Author Topic: WD TV HD Media Player (Read 182559 times)

uvax · « **Reply #270 on:** Dec 18, 2008 at 04:52 PM »

The WD TV has the same Sigma 8635 processor as does the popcornhour and the latest tvix players. It has the horsepower under the hood to do whatever the other players are capable of doing. I believe it's only a matter of firmware to address the current issues it has. Siguro wait and see na lang kung gaanong kabilis i-update ng Western Digital yung firmware.

Clondalkin · « **Reply #271 on:** Dec 18, 2008 at 04:57 PM »

Quote from: barrister on Dec 18, 2008 at 04:15 PM

(Ano ba yung Level 5.1?)

The designation 5 or 4 refers to the number of video reference frames.

Here's a good but concise explanation of video reference frame and why the more reference frames are used, the "slower" the encode can be - consequently, the "heavier" the decode will be. BD (original) utilizes 5 reference frames, if Im not mistaken.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reference_frame_(video)

barrister · « **Reply #272 on:** Dec 18, 2008 at 05:06 PM »

Thanks!

Sir Clondalkin, hindi bagay sa yo ang player na to... It's more like a toy than a high-performance player.

Clondalkin · « **Reply #273 on:** Dec 18, 2008 at 05:15 PM »

Quote from: barrister on Dec 18, 2008 at 05:06 PM

Thanks!
Sir Clondalkin, hindi bagay sa yo ang player na to... It's more like a toy than a high-performance player.

But I'd really love it to work as well as an NMT or the Acer 3200 dahil unang-una, affordable, secondly, mukhang pati mother-in-law ko and yung taga-alaga nya kayang gamitin and also, mukhang kasya maski sa bulsa or sa ordinary everyday bag so pedeng bitbitin kahit saan.

jowi · « **Reply #274 on:** Dec 18, 2008 at 06:29 PM »

@clondalkin
sige sir pahiramin kita ng wd pag may time.. layo din sa inyo kasi e.. pasig di ba?

pacopy na din ng hd movies

some movies ayaw talaga ng 1080p siguro yong mga malalaking size ng 1080p.. no sounds ng DTS pag wala kang reciever.. AC3 lang ok.

barrister · « **Reply #275 on:** Dec 18, 2008 at 06:55 PM »

Sir jowi, paano kung low-res files lang (AVI container, XviD codec, MP3 audio, +/- 700 MB per 2 hours). Wala bang problema ang play?

USB-in ng generic DVD player ang gamit ko. Ang problema ko kasi, AVI/XviD na nga lang ang files ko, pumapalya pa kung minsan sa generic DVD player!

nerveblocker · « **Reply #276 on:** Dec 18, 2008 at 07:02 PM »

Quote from: choit on Dec 18, 2008 at 03:32 PM

FYI lang. Just got a WDTV from Gren last night and nakakaplay naman sya ng 1080p. There are some files na may issues yung sound like nag skip yung sound on the DTS track but I think isolated to a few movies and may be corrected via a future firmware upgrade (hopefully).

One thing to note is that subtitles embedded in the MKV does not seem to be supported at this point. Again, may be corrected in the future via firmware.

If the sound skips on some mkv audio tracks, are the succeeding audio and video still synchronized till the end of the movie?

jowi · « **Reply #277 on:** Dec 18, 2008 at 07:14 PM »

@sir barrister.... nag try ako avi file.. little rascal... ok naman sya. and no problem at all sa 720p.

pixel sa ibang 1080p like planet earth 1080p and spiderman 2 1080p.

barrister · « **Reply #278 on:** Dec 18, 2008 at 08:36 PM »

Thanks for the info.

