The
WD TV is a consumer device produced by
Western DigitalWestern Digital Corporation is one of the largest computer hard disk drive manufacturers in the world. It has a long history in the electronics industry as an integrated circuit maker and a storage products company. Western Digital was founded on April 23, 1970 by Alvin B...
that plays videos, images, and music from USB drives. It can play
high-definition videoHigh-definition video or HD video refers to any video system of higher resolution than standard-definition video, and most commonly involves display resolutions of 1,280×720 pixels or 1,920×1,080 pixels...
through an
HDMIHDMI is a compact audio/video interface for transmitting uncompressed digital data. It is a digital alternative to consumer analog standards, such as radio frequency coaxial cable, composite video, S-Video, SCART, component video, D-Terminal, or VGA...
port, and standard video through
composite videoComposite video is the format of an analog television signal before it is combined with a sound signal and modulated onto an RF carrier. In contrast to component video it contains all required video information, including colors in a single line-level signal...
cables. It can play most common video and audio formats.
WD TV (1st Gen)
In November 2008 Western Digital introduced the WD TV. with full HD 1080p multimedia player with DTS pass-through only. The hardware starts with a 300 MHz TangoX MIPS 4KEc from Sigma Designs, which has 100 MB of memory.
| Model |
Audio out |
Video out |
Built in |
Online |
WD TV
(1st Gen) |
1 HDMI 1.2
1 Fiber Optic
1 RCA |
1 HDMI 1.2
1 Component
1 Composite
1080i/p
720p
576i/p (PAL)
480i/p (NTSC) |
2 USB 2.0 |
none |
| Supported formats |
| Video |
MP4/MOV (MPEG4, h.264)
AVI (Xvid, AVC, MPEG1/2/4)
WMV9, MPG/MPEG, VOB, DVR-MS
MKV (h.264, x.264, AVC, MPEG1/2/4, VC-1) |
| Photo |
JPEG, GIF, TIF/TIFF, BMP, PNG |
| Audio |
MP3, WAV/PCM/LPCM, WMA, AAC
FLAC, MKA, AIF/AIFF, OGG, Dolby Digital |
| Playlist |
PLS, M3U, WPL |
| Subtitle |
SRT |
WD TV (2nd Gen)
Updated device with 2-channel DTS support. Uses the same Sigma SMP8655 Secure Media Processor as the Live.
| Model |
Audio out |
Video out |
Built in |
Online |
WD TV
(2nd Gen) |
1 HDMI 1.3
1 Fiber Optic
1 RCA |
1 HDMI 1.3
1 Component
1 Composite
1080i/p
720p
576i/p (PAL)
480i/p (NTSC) |
2 USB 2.0 |
none |
| Supported formats |
| Video |
MP4/MOV (MPEG4, h.264)
MPG/MPEG, M2TS, WMV9
AVI (Xvid, AVC, MPEG1/2/4)
TS/TP/M2T (MPEG1/2/4, AVC, VC-1)
MKV (h.264, x.264, AVC, MPEG1/2/4, VC-1) |
| Photo |
JPEG, GIF, TIF/TIFF, BMP, PNG |
| Audio |
MP3, WAV/PCM/LPCM, WMA, AAC, FLAC
MKA, AIF/AIFF, OGG, Dolby Digital, DTS |
| Playlist |
PLS, M3U, WPL |
| Subtitle |
SRT, ASS, SSA, SUB, SMI |
WD TV Mini
Released in Fall 2009, it was a Media Player with DVD quality, upscales to 1080i, Plays back
RealVideoRealVideo is a suite of proprietary video compression formats developed by RealNetworks – the specific format changes with the version. It was first released in 1997 and is at version 10. RealVideo is supported on many platforms, including Windows, Mac, Linux, Solaris, and several mobile...
and many other popular file formats with no need for transcoding, but lacks the ability to play H.264 encoded video.
| Model |
Audio out |
Video out |
Built in |
Online |
WD TV
Mini |
1 Fiber Optic
1 RCA |
1 Component
1 Composite
1080i
720p
576i/p (PAL)
480i/p (NTSC) |
1 USB 2.0 |
none |
| Supported formats |
| Video |
MP4/MOV (MPEG4)
AVI (Xvid, MPEG1/2/4)
MPG/MPEG, VOB, RM or RMVB 8/9/10 |
| Photo |
JPEG, GIF, TIF/TIFF, BMP, PNG |
| Audio |
MP3, WAV/PCM/LPCM, WMA, AAC
FLAC, MKA, OGG, Real Audio, APE |
| Playlist |
PLS, M3U, WPL |
| Subtitle |
SRT, ASS, SSA, SUB, SMI |
WD TV Live (1st gen)
Released in Fall 2009 with Full HD 1080p resolution. An updated device with 2-channel DTS, streaming and network support, which comes in the form of an
EthernetEthernet is a family of computer networking technologies for local area networks commercially introduced in 1980. Standardized in IEEE 802.3, Ethernet has largely replaced competing wired LAN technologies....
port on the back. Also compatible with certain wireless USB adapters. Connects to internet sites:
YouTubeYouTube is a video-sharing website, created by three former PayPal employees in February 2005, on which users can upload, view and share videos....
