Quantcast
PCWorld.com is upgrading some back-end systems. Some site features, such as user registration, may be temporarily unavailable.
Subscribe to magazine

NEW Reviews Beta Feedback

Get Home Theater updates
  • Print

Western Digital WD TV

82

Very Good
  • Pros
  • HDMI, 1080p support
  • Straightforward menu design
  • Cons
  • Slow menu interface
  • No automatic sync software

User Reviews for Western Digital WD TV

  • Reviewed by: edgar53

    Duration of ownership: 3 Months

    Strengths: Plays just about any video file format.

    Weaknesses: No hard drive but for 99 dollars it's great.

    Overall Evaluation: The player will play multiple VOB fileS as long as they are in an ISO file or just one big VOB can be created and played. I have not found a file it won't play well, have used external HD and flash drives. So far Western Digital has issued two firmware upgrades in the 3 months I haved owned it.

  • Reviewed by: dylan915

    Duration of ownership:

    Strengths: Easy To Use

    Weaknesses: Another PC Restricted Product

    Overall Evaluation: I bought this product because I thought the idea was great.Im tired of DVDs all over the place, and I wanted an intelligent MENU DRIVEN product that I could store movies on, and actually browse through a MOVIE MENU to see what's in the drive.I have a brand new Seagate 320 Gig hard drive, but apparently its a Mac format, so immediately after setting up the entire system, I turn on the WD TV Box, and the first thing that pops up on my screen is that it does not support the format.There is no menu to see the films that I had stored , about ten for the test.Still it says it will play the movie, which it did, but there was a lot of black clogged pixilation on the images of all the films I tested.Bottom line is YES, I guess I should have asked the people at Best Buy if this product supported Mac. You'd think with Mac now at almost 40 percent of PC users that companies like Western Digital would format their products to accept Mac hard drives.Im not sure if the poor video quality is because the products don't sync, or if this is actually what the WD TV quality is, but either way I'm really pissed off .I don't recommend this product to any Mac users who expect quality from their products !!

  • Reviewed by: Sandiegoparis

    Duration of ownership:

    Strengths: Quality of the picture and simplicity of use

    Weaknesses: none

    Overall Evaluation: I got tired of looking around the house for DVDs misplaced and kids complaining that they could not find them. I backed up all the DVDs on a WD Passport hard drive. Plugged the WD TV into to my television and plugged the hard drive into the WD TV. Now I never have to lose my mind looking for a missing DVD or worry about a scratched one! All I do is turn on the WD TV and search through the menu to pick a video and play it!!!! Such a great product. Does everything it says it will do.

  • Reviewed by:

    Duration of ownership:

    Strengths: Ease of use, full HD playback via HDMI and optical audio, small footprint.

    Weaknesses: None.

    Overall Evaluation: Excellent product, I would highly recommend it. Hey Nsup, instead of blaming a great product for something it never claimed to do, how about you do some research before you rant nonsense in your review. If you had looked at the product description, you would have noticed that it doesn't mention VOB playback support anywhere...You having to return this item is due entirely to your lack of research.

  • Reviewed by: JoyceH

    Duration of ownership:

    Strengths: Plays everything

    Weaknesses: non

    Overall Evaluation: I love the product,it does plays all my video,save money and save time and make life easier. I think its very creative and friednly deisgn.

  • Reviewed by: windz

    Duration of ownership:

    Strengths: Plays everything I throw at it. Great UI. Plays all my MKV files! I can finally enjoy the movie I have on a big screen TV. Super easy to use

    Weaknesses: Doesn't come with HDMI cable.

    Overall Evaluation: I got this product last December and have been using it every weekend since to watch all the movies I ripped and backed up. I love this thing! My friends came over all got very interested in this thing. One even wanted to borrow it from me and I just tell him to buy one since I got it from Dell.com for $99. The setup is super easy because there is practically ZERO setup. It works just like plugging in my DVD player. All I have to do is plugging in my USB drive to it and this little player can play all the video files I throw at it. I no longer need to use my PC or notebook to watch my movies. I've also tried solutions from D-Link and Netgear. The performance is just way better. You'll love it if you download lots of video and rip lots of movie. The few downside of this product is, it didn't actually came with a HDMI cable. Com'on WD, stop being cheap. Even the cheapo DVD player I bought came with a HDMI cable. This is a 1080p HD product! If you are to purchase this product, also make sure you upgrade it to the latest firmware that WD posted a couple months ago. I couldn't play some of the MKV files with VC-1, but since the upgrade. They all play flawlessly.

Similar Home Theater

Latest Home Theater Playing in PCW Video

More Latest Home Theater Playing in PCW Video »

Latest Home Theater News, Reviews, How-To's

Best Prices on Western Digital WD TV

0 More in Shopping »

Best Prices on Western Digital WD TV

0 More in Shopping »

Best Prices on Camcorders

See all Camcorders

Best Prices on Blu-Ray and HD-DVD

See all Blu-Ray and HD-DVD