WD TV-2 spruces up Western Digital's already attractive media player offering
By Paul Miller 
posted Aug 16th 2009 2:30AM
posted Aug 16th 2009 2:30AM
posted Aug 16th 2009 2:30AM
Now that we've thrown 'em off the trail, use the form below to get in touch with the people at Engadget. Please fill in all of the required fields because they're required.
I'm in !
Alright, a true popcorn hour competitor. If they can price it well, it's gonna be on like Donkey Kong.
About 2 years to late .. the next gen of PCH etc.. .. would eat this alive
At potentially twice the price? I would hope so. Don't get me wrong, I'm a popcorn hour fanboy, but I'm a bigger fan of competition, especially at the low end. If this comes in at $150, and gets more media centers into more homes, ad encourages more content for those media centers, then we all win.
I have to agree that a Popcorn Hour competitor can only be a good thing. I have one of the original A100s and am also a big fan, but I'm not so sure I would buy a second one. I'm used to the PCH's quirks and how to navigate everything, but I hate the fact that it's buggy and locks up every once in a while, but that's not even my biggest problem with it.
The only reason I wouldn't is because of the UI.
I just have the one and I move it back and forth between my bedroom and my living room. If I'm watching something on it with others, I'm the only one who can control it because nobody else (friends, roommates, family members) can figure it out without a lesson. When I say I wouldn't buy a second one, I don't mean I wouldn't replace mine if it died (I definitely would if I had to make a decision today). I just mean that if I decided to get another one, it would have to be something with a much friendlier UI so that I could put it in the living room and be comfortable with letting others use when I'm not around.
I would be very interested in seeing what the UI looks like. I don't even know what it looks like on the original WD Media Player, but I was never interested before because it didn't have streaming. WD now has my attention with this new version.
DTS audio: does that mean it can do True-HD and DTS-MA?
No
Damn, 2 days after I orderd 2 Xtreamers. I wonder how this will compair to the xtreamer?
I assume the xstreamer worked fine for your needs or you wouldn't have bought it. Shouldn't matter what this does or doesn't do, no?
Lack of DTS decoding was the biggest thing holding this back. Good job WD, might actually buy this for the rents now.
I think i'll be buying one for each tv not connected to a computer i can find.
Given its running linux like the old one i presume? With the old version some people added networking to theirs with usb nics.
If only all hardware was non-broken by design...
Imagine for instance display port was more prevalent and you didnt have to pay the hdmi consortium for use of the hdmi port for every device bought. Would the use of a dvi (with sound) connector take care of that? Like seen in graphics cards. Sure, sound could be added to displayport in a later revision, much like hdmi has added networking.
Also wondering if the DTS HD-master audio will work.
Does anyone know what the UI is like?
I'll likely get one of these to supplement my PS3 (which can't play most of my video files natively), but only if this can play files directly off of a Samba share.
Now, if it was only a Media Center extender....
Still no internal HD? Doesn't make sense, especially when WD sells hard drives.
One could argue it makes perfect sense for that very reason.
They sell HDDs, you need one for this Unit, and now you can't complain about the size that comes with the unit since one doesn't come with the unit. (Pst...it lowers the price too.)
Course, you still found something to complain about :)
Except that it leaves you NO option of installing one even if you wanted to. I would rather have choices then having the company decide for me.
Why buy this when I can buy an Xtreamer which does everything this can plus more for about the same price?
This has the advantage that it is field-tested with several codecs that PCH has problems with (e.g. no rewind in MKV). Does anyone know what limitations if any the CURRENT WD box has with MKV containers?
Nice that it has the DTS playback, I bought the first one and happy with it but this is nice that it can be networked.
if the price is right ,im getting one for sure,it would be a nice addition for my older infocus x1.
because the component,until i upgrade to an hdmi 1080p projector
i hope it will be out by christmas.
You can do networking with a WDTV1 using modified firmware. www.wdtvforum.com
I have full 1080p network support, RSS feed and weather all displaying to my WDTV 1
My guess is WD took the best ideas from the modified firmware and incorporated it into wdtv2
WD TV is very poor player, and WD didin't solve basic problems of WD TV.
See http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=1100499
Why WD TV2, if WD didn't finish WD TV1?