Reviews Home > Computers > Video Cards & PC Components > Video & Sound Cards

Top Rated Product

Western Digital WD TV HD Media Player for USB Storage Devices

Model number: WDAVN00BN | SKU: 8993217

This device turns your USB drive into an HD media player, allowing you to watch your favorite HD movies on your TV.

Average Customer Rating:

4.6 out of 5

43 of 44 (98%) customers would recommend this product to a friend.

Customer Reviews for Western Digital WD TV HD Media Player for USB Storage Devices

Review 1 for Western Digital WD TV HD Media Player for USB Storage Devices

Customer Rating

5.0 5

Excellent choice for PC media to television !!! 01/05/2009
By LABOZ8181 from ZEPHYRHILLS, FL.

Value for Price

4.0 5

Video/Sound Quality

4.0 5

Performance

5.0 5

Ease of Installation

5.0 5

What's great about it: Clearest images I have seen with similar products at a better price in comparison to others Ive tried.
What's not so great: I cant say... Honestly it works great.

"I BOUGHT AND TRIED VARIOUS BIG NAMED PRODUCTS TO ACHEIVE A PC MEDIA TO TV ENTERTAINMENT SYSTEM. I WANTED TO HAVE A NETWORK
DEVICE BUT THEY ARE ALL EXPENSIVE AND NOT WORTH THE MONEY FOR A COUPLE OF REASONS. AS I STATED EARLIER I TRIED SOME OTHERS BEFOR THE WDTV AND WHAT I GOT WAS HEADACHE AND DISAPOINTMENT. WITH THE WDTV IT IS ALL PLUG AND PLAY TO THE TELEVISION THATS IT NO ADDITIONAL SOFTWARE REQUIRED. IF YOU DONT MIND TRANSPORTING YOUR PORTABLE HARD DRIVE FROM THE PC TO THE WDTV UNIT STATIONED AT YOUR TV YOULL LOVE THIS IF YOUR LOOKING FOR A PC STATION TO TRANSFER FROM THEN BE PREPARED TO PAY THE PRICE FOR SOMETHING MADE MORE COMPLICATED THAN IT HAS TO BE. MOST OF ALL THE WDTV PLAYS BACK MORE THAN LISTED IT ALSO PLAYS BACK .VOB FILES AND .M2TS FILES WHICH IF YOU HAVE AN HD CAMCORDER YOU KNOW WHAT IM TALKING BOUT. *NOTE YOUR HD OR SOURCE MUST BE FORMATTED USINF THE FAT 32."

Would you recommend this product to a friend?: Yes

Share this Review:

Review 2 for Western Digital WD TV HD Media Player for USB Storage Devices

Customer Rating

5.0 5

plays everything! 01/04/2009
By Anonymous Reviewer from greenville, nc

Value for Price

5.0 5

Video/Sound Quality

5.0 5

Performance

5.0 5

Ease of Installation

5.0 5

What's great about it: plays all files even vob!
What's not so great: skip function is hard to find and vids from canon dig camera sound is distorted.

"for $99 this an amazing gadget that i have been waiting for ever since I've been downloading video files! about 8 years now. plays dixv Xvid, avi mkv mp4 and even vob and more. so when i decrypt a dvd i dont have to convert it which cuts down on my copying time to about 15-20 minutes as oppose to up to 5 hours or more for the whole process of one dvd.
i've read that people are disappointed about having no skip option. there is but there is no skip button. to skip you must hit ff then next and it will skip 10 minutes. plus ff does 2x 4x 8x 16x. this not ideal but at least you can actually skip.
my other negative is that for some reason the vids i recorded from my canon dig camera plays video fine but sound is completely distorted and can't figure out why. so if someone knows the answer please post in a review here.
i DL the dark knight in 720p and watched through this and it was spectacular!
also when watching a copied dvd it actually up converts the quality and actually looks better than when it's converted and burned to a dvd because there is one less step in degrading the quality.

all in all this is an amazing gadget that i am completely thrilled and satisfied with. just get a 1tb ext hard drive like i got and this and you will have your own video jukebox! go baby go!!!!"