1080p lang nga siguro ang problema. Kung flawless sa 720p, wala na sigurong palya sa mga 624 x 352.

radforce · « **Reply #279 on:** Dec 18, 2008 at 08:40 PM »

despite mixed reviews including those from avsforums, I still got one from Richie kanina

will let you know over the weekend how it performs playing the ff :
- m2ts and raw avi (from hd and mini dv cam)
- of course those mkv files

also, I might be able to compare the PQ against my hddvd player

radforce · « **Reply #280 on:** Dec 18, 2008 at 08:45 PM »

Quote from: RastaSega on Dec 17, 2008 at 03:33 PM

hindi bagay yan sa "tubes" hhehehe

hehehe sa pare inaanak mo yan

kanina pa ako kating makaalis dito sa office dahil dito sa player

choit · « **Reply #281 on:** Dec 18, 2008 at 10:34 PM »

Quote

If the sound skips on some mkv audio tracks, are the succeeding audio and video still synchronized till the end of the movie?

In synch pa naman. BTW, Just want to clarify that I was able to play 1080p files but downscaled to 720p kasi yun ang native display ko. When I forced the output to 1080p, may times na mag slow down pag maraming movement yung scene. Of course depende sa movie. Pag Planet Earth, may slow down ako kahit sa HTPC ko lalo na yung scene na maraming ibon.

It looks like software issue to kasi same lang naman yung processor with the other NMTs so may chance pa na ma correct in the future but this player is still ideal for a lot of people with 720p displays.

Clondalkin · « **Reply #282 on:** Dec 18, 2008 at 10:39 PM »

Quote from: jowi on Dec 18, 2008 at 06:29 PM

some movies ayaw talaga ng 1080p siguro yong mga malalaking size ng 1080p.. no sounds ng DTS pag wala kang reciever.. AC3 lang ok.

Thanks for this info Jowi. Based on this, I cant try the WDTV as the main test contents would be DTS. Cant check AV synch (1080p syndrome) without sound because the test monitor is the dining room TV. Thanks anyway.

coolkiks · « **Reply #283 on:** Dec 19, 2008 at 09:17 AM »

uyy si sir clon gagamit na din ng nmt hehe.

Clondalkin · « **Reply #284 on:** Dec 19, 2008 at 09:40 AM »

Quote from: coolkiks on Dec 19, 2008 at 09:17 AM

uyy si sir clon gagamit na din ng nmt hehe.

Hindi naman. Hanggat ayaw ng The Wife no need. Hanggat di raw pareho ng PC ang subtitle control - no thank you daw.

Brand bag nalang daw

. But I'm just curious how these babies compare to an HTPC, especially this WDTV. Totally ignorant about NMT kase.

OT. Justice League Season 1 - 26 episodes. How does that sound to your kids? Puro babae ba? Ginugulo ko ba isip mo?

pooch · « **Reply #285 on:** Dec 19, 2008 at 10:57 AM »

Quote from: Clondalkin on Dec 18, 2008 at 05:15 PM

But I'd really love it to work as well as an NMT or the Acer 3200 dahil unang-una, affordable, secondly, mukhang pati mother-in-law ko and yung taga-alaga nya kayang gamitin and also, mukhang kasya maski sa bulsa or sa ordinary everyday bag so pedeng bitbitin kahit saan.

confirmed, kasya siya sa bulsa

on a baggy jeans

puyat nanaman ako kagabi hehe

ninjababez® · « **Reply #286 on:** Dec 19, 2008 at 11:39 AM »

jepoi hi sorry for the late reply, just give them a ring, i already posted their numbers .. and theyre already informed about the mechanics .. medyo busy ako dami ko inaasikaso

di tuloy ako makabili nd WDTV

ot: bilis umusad ng sinulid pag may nagpapalitan ng "kuro-kuro"

(sana pio kuro nalang )

fernando_montalban · « **Reply #287 on:** Dec 20, 2008 at 01:02 PM »

Considering that in the future, good firmware updates will be available to address certain drawbacks of the WD TV HD Media player...

