NOTE: Photos have been taken by me from Canon IXUS 860 IS. All are welcome for their comments 
UPDATED ON 03.02.2009
Improvements in new firmware update released in Dec-08 have now been incorporated in the end of this review.
Introduction
I have loads of HD stuff mainly mkv files (720p/1080p) which I have been watching on LCD TV connected to my computer as secondary display. I observed extraordinary video quality through good HDCP-compliant graphics card. However, I always intended to have option of watching such movies in bed room also but could not find many players available in market for this purpose except TViX, Popcorn Hour, which are very costly.
As soon as thread of this player was started by TechHead in Hot Deals & Discussions in first week of Nov, I immediately ordered it through KMD. The player was received within a week time from KMD and costed Rs7600/- plus local shipping as all of you know.
[BREAK=Package Contents]
Package Contents
Following are inside the package:
1. HD Media Player - which is very small, slick and light weight
2. Remote with 2 AAA batteries - Remote is also very compact and handy
3. Composite AV cable (RCA) - It is good to watch SD stuff through this cable but HDMI cable is required to enjoy HD contents (the same is not included in package)
4. AC adapter - It is good to see 110-240V power AC Adapter (with US compatible pins) as most of the US products are supplied with 110V adapter only.
5. Stand for WD Passport portable drive - It may not be of use for everyone but I had by chance 320 GB WD passport, so could use this.
6. ArcSoft MediaConverter 2.5 for Windows - It may be useful if you dont have any media converter software. I have Xilisoft video converter, which is very powerful for all sorts of conversions. Moreover, most of the formats can be played in WD HD player, its utility is also limited.
7. Quick Install Guide
[BREAK=About Player/Connections]
About Player/Connections
As per WD website, following are the broad specifications:-
File Formats Supported
Music - MP3, WMA, OGG, WAV/PCM/LPCM, AAC, FLAC, Dolby Digital, AIF/AIFF, MKA
Photo - JPEG, GIF, TIF/TIFF, BMP, PNG
Video -MPEG1/2/4, WMV9, AVI (MPEG4, Xvid, AVC), H.264, MKV, MOV (MPEG4, H.264)
Playlist - PLS, M3U, WPL
Subtitle -SRT (UTF-8)
File Formats Not Supported
Does not support protected premium content such as movies or music from the iTunes® Store, Cinema Now, Movielink®, Amazon Unbox™, and Vongo®
External Drive Formats Supported
FAT32, NTFS, HFS+ (no journaling)
Performance Specifications
Serial Transfer Rate USB 2.0
Serial Bus Transfer Rate (USB 2.0) 480 Mbits/s (Max)
Physical Dimensions
Height 40 mm (Max)
Length 100 mm (Max)
Width 125.5 mm (Max)
Weight 303 g
It has two USB ports (one in back side as USB-2 and another on left side of player as USB-1) for connecting mass storage devices besides one HDMI port for connecting it to HDTV, one optical audio-out port for connecting it to equipment supporting digital audio connection with optical toslink (Audio would be still delivered through HDMI or the composite AV cables in case no connection with this port) and one composite (RCA) port for connecting TV/HDTV. I personally would not recommend to use composite port in case you are having HDTV. Even though HDMI cables are costly, it is better to connect through HDMI only to have full video quality of HD stuff.
I personally felt that 1 usb drive (USB no. 2 on back side) fully loaded with selected media contents can be made static drive and left side usb port may be used to connect occasional drive.
[BREAK=More about Player, Menu and Settings]
More about Player, Menu and Settings
It has two lights on front, left side is power indicator and right side USB device connection indicator. Initially after power of player is on, usb indicator light blinks while reading it and becomes stable (green) after reading. In my case it took upto 30 seconds to fully read my 320 GB passport WD drive fully loaded with media files. However, time may depend upon size of media contents in hd drive.
Even digital cameras, handycams, portable media players which have mode of mass storage devices can also be connected.
After reading media contents, it automatically place the file in respective player library i.e. video, audio or photos. If you have connected 2 usb devices, it combined the contents of both usb devices into one library which can be viewed files as thumbnails or in a list.
Videos and images can be viewed in order of date, filename, and recently viewed and audio can be viewed by artist, album, track name, date, and folder. It has menu for Video, Music, Photos and settings.
Further, following settings are available, which are extremely simple.
1. audio/video- Options for video output, display resolution, aspect ratio, audio output and NTSC/PAL.
