The magic box for viewing EX footage!
 

Amazon.com: Western Digital WD TV HD Media Player: Electronics

Just got this and it's GREAT! Plug in a cheap USB2 drive (even 5400 rpm) and watch the output via HDMI in full 1080p glory! You need to make your files in a format it can read, but H.264 or MPEGs look GREAT! It can read MANY, MANY file formats. I've been waiting for Apple to support Blu-ray mainly so I could hand my clients an HD master for their use (alot of corporate clients), but now this is so much better (and cheaper!). Instead of factoring in Blu-ray players, blank media etc., I'll include this unit and a drive in the cost of the production! About $200 total.

The quality is stunning! It's very small and even with the drive can fit in a purse or carry on luggage! So far I have EVERY HD master file I've made on 1 - 350GB drive (only half full!).

Unlike the Apple TV which can only do 720p at 24fps, this can do any size up to 1080p! Really an amazing product that is long overdue. People have had issues with making SD DVDs from EX footage, or had to show it in HDV res off a tape, but now, show it in it's full raster glory.

Any thoughts on how it compares to this:

LaCie - LaCie LaCinema Rugged

SG

Great find Paul just what I need for a few clients who have HDTV's and want to see the footage in HD. Perfect for trade shows.

Placing a order now since you can't go wrong with the price and besides your review all reviews praise the unit.

Like you site. Grew up on the Hudson River

FYI - Apparently 1080p is limited to 24fps on the WD TV.

SG

Thanks Steve still worth a look and to show a few clients.

I wonder if it would work with a USB thumb drive. That would eliminate having to power a secondary device.

That would work to show a a couple of small movies. I'm thinking like commercials or a wedding video.

Very interesting indeed. Now to buy an HDTV!

I have this box, and it's awesome. It even plays Quicktime MOV files in 720p from my EX1, even though that format is not in the list.

Awesomeness aside, it does have some drawbacks. It's always on, even if you soft-power it off. The remote control is weak and requires double button pushes. The box is confused if you pull out the USB media while on and requires a hard reboot. The glitziness of the user interface animations slow down navigation. It doesn't decode DTS from MKV files, but I'm trying to get a DTS receiver for the job. This thing needs a firmware upgrade, that's all.

I've seen that too but can assure you I have played 1080p 30fps files with no problem! I encoded them to H.264. The big drawback now is the extra encode time to H.264, or even making an MP4 takes a while. I'm experimenting with taking an HDV master file and seeing if I can just change the extension to something it will play (HDV is an MP2 file after all), however I'm on a MAC so everything is in a QT wrapper. Only QT it will play is if it's Mpeg or MP4. It doesn't seem to like 48k audio as it'll say "Audio not supported" if that is present.

Also trying different programs to encode (Compressor/MPEGstreamclip/QT Pro etc.). I'll report back if I find any quick work arounds. I'm using an older G5 dual PPC so the encode time is horrible.

Steve, Checking that out and it doesn't really say it'll play HD files. It says will use HDMI upscaling. Maybe it can, and having the hard drive all as one unit is good, less cables, though if your hard drive goes down, so goes your player! Having them seperate can have some advantages too...different drives can be brought with only certain things on it. If it gets lost or stolen, not everything is gone. Plus the WD will read off of flash drives! An 8GB drive can hold quite a bit of stuff for only about $30! Talk about small and portable!

Thanks for posting. They don´t have them in stock yet here in Norway, but are expected shortly.
We are producing content for 5 big screens in placed in different bars at a ski resort here in Norway and we shoot everything with EXs.
We were trying to figure out how to deliver the content to the HD TVs, everything from using PCs, burning Blu-Rays and keep them running in loops.

Now this comes out and it´s better AND cheaper that any other solution
(and we already use WD Passports for file handling.)
Thanks for making my day

James, It does indeed power an external drive (thumbdrive) I'm using a 320GB WD Passport and it doesn't need power at all!

This really made my day too! As stated, it needs firmware update for some things like playing DTS files, and being able to fast forward, rewind some other formats but otherwise for corporate client stuff, it's good to go right now! Just always remember to eject the drive before shutting it down. On AVS forum, a WD rep said they were planning better power management for a future firmware upgrade.

Links etc. to reviews of it in this thread

WD HD Media Player (with HDMI out etc.) - The Digital Video Information Network

How loud is this thing?
Not like my PS3 I hope

looping?
 

anyone know if you can loop for in-store displays? i have a work around for looping using apple tv, but it's kind of a pain.

Dead quiet. Don't think it makes any sound at all. Certainly has no fan.

