Western Digital WDTV Media Player

For the techies out there who want a piece of new devices in the market, make sure you don’t overlook this one. Western Digital recently unveiled a WDTV Media Player. The WDTV box lets your HDTV play media transferred from any USB storage device (flash drive or external hard drive), without any need for a streaming network device to bridge the distance from your storage drive or PC to the TV.

The WDTV can connect to any standard-definition or high-definition television; it has composite audio/video connectors and HDMI, as well as optical audio output. The WDTV’s two USB ports–one at front, one at back–let you keep two storage devices connected to the player simultaneously.

Setup is minimal: You hook the WDTV up to your TV, power it up, plug in a USB storage device, and you’re set. The device finds your content in real time, and displays it in specific categories. The WDTV displays media in a grid layout with a thumbnail icon (or album art for music) and the title at the bottom. Navigating items is simple and works as expected, though I would have liked the option to view items in a list instead. The WDTV does offer a few playback options. When viewing photos, for example, you can zoom in on photos and pan around, and you can create slideshows. Pressing the option key during playback will bring up these image controls, or similar controls for music or video playback.

Price: $110.00

(Source) Washington Post