2. video-Option for video play sequence only
3. Music - Option for music play sequence only
4. Photos - Options for slideshow sequence, photo scaling, transtion effect and interval time
5. System - Options for language, media library, screensaver delay, browser display, sustem reset and about
[BREAK=Final Thought]
Final Thought
It is reported in certain reviews that it has some issues with 1080p files. But, I could play all 1080p files with me (except one file) flawlessly with smooth rewind/forward. Details of maximum size 1080p files played by me is as under:-
1. MKV File-Size 10.9 GB (Speedracer) -470016 kbps
2. M2T file - Size 18.2 GB (Eric Clapton live in Japan) - 771379 kbps
However, checking one by one 1080p files, I noticed problem in play of following 1080p mkv file (hazy display):-
The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King - 7.94 GB -469647 kbps
It is certain that problem is not on account of size and bit rate of file but due to some other reasons and it may be with very few files as I observed.
As player is basically HD video player, I dont intend to use it as music player. Market is flooded with all kind of dedicated Music players with powerful menu at resonable cost, so music files are not played by me so far.
Pros:-
Wide file formats play without any hiccup
Slick design
Simple menu
Very portable
However, I observed following issues:-
Cant play dvd iso - It is reported that that it can play DVD iso files without menu but it failed to read all ISOs created by me from my Sony DVD handicam. Even, software coneverter provided with it failed to read DVD after mounted by me on virtual drive.
Further Update: ISOs of movie is directly played without any menu. My DVD ISOs contain video and still images with separate menu for both, that may be the reason not to play all such ISO file of composite contents, it is my conclusion.
Hard drive is power on even when device is power off (if connected and main power is on), which may reduce life of hard disk.
Cant play dts audio stream - Converter is available as already discussed on forum but takes subtantial time particularly when loads of media is required to be converted.
Cant play ASS subtitle - subtitle can be converted to SRT without taking any time but formatting of ST is lost as ASS is much more powerful format
Fast forward/rewind 2x, 4x, 8x and 16x options is ok but much to be needed to directly reach a point in media file.
The issues discussed above are trifling as compared to pros keeping in view the similar players available in market and their cost. Moreover, some of the issues can be expected to be addressed in firmware upgrade.
I would give 9/10.
FIRMWARE UPDATE 1.01.02 RELEASED IN DEC-08
There have been significant improvements in firmware update version 1.01.02 released in Dec-08. Though it may be little late to discuss, the same may be very useful for prospective users of WD TV HD Media player particularly when player has been launched in India.
Following are the changes after installation of firmware upgrade version 1.01.02 released in Dec-08. Efforts have been made to bring out all most common and useful features added in update version 1.01.02.
1. Contents of USB1 drive and USB2 drive can be browsed separately. Earlier, it combined the contents of both USB devices in one folder.
– Very useful (i) when both the drives are of larger size say 320 GB or above (ii) you want to use one USB drive to keep particular type of content and other drive to have remaining contents.
2. Now single press of button (Next/Prev) can jump a movie by 10 minutes in each press in the respective direction. However, it works during fast forward and reverse only. As I mentioned in review, earlier it has 2x, 4x, 8x and 16x rewind and forward options, which was real pain.
- Very useful as one needs not to wait longer even to reach to near end of movie.
3. Progress can be seen on indicator during fast forward and reverse – It is a must but earlier it was missing.
4. It can play SMI, SUB, ASS, SSA subtitles files – ASS is one of the most powerful and common format and mostly mkv movies nowadays are with ASS subtitle. Earlier, it has SRT support only and conversion to SRT loses orientation and resulting in improper fitting on screen.
5. Embedded subtitle in mkv file is displayed now- You don’t have to now search for separate subtitle file (synchronized with movie) to display subtitles in case the same are embedded.
6. Font size can be selected – It is also very useful as certain subtitles may require change of font size as per user preference.
7. Status of drive, when it has been fully mounted by the player, can be seen. It blinks during mounting and stays on after full contents have been loaded – Earlier it stayed on
8. File size (in KB) now can be seen while highlighting a file
9. Now it can play MTS, TP and TS files also – More wider range of playable video formats
10. Chapter selection is possible in mkv file with chapter support – Though chapter play is still not supported for DVDs ISOs.
11. Navigation of folders can be done at faster speed by pressing arrow button on remote for longer time – Earlier it was constant
There were sweet improvements in very first firmware update released within one month from launch of the player in Nov-08 and more improvements can be expected in forthcoming updates. The most desirable upgrade would be play of DTS audio which is otherwise required to be changed to AC3 to play audio.
