Wd tv live what operating system. WD TV Live network media player. Appearance and ease of use

There is no doubt that WD TV, released almost a year ago, has significantly revitalized the market for video-enabled media players high resolution. It very successfully combines the “correct” processor, convenient shell, spectacular design and, most interestingly, low cost.

The only thing that disappointed us was the lack of network connection. This significantly complicated working with large media libraries, which are most conveniently stored on network drives or personal computers. Of course, since then enthusiasts have already solved this problem, but for the mass user this “upgrade” is not easy.

So the release of an updated version of the player with a built-in network controller looks very interesting. Western Digital clearly wants to repeat the success of the first model, and the timing of the announcement was chosen well - just before the New Year holidays. Let's see if this works.

Contents of delivery

The player is packaged in a compact cardboard box, decorated in dark colors. The name of the model looks the most contrasting. So if you are looking for a device on the shelves in a store, you will find it quickly. Also on the packaging you can find several photographs, a brief description, and specifications. Localization is only partial. The size is also pleasing - only about 20x18x10 centimeters. Several of these will fit in a regular plastic bag at once :).

Let's see what's inside and whether the package is sufficient to start working with the device. The box contains: player, remote control, batteries for it (2xAAA), leaflet with brief description installation process, CD with complete descriptions and programs, two audio-video cables, power supply (12 V 1.5 A), two sets of rubber feet.

Wiring comes in two options - composite video plus stereo audio and component video. Both cables on the player side use a four-pin minijack connector. Today this is a fairly common option. But you can’t buy them in any store.

On the CD the user can find pdf file with the full manual at English language(the Russian version can be downloaded from the manufacturer’s website), several samples of media files, a program for searching for a device on the network.

In general, we can say that the kit is quite sufficient. It’s a pity, of course, that there is no HDMI cable, but this is probably not worth demanding from a device positioned as “high quality and inexpensive.”

Appearance

Like its predecessor, the model we are considering today causes nothing but delight upon first acquaintance. It’s simply impossible to believe that a modern multi-format device with full support for HD video can fit in such a compact case. A new model even more interesting - among other things, there is now a network controller.

Actually, the case itself remains almost the same - plastic is used, the dimensions are 12.5x10x4 cm. Only now, instead of glossy black, it has become matte gray. Of course, this is more practical in terms of cleanliness and preservation of appearance.

The included rubber feet can be attached to one of two sides, which corresponds to the horizontal and vertical orientation of the player. On the front panel there is a small window with indicators of device status and USB activity (two stylish white LEDs), as well as an IR signal receiver from the remote control remote control.

On the side (or top) side there is one USB port and a reset button. On the rear panel are all other connectors. Here you can find the power supply input, a second USB port, HDMI, optical digital audio output, network port, and analog audio-video connectors.

Compared to WD TV in new version We added a component video output and, of course, a network port. Since space is very limited, this has led to the replacement of conventional audio-video “tulips” with minijacks. This is a little less convenient, but the main connection option today is HDMI, so the remark is not very significant.

The player is cooled passively - the grilles are located at the ends. In this sense, vertical installation is more effective. Consumption is very small, so overheating is only possible in the event of an extremely unsuccessful installation. In particular, the manufacturer does not recommend installing an external hard drive on the player. This solution also has an undeniable advantage in the form of completely absent noise, especially when working over a network.

Let us once again praise the remote control - compact, with a reasonable minimum of buttons, convenient and functional design. As with the media player body itself, this time matte plastic was used for the remote control, which significantly affected the appearance during operation. It is worth paying attention to the absence of any volume control from the remote control.

Internal organization

In terms of filling, the new model is similar to the first one - it again uses a platform based on the Sigma Designs media processor. But there are also differences: the main chip is now SMP8655, the memory volumes have increased noticeably (up to 512 MB RAM and 256 MB flash), a network chip has been added, and a separate HDMI output chip, on the contrary, has disappeared.

The main processor has a large heatsink. The remaining microcircuits do without cooling systems.

The player has one board, which ensures the reliability of the design. In addition to the indicated components, you can also find a console output on it, which will allow you to modify the firmware.

The filling is housed in a metal casing, which ensures structural rigidity and “solidity” of the player, thanks to its relatively large weight. Well, in turn, all this is in plastic case, consisting of two elements. If desired, it can be disassembled even without using a screwdriver.

Connection and settings

By and large, this entire section could be fit in one sentence - “connect the HDMI, network and power cables, turn on the player and start watching the video.” Indeed, in our case, we can do without preliminary settings - HDMI immediately started working in 1080p mode, LAN card received an address via DHCP and the player found several DLNA servers on the test network. Nevertheless, let's go through the player interface settings pages.