Is there a program that will make a PC look like an external USB device?
I have a torrent PC based on an intel atom platform and it only has a very limited built-in video adapter hardware. What I want to accomplish is to connect the WD TV HD Media player to a USB port of the PC and let the PC be recognized as an ordinary USB mass storage device. And in the best case, just recognized a certain partition as an external USB mass storage device (as the hard drive in my PC is divided into partitions where 500GB is allocated for video files), but of course a simple program that will just make the PC "look" like a USB storage device would be enough.

TIA

barrister · « **Reply #288 on:** Dec 20, 2008 at 08:16 PM »

I got a WD media player yesterday.

Performs as well as I expected. External aesthetics are even better-looking than I thought. I have some AVI-XviDs that have choppy motion on my Philips 5986 DVD player, but those same files run very smoothly on the WD.

Highly recommended for someone who wants a simple and easy way to play low-rez files.

Alfie · « **Reply #289 on:** Dec 20, 2008 at 09:40 PM »

I went to Sights and Sounds yesterday evening, and I was able to witness someone who was giving a lot of demo and salestalk to a middle age couple regarding the merits of High Definition, in which I heard him describe the WD TV HD Media Player as "Blu Ray in a Hard disc with plenty movies, you just choose"

The sight and sound price was 7.8 K for the WD HD player. I over heard him stating that the couple can have both the Hard Disc and WD for 15K

...and added "I give you free movies".

The WD HD player was hooked on a 50" Panasonic Plasma, and he scanned thru 3 movies and 2 Docu, here's my observation;
1) Plenty of blotch marks evident on a 720p movie.
2) Audio synch on another movie which the demo person immediately stopped.
3) He skipped 1080P files, I don't know why?
4) Dark scenes showed uneven blacks and again blotchy backgrounds.
5) I was wondering why most of his demo(where he stayed long) revolved around those with station id's making me suspect that the source was from HDTV broadcast.
6) I saw some good video only when he showed a segment of Animal Planet but again with a station ID indicating that the source was from another HDTV broadcast.

Surprisingly the middle age couple seemed impressed.

(Not sure if they bought the sale, I left before the demo was over)

For info to those interested.

barrister · « **Reply #290 on:** Dec 20, 2008 at 09:58 PM »

For the old-timers, dapat standard DVD and HTiB.

As soon as they realize that they will need a computer to load files on the My Passport, they will surely hate it.

Ang dapat na sales talk sa kanila ay big flat panel TVs, not media players.

coolkiks · « **Reply #291 on:** Dec 20, 2008 at 10:46 PM »

sir clon.... ako may gusto nyan hindi mga kids ko hehehe... ot ulit

Quote from: Clondalkin on Dec 19, 2008 at 09:40 AM

Hindi naman. Hanggat ayaw ng The Wife no need. Hanggat di raw pareho ng PC ang subtitle control - no thank you daw. Brand bag nalang daw . But I'm just curious how these babies compare to an HTPC, especially this WDTV. Totally ignorant about NMT kase.

OT. Justice League Season 1 - 26 episodes. How does that sound to your kids? Puro babae ba? Ginugulo ko ba isip mo?

barrister · « **Reply #292 on:** Dec 21, 2008 at 10:05 AM »

Ganito lang dapat ang gamit ng player na to:

The rack is only 13" wide! Yet there's more than enough room for a WD player and a My Passport on a stand.

TV: 14-inch CRT Sharp Primo
DVD player: Generic medium-sized (10" wide)
Speakers: Creative 2.1 multimedia
Clock radio: Coby

The DVD player has a rear USB port, which I access at the front using a USB extension cable. It also plays AVI files via USB, but AVI playback is hit or miss. The WD is a much better, more reliable media player.

joeyrodil · « **Reply #293 on:** Dec 21, 2008 at 12:13 PM »

For all people who are still undecided to purchase this
This is my comments

1. This is an upgraded version of the existing Harddisk media player that is already circulating since last 2006, it can still play your existing AVI/DivX/MPG, DVD/VOB, MP3s, Photos, etc and the most important of all it can play WMV, MKV 720p/1080p which other players cannot. Harddisk can only be played via USB, so you need an external harddisk either 3.5 or a 2.5" . I still do not know the limitations of this player regarding media format it can play or not

