We’re not sure exactly that Western Digital or WD as it likes to be known these days, is doing differently from Apple, but it has put out a $150 media player in the US and Europe, which plugs into your TV to play HD content, just like the failed (but more expensive) Apple TV product.
WD is not widely known to consumers, but is one of the largest disk drive markers in the world, scrapping it out with Seagate for who is top dog. And like the mighty Flash memory suppliers such as Samsung and SanDisk, there is no better way to sell disk drives, than to offer a media player that relies on them. This new WD TV Live Plus HD media player can take content directly from PCs or Macs, or any device that plugs into a USB port, but also from the WD range of My Passport portable hard drives.
But perhaps the best feature is the fact that the new player runs the Netflix online store, and it’s probably the cheapest, most portable device which does this.
In addition to Netflix, the WD TV Live Plus HD also enables users to stream personalized Internet content from YouTube, Flickr, Pandora, Live365, as well as the MediaFly network which includes daily podcasts from CNN, NBC, MTV, ESPN. What it does NOT allow consumers to do is play protected content from iTunes, CinemaNow, Movielink, Amazon Unbox or Vongo. It must support DRM, because Netflix has DRM, but not from those companies.
WD points out that unlike most other Netflix-capable devices, the WD TV Live Plus HD media player also lets consumers enjoy a broad variety of the digital media they already own.
The WD box will support a lot of different video file types, including AVI, Xvid, MPEG1/2/4, VOB, H.264, C.264, VC-1, WMV9 all the way up to 1080p, though no DiVX, as well as the usual photo and audio file types. And has outputs to Ethernet, HDMI, Composite A/V, Component video and USB 2.0. The WD TV Live Plus HD media player is available now at $149.99.