,
FlickrFlickr is an image hosting and video hosting website, web services suite, and online community that was created by Ludicorp in 2004 and acquired by Yahoo! in 2005. In addition to being a popular website for users to share and embed personal photographs, the service is widely used by bloggers to...
,
Live365Live365 is an Internet radio network where members can create their own online radio station or listen to other Live365 broadcasters' online stations. As of October 2006, there were about 6,500 active stations, some of which play niche genres seldom heard on AM/FM radio...
, Pandora, Mediafly,
FlingoFlingo is a set of protocols, a bookmarklet, and a client-server program developed by Free Stream Media Corp., which does business as "Flingo". Flingo enables users to instruct an Internet-connected TV device to acquire and playback media files located on remote computers.Flingo was recently...
,
AccuWeatherAccuWeather is an American media company that provides for-profit weather forecasting services worldwide.AccuWeather was founded in 1962 by Joel N. Myers, then a Penn State graduate student working on degrees in meteorology. His first customer was a gas company in Pennsylvania. While running the...
,
FacebookFacebook is a social networking service and website launched in February 2004, operated and privately owned by Facebook, Inc. , Facebook has more than 800 million active users. Users must register before using the site, after which they may create a personal profile, add other users as...
or
streamStreaming media is multimedia that is constantly received by and presented to an end-user while being delivered by a streaming provider.The term "presented" is used in this article in a general sense that includes audio or video playback. The name refers to the delivery method of the medium rather...
content from a home network. Supports a wide variety of the most popular file formats. No need for transcoding.
MediaflyMediafly, Inc. is a Chicago-based company specializing in the distribution of rich media across multiple web-connected devices. There are two sides to Mediafly: Consumer-facing podcast application and Media solutions for businesses...
and DVD menu support added in firmware update.
The
Sigma DesignsSigma Designs is an American public corporation that designs and builds high-performance system-on-a-chip semiconductor technologies for Internet-based set-top boxes, DVD players/recorders, high-definition televisions, media processors, digital media adapters, portable media players and home...
SMP8655 SoC inside the WD TV Live features a 500 MHz CPU, a 333 MHz coprocessor, a 333 MHz DSP, 512 MB of DRAM, and 256 MB of NAND flash memory. Western Digital has tweaked the original Sigma SMP8600 Family design slightly by including 6 video Digital to Analog Converters (DACs) which should give it the ability to handle high-def content with ease.
| Model |
Audio out |
Video out |
Built in |
Online |
WD TV
Live |
1 HDMI 1.3
1 Fiber Optic
1 RCA |
1 HDMI 1.3
1 Component
1 Composite
1080i/p
720p
576i/p (PAL)
480i/p (NTSC) |
2 USB 2.0
1 Ethernet |
Facebook
AccuWeather
Deezer
Flingo
TuneIn
YouTube
Pandora
Flickr
Live365.com
Mediafly
Funspot |
| Supported formats |
| Video |
MP4/MOV (MPEG4, h.264)
AVI (Xvid, AVC, MPEG1/2/4)
MPG/MPEG, VOB, M2TS, WMV9
TS/TP/M2T (MPEG1/2/4, AVC, VC-1)
MKV (h.264 AVC, MPEG1/2/4, VC-1) |
| Photo |
JPEG, GIF, TIF/TIFF, BMP, PNG |
| Audio |
MP3, WAV/PCM/LPCM, WMA, AAC, FLAC
MKA, AIF/AIFF, OGG, Dolby Digital, DTS |
| Playlist |
PLS, M3U, WPL |
| Subtitle |
SRT, ASS, SSA, SUB, SMI |
| File systems |
FAT32, NTFS, HFS+ |
Note that, contrary to published specs, on component video, WD TV Live supports only 480p/576p; 480i/576i is supported only on composite video.
WD TV Live Plus
Released early in 2010 and having all the features of the WD TV Live along with
NetflixNetflix, Inc., is an American provider of on-demand internet streaming media in the United States, Canada, and Latin America and flat rate DVD-by-mail in the United States. The company was established in 1997 and is headquartered in Los Gatos, California...
streaming support. In order to support Netflix, a macrovision enabled SoC was required (
Sigma DesignsSigma Designs is an American public corporation that designs and builds high-performance system-on-a-chip semiconductor technologies for Internet-based set-top boxes, DVD players/recorders, high-definition televisions, media processors, digital media adapters, portable media players and home...
