Western Digital WD TV Mini

In my hands-on testing, nearly all of the supported formats played or displayed well on the TV Mini. The only exceptions were my 24-bit, grayscale TIFF file (which displayed with what appeared to be inverted colors) and 24/32-bit WAV files (which rendered as white noise). The unit did play 16-bit WAV files up to 96KHz. Western Digital doesn't claim that the player supports Ogg Theora video; but when I tried to play a Theora video, the unit crashed. Though Western Digital doesn't claim support for DivX either, I was pleasantly surprised to find that the WD TV Mini played all of my DivX test files.

Even the volume of the WD TV Mini is spot on. I've tested several units (including the Seagate FreeAgent Theater+ and the LaCie LaCinema Rugged HD) whose low output causes problems in volume matching with other components and with the TV; switching to broadcast TV from a poorly matched player without lowering the volume first means waking everyone in the building.

The WD TV Mini's interface is minimalist, but intuitive and refreshingly convenient. I found it's slightly larger text much more legible than the minifonts on the Seagate FreeAgent Theater+, and the preview pane to the right of the file list makes browsing a breeze. Add horizontal scrolling for long file names, and this is as good a player interface as I've seen. Because of space constraints there are no front-panel controls, but the included mini-remote is straightforward, the button-to-function ratio is nearly one-to-one, and it sits nicely in the user's hand.

Overall, I was extremely pleased with my WD TV Mini experience. The player is easy to use, and with the exception of WMV, format support is superior. I recommend the unit to anyone looking for a multimedia playback travel companion.