WD TV

This article is about the consumer product. For the West Virginia television station, see WDTV. For the Pittsburgh television station once known as "WDTV", see KDKA-TV.

WD TV

Manufacturer	Western Digital
Type	Digital media receiver
Release date	September 2013 (current release) November 2008 (original release)
Connectivity	Wi-Fi (802.11a/b/g/n), 10/100 Ethernet, Micro-USB, HDMI

The WD TV is a discontinued series of consumer digital media players produced by Western Digital designed to play videos, images, and music from USB drives, internal drives or network locations. The WD TV line was introduced in 2008 and could play high-definition video through an HDMI port and standard video through composite video cables. The device had support for most common video and audio formats. The WD TV was discontinued as of August 2016.

Models

WD TV (1st Gen)

In November 2008 Western Digital introduced the WD TV.^[1] with full HD 1080p multimedia player with DTS pass-through only.^[2] The hardware starts with a 300 MHz TangoX MIPS 4KEc from Sigma Designs, which has 100 MB of memory.^[3][4]

Model	Audio out	Video out	Built in	Online
WD TV (1st Gen)	1 HDMI 1.2 1 Fiber Optic 1 RCA	1 HDMI 1.2 1 Component 1 Composite 1080i/p 720p 576i/p (PAL) 480i/p (NTSC)	2 USB 2.0	none
	Supported formats
	Video	MP4/MOV (MPEG4, h.264) AVI (AVC, MPEG1/2/4) WMV9, MPG/MPEG, VOB, DVR-MS MKV (h.264, AVC, MPEG1/2/4, VC-1)
	Photo	JPEG, GIF, TIF/TIFF, BMP, PNG
	Audio	MP3, WAV/PCM/LPCM, WMA, AAC, FLAC, MKA, AIF/AIFF, OGG, Dolby Digital, DTS (pass-through only)
	Playlist	PLS, M3U, WPL
	Subtitle	SRT

WD TV (2nd Gen)

Updated device with 2-channel DTS support.^[5] Uses the same Sigma SMP8655 Secure Media Processor as the Live.

Model	Audio out	Video out	Built in	Online
WD TV (2nd Gen)	1 HDMI 1.3 1 Fiber Optic 1 RCA	1 HDMI 1.3 1 Component 1 Composite 1080i/p 720p 576i/p (PAL) 480i/p (NTSC)	2 USB 2.0	none
	Supported formats
	Video	MP4/MOV (MPEG4, h.264) MPG/MPEG, M2TS, WMV9 AVI (Xvid, AVC, MPEG1/2/4) TS/TP/M2T (MPEG1/2/4, AVC, VC-1) MKV (h.264, x.264, AVC, MPEG1/2/4, VC-1)
	Photo	JPEG, GIF, TIF/TIFF, BMP, PNG
	Audio	MP3, WAV/PCM/LPCM, WMA, AAC, FLAC MKA, AIF/AIFF, OGG, Dolby Digital, DTS
	Playlist	PLS, M3U, WPL
	Subtitle	SRT, ASS, SSA, SUB, SMI

WD TV Mini

Released in Fall 2009,^[6] it was a Media Player with DVD quality, upscales to 1080i, Plays back RealVideo and many other popular file formats with no need for transcoding, but lacks the ability to play H.264 encoded video. It is the only WD TV device without HDMI, providing only analog video output.

Model	Audio out	Video out	Built in	Online
WD TV Mini	1 Fiber Optic 1 RCA	1 Component 1 Composite 1080i 720p 576i/p (PAL) 480i/p (NTSC)	1 USB 2.0	none
	Supported formats
	Video	MP4/MOV (MPEG4) AVI (Xvid, MPEG1/2/4) MPG/MPEG, VOB, RM or RMVB 8/9/10
	Photo	JPEG, GIF, TIF/TIFF, BMP, PNG
	Audio	MP3, WAV/PCM/LPCM, WMA, AAC FLAC, MKA, OGG, Real Audio, APE
	Playlist	PLS, M3U, WPL
	Subtitle	SRT, ASS, SSA, SUB, SMI

WD TV Live

Released in Fall 2009^[7] with Full HD 1080p resolution. An updated device with 2-channel DTS, streaming and network support, which comes in the form of an Ethernet port on the back. Also compatible with certain wireless USB adapters.^[8] Connects to Internet sites: YouTube (until 2017), Flickr, Live365, myTV, Pandora, Mediafly, Flingo, AccuWeather, Facebook or stream content from a home network.^[9] Supports a wide variety of the most popular file formats. No need for transcoding. Mediafly and DVD menu support added in firmware update.

