Western Digital TV HD

I was looking for a Media Player that

1. accessed my videos, misic and photos stored on my NAS easily

2. was simplicity itself to set up

3. had a really easy to use user interface

4. gave me access to a wide range of media-related apps.

Sadly this has failed on every single one of these.

1. Access to the NAS took 2 days to sort out - as the WD simply didn't see it. It transpires that despite my other PCs, tablets, etc. being able to access my NAS directly without any special settings, this box needs to be specifically permitted through the NAS firewall (whereas nothing else needs that).

2. I had to delve into NAS firewalls, IP addresses and the like to get this box to see the NAS. Then I needed to set it up to see the relevent media folders. Like most people I store my music in one folder structure, photos in another, etc...). However this box can only be pointed at one, and one folder structure only. So I have to navigate to the correct folder for the relevant media every time.

3. The menu structure is bizarre. It's a horizontal ribbon that only allows you to see 3 menu options at a time. Add that they're not in any logical sequence and it means you're forever scrolling left or right to find the right menu option. Then once you've found the right option you delve into the sub-menu options. Once you select an app, the button logic is not consistently applied. To make things worse, it is highly sensitive to the network speed. I have it connected using my wireless LAN in the house and to get it to work even passably well I have to stop just about everything else running. And even then most of the time it will display thumbnails of my photos in under a second and then refuse to show full-screen images of 5Meg pictures....

4. The range of media apps is very disappointing and almost all of them (other than BBC iPlayer) are US-centric. IF you're thinking that this will give you a "Samsung Smart TV" style then forget it.

Disappointed doesn't begin to describe how I feel about this...

I've read a lot of reviews where the Western Digital HD TV Live Media Streamer has been highly praised. It seems to me though that has been on the basis of its video streaming features which I don't doubt are extremely good for the price.

In my case, I only wanted this device so that I could plug my external hard drive in and use it as a music jukebox. It played MP3 and WMA files very well but the main failing was in the very primitive level of features provided on the screen interface for searching and playing music. Very hard and slow to get to the music or album you wanted and the searching functions were clumsy and pretty useless really. It really needs the same basic functions as are found on any handheld MP3 player but as with most streaming devices, the focus on video seems to have meant that the music jukebox feature feels very much like an afterthought. It's a shame becuae it does seem like it has the potential to be a really good device with a tiny bit of work. Oh yes.....it was virtually impossible to get Album Art to display at Album level....no end of internet forums discussing lots of folks' semi-successful attempts.

Western Digital TV HD 1080P Media Player, an amazing piece of box for just £75. I don't there are any weakness of this box, rather it has been very great and usefull.

Plays all the file formats.

User friendly display.

Arranges and sorts all the files on its own.

Has an HDMI port.

Has a 2 USB ports, which is helpfull as 2 USB devices can be used at the same time.

Important piece of information is it can support more than 800 GB of storage space using the 2 USB ports.

Also, one can use a USB ethernet jack in one of the USB ports and make it wireless and stream files from a laptop or comupter.

This Western Digital TV HD box is really amaziing

Plug in a USB hard drive (or two) and it will automatically sort and index whatever is on the drive for viewing directly to your TV through an HDMI cable.

So if you have Photos, Music or Video it will show or play through you HD ready TV. The better the standard of the saved media the better the output. 720 and 1080 sources are superb.

The remote is not 100% but is simple to use and the on screen menus are very pleasing. I have two WD passport drives connected - one full of MP3 music and the other full of video. The box recognises which drive contains which media - very clever.

The only problem I found was that I needed to connect an optical audio cable through my AV receiver to get sound with some formats of video.

This is a media player only and does not connect to the web but for £85 it is a bargain