Western Digital HD TV Media Player
In show 48 of our podcast, we looked at the WD HD Media Player. This allows playback of video, audio and images from an attached USB drive. Here's a transcript of our review.
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Listen to FrequencyCast Show 48 - WD HD Reviewed
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We were recently interviewed by Ben Hugh, who's studying at Coventry University and doing a thesis on podcasting. We took the opportunity to ask Ben a few questions too, about a new Media Player from Western Digital...
Extract from Show 48:
Pete:
So of course we can't actually do an interview on the show unless we actually start talking to you about technology, so I'm actually going to get you to do Carl's job, I'm going to hand you something.
Ben:
OK.
Pete:
This is one of those lovely sessions where we unbox a bit of kit, here we go Ben - what do you make of that?
Ben:
It's shiny and black.
Pete:
Normally Carl says now it's a Home Hub, because everything that's shiny and black you say is a Home Hub, isn't it?
Carl:
Either that or a satellite receiver.
Ben:
It's not a Home Hub, I don't think. It's got HDMI.
Pete:
A high definition connector, yes, OK.
Rear of WD HD TV player
Ben:
Plenty of USB ports, I'm not sure why. Optical out, which is always a plus for people who care about audio. It seems to have lots of holes in it for fans and stuff, probably keep cool, probably gets hot, and video out, so I'm guessing it's got to do with video. It looks like one of the ... it's Western Digital by the looks of it, Western Digital Hard Drive.
Pete:
Aah, OK.
Ben:
But it's got video bits to it.
Pete:
So what this actually is, this is an HD box, it plugs into your telly, either HDMI or through composite video and audio to your TV set, and you plug in a memory stick, like this little memory stick here.
Ben:
Nice action.
Pete:
Thank you very much. Plug that it, and this will let you watch moves, video, images and play audio onto your TV through the HDMI, so it's an HD converter. It supports a whole bunch of formats, so MP3, WAV, PCM, WMA, AAC, loads of pictures, JPEG, GIF, TIFF, BMP, but more importantly, things like Xvid, AVI, MPEG, VOB and even Windows Media, so you download a film, download a bit of content off the internet, anything like that, plug it in through the USB, either through a memory stick or through an external drive, and you can watch in HD on your telly - no more mucking about with laptops, plug it into your telly.
Carl:
So what's wrong with a video recorder?
Pete:
Yes, but does your video support AVI and Xvid?
Carl:
No, but it holds up the telly.
Pete:
OK, it doesn't do that. So what do you think?
Ben:
I think it's nice, the thing I have to say is, I know the PS3 and the Xbox kind of does something similar to that, you don't get to play games on this, I assume?
Pete:
Correct.
Ben:
Yeah, it depends on the price point really, if it's cheaper than the PS3, I'm sure this would be lovely.
Pete:
So what sort of size is this? - this is thicker than a paperback but smaller than a paperback?
Carl:
Do you want me to take control here?
Pete:
Go for it.
Carl:
It's an inch high, it's about ...
Pete:
It's not an inch high ... oh I suppose that's an inch, yes OK.
Carl:
... it's about an inch high - don't argue with me, I'm good at this bit. It's about four inches wide, it's about three inches deep, and it's black like a miniature bible really, it's a Gideon bible size really.
Pete:
OK, fair enough. So given that this supports all the formats under the sun, and lets you plug in video for HDMI, how much would we guess price-wise?
Carl:
£300.
Ben:
£100 is what I'd pay.
Pete:
OK, so £65 would surprise you?
Ben:
Wow!
Carl:
It didn't surprise me at all, I'm always wrong.
Pete:
Yeah, so there you go - that's the last thing on our list of things that you can plug into your telly, this is the Western Digital TV drive, £65 for a box that you plug into your telly, and it'll play back all your media files in HD without cluttering up your living room with PCs and wires and cables and stuff.
Carl:
Thank you for that, Ben. Oh, and it's got a nice little diddy remote, but you didn't mention that, did you?
WD HD TV Remote
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The WD TV HD Media Player is available from:
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Other transcripts from Show 48
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