There are seven groups of parameters in total. The first - “Audio and Video” - is used to set the operation of the outputs - the type and mode of video output is configured, support for DeepColor on HDMI is activated, the screen aspect ratio and audio output mode (stereo analog or digital) are selected. We note here the lack of support for auto-selection of frame rate depending on the type of source material, although 1080p24 itself is present in the parameters.

The next three groups relate to video, photo and music playback, respectively. For all types of files, you can select the playback sequence and the type of list of files and directories (thumbnails, list, preview). The player supports the use external files jpeg for designing folder icons.

In addition, subtitles can be adjusted for the video - font size, outline type, automatic use in the presence of. To view photos in slide show mode, select the interval and type of transition (one of seven options or random selection), as well as the zoom mode. For music files, the only additional option is to show the file name or song name.

Next comes “File Management”. In fact, this is not a settings page, but a built-in utility for copying and moving documents between network and local drives. It is also possible to delete files.

An obviously new item for this model is “ Network settings" We are talking about specifying network connection parameters. Manual mode for setting IP addresses is supported, as well as DHCP. Interestingly, the device can also be used with wireless networks, but for this you apparently need to connect a special USB adapter. The compatibility list on the website shows more than a dozen models, including 802.11n. Among those actually available in Russia, we note the D-Link DWA-140. You can remember five wireless networks and quickly switch between them. The modern WPA encryption standard is supported, so connecting the player in wireless network will not compromise security. Although, of course, it should be noted that for an HD player this option of integration into the network is not very interesting due to low (for the tasks under consideration) performance.

There are also options here that allow access to connected USB drives over the network, auto-connection of network resources, and resetting remembered network details (username and password). The network access speed is typical for this class of devices - about 5 MB/s for reading and 3 MB/s for writing (and writing is also supported on NTFS). The device name can be overridden from the default “WDTVLIVE”, but the workgroup does not change.

The last page is dedicated to system settings. In particular, selecting the interface language (Russian is available, although the translation is sometimes incorrect or has errors), enabling file indexing (a function similar to WD TV, which allows you to work with information from tags, and not with folders, applies only to local drives, creates hidden folder on removable disks, requires free space), selecting a timeout for the screen saver, setting the code page, resetting all parameters, checking for firmware updates and installing them (the tests used the recently released 1.01.17). Localization affected not only the menu - the player works correctly with Russian file names both locally and over the network, and tags are also read correctly. To access some updates from WD, you must register your device on the website. For WD TV Live, this can be done directly from the player interface. All you need to do is provide your name and email address.

So, we are done with the settings, you can start working with media files.

Working with multimedia

“Communication” with the player occurs through the menu using the remote control. Its design is quite pleasant and convenient - a “grid” version similar to its predecessor is used with a choice of items vertically and horizontally. We especially note good speed response without causing discomfort.

On FullHD devices the picture does not “ring” - clearly in the original version the design was oriented towards standard resolution or 720p. Although, of course, this does not affect the work with files and still looks very high quality.

The first selection consists of the "Video", "Photo", "Music" and "Settings" items, which were described above. After determining the content type (affects file filtering while viewing lists), you must select a source - local disks, network resources, media servers or Internet services (different for each type of content).

There are two USB 2.0 ports for connecting local drives. Working with USB hubs is not supported, which is not very convenient. But you can use several partitions on disks. File systems can be FAT/FAT32, NTFS, HFS+. When using disk indexing, it is advisable to use the corresponding button on the remote control to disable them.

There are no special presets for network resources. UPnP AV/DLNA servers are found automatically. The player works with WMP from Windows 7, TwonkyMedia and MediaTomb servers, as well as network drives with built-in DLNA service. The operating speed in this mode is very high - we were able to play back test files with a video bitrate of 52 Mbit/s and there was even room for fast forwarding. Of course, this is one of the positive features of the device in question.

To connect regular network folders (SMB/CIFS protocols) there is a built-in network browser. When accessing a resource, you are prompted for a username and password if necessary. This data is saved and does not need to be repeated later. Generally this option not bad, although in case large network perhaps it would be more convenient to have some list of selected resources for quick access. The speed of working with SMB is usually lower, but this time we were not able to accurately determine the limitation. As a rule, we check the speed of working with a regular PC under Windows control and network drives and the results are almost the same. But with the device in question, the numbers were very different, and the repeatability was poor - sometimes it was not possible to read a file with a video bitrate of 30 Mbit/s normally from the computer, but with the NAS, 50 Mbit/s video was shown well. As one of the tests, we looked at a m2ts file of about 40 GB from the disk image without any problems. So just keep in mind that the network speed may be enough for remixes, but we cannot predict success.