The device supports three playlist formats.

The Sigma Designs SMP8655 SoC inside the WD TV Live features a 500 MHz CPU, a 333 MHz coprocessor, a 333 MHz DSP, 512 MB of DRAM, and 256 MB of NAND flash memory. Western Digital has tweaked the original Sigma SMP8600 Family design slightly by including 6 video Digital to Analog Converters (DACs) which should give it the ability to handle high-def content with ease.^[10] (Model number WDBAAN0000NBK).

Model	Audio out	Video out	Built in	Online
WD TV Live	1 HDMI 1.3 1 Fiber Optic 1 RCA	1 HDMI 1.3 1 Component 1 Composite 1080i/p 720p 576i/p (PAL) 480i/p (NTSC)	2 USB 2.0 1 Ethernet	Facebook AccuWeather Deezer Flingo TuneIn YouTube Pandora Flickr Live365.com Mediafly Funspot
	Supported formats
	Video	MP4/MOV (MPEG4, h.264) AVI (Xvid, AVC, MPEG1/2/4) MPG/MPEG, VOB, M2TS, WMV9 TS/TP/M2T (MPEG1/2/4, AVC, VC-1) MKV (h.264 AVC, MPEG1/2/4, VC-1)
	Photo	JPEG, GIF, TIF/TIFF, BMP, PNG
	Audio	MP3, WAV/PCM/LPCM, WMA, AAC, FLAC MKA, AIF/AIFF, OGG, Dolby Digital, DTS
	Playlist	PLS, M3U, WPL
	Subtitle	SRT, ASS, SSA, SUB, SMI, PGS, VobSub
	File systems	FAT32, NTFS, HFS+, NFS

WD TV Live Plus (WD TV Live 2nd Gen)

Released early in 2010^[11] and having all the features of the WD TV Live along with Netflix streaming support. In order to support Netflix, a macrovision enabled SoC was required (Sigma Designs SMP8654) and the Linux system is also now encrypted.^[12] However, actual user experience has lagged for some. As of April 12, 2011,^[13] Netflix Canada works on a WD Live TV Plus as long as the firmware has been upgraded to version 1.04.31_B or newer. It is also known as WDTV Live Plus (Model number WDBABX0000NBK, WDBREC0000NBK, WDBG3A0000NBK).

Model	Audio out	Video out	Built in	Online
WD TV Live Plus	1 HDMI 1.3 1 Fiber Optic 1 RCA	1 HDMI 1.3 1 Component 1 Composite 1080i/p 720p 576i/p (PAL) 480i/p (NTSC)	2 USB 2.0 1 Ethernet	Netflix Blockbuster CinemaNow Facebook Hulu Plus AccuWeather Deezer Flingo TuneIn YouTube Pandora Flickr Live365.com Mediafly
	Supported formats
	Video	MP4/MOV (MPEG4, h.264) AVI (Xvid, AVC, MPEG1/2/4) MPG/MPEG, VOB, M2TS, WMV9 TS/TP/M2T (MPEG1/2/4, AVC, VC-1) MKV (h.264, x.264, AVC, MPEG1/2/4, VC-1)
	Photo	JPEG, GIF, TIF/TIFF, BMP, PNG
	Audio	MP3, WAV/PCM/LPCM, WMA, AAC, FLAC MKA, AIF/AIFF, OGG, Dolby Digital, DTS
	Playlist	PLS, M3U, WPL
	Subtitle	SRT, ASS, SSA, SUB, SMI, PGS, VobSub
	File systems	FAT32, NTFS, HFS+, ext3

Reviews: WD TV Live Plus was met with generally positive reviews. Review Horizon names it a worthy successor of WD TV Live.^[14]

WD TV Live Hub

Released in fall 2010,^[15] this is a WD TV Live device with an internal 1 TB storage disk. It uses the same Sigma Designs SMP8654 found in the WD TV Live Plus with four 64 MB Nanya NT5TU64M16GG DDR2 667/800 MHz modules (256 MB total), and a 2 GB Samsung K9F2G080UB flash chip.