SMP8654) and the Linux system is also now encrypted. However, actual user experience has lagged for some. As of April 12th, 2011, Netflix Canada works on a WD Live TV Plus as long as the firmware has been upgraded to version 1.04.31_B or newer (versions 1.04.18_B or older are *NOT* compatible with Netflix Canada). It is also know as WDTV Live Plus (Model number WDBABX0000NBK, WDBREC0000NBK, WDBG3A0000NBK).
| Model |
Audio out |
Video out |
Built in |
Online |
WD TV
Live Plus |
1 HDMI 1.3
1 Fiber Optic
1 RCA |
1 HDMI 1.3
1 Component
1 Composite
1080i/p
720p
576i/p (PAL)
480i/p (NTSC) |
2 USB 2.0
1 Ethernet |
Netflix
Blockbuster
CinemaNow
Facebook
Hulu Plus
AccuWeather
Deezer
Flingo
TuneIn
YouTube
Pandora
Flickr
Live365.com
Mediafly
Funspot |
| Supported formats |
| Video |
MP4/MOV (MPEG4, h.264)
AVI (Xvid, AVC, MPEG1/2/4)
MPG/MPEG, VOB, M2TS, WMV9
TS/TP/M2T (MPEG1/2/4, AVC, VC-1)
MKV (h.264, x.264, AVC, MPEG1/2/4, VC-1) |
| Photo |
JPEG, GIF, TIF/TIFF, BMP, PNG |
| Audio |
MP3, WAV/PCM/LPCM, WMA, AAC, FLAC
MKA, AIF/AIFF, OGG, Dolby Digital, DTS |
| Playlist |
PLS, M3U, WPL |
| Subtitle |
SRT, ASS, SSA, SUB, SMI |
| File systems |
FAT32, NTFS, HFS+ |
Reviews:WD TV Live Plus was met with generally positive reviews.
Review Horizon names it a worthy successor of WD TV Live.
WD TV Live Hub
Released in fall 2010, this is the latest WD TV Live device and has an internal 1 TB storage disk. It uses the same
Sigma DesignsSigma Designs is an American public corporation that designs and builds high-performance system-on-a-chip semiconductor technologies for Internet-based set-top boxes, DVD players/recorders, high-definition televisions, media processors, digital media adapters, portable media players and home...
SMP8654 found in the WD TV Live Plus with four 64 MB Nanya NT5TU64M16GG DDR2 667/800 MHz modules (256 MB total), and a 2 GB Samsung K9F2G080UB flash chip.
| Model |
Audio out |
Video out |
Built in |
Online |
WD TV
Live Hub |
1 HDMI 1.4
1 Fiber Optic
1 RCA |
1 HDMI 1.4
1 Component
1 Composite
1080i/p
720p
576i/p (PAL)
480i/p (NTSC) |
Media Server
Games
Programmable Remote
1TB hard drive
2 USB 2.0
1 Gigabit Ethernet |
Netflix
Blockbuster
YouTube
Facebook
Pandora
Flickr
Live365.com
Mediafly
AccuWeather
Picasa
Flingo |
| Supported formats |
| Video |
MP4/MOV (MPEG4, h.264)
AVI (Xvid, AVC, MPEG1/2/4)
MPG/MPEG, VOB, M2TS, WMV9, FLV
TS/TP/M2T (MPEG1/2/4, AVC, VC-1)
MKV (h.264, x.264, AVC, MPEG1/2/4, VC-1) |
| Photo |
JPEG, GIF, TIF/TIFF, BMP, PNG |
| Audio |
MP3, WAV/PCM/LPCM, WMA, AAC, FLAC
MKA, AIF/AIFF, OGG, Dolby Digital, DTS |
| Playlist |
PLS, M3U, WPL |
| Subtitle |
SRT, ASS, SSA, SUB, SMI |
| File systems |
FAT32, NTFS, HFS+ |
WD TV Live Streaming Media Player
Released in October 2011, this is the latest WD TV Live device. It has customizable themes, a larger remote control, can get content information from the internet, plays DRM protected services, has a built-in wireless adapter, and is the first WD TV model to include the Spotify service. It is also know as WDTV Live Gen 3 (Model number WDBHG70000NBK, WDBGXT0000NBK).
Hacking
The WD TV has been hacked to enable further options, including using external optical drives, Ethernet connection via USB to Ethernet adapters,
bittorrentBitTorrent is a peer-to-peer file sharing protocol used for distributing large amounts of data over the Internet. BitTorrent is one of the most common protocols for transferring large files, and it has been estimated that it accounted for roughly 43% to 70% of all Internet traffic .Programmer...
downloading and improved thumbnail preview images.