Let's start, as usual, with the simplest thing - photographs. The device can work with jpeg, gif, tiff, bmp, png files. The image can be rotated and scaled while viewing. The orientation flag from exif is read and used correctly. There is also a display mode brief information about the file - modification date, resolution, size. You can also change the repeat mode for your slideshow on the fly. To set these options, use a special dedicated button on the remote control with the same name. Unfortunately, its action “interrupts” all other controls - if the “option” menu is visible on the screen, you must first remove it, even to stop playback.

Photo previews are visible only when working with local and network resources, as well as with a DLNA server. Indexing local disks allows you to use, in addition to “directory” navigation, also sorting by date (similarly for video files). There is a built-in library search system that works with indexed content.

The online photo viewing service is presented by flickr. When using it, you can select certain categories of files, such as the most interesting or recently published. But there are clearly some problems with the resolution of the pictures - they look very sad on a FullHD TV.

Let's move on to the music. According to the manufacturer, here we can use the formats mp3, wma, wav, aac, flac, mka, aiff, aac, ogg. In addition, you can decode DD and DTS directly in the player and output in stereo format. In general, all this was confirmed (we did not check some rare formats). Fans of high-quality sound will certainly enjoy working with flac. It’s a pity there aren’t enough developers for ape anymore. The audio output is also not very good - the maximum sample rate of the decoded signal is 48 kHz, even if the source file (for example, in wav format) was recorded at 96 or 192 kHz.

Tags are supported in mp3, wma and flac formats. Russian versions are visible in both Unicode and cp1251 (with the appropriate selection of the code page in the settings).

If your library is already boring, you can use the built-in clients for Live365 and Pandora services. They provide access to a huge number of Internet radio stations. True, the first one works in “VIP” mode for only five days (to demonstrate the full range of capabilities), and the second one is available only in the United States (and requires registration). However, in the free version of Live365 you can find something interesting to listen to. And if this is not enough, purchase a VIP account (about $8 per month).

By the way, if you first turn on the music and then return to photo mode, you will get a slide show with musical accompaniment.

Except separate files, the player also works with playlists in pls and m3u formats, which may be useful for some users. Sorting for local disks occurs by album, artist, genre, date.

This player model, of course, is primarily intended for viewing modern high-definition video formats. However, it is also quite compatible with “regular” video and can display such familiar formats as mpeg, avi/divx/xvid and wmv. It’s a pity that the manufacturer has not yet established how to work with DVD-Video: neither folders nor disk images can be fully used - only file by file or only the main movie (and even then not always). Although switching audio tracks and subtitles works fine with them. To fully enjoy the picture, you should look for something with FullHD resolution in mkv, ts/m2ts, mp4 or mov containers. There are also no problems with codecs - all the capabilities of the chip from Sigma Designs are used. The player successfully decodes mpeg1/2/4, wmv9, h.264/avc and vc-1. In particular, you can view recordings from modern HD video cameras without any editing or processing.

While watching, you can use rewind - up to 16x (depending on the format) in both directions. Certainly real speed depends on the performance of the data source. Unfortunately, there is no quick navigation using timecode. Some compensation for this can be the automatic memorization of the position when playback is stopped. If you then select the same file, the player will offer to start from there or from the very beginning. One more in a fast way navigation is to use the buttons to go to the next/previous file while rewinding - they allow you to “jump” 10 minutes at once.

Files can have multiple subtitles and multiple audio tracks. Switching is only through the options menu. This, of course, is not very convenient. You can also try scaling the image by 1/8x, 1/4x, 1/2x, 1.1x, 1.2x, 2x, 4x, 8x.

The situation with HD audio tracks is ambiguous. From the test set of files, some versions played successfully, while others had no sound (although the player correctly detected the track format). So there is no clear answer about the applicability of the player in this case. Among the successful options, we note DTS HD output as DTS, full DD TrueHD, LPCM output with downmix in stereo.

Subtitles are supported both external (srt, ssa, smi/sami, idx/sub) and embedded in the video file (mkv with ssa or srt). When setting the player to Russian, you can use cp1251, Unicode and UTF8 to display text correctly. You can also have several language versions of external subtitles, differing in suffixes. External subtitles do not work when playing files through a media server.

In addition to files, the user can watch videos from the popular YouTube service. There is a choice based on popularity, rating and other criteria. A good move is the support for HD formats broadcast from this service. In this case, on TVs with large screens The videos don't look as bad as they do in standard definition.

