Western Digital HDMI USB Media Player?? (WDAVN00BN)

[Inspex]

This isn't really a DVD player, but it's a media player that can play media from USB devices and has full 1080p HDMI. It goes for $99 at Best Buy and other stores.

Media Formats
MPEG 1/2/4, WMV9, AVI (MPEG4,Xvid, AVC), H.264, MKV, MOV (MPEG4, H264), JPEG, GIF, TIFF, BMP, PNG
MP3, WMA, OGG, WAV/PCM/LPCM, AAC, FLAC, Dolby Digital, AIF/AIFF, MKA

I see that it supports H.264, MKV, MOV, FLAC and a couple of other formats that a lot of other players for this price don't support. Anyone own this yet? I would be interested in a decent review from an actual user from this forum!

Pics and specs:

http://www.buy.com/prod/wd-tv-hd-media-player-usb-2-0-hdmi-composite-a-v/q/loc/101/209975073.html


Edit:

Official product page:

http://www.wdc.com/en/products/products.asp?driveid=572


I have tested the following video sample files with no problems on the player:

The.Bourne.Supremacy.2004.HDDVD.1080p.x264.Rus-Sample.mkv
star.wars.episode.i.the.phantom.menace.1999.1080p. hdtv.x264.sample-hv.mkv

oceans.thirteen.2007.720p.hddvd.x264.sample-sinners.mkv
spiderman.3.2007.720p.bluray.x264.sample-sinners.mkv
Iron.Man_2008_720p.BluRay.x264-NhaNc3.sample.mkv

[MJA]

I can't find any review and can't find it on amazon.com.

some feedback

Yes, it works with NTFS, FAT32 and HFS file systems no problem.

Yeah... I bought one at Best Buy and the first thing I did was check for .ISO and .VOB playback. It works great! The UI is awesome and is actually 1080p.

Just got it at best buy.

Played a 720p .mkv x264 entourage episode off a USB key and it ran great. It froze 3 minutes into a .avi file from a Canon SD750.

Failed to play a 1080p .mkv x264 sample of Kill Bill that was encoded to dxva specs. It also failed to play a 1080p .mkv x264 sample of Terminator.

It came with arcsoft mediaconverter 2.5 but I didn't try it.

http://www.engadget.com/2008/11/01/western-digital-quietly-intros-wd-tv-hd-media-player/

it will be nice if I can copy video from Canon HV-20 to my passport then watch it using the WD media player

[decoy5657]

I bought one of these today after.

It is a very sleek little player. They are currently 99 dollars at Best Buy and the file support is amazing. Plays AVC/264 like a dream! All in all I think it's pretty good for less than half of a Popcorn Hour. I have some minor complaints about the unit.


My only complaints:
* While it does play ISO files (DVD rips) it does not seem to have Menu or Chapter support. I really really really hate that I can't skip chapters. Hopefully a firmware upgrade can fix this later.

* I wish it had network, like the Popcorn Hour. But this is 125 dollars less than the P.H. so I'll get over it.
* Flash drive playback seems buggy and unstable. Not a huge deal, I've got 2 dozen portable USB drives.


To the previous poster, if you want to send me a video clip of the file type you have in question, I'll be happy to try and play it and let you know how it goes!

[Inspex]

I bought one of these today after.

It is a very sleek little player. They are currently 99 dollars at Best Buy and the file support is amazing. Plays AVC/264 like a dream! All in all I think it's pretty good for less than half of a Popcorn Hour. I have some minor complaints about the unit.


My only complaints:
* While it does play ISO files (DVD rips) it does not seem to have Menu or Chapter support. I really really really hate that I can't skip chapters. Hopefully a firmware upgrade can fix this later.

* I wish it had network, like the Popcorn Hour. But this is 125 dollars less than the P.H. so I'll get over it.
* Flash drive playback seems buggy and unstable. Not a huge deal, I've got 2 dozen portable USB drives.


To the previous poster, if you want to send me a video clip of the file type you have in question, I'll be happy to try and play it and let you know how it goes!

I'm curious if it plays high resolution XviDs (XviDs over 720 pixels wide). If you get time, please try this.

[MJA]

decoy5657

do you think it works better with 3.5" external hardrive ?

try also you HDV cam if you own one


keep checking your email bro.a alot of questions on the way

[Inspex]

I just picked up a Philips 5990 a few weeks ago. Wish this would have been out at the time i got the Philips. I only got the philips for USB playback.

[Inspex]

It seems like it would be a little sexier if it had a USB port directly on the front of it. Easier to plug usb sticks and card readers into without having to move the unit around. I'm thinking about picking one up to try out.

[MJA]

I just picked up a Philips 5990 a few weeks ago. Wish this would have been out at the time i got the Philips. I only got the philips for USB playback.

I own 2 Philips players but I'm looking for some thing that can play HD/HD divx .I hope this one is the answer,but I don't wanna get my hopes too high .just wait for more feedback

[decoy5657]

Update: There are no flash drive issues. I just had a crappy video file. All is well. It works just fine with all of my 2.5 and 2.5 external HDDs

There are 2 usb ports. One is on the side and one is on the back.

[MJA]

do you own HDV cam decoy5657 ?