2. This is not a network media tank, although this was included in our group thread (NMT), logically there is no interface of RG-45. Since no connection to network, therefore
no internet (no connection to your favorite channels, youtube sayatv etc)
no downloading capability
no Network Attached Storage support
3. The advantage of this is this is not quite techy, especially for our children, parents, grandparents users. Simple to install, just plugged your external harddisk then play your media - that's it. because of its simplicity it is small and handy compared to standard NMT

4. Cost is lower compared to standard NMT (eGreat/Popcorn hour etc)

5. Disadvantage is that you will only be limited to this features, since NMTs offers a variety of surfing/browsing the net or other channels in the convenience of your big TV

So you decide which is for you an NMT or a Harddisk Player

For other gurus you can share your ideas for Pros and Cons of this product

Just sharing...

Alfie · « **Reply #294 on:** Dec 21, 2008 at 01:12 PM »

For me the biggest advantage of this Media player is it's HDD versatility, in as much that unlike the other HDD Media PLAYERS OR nmt, which were designed as a HDD enclosure drive, with the WD HDD Media Player you're not limited a specifically installed/incorporated HDD.

For even more practical usage, all you'll need is to invest into a HDD Dock, and if you'd want to save up you don't need to buy a 1TB HDD and can always stock file on more affordable 160G or 250G SATA drives.

rubenpp · « **Reply #295 on:** Dec 22, 2008 at 11:15 AM »

apparently someone @TPC was able to play a 30+gb BD rip

http://tipidpc.com/viewtopic.php?tid=88421&page=155

barrister · « **Reply #296 on:** Dec 22, 2008 at 11:45 AM »

Ang gandang PQ nun a!

Then it really does look like the 1080p-mkv issue can be solved with a firmware upgrade.

Portability is the biggest plus of this player. I can imagine taking it to a hotel room and playing some miniseries. Puwede rin sa hospital room (wag naman sana ...

)

Clondalkin · « **Reply #297 on:** Dec 22, 2008 at 12:13 PM »

Quote from: rubenpp on Dec 22, 2008 at 11:15 AM

apparently someone @TPC was able to play a 30+gb BD rip

If a player is compatible with m2ts, this format is lighter compared to mkv at 1080p.

rubenpp · « **Reply #298 on:** Dec 22, 2008 at 05:59 PM »

Quote

If a player is compatible with m2ts, this format is lighter compared to mkv at 1080p.

correct me if i'm wrong but wouldn't the .mkv file be smaller and have lesser bitrate - both audio/video
than the BD stream file .m2ts ?

Clondalkin · « **Reply #299 on:** Dec 22, 2008 at 10:32 PM »

Quote from: rubenpp on Dec 22, 2008 at 05:59 PM

correct me if i'm wrong but wouldn't the .mkv file be smaller and have lesser bitrate - both audio/video
than the BD stream file .m2ts ?

In most cases, YES. The highest video bitstream MKV Ive tested is about 19mbps, and the biggest size about 18GB.

Problem with MKV is, for most cases too, it does not take advantage of any graphic power your PC may have, whilst PowerDVD can easily be configured to enable hardware acceleration, hence, effectively making a m2ts file or even the original BD or HD DVD disks to be less stringent on a system.

Consider this. Just how powerful would a Pentium-D (dual core) with 3.0Ghz with ATI HD4850 or HD3870 with 4GB RAM be? Very powerful for all 3D games, very powerful for NLE of videos, very powerful for transcoding, very powerful for playback of any original HD DVD through PowerDVD Ultra, very powerful for any HD DVD rip Ive ripped myself ...BUT...how come it cant play the 1080p MKV files properly using any of the media players and codecs Ive tried? So which is effectively heavier?