Model	Audio out	Video out	Built in	Online
WD TV Live Hub	1 HDMI 1.4 1 Fiber Optic 1 RCA	1 HDMI 1.4 1 Component 1 Composite 1080i/p 720p 576i/p (PAL) 480i/p (NTSC)	Modified Linux OS Media Server Games Programmable Remote 1 TB hard drive 2 USB 2.0 (Supports Keyboard, External Drives, Wireless Antenna) 1 Gigabit Ethernet	Netflix Blockbuster YouTube Facebook Pandora Slingbox Flickr Live365.com Mediafly AccuWeather Picasa Flingo
	Supported formats
	Video	MP4/MPV/MOV (MPEG4, h.264) AVI (Xvid/divX, AVC, MPEG1/2/4) MPG/MPEG, VOB, WMV9, FLV TS/TP/M2T/M2TS (MPEG1/2/4, AVC, VC-1) MKV (h.264, x.264, AVC, MPEG1/2/4, VC-1)
	Photo	JPEG, GIF, TIF/TIFF, BMP, PNG
	Audio	MP3, WMA, OGG/OGA, MKA, FLAC WAV/WAVE/PCM/LPCM AAC/M4P/M4R, MPEG2/M2A AIF/AIFF, Dolby Digital, DTS
	Playlist	PLS, M3U, WPL
	Subtitle	SRT, ASS, SSA, SUB, SMI, PGS, VobSub
	File systems	FAT32, NTFS, HFS+

WD TV Live Streaming (WD TV Live 3rd Gen)

Released in October 2011.^[16] It has customizable themes, a larger remote control, can get content information from the internet, plays DRM-protected services, has a built-in wireless adapter, a 10/100 Mbit/s RJ45 Ethernet port and is the first WD TV model to include the Spotify service. The WD TV Live has WiFi and a Sigma Designs SMP8670AD 700 MHz processor with 512 MB of DDR2 memory from Nanya. It is also known as WD TV Live Gen 3 (NTSC model number WDBHG70000NBK, PAL model number WDBGXT0000NBK).

Model	Audio out	Video out	Built in	Online
WD TV Live Streaming	1 HDMI 1.3 1 Fiber Optic 1 RCA	1 HDMI 1.3 1 Composite 1080i/p 720p 576i/p (PAL) 480i/p (NTSC)	2 USB 2.0 1 Ethernet Wi-Fi	Netflix Spotify Blockbuster CinemaNow Facebook Hulu Plus AccuWeather Deezer Flingo TuneIn YouTube Pandora Flickr Live365.com Mediafly
	Supported formats
	Video	MP4/MOV (MPEG4, h.264) AVI (Xvid, AVC, MPEG1/2/4) MPG/MPEG, VOB, M2TS, WMV9 TS/TP/M2T (MPEG1/2/4, AVC, VC-1) MKV (h.264, x.264, AVC, MPEG1/2/4, VC-1)
	Photo	JPEG, GIF, TIF/TIFF, BMP, PNG
	Audio	MP3, WAV/PCM/LPCM, WMA, AAC, FLAC MKA, AIF/AIFF, OGG, Dolby Digital, DTS
	Playlist	PLS, M3U, WPL
	Subtitle	SRT, ASS, SSA, SUB, SMI, PGS, VobSub
	File systems	EXT3, FAT32, NTFS, HFS+

WD TV Play (WD TV 4th Gen)

According to the WD Site, it was released in early 2013.^[17] (NTSC model number WDBMBA0000NBK). Their exact words are:

With the WD TV Play Media Player, we have changed the interface, while retaining all of the favorite features such as customizable themes, the ability to get content info from the internet, as well as the same built-in wireless capabilities used by the WD TV Live Streaming Media Player. Also, like the WD TV Live Plus, WD TV Live Streaming, and WD TV Live Hub, the WD TV Play is capable of playing DRM protected services. The remote control has been modified to fit the model's compact design, and we added specific buttons to the favorite Online Services for quick access to them.

The software does not support DTS or MPEG2, as these features were removed.

