Western Digital: TV HD Media Player – Impressions

To enjoy FullHD visuals – you’ll need a couple of things with Western Digital TV HD Media Player. Firstly, a HDMI cable which is sold separately. Secondly, ton loads of .mkv files. These are HD video files usually from Blu-ray disc rips. Where to find them? Google is your friend. I’ve tried playing standard DVD rips and HD .mkv files – for my take on this baby, continue reading:

Playing standard DVD rips files – as what you would expect, standard. Visuals are acceptable and don’t have any hitch on playback. You can fast forward with multiple speeds ranging from x2, x4, x8 and x 16. Lets just skip this and move to 1080p visuals.

As you can see from the picture above, details are sharp and most importantly – plays smooth as silk. But then again, your source plays an important role here as well. Same rule of thumb applies, rubbish in rubbish out. This unit will not upscale your video source in any way. The first movie I tried was Black Hawk Down. File size is about 7Gb and since we will have to copy the file onto a portable HDD – a 4Gb file size limitation applies. To those who are not aware, you can’t copy a file bigger than 4Gb onto another portable storage device. Same on a Mac or PC.

So, what you will need to do is to run a software that will split them into smaller files before copying it over onto the portable HDD you wish to connect to the WD TV. Its not a complicated process – you just need the right software. I used Split & Concat for Mac. 

While the video is playing, you can press on OPTIONS on the remote. These bars will appear with multiple options to choose from. Audio settings, Subtitle settings, Zoom in, Zoom out and etc. But features will only work if the .mkv file has these embedded. Else, you’ll get a message saying file does not support this feature.

Who should get this? Folks with HDTV and not ready to join the Blu-ray buying frenzy. This unit cost RM459, a HDMI cable will cost you about RM60 and lastly – you’ll need a portable HDD to copy those video files. A 320Gb portable HDD is retailing for RM260. So, all in all – be prepared to spend about RM779.

Ok, thats for the hardwares. You should also consider if your internet connections will allow you to download these huge .mkv files which ranges from 4Gb to 8Gb. For me, it will be an overnight download as I’m having a 8Mb line. Since these .mkv files are downloaded, a Rapidshare account will give you faster and simultaneous downloads instead of downloading file by file. 

If all these sound complicated, then this is not for you. Blu-ray rental is your next best bet. No rentals in your area, then that’s just too bad.