UPDATED ON 03.02.2009
Improvements in new firmware update released in Dec-08 have now been incorporated in the end of this review.
Introduction
I have loads of HD stuff mainly mkv files (720p/1080p) which I have been watching on LCD TV connected to my computer as secondary display. I observed extraordinary video quality through good HDCP-compliant graphics card. However, I always intended to have option of watching such movies in bed room also but could not find many players available in market for this purpose except TViX, Popcorn Hour, which are very costly.
As soon as thread of this player was started by TechHead in Hot Deals & Discussions in first week of Nov, I immediately ordered it through KMD. The player was received within a week time from KMD and costed Rs7600/- plus local shipping as all of you know.
[BREAK=Package Contents]
Package Contents
Following are inside the package:
1. HD Media Player - which is very small, slick and light weight
2. Remote with 2 AAA batteries - Remote is also very compact and handy
3. Composite AV cable (RCA) - It is good to watch SD stuff through this cable but HDMI cable is required to enjoy HD contents (the same is not included in package)
4. AC adapter - It is good to see 110-240V power AC Adapter (with US compatible pins) as most of the US products are supplied with 110V adapter only.
5. Stand for WD Passport portable drive - It may not be of use for everyone but I had by chance 320 GB WD passport, so could use this.
6. ArcSoft MediaConverter 2.5 for Windows - It may be useful if you dont have any media converter software. I have Xilisoft video converter, which is very powerful for all sorts of conversions. Moreover, most of the formats can be played in WD HD player, its utility is also limited.
7. Quick Install Guide
[BREAK=About Player/Connections]
About Player/Connections
As per WD website, following are the broad specifications:-
File Formats Supported
Music - MP3, WMA, OGG, WAV/PCM/LPCM, AAC, FLAC, Dolby Digital, AIF/AIFF, MKA
Photo - JPEG, GIF, TIF/TIFF, BMP, PNG
Video -MPEG1/2/4, WMV9, AVI (MPEG4, Xvid, AVC), H.264, MKV, MOV (MPEG4, H.264)
Playlist - PLS, M3U, WPL
Subtitle -SRT (UTF-8)
File Formats Not Supported
Does not support protected premium content such as movies or music from the iTunes® Store, Cinema Now, Movielink®, Amazon Unbox™, and Vongo®
External Drive Formats Supported
FAT32, NTFS, HFS+ (no journaling)
Performance Specifications
Serial Transfer Rate USB 2.0
Serial Bus Transfer Rate (USB 2.0) 480 Mbits/s (Max)
Physical Dimensions
Height 40 mm (Max)
Length 100 mm (Max)
Width 125.5 mm (Max)
Weight 303 g
It has two USB ports (one in back side as USB-2 and another on left side of player as USB-1) for connecting mass storage devices besides one HDMI port for connecting it to HDTV, one optical audio-out port for connecting it to equipment supporting digital audio connection with optical toslink (Audio would be still delivered through HDMI or the composite AV cables in case no connection with this port) and one composite (RCA) port for connecting TV/HDTV. I personally would not recommend to use composite port in case you are having HDTV. Even though HDMI cables are costly, it is better to connect through HDMI only to have full video quality of HD stuff.
I personally felt that 1 usb drive (USB no. 2 on back side) fully loaded with selected media contents can be made static drive and left side usb port may be used to connect occasional drive.
[BREAK=More about Player, Menu and Settings]
More about Player, Menu and Settings
It has two lights on front, left side is power indicator and right side USB device connection indicator. Initially after power of player is on, usb indicator light blinks while reading it and becomes stable (green) after reading. In my case it took upto 30 seconds to fully read my 320 GB passport WD drive fully loaded with media files. However, time may depend upon size of media contents in hd drive.
Even digital cameras, handycams, portable media players which have mode of mass storage devices can also be connected.
After reading media contents, it automatically place the file in respective player library i.e. video, audio or photos. If you have connected 2 usb devices, it combined the contents of both usb devices into one library which can be viewed files as thumbnails or in a list.
Videos and images can be viewed in order of date, filename, and recently viewed and audio can be viewed by artist, album, track name, date, and folder. It has menu for Video, Music, Photos and settings.
Further, following settings are available, which are extremely simple.
1. audio/video- Options for video output, display resolution, aspect ratio, audio output and NTSC/PAL.