Yup! I just checked on this feature. In the "settings" menu, select the TV monitor icon, it then says "Normal", "Repeat One", "Repeat All". Select one of the repeats and then exit the set up menu. Go to a clip and hit play! If you said "Repeat One" it'll play that clip over and over, repeat all plays all the clips in that folder over and over! Very simple, and this has a bunch of uses for use content producers.

Thanks again Paul ordered yesterday from Amazon and it arrives today. A local store where I plan to buy my HDTV has said bring it in and lets hook it up to all the HDTV's.

It needs an SD card slot! Then you can forego the hard drive altogether!

I'm thinking a USB 2.0 card reader that reads SDHC cards at full USB 2.0 speeds would do it.

There are no moving parts...

the only noise would have to come from the hard drive you plug into the player....

I'm using it with a projector, so the fan in the projector is the noise generator

I've got a dumb question, please be patient cuz I'm new to this format. How can a card that is rated at 15mb/sec capture a 35mb/sec data stream? Are my numbers goofed up?

Are you talking about the Western Digital HD media player? It gets very hot. I picked it up once and thought I heard a fan going in there. Still, it's very quiet. I'll recheck when I get home.

It's because it's 15MB/s which means 15 megabytes per second verses 35mbps (which is 35 megabits per second. 8 bits = 1 byte, so 15MB/s = 15x8= 120mbps.

ah of course, thanks, always get those things mixed up. mb, MB, MBA, MD...

I purchased one to replace an AppleTV to review dailies. After encoding H264 it played great but could FF or Rev which is a bug that is discussed on other threads.

I have not had a chance to test this much, but it would be great if it played back ProRes clips.

That would be cool, but would probably drive costs up. You CAN use a thumbdrive though!

I tried a ProRes clip and it wouldn't play. There are some file formats that won't allow fast forward or rewinding. I forget now but one of these will and one won't: MP4 and M4V, but I forgot which!

So far I'm finding if I output my MASTER to MPG2 at 25mb CBR Program Stream the files encode faster than H264, allow Fast Forward and Rewind and look identical to the MASTER. I need to try some different encodes though because it still is taking me about 4-5 times run time of the clip to encode this way.

You can use an sd card, just get a sd>usb reader. Or an SDHC>USB reader, same as were using for the EX1 SDHC cards.

Paul.

Took the WD TV to a local HDTV store yesterday and played off a 2GB thumb drive. It would only play the Apple TV encoded footage which looked great since the footage is 720P. It would not play the .mov, H264, and MPEG4. Need to re-render and see what the problem is since the store would like to run my footage as part of their daily HDTV demo's and I want to give them 1080p.

B&H explains the player. I already have my computer hooked up to my TV so this is a non issue. But it would be nice to transport this to another TV and watch the files there.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j3mXZazm6Zw&fmt=22

Maybe it's your audio encode? The WD doesn't like anything with 48k audio.

I will double check the audio settings.

Home > Products > TVIX HD M-6500A

This is another alternative which I find pretty cool. It can do m2ts or m2t directly as well. Has many inteface options and the HDD goes rite into it with expansion capability. Only thing there seems to be heat issues with the non alum case.

Folks - not sure if this has been reported already but...

If you copy the .MP4 files off the SxS cards to a USB drive (flash, hard drive, etc) and then just RENAME them to a .M2TS extension, you can play the video NATIVELY on this Western Digital media player.

Still working on sound.

SG

UPDATE: Just did another experiment - connecting this WD media player to an HDCAM VTR via a NanoConnect HDMI->HD-SDI box. It worked! Video passed through fine.

We're definitely getting one of these. Thanks to those who did all the research. Great solution.

Plays Transport Stream
 

I don't have an EX1 (yet) but have an HV30. I can edit in Media Composer and then "output 1080i to device" which creates an HDV transport stream (m2t). The m2t files play perfectly with the WD TV unit. I love it.

If you have a TV that doesn't have HDMI input, there is also the Roku HD-1000 photo viewer and media player. It will loop movies or photos while playing an MP3 in the background. This device has an Ethernet connection and supports wireless media streaming. I always thought the Roku was easier to use with its chubby remote buttons and various compact flash slots.

Exactly how do you rename them?
Do you just write M2TS instead of MP4?

EDIT: Figured it out, just open the properties window (Mac).
Anyway, I did this to an overcranked shot, 720 50P and it didn´t play smooth at all. Very jerky

What am I missing?

Our EX-1 file names are all .mov but the media player (just got it today) isn't recognizing them (no thumbnails, but it shows the file and folder names correctly). The box displays photos fine but not video. I'm using Final Cut. What should I do to convert my files into a readable format?

Thanks for any help!