Complete programs

Full versions of user manuals and various documentation are recorded on disk in pdf format. Unfortunately, Acrobat Reader not included. Although, of course, most likely everyone already has it installed.

Also on the disk there are several examples of media files - photos in jpeg, music in mp3 and video in mp4. Note that the videos and photographs are in FullHD resolution, so the user can immediately evaluate the capabilities of his new acquisition.

The disk shell is presented as an interactive program that links both to files on the disk and to various network resources (for example, the Adobe website). There is also a WD Discovery utility that will help you find the player on the network and organize access to connected USB devices.

There are no programs for transcoding media files included. Apparently this time the manufacturer considers its product “omnivorous,” which was confirmed in our tests. Although, of course, several times we received a request for specific samples to recode the file for playback on the player.

conclusions

The new model of the WD TV Live player turned out to be certainly successful. In addition to all positive characteristics predecessor, it also received a very fast network, allowing you to view almost any type of content from remote resources.

Some users will also find it useful to increase the HDMI output version, which has led to support (in this moment partial) new HD audio track formats. Of course, to use them you will also need an appropriate receiver.

Unfortunately, in the pursuit of high-resolution video, the manufacturer forgot or did not have time to implement full support for the still popular DVD-Video today - the player cannot show the disc menu.

In our opinion, WD TV Live can successfully compete with numerous models of the NMT family today. First of all, it has a sleek design, a beautiful and convenient user interface, very fast network connection. The price announced by the manufacturer at the beginning of sales was $149.99 (we are, of course, talking about the USA) today has already dropped to $119.99 and looks great. On the local market, unfortunately, it differs markedly from this figure. The current average retail price of this model in Moscow is $128() .

We thank the 2L agency for providing the player for testing.

In nature, there are many additions to the TV that can make life easier for the user. About five years ago there was not such variety as now - either standard DVD and Blu-Ray players were used, or HTPC (Home Theater Personal Computer) assembled by craftsmen. Then it entered the market Apple company with their Apple TV, Chinese developers stepped up - and what we have is a bunch of “set-top boxes” with multimedia functions. Personally, I have a second-generation Apple TV at home; this device fits organically into my ecosystem; it costs reasonable money (about $100), but the hardware is very weak: the maximum supported resolution is 720p and there is no support for flash drives or built-in memory. In short, it’s a thing in itself – and I’ll probably tell you about my experience with Apple TV and alternative firmware for it someday.

Today we’ll talk about a product from Western Digital called TV Live Hub. Their devices that connect with TVs and other equipment caught my eye two years ago - but I was able to test only this device and only now.

The unit in question costs 7 thousand rubles, inside HDD for 1 terabyte. At the price of hard drives of this volume (3-4 thousand rubles), we get, so to speak, the cost of the rest of the hardware - the same 3-4 thousand rubles. Let's see what's included, what the Live Hub can do (I'll call the device a player) - and try to figure out who needs such a thing.

Packaging and equipment

The colorful cardboard box is quite large, and it seems that there are a lot of different things inside. But no, about half the volume is occupied by the box with the player; in addition to it, the box contains a remote control and a power adapter, and a couple of booklets. Cables are not included in the package, which can be explained, but only partially - and we will deal with this later.

Appearance and ease of use

The player material is plastic, matte-rough on top and bottom, glossy on the rim. On the front there is an on/off button and a port for connecting USB devices; there is also a WD logo on the front panel, which lights up while the device is operating.

There is nothing on the sides, on the back there are all connectors for switching: power, optical output, HDMI output, second USB port (also designed for connecting USB devices), composite and component outputs.

Now for the weird stuff. The first strange thing: there is not a single cable included in the package - not even the most common HDMI cable at the moment. The second strange thing: there isn’t even an Ethernet cable, not to mention a built-in Wi-Fi adapter (even though it can be connected to a USB port). Let this not be a surprise to you - you will have to buy everything at once, without putting it off until later. Moreover, there are considerable benefits from going online, more on that a little later. A list of devices compatible with the player can be found.

We turn everything on, the player starts, signals the presence of fresh firmware, updates, again a notification about new firmware(well, this is how it happens), after 10 minutes everything is ready, you can use it.

We see a colorful menu on the screen, you can move through it left and right by pressing the “down” button on the remote control, we get to the customizable “Favorites” menu, you can view newly added files, and so on.