WD TV Media Player (WD TV 2nd Gen)

Released in July 2014.^[18] (NTSC model number WDBYMN0000NBK, PAL model number WDBPUF0000NBK). Identical hardware to the WDTV Live Streaming but missing Netflix. This last version of the WDTV was finally discontinued by Western digital in June 2016 and is no longer available for sale through the manufacturer.^{[citation needed]}

Model	Audio out	Video out	Built in	Online
WD TV	1 HDMI 1.3 1 Fiber Optic 1 RCA	1 HDMI 1.3 1 Composite 1080i/p 720p 576i/p (PAL) 480i/p (NTSC)	2 USB 2.0 1 Ethernet Wi-Fi	Facebook AccuWeather Deezer (Premium+ service required) Spotify (Premium service required) Flingo TuneIn YouTube Pandora Flickr Live365.com Mediafly Funspot
	Supported formats
	Video	AVI (Xvid, AVC, MPEG1/2/4) MPG/MPEG, VOB MKV (h.264, x.264, AVC, MPEG1/2/4, VC-1) TS/TP/M2T (MPEG1/2/4, AVC, VC-1) MP4/MOV (MPEG4, h.264) M2TS, WMV9, FLV (h.264)
	Photo	JPEG, GIF, TIF/TIFF, BMP, PNG
	Audio	MP3, WAV/PCM/LPCM, WMA, AAC, FLAC (up to 24/192) MKA, AIF/AIFF, OGG, Dolby Digital, DTS
	Playlist	PLS, M3U, WPL
	Subtitle	SRT, ASS, SSA, SUB, SMI
	File systems	FAT32, NTFS, HFS+, NFS

Hacking

The WD TV has been hacked to enable further options, including using external optical drives, Ethernet connection via USB to Ethernet adapters, bittorrent downloading and improved thumbnail preview images.^[19] The newest versions of the WD TV (Streaming Media) have encrypted firmware and there are efforts to continue hacking them.^[20]

See also

• Comparison of set-top boxes

References

1. "Western Digital quietly intros WD TV HD Media Player". Engadget. Retrieved October 14, 2012.
2. "WD TV Product Update". Wdc.com. Archived from the original on November 3, 2012. Retrieved October 14, 2012.
3. "How Much Ram Memory". Retrieved November 3, 2009.
4. "Western Digital's WD TV HD Media Player: Break out the popcorn". The Tech Report. March 12, 2009. Retrieved September 27, 2009.
5. "WD Product Update". Wdc.com. Retrieved October 14, 2012.
6. "WD TV Mini loses Full HD, but remains a handy Media Player". Engadget. Retrieved October 14, 2012.
7. "Western Digital WD TV Live HD media player gets official". Engadget. Retrieved October 14, 2012.
8. "List of devices that can be connected to a WD TV Live HD Media Player". Wdc.custhelp.com. May 16, 2012. Retrieved October 14, 2012.
9. "WD TV Live". Wdc.com. Archived from the original on July 22, 2013. Retrieved February 1, 2013.
10. "Western Digital WD TV Live HD Media Player". Retrieved March 1, 2010.
11. "Western Digital announces WD TV Live Plus HD with Netflix streaming". Engadget. Retrieved October 14, 2012.
12. "B-RAD » WDTV Live Plus undressing". B-rad.cc. Retrieved October 14, 2012.
13. "NetFlix support in Canada for the WD TV Live Plus, WD TV Live Hub, and WD TV Live Streaming". Wdc.custhelp.com. April 12, 2011. Retrieved October 14, 2012.
14. "Western Digital WD TV Live Plus 1080p Media Player/Streamer Review". Review Horizon. Retrieved October 14, 2012.
15. "Western Digital stuffs 1TB HDD into Live Hub networked media streamer". Engadget. October 26, 2010. Retrieved October 14, 2012.
16. "NetFlix, CinemaNow, Blockbuster On Demand, and Hulu Plus support on WD TV Live products". Wdc.custhelp.com. February 29, 2012. Retrieved October 14, 2012.
17. "Differences between the WD TV Live, WD TV Live Plus, WD TV Live Streaming, WD TV Live Hub, and WD TV Play Media Player". Wdc.custhelp.com. June 25, 2014. Retrieved July 30, 2014.
18. "Media Player WD TV".
19. "WDLXTV – enhanced WDTV firmware". B-Rad.cc. Retrieved September 27, 2009.
20. "WDTV Live Streaming (Gen3) Homebrew - Born to be compiled". Retrieved May 2, 2012.

External links

• Official website