[Inspex]

Do xvid subtitles work with it? .idx, .srt, .sub

Thanks for all of your information so far.

[decoy5657]

No HDV cam for me (if you can send me a short clip, I can test it for you)
The analog audio had a pretty bad buzz in it.. Switched to Optical and it is 100 times better.

subtitles...
I tried an episode of House with a .idx file in the same dir as the video and it did not work. The player has some kind of sub support, as they work when playing ISO files. (Note, idx is the only type of sub I had, so i couldn't test the others.)

[Inspex]

What about displayed character limit on file names? Also, does it just display lists of files like standard dvd players do when playing data discs? Sorry for all of the questions, i'm sure there are plenty more to come, though.

[decoy5657]

What about displayed character limit on file names? Also, does it just display lists of files like standard dvd players do when playing data discs? Sorry for all of the questions, i'm sure there are plenty more to come, though.

Not sure about the limit. It's not a small one. It will use the whole screen for filenames and the fonts are pretty small.

I plugged my ipod nano into the player and all of the music showed up! pretty cool. album art and mp3s showed just like they were on a regular usb drive, which is interesting because of how the ipod stores music, which is very non-conventional.

[Inspex]

What about skip to time? Can you skip to a specific time while playing xvids and other video formats? How is the fast forward and rewind? Slow or fast? Thanks again.

[MJA]

I found this HD clip (birds.m2t) http://rapidshare.com/files/23283389/Birds.m2t.html

more Raw .m2t (bottom 2 look good))

http://www.canonhv20.com/canon-hv20-footage.php

[decoy5657]

As far as I can tell there isn't a skip to time feature. I will dig around with it more and find out. It's really irritating and leaves a lot to be desired.

You can FF and RW at two speeds. It is VERY smooth and pretty quick. I wouldn't want to go through an hour of film with it, it would probably take 5 minutes.

However, if you're playing an ISO and finish half way through, turn it off, watch something else, listen to music, or whatever and then go back to the same ISO you played earlier, it will ask you if you'd like to resume where you left off or start over.

[decoy5657]

I found this HD clip (birds.m2t) http://rapidshare.com/files/23283389/Birds.m2t.html

Works just fine!

[MJA]

Thanks dude.

clips on the 2ed link look a lot better

[lordhutt]

Sounds sweet so far...I was looking at getting a PCH 110 but this may do the job! I have a full blown HTPC for my big screen but something like this will be great for the other tv's.

[Inspex]

Not sure about the limit. It's not a small one. It will use the whole screen for filenames and the fonts are pretty small.

I plugged my ipod nano into the player and all of the music showed up! pretty cool. album art and mp3s showed just like they were on a regular usb drive, which is interesting because of how the ipod stores music, which is very non-conventional.

After reading this, I decided to see if I could plug my Creative Zen into my Philips 5990 and play the contents. It doesn't work. It just says "Device Not Supported"

[eteled]

Took one today from BB for $99. Plays mts, m2ts HDs from my Sony HDRSR11 (that what I needed most). Is capable to work with two USB HDDs at the same time. Let say view slides from one and play music from the other. One more nice feature - power switch is on the remote. Since I store all my media on the USB HDDs, I don’t care about network.

[waefwaeefwaefw]

In for one, a had a 50$ BB gift card...

[jcas]

To decoy5657
Is this autovolt or 110V only? What A/V ports are available (HDMI, optical out...) .

[MJA]

Took one today from BB for $99. Plays mts, m2ts HDs from my Sony HDRSR11 (that what I needed most). Is capable to work with two USB HDDs at the same time. Let say view slides from one and play music from the other. One more nice feature - power switch is on the remote. Since I store all my media on the USB HDDs, I don’t care about network.

Thanx for the info.I also need it the most for my Canon HV-20

[ysb]

Can this play display subtitles when playing VOB files?

Also, how does this player handle VOB files? Do you play the the first one and it automatically plays the rest? How about chapter points? Can it jump between chapter points? What about DVD menus?

Thanks for any answers.

[alhall773]

Wondering about the ability to update the firmware to accommodate new platforms. I've searched WD's site and found no mention of this product. Any idea where one would go for firmware and support?

[TBoneit]

http://www.wdc.com/en/products/products.asp?driveid=572

File Formats*
Music - MP3, WMA, OGG, WAV/PCM/LPCM, AAC, FLAC, Dolby Digital, AIF/AIFF, MKA

Photo - JPEG, GIF, TIF/TIFF, BMP, PNG
Video -MPEG1/2/4, WMV9, AVI (MPEG4, Xvid, AVC), H.264, MKV, MOV (MPEG4, H.264)
Playlist - PLS, M3U, WPL
Subtitle -SRT (UTF-8)

[Inspex]

Looks even better now. From the looks of the images on Western Digital's website, it also plays .mp4 files. Nice. I'm going to pick one of these up sometime this week.

[poisondeathray]

Failed to play a 1080p .mkv x264 sample of Kill Bill that was encoded to dxva specs. It also failed to play a 1080p .mkv x264 sample of Terminator.

While the price is good, if it can't even play DVXA-compliant h.264 files as reported, that is a serious problem for claimed "h.264 support"