Where do the files come from? WITH external devices(the player copies data from a flash drive or external hard drive to your built-in one, if you wish, you can simply watch the content) or over the network - you can either upload files to the player or indicate to the player “shared” network folder. That is, WD Live Hub is sort of like that, and it can be part of your multimedia ecosystem, or it can aggregate all the data. In principle, a terabyte is a good amount of data; you can also use it as a network hard drive for a torrent client. It would be nice to be able to connect the player to the computer directly - but, alas, this is not possible.

As for the main menu, it is extremely simple to understand.

Settings– here, perhaps, there are the most opportunities. Setting up outputs, menu type, video, sound, photo, network, even remote control. I don’t see the point in considering everything - one way or another, you won’t get complete freedom of action. One interesting thing is the ability to connect Apple equipment for remote control player and downloading (viewing) photos.

Photos– viewing photos, implemented in an average way – the player scrolls through the pictures with effort, flipping through takes a couple of seconds (plus, you can see how the picture is drawn, and this is no good). You can start a slide show. Possible viewing JPEG formats, GIF, TIF/TIFF, BMP, PNG.

Music– sorting by tags, supports MP3, WAV, WMA, AAC, FLAC, OGG.

Video– the main functionality of the device, in my understanding. I will immediately indicate the supported 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, FLV (h.264), in fact this means one thing - no matter what you try, everything plays , up to 1080p. There is rewinding, you need to get used to it, subtitles are supported.

Services– as many as 22 mini-applications for working with content. These include photographs - Flickr, Picasa, and videos - the same YouTube and Vimeo, and even the ability to order video on demand. There is support for Facebook and even Yota Music (you need a login and password, that is, you won’t be able to listen for free).

Games– a selection of simple games, there’s not even anything to tell here.

RSS– reading feeds, adding new ones is possible; the on-screen keyboard is used for this.

Files– view file system devices.

Conclusion

The WD TV Live Hub player costs, as I wrote at the beginning of the review, 7 thousand rubles. Let's summarize.

pros:

Small and quiet device
Omnivorous
Fast work (except for viewing photos), fast hard drive
Ability to connect external USB devices
Good functionality (apps, games, RSS)
Intuitive interface
Availability file manager
Network access, connecting Apple equipment to work with the player

Minuses:

No cables included
No Wi-Fi adapter(but can be connected to a USB port)
Not the most convenient rewinding of files
Large and not very convenient remote control
There is not enough ability to connect the player to a computer as a removable hard drive

For me, the WD TV Live Hub turned out to be a device that did not make the best impression at first, but in the end the impression became positive. I can’t say that everything about it is perfect, but it’s a pleasure to use the device. Not bad for the money asked.

Stated characteristics

Supported Formats

Video - 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, FLV (h.264)
Photo - JPEG, GIF, TIF/TIFF, BMP, PNG
Audio - MP3, WAV/PCM/LPCM, WMA, AAC, FLAC, MKA, AIF/AIFF, OGG, Dolby Digital, DTS
Playlists - PLS, M3U, WPL
Subtitles - SRT, ASS, SSA, SUB, SMI

Other characteristics

Capacity: 1 TB
Interfaces: Gigabit Ethernet, USB 2.0, HDMI, Composite A/V, Component video, Optical audio
Dimensions (HxDxW): 32x198x154 mm
Weight: 0.55 kg

Ilya Tarakanov ()

The appearance of a compact and inexpensive WD TV (Western Digital TV) player was greeted by users with enviable enthusiasm. Of course, because at that time it was, perhaps, the most affordable device from such a renowned manufacturer, capable of playing HD video files. But among the most advanced enthusiasts, the euphoria quickly subsided: the new product had too many shortcomings. The list of complaints includes, first of all, the HDMI interface old version, which did not allow HD audio streams to be transmitted digitally to the AV receiver; lack of a DTS decoder (without it, films with the appropriate soundtrack were shown without sound if the audio signal was taken from analog outputs). Also upsetting were the rather modest functionality, including lack of access to the network. We're talking about all this. What awaits us in the next generation model, called WD TV Live?

Differences between WD TV Live and first generation WD TV

Despite the fact that the devices are practically identical in appearance (color does not count), inside they are fundamentally different. WD TV Live is based on a more advanced Sigma Designs SMP8655 (500 MHz) processor, while its predecessor had a Sigma Designs SMP8635 (300 MHz). A wired controller has appeared LAN networks 10/100 Mbit, the HDMI interface has grown to version 1.3, providing the ability to transmit all audio streams to the AV receiver. Finally, a DTS decoder was introduced. This means that now the player can be connected directly to the TV, even “analog”, without fear of being left in complete silence while watching movies with a DTS track.

Packaging and delivery