WD TV Live HD Network Media Player from Western Digital Unboxing Linus Tech Tips
Linus Tech Tips
·Linus Tech Tips
·2010-05-08
·
938 words · ~4 min read
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Okay, so today on my video blog, we're going to be having a look at the WDTV
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Live. And basically, the only difference between the WDTV Live and the original
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WDTV is that this one comes with networking support. So, what that means
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is you're going to be able to plug it in via Ethernet cable and stream media over
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the network. So, let's have a look at the supported formats. You've got your
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normal stuff here. So, it's supporting all of your AVI formats, all of the
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important stuff, which would be things like MKV and Windows Media, all that
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good stuff. Now, they've added a couple other things. First of all, you have
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support for DTS 2.0 digital output. And
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I think you can probably see all of the other pertinent logos here. We're not
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going to look too closely at this. Let's get the unit pulled out here. So, their
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marketing basically says, yeah, you can turn any USB drive into an HD media
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player. Uh, that includes hard drive. So, let's break the seals here and get
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this unboxing underway. So, inside the box, we will find a
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fairly similar package, I'm guessing, to what we saw with the original WDTV,
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which I did open at some point, but I didn't actually do an unboxing video of.
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So, first of all, here are the contact numbers for your warranty. So, that's
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bright orange, so you can't possibly miss it. That's really good. Okay. So,
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then the WDTV live media player. So, this is your quick start guide. So, it
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unfolds into about a poster size piece of paper here. Shows you all the
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accessories it comes with and how to plug in for standard definition versus
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high definition. Also, what not to do.
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Okay, so that's pretty straightforward. Let's see what's on the back. Is a bunch
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of uh FCC kind of nonsense that nobody will ever read, but it's got to be
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there. So, then we have the WD WDTV live
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CD insert into computer CD ROM drive. So, that's uh should be pretty easy to
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do. This is the discovery software. So, that's how the WDTV media player is
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going to actually find your software. Now, here we have the remote, which is
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almost identical to or might be identical to the remote included with
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the original WDTV. It's a fairly basic remote, but it's got all the
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functionality that you absolutely need. It's powered by a couple of AAA
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batteries. So, make sure that you Oh, man. I can't believe that guy's starting
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his car. He's like about 100 meters away from me. I swear right now, that thing
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is so loud. I hope he doesn't drive past. Okay, let's get the WDTV itself
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out now. Let's just break the seal there. So, it's a very very small unit
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as per the original one. Now, this is a hardware solution, so you're not doing
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any kind of emulated junk. This has got a real HD decoding chipset on it. Here's
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your first USB port. So, this is the conveniently located one on the side.
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So, you'd throw like a USB drive or a hard drive or whatever in there if you
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want to use it on the fly. Now, in the back, you can plug something in
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permanently, and that's a much better solution if you have something you're
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going to keep attached to it all the time. Here's your HDMI out, as well as
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your optical audio out. And here, not present on the original WD TV, is your
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Ethernet port. Here we've got AV out, and here is our highde uh RGB. Here's
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the power plug. And then, let's have a look at the other side. You can see there's actually some ventilation ports
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here. That's going to be quite important for making sure that the chipset stays
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nice and cool. So, there's the unit itself. Now, let's have a look at the
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accessories it comes with. So, first of all, you get uh some new leader AAA
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batteries to go with your remote. That's great. Then, you get the power plug. So,
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let's get this out of the box here. And it comes with some other piece of paper
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in it. Uh, Asian Power. That's uh that's
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kind of ominous. Oh, no. Sorry, my bad. Asian Power
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Devices, Inc., so read the safety instructions. Uh, you might want to do
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that. So, it's just a regular wall wart and it plugs into the back of the unit
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where we saw. And then for cables that
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are included, the first cable we see here is the composite out. So, this is
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just u that plugs into the jack on the back here, the AV out one. Don't use the
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RGB out for that one. There we go. And then for our other output option, I
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mean, really, realistically, you should be using the HDMI out if you're buying
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this unit anyway. This is an HD device. Um, yes, you can use it for standard
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deaf, but it's a little bit overkill for that. I mean, that said, it's pretty
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reasonably priced, so there's not much cheaper. So, there is your component
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out. So, thank you for checking out my video blog on the WDTV Live.