WD, the world’s leader in external storage solutions, introduced the WD TV Live HD media playerWD TV HD media player,
the WD TV Live HD media player offers a new, more responsive interface
to help consumers enjoy a world of digital content in their living
room without a computer.
The network capability of the WD
TV Live media player enables users to stream or transfer movies from PC
or Mac computers or a network-attached storage device such as WD’s My Book® World Edition™ and WD ShareSpace
network drives to their HD TVs. The WD TV Live media player also allows
users to stream rich content from YouTube, Flickr and Pandora. The HD onscreen menu brings together all of the users’ available media in an elegant and simple-to-navigate interface.
Consumers are amassing large libraries of digital videos, photos and
music on their computers. According to research firm Parks Associates,
the average consumer had 123 GB of videos, photos, and music in 2009
which will grow to 1.3 TB by 2013 (Digital Lifestyles: 2009 Outlook).
In addition, an increasing number of consumers are looking for seamless
access to their personal media, as well as to Internet media. According
to Parks Associates, the sales of connected consumer electronics
devices, such as connected TVs and digital media adapters, is expected
to more than double from 57 million units in 2009 to 115 million units
in 2013 (Home Networks for Consumer Electronics 2009).
Consumers are investing millions of dollars in HD TVs, with HD
televisions representing more than 50 percent of TVs sold in the U.S.,
according to Parks Associates (Home Networks for Consumer Electronics
2009). But consumers’ digital content is often relegated to the
relatively small screen on their PC or Mac computers. The WD TV Live HD
media player is the newest member in the family of WD TV media players
by WD, which make moving digital content from a computer to playing it
on a big screen TV simply plug-and-play.
Like the
popular first-generation WD TV HD media player introduced last fall,
the WD TV Live media player connects directly to a users’ HD TV and
plays almost any file stored on a connected USB drive such as My
Passport™ portable drive. The WD TV Live media player features powerful
media processing, which enables playback in Full-HD 1080p resolution.
WD TV Live media player also will play movies and photos stored on
other popular USB devices such as digital camcorders and digital
cameras.
"The media enthusiast community has embraced the
first WD TV HD media player and given us tremendous feedback," said
Dale Pistilli, vice president of marketing for WD’s branded products
group. "With the new WD TV Live media player we’re giving them what
they asked for — network connectivity and Internet-content streaming
capabilities — and offering them a simple way to enjoy all of their
digital media and enjoy it on their HD TVs."
WD TV Live HD Media Player
Features of the WD TV Live HD Media Player include:
– Full-HD 1080p video playback and navigation with the included remote control and crisp, animated navigation menus;
– Play a wide variety of file formats including support for a wide
variety of the most popular file formats with no need to spend time
transcoding;
– Play videos, music and photos from the Internet on
your big screen TV and discover new music with Pandora Internet radio
or listen to thousands of radio stations via Live365 Internet radio;
– Ethernet port for wired or WiFi connection1 to access files anywhere on the network to play movies, music, and photos from any PC or drive on a home network;
– Turns a USB drive2
into an HD media player and plays content from most popular USB drives,
and digital cameras, camcorders, and portable media players that can be
recognized as mass storage devices;
– Unlimited media collection, just add more USB drives for more space;
– Two USB ports for seamless media playback from multiple USB drives
and ability to access them simultaneously while a media library feature
collects the content on all the drives into one list sorted by media
type;
– Transfer files by copying, moving or deleting files
stored on a USB drive, a network drive, camcorder, or a camera to the
attached USB drive using the on-screen menus;
– Picture Transfer
Protocol support to show photos and movies directly from digital camera
or video camera and or any digital imaging device that supports Picture
Transfer Protocol;
– Advanced navigation options including thumbnail and list views, media library and search;
– Photo viewing to create custom slide shows, zoom and pan and search;
– Movie viewing with fast-forward, rewind, pause, zoom and pan, view subtitles, and search;
– Music playback with fast-forward, rewind, pause, shuffle, repeat and search;
– File copying between USB devices;
– HDMI® 1.3 port, composite video and component video output3 for the highest quality HDTV or home theater;
– SPDIF digital output that sends digital signals to your AV receiver for the best surround sound experience; and,
– Ultra-compact design to fit easily into a home entertainment center.
Pricing and Availability
The WD TV Live Media Player is available now at select retailers and online at shopwd.com. Covered by a 1-year limited warranty, the MSRP for WD TV Live Media Player is $149.99 USD.
featuring network capability and Full-HD 1080p resolution. The new WD
TV Live HD media player makes it easy for anyone to play HD (high
definition) videos stored on USB and network drives, as well as
Internet content from popular Web sites, on the biggest screen in their
home — their HD television. Building on the success of the
