just gave up after blaming my computer and my router which I dont agree with their determination of the situation. Over all it is a decent media player for the price.

works perfect so far.. super easy to set up.. like the features.. hand controller works great.. very happy with the purchase.. I was just looking for a unit that would stream videos, pictures and music from my pc in one room,,,, stream to my living rooms tv via Wi-Fi.... very happy.. worth the 100 bucks

Not the flashiest media streamer out there. The controls are a bit slow, setting up the media library is a little confusing, and replacing the cover art can get a bit tricky due to the cache file.HOWEVER, it is the best device for streaming media from a USB drive. My girlfriend has no internet at her place so this lil box is a godsend. I liked it so much I got one to replace my PS3. Other than the minor stuff I mentioned before, I love everything about this box. The coolest thing is how easy it is to find cover art and movie sheets when connected to the internet. I do wish there were more ways to group the media. once u get a large collection it can get cumbersome to find the file you are looking for using the remote. People with large collections should use a usb keyboard and the search function. Oh yeah, 2 usb ports, so u can add a keyboard, or a second drive and do things like copy from one drive to another. Its a nice lil box.

This player will playback pretty much any video format you can think of: .mkv,Mp4,etc. It even lets you mount a DVD ISO image from a portable HD and it plays just like you had the actual disk! For a $99.00 player the imaging processor is quite good and it passes thru full Dolby or DTS hi res audio if you set it up correctly. What you may not like however, is the lack of mainstream streaming providers like Netflix and other popular services. My setup is to simply connect the device to my HT receiver with an HDMI cable, and a seagate backup Plus portable 2TB drive to the USB port to play my hi-res files (I've yet to test how well local network streaming works, but in my limited experience with this stuff previously it leads me to think it will be average at best with low bit rate files), but it does have wireless connectivity as well.

This is the best gadget you can have if you have multiple video formats. The UI is not that great compared to Roku etc. It may also feel slow; but its intention is not to use Netflix etc on this one. It does its basic function to perfection. I have tried all the formats I can think of and it can play everything. Highly recommended fot playing multiple Video formats.

We bought the WD Live Hub several years back and it is still running but not as well as it could. Still it works great if we reset it from time to time. This product is a substantial update but works the same except without the hard drive built into it. I added a Western Digital Passport Drive with our movies on it to this via the USB 2.0 port and it works fantastically and without any hesitation at all. It plays virtually every popular multimedia file there is without a problem. I highly recommend this over Chromecast, Roku and it's other competitors. I've compared them and there's no real comparison. This product is a "True" and "Dedicated" multimedia center with built-in server software to work great through your home network. It is nothing short of AMAZING!

It's not a Boxee Box, but it is still the best out there for the price. Areas of improvement: 1.) Speed. No such thing as fast enough for these media players especially when the library gets to a certain size (TBs). Fire TV is the kind of performance that every media player SHOULD have... and then go faster. 2.) There needs to be an option to ALWAYS allow for searching for the file name of the content - most of the time it just comes back with "Content not found" and doesn't even allow for searching. 3.) There should be a method to assign / change / add-to the genre (list) without having to edit the associated .xml file using a computer. 4.) It should allow for accessing the locally stored iTunes album artwork on the network. 5.) It should allow for a video category setting of TV or Movie per file, entirely independent of Genre.

Bought to stream my personal movies on an external hard drive. Works on any tv and works great.

This unit is AWESOME at doing what it was made for. Using this device as a media player for playback of digital content that has been stored on an HDD or a NAS (DLNA discovery is effortless) is flawless! I encode my media at full HD (1080p) with a bitrate of 10K+ (for most files) along with audio in AAC format (256kbps) in multi-channels, with an MKV container... I have yet to have 1 of my over 400 files not play in perfect sync or stunning quality. In most cases, the playback is superior to my actual Blu-Ray player. I have to admit that a large portion of the services like You Tube, Hulu, Vudu or other streaming content providers require a fair bit of bandwidth in order to get a great picture (DSL users need not apply) but that is the case with all streaming players (Roku, Amazon Fire, Nexus TV etc.) If you get this device as a standalone media playback agent with the proper types of media (almost anything will play as it supports almost every file type known to man) encoded for YOUR type of home/office setup (TV/Display, Stereo, Seating Config), you should have a great experience. Just know going into the purchase that the use case I have described is what it was designed for, and you will be happy.

I loved the WDTV box for its ease of use and the fact that it connected to my hard drive movie collection but my only complaint is the lack of Netflix and no future plans to make it an option. If you don't care about Netflix, this is the perfect media player for you.

THIS IS MY FOURTH BOX. HAVE GOTTEN RID OF HUNDREDS OF DVDS. VERY COMPACT, AND CONVENIENT. THE AMOUNT OF MOVIES YOU CAN HAVE DEPENDS ON THE SIZE OF THE HARD DRIVE YOU HAVE. PLAYS MUSIC, AND SHOWS PHOTOS ALSO. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED....

I bought this to watch all the videos I have on my WD my cloud. The new update made this a lot better. It now plays all my videos MP4, AVI, MKV. Now there is an app for the my cloud as well. NOT wireless needs to be plugged into modem.

So first, the good (great actually): This device is extremely responsive. I've tried most other stand alone media players and their biggest failure is their inability to handle playback in large libraries. Sure, connectivity.speed is a factor hear but in the same environment, WD beats the others hands down. FF, Rew, Skip to Next, Skip Back. It all works without crashing. And caches properly too. Now the bad: WD needs to get serious with populating the text for the movie titles with accurate film power/metadata information. With only file names to go by, It can be tough to find what it is that your looking for.

I have this set up on my bedroom TV. I use it for Netflix and my hard drive of movies. I would like them to put other things like amazon TV and other hulu.

I had the original unit. When I turned it on, it came on quickly and with no problems getting to the files on the thumbdrive. However, I replaced it with this newer model. I don't like the way it starts up...or does not start up. The light on the unit comes on and the WD logo displays on the TV screen. Then it turns off. I have to go through a bit of on/off to get it to get to the menu. And it takes so long to connect to the Network at startup, which I wish I could turn this function off. Sort of a pain. Still a good way of presenting MP4 files on a TV.

This WD Media player works good, However I stopped seeing Movie Folder that was over the network on my computer so I have to plug in a hard drive to see it. Im not sure if its a problem with the wd media player or not. It has miracast so i can cast my phone, Worth it even without the over the network storage.

I have the WDTV and the My Book Live Duo set up as a NAS and media player. This set up is horrible and I am always having issues with the drive disconnecting from the network or even files that never play. The interface is bad compared to other players or online services such as Netflix and Vudu. It is slow and only has one row so navigating a large number of files takes way too long. I feel that they designed to the bare minimum and used the cheapest quality parts. I have tried replacing the units, but the replacements are just as bad. After doing some research, I found that I am moving to Synology with a Roku player which both have great reviews and has transcoding on the fly, unlike WD has. Its just too bad I had to struggle with the hassle of dealing with this WD system not working for so long. Do yourself a favor, unless you enjoy staring at an orange round arrow for hours, don't get this system and get a better quality one that can do the job properly.

This device worked as expected. There were no issues with it. The reason I chose this device was because of the ability to play multiple types of video formats (mkv, mov, wmv, etc.). It plays them all -- no issue. I like that because it's one less thing to worry about (no hassle).

I would have to say that this is one of the best device that I've every purchase to watch movies from my hard drive or streaming movies. It's very easy to use and setup. Updates are very quick also.