WD HDTV mark 2: it's out!

[MSIC]

http://www.wdc.com/en/products/index.asp?cat=30
known as the live, it seems that you can plug it in to your network and then any current attached USB drives appear accesible on the network!
Fantastic stuff. I think I'll be upgrading my mark one ASAP

edit: thank you scan! Thank you!
http://www.scan.co.uk/Product.aspx?WebProductId=1092915

[DannyM]

Fantastic news, thanks for the heads up! I've been wanting the WDTV player for the family room, but it never offered network streaming, this is now a no-brainer!

[rs4847]

Been waiting for this for a while as well.

Anyone know what the speed of the ethernet port is?

[format]

Are you going to be reviewing this too MSIC?

[MSIC]

I'd love to, but i have to find the funds right now.... give me a month maybe, unless i can convince my wife why it's necessary

[DannyM]

I'll be hoping to buy one at the end of the month

[Blastuk]

Looking at specs, does this mean it can play h.264 in mkv with embedded subs?

[shadowmaster]

I couldn't be bothered to wait for one of these so I got the Asus instead. The WD does look good though

http://www.trustedreviews.com/multim...edia-Player/p1

[MSIC]

Originally Posted by Blastuk

Looking at specs, does this mean it can play h.264 in mkv with embedded subs?

Yes, totally. I have the mark 1 which plays .mkv's like a dream. 100% perfect so far. Only 2 downsides with mark 1 are no DTS audio decoding, and not network connected. Both, by the way, rectified with the mark 2

[Blastuk]

Originally Posted by MSIC

Yes, totally. I have the mark 1 which plays .mkv's like a dream. 100% perfect so far. Only 2 downsides with mark 1 are no DTS audio decoding, and not network connected. Both, by the way, rectified with the mark 2

It doesn't say anything about playing isos either which would be useful, I'm being swayed by the popcorn hour now...

[rs4847]

I'll answer my own question, the ethernet connection is 100Mbit.

My brother picked one up from Scan for me when he attended the performance day on Saturday.

It's fast, plays most of my stuff, though no DVD or BR ISO menu support, no WMAPRO audio support, so most of the stuff that I have for the 360 has no audio.

DTS downmix and bitstreming no issues. Embedded subs in MKV's work fine, yet to try idx/sub/srt.

Youtube standard and HD work great.

I did have a problem with the wired network dropping out after a few minutes, for some strange reason changing the HDMI colour depth to 12bit seems to have fixed it.

Wireless USB adapter support seems limited to several Ralink based adapters, list of compatible stuff here: http://wdc.custhelp.com/cgi-bin/wdc....p?p_faqid=3805

Has one of those upside down mains adapters that can take up 2 sockets of an extension.

Runs a bit too hot for my liking even in standby, so will leave it unplugged when not in use.

Quite impressed for what it does, though I think it should be around the £70 price point and include a HDMI cable.

[MSIC]

rs4847, i'd be very interested if you could confirm for me what I understand to be the case:
that a USB-external hard drive connected to this WD device is then accessible (for reading, writing, moving etc files) from a PC via the router.

PC ------ Router ------ WD HDTV Live ------- USB External Hard Drive

Thanks again

[rs4847]

Yep that works, you can either use the bundled WD Discovery Tool software or just connect via IP and volume label of the connected drive for example: \\192.168.1.16\My_Passport

Don't be tempted to transfer 20+gb MKV's though unless you have a while to spare.

[rs4847]

Update: Network share dropouts still happening randomly, either have to reboot or go network settings refresh the settings.

No issues with USB apart from lack of hub support.

Not sure 100% sure it will bitstream DTS-HD MA or will downmix to Core as my amp is ancient and only supports Core.

Homebrew/hacked firmware seems to be popping up already.

Hope WD will be proactive releasing official firmware fixes/updates.