2. video-Option for video play sequence only
3. Music - Option for music play sequence only
4. Photos - Options for slideshow sequence, photo scaling, transtion effect and interval time
5. System - Options for language, media library, screensaver delay, browser display, sustem reset and about
[BREAK=Final Thought]
Final Thought
It is reported in certain reviews that it has some issues with 1080p files. But, I could play all 1080p files with me (except one file) flawlessly with smooth rewind/forward. Details of maximum size 1080p files played by me is as under:-
1. MKV File-Size 10.9 GB (Speedracer) -470016 kbps
2. M2T file - Size 18.2 GB (Eric Clapton live in Japan) - 771379 kbps
However, checking one by one 1080p files, I noticed problem in play of following 1080p mkv file (hazy display):-
The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King - 7.94 GB -469647 kbps
It is certain that problem is not on account of size and bit rate of file but due to some other reasons and it may be with very few files as I observed.
As player is basically HD video player, I dont intend to use it as music player. Market is flooded with all kind of dedicated Music players with powerful menu at resonable cost, so music files are not played by me so far.
Pros:-
Wide file formats play without any hiccup
Slick design
Simple menu
Very portable
However, I observed following issues:-
Cant play dvd iso - It is reported that that it can play DVD iso files without menu but it failed to read all ISOs created by me from my Sony DVD handicam. Even, software coneverter provided with it failed to read DVD after mounted by me on virtual drive.
Further Update: ISOs of movie is directly played without any menu. My DVD ISOs contain video and still images with separate menu for both, that may be the reason not to play all such ISO file of composite contents, it is my conclusion.
Hard drive is power on even when device is power off (if connected and main power is on), which may reduce life of hard disk.
Cant play dts audio stream - Converter is available as already discussed on forum but takes subtantial time particularly when loads of media is required to be converted.
Cant play ASS subtitle - subtitle can be converted to SRT without taking any time but formatting of ST is lost as ASS is much more powerful format
Fast forward/rewind 2x, 4x, 8x and 16x options is ok but much to be needed to directly reach a point in media file.
The issues discussed above are trifling as compared to pros keeping in view the similar players available in market and their cost. Moreover, some of the issues can be expected to be addressed in firmware upgrade.
I would give 9/10.
FIRMWARE UPDATE 1.01.02 RELEASED IN DEC-08
There have been significant improvements in firmware update version 1.01.02 released in Dec-08. Though it may be little late to discuss, the same may be very useful for prospective users of WD TV HD Media player particularly when player has been launched in India.
Following are the changes after installation of firmware upgrade version 1.01.02 released in Dec-08. Efforts have been made to bring out all most common and useful features added in update version 1.01.02.
1. Contents of USB1 drive and USB2 drive can be browsed separately. Earlier, it combined the contents of both USB devices in one folder.
– Very useful (i) when both the drives are of larger size say 320 GB or above (ii) you want to use one USB drive to keep particular type of content and other drive to have remaining contents.
2. Now single press of button (Next/Prev) can jump a movie by 10 minutes in each press in the respective direction. However, it works during fast forward and reverse only. As I mentioned in review, earlier it has 2x, 4x, 8x and 16x rewind and forward options, which was real pain.
- Very useful as one needs not to wait longer even to reach to near end of movie.
3. Progress can be seen on indicator during fast forward and reverse – It is a must but earlier it was missing.
4. It can play SMI, SUB, ASS, SSA subtitles files – ASS is one of the most powerful and common format and mostly mkv movies nowadays are with ASS subtitle. Earlier, it has SRT support only and conversion to SRT loses orientation and resulting in improper fitting on screen.
5. Embedded subtitle in mkv file is displayed now- You don’t have to now search for separate subtitle file (synchronized with movie) to display subtitles in case the same are embedded.
6. Font size can be selected – It is also very useful as certain subtitles may require change of font size as per user preference.
7. Status of drive, when it has been fully mounted by the player, can be seen. It blinks during mounting and stays on after full contents have been loaded – Earlier it stayed on
8. File size (in KB) now can be seen while highlighting a file
9. Now it can play MTS, TP and TS files also – More wider range of playable video formats
10. Chapter selection is possible in mkv file with chapter support – Though chapter play is still not supported for DVDs ISOs.
11. Navigation of folders can be done at faster speed by pressing arrow button on remote for longer time – Earlier it was constant
There were sweet improvements in very first firmware update released within one month from launch of the player in Nov-08 and more improvements can be expected in forthcoming updates. The most desirable upgrade would be play of DTS audio which is otherwise required to be changed to AC3 to play audio.