The expression "digital content wants to be free" was originally coined to mean "at no cost to the end user", albeit much to the frustration of vested interests in the entertainment industry, but this phrase can also be used in the sense of being "free from a computer", be that a notebook PC, a MacBook or a desktop.
The WD TV Live and its remote are both compact but together they pack a wealth of capabilities.
Now, thanks to the concept of digital media players and the rapid fall in the cost of external storage, both USB flash drives or hard disks, after work you can leave your computer behind in the study or on your desk.
All you'll need to view your video files, digital photos or to listen to music is a device such as the WD TV Live media player under review coupled with a flat screen display, preferably a high definition (HD) screen, although a regular television will suffice.
Western Digital's WD TV Live HD media player is a black box (actually charcoal grey with a matte finish) roughly the size of a chunky paperback novel (1.57" x 3.94" x 4.94") - and one that is full of tricks - namely an understanding of many video codecs and an array of protocols that allow connectivity to just about any external storage device that may contain video, music or pictures which it will output to a large screen display.
The device is also stuffed with the protocols that enable it to hook up to a network, through an Ethernet cable, or to a Wi-Fi access point if you attach a USB adapter. Then an Internet connection will allow you to view videos from YouTube, pictures on Flickr, to listen to radio stations on Live365 or to music from pandora.com (mind you, Pandora is only available if your IP address is based in the USA).
You connect your screen to the WD TV Live Media Player by using either an HDMI 1.3 cable, which is best if your display is HD (720p, 720i, 1080i or the full 1080p), or by using composite and component cables. If the media player is not on a network, then your digital content needs to live on an external storage device and two USB 2.0 ports are provided for this.
Composite and component cables with RCA jacks come with the unit, but you'll need to come up with the HDMI cable as well as a USB Wi-Fi adapter if you intend to use either of these capabilities.
The WD TV Live is similar in concept to the Iomega ScreenPlay Director media player that I reviewed here a few months back, only Western Digital's version doesn't bundle any storage.
Mind you, if you don't own an external hard disk by now, having such a media player would certainly be a good excuse to buy one, and then you should also take the opportunity to back up your important data, including your photos, along with copies of video files so that you can view them on a big screen.
Since a terabyte (1,000GB) disk today sells for around 3,000 baht, there's really no excuse not to back up your data and here's a recommendation for Windows users: use SyncToy, a free download from Microsoft, to do this.
The unit is simple to set up: just connect storage containing media files to a USB port, hook the media player up to your screen, then plug the WD TV Live into a power socket and press the power on button on a small remote that fits neatly in the palm of your hand.
You will then see a menu on your display with the message that it is scanning your media. I connected a WD Elements 1-terabyte hard drive that contained five years of digital photographs, 80 or so full-length movies and many homemade videos along with music and data files totalling several hundred gigabytes and the WD TV Live player presented me with the scanning message for around 11 minutes - but this was a one-time scan and a small index file is saved to your external storage device for future reference; subsequently you have instant access to your files there.
You are then presented with a menu on your display allowing you to step between video, photos and music options along with one called settings. If you select photos, for example, you will have further choices: local drives, media servers, Flickr or network shares.
I would say that video files are the easiest to navigate using the remote. The unit carefully organises all the video it can find in the menu system and you can step through the videos alphabetically. A thumbnail is displayed and when you hover over a video selection it starts to play in a preview screen, while the file size - a good indicator of the length of play - is also shown.
If you press Enter on the remote the video will start playing and other keys allow you to fast-forward, reverse, pause or mute as required and most video formats pose no problems, although some .AVI videos I had made a few years back were problematic - the audio would play, but there was no video.
This highlights a problem with digital video in general: there are simply too many codecs and no guarantee that what plays on a system today will play on a computer or video player in a few years' time. AVI is just a "container" and the only way to find out if a file with the extension .AVI will play is to try it out, while the good news is that you can probably get an important video converted to an alternative format, if necessary by downloading some (hopefully free) software, or by visiting a website to do this online.
That said, the list of formats that are supported by the WD TV Live player is comprehensive and they are summarised in the manual that comes on a CD that accompanies the unit, along with details and instructions about the many features and options of the media player (see the accompanying box for a summary of video and audio formats).
Customisation options are many with this versatile device, as are the capabilities. For example, you can even move files between two attached storage devices or delete files, and an on-screen keyboard is there if you need to enter text at any point.
The menuing system has been localised for several Asian languages, including Japanese, Chinese and Korean, although the version I looked at did not yet include menus in Thai, but there is an option to add additional coding support for Thai (Windows 874).
You can also play music or listen to podcasts and, sensibly, you can listen to an album or a music playlist while viewing a slide show of photographs, which is a neat capability that enhances the photo-viewing experience.
The WD TV Live is now in its second iteration and builds on the strengths of the earlier WD TV media player by adding networking and Internet connectivity, with the 0.3kg unit adding a new dimension to your digital content by giving it wings - and I must say the ease and versatility with which movies can be viewed has encouraged me to create more digital video content.
This media player can be found in Bangkok at A&L and Com7 where the suggested retail price is 5,940 baht and the WD TV Live is covered by a one-year limited warranty.