Would you recommend this product to a friend?: Yes

Share this Review:

Review 3 for Western Digital WD TV HD Media Player for USB Storage Devices

Customer Rating

4.0 5

Media Player that Rocks! 01/03/2009
By DDural from H-Town, TX

Value for Price

5.0 5

Video/Sound Quality

5.0 5

Performance

5.0 5

Ease of Installation

5.0 5

What's great about it: PRICE!!! It simply works and has support for firmware updates and instructions from Western Digitals Website.
What's not so great: No controls on the unit itself, dependent on remote, no built in Hard Drive but I don't care

"It simply works". If you know how to back up your DVD's ;) and convert them to any format then this is the device for you. I mainly wanted this thing because its easier store multiple movies in a portable HD, than search for discs. At first I was looking at Lacies LaCinema but the price was way too steep, and I liked the interface of the menu screen better on the WD's Media Player. Another feature that also sold me to this unit was Western Digitals updates on "firmware". Another review commented on not being able to return to an area on the movie where you might have left off. You can now with the newer firmware update. Just to make sure I tried it... I was watching Fan Four, stopped it and started to play Eagle Eye... stopped that movie and went back to Fan Four. A pop up then asks you if you would like to "resume playback", so it works...very nice feature.
The unit comes with ripping software so you can transfer your DVD's to your "own" external hard drive. I opp to go ahead and buy the WD's Portable Essentials Hard Drive, which is a Fat 32 format with a 5400rpm HD. I was kinda worried about the rpm, but it works perfectly and I can hook it up to a PC or Mac no problem to transfer files. I honestly did not like the sync software thats a built in feature in this hard drive because I like to do things manually, so I don't use it. To me its bloatware! :OBlah!!!
Other things I don't like about the unit. You are totally dependent on the remote, so if it breaks your screwed, and you can't control the unit without it because there are no controls on the unit itself! Scary!!! I almost want to see if you can buy another remote from Western Digitals Website.
One other thing I learned about the unit, if you buy movies off of iTunes you "WON'T" be able to play their movies, or music on this unit! So all I can say is you have to know what your doing to make it work!!! ;)
Overall I am very pleased with my purchase and hope it lasts for a long time! Oh did I mention it has component & HDMI ports and can upconvert to 1080p! OH... and its small so it wont take up too much space, and its easy to connect to your TV! I give it 4 stars and would recommend anyone to buy this thing. I like it so much I plan on buying another one!"

Would you recommend this product to a friend?: Yes

Share this Review:

Review 4 for Western Digital WD TV HD Media Player for USB Storage Devices

Customer Rating

4.0 5

An OK media player. 01/02/2009
By DeeMoney from Kansas City, MO

Value for Price

5.0 5

Video/Sound Quality

4.0 5

Performance

3.0 5

Ease of Installation

4.0 5

What's great about it: The price
What's not so great: Hardware problems

"It's an excellent media player for anyone on a budget. However, when I installed it near all my other electronics, it got a lot of IR interference so the remote would not work. Had to go here to get a fix for it:
http://philips.samipupu.com/philips/wdtvhack/

Overall I gave it a 4 because it really does an awesome Job as a media player, but had to deduct 1 point for the hardware issue. Still a great buy."

Would you recommend this product to a friend?: Yes

Share this Review:

Review 5 for Western Digital WD TV HD Media Player for USB Storage Devices

Customer Rating

4.0 5

Best money I've spent in a long time 12/31/2008
By TheProphet from Dallas Texas

Value for Price

5.0 5

Video/Sound Quality

5.0 5

Performance

5.0 5

Ease of Installation

5.0 5

What's great about it: Great value for the price
What's not so great: Doesnt play sound for some types of movies

"This thing is like a dream come true for me. No complicated setup involved, its pretty much plug-and-play. I can play just about any type of movie: AVI, MPEG, Divx, Xvid, WMV, MKV. It even plays sub-titles. Watched a Hi-Def MKV file of the movie "Quantum of Solace" with spectacular picture, sound, and sub-titles - just like watching it on a Blu-ray player. Installed the 1.01 firmware and will try M2TS files next.

Another thing I like about it is that its portable. I can take my USB drive full of movies to a friend's house and just plug it in. I definitely see me using this when I travel.

Some movies that use DTS sound wont play the audio. Hopefully that will be remedied soon. Until then I can only give it 4 out of 5 stars - but they are VERY enthusiastic stars!"

Would you recommend this product to a friend?: Yes

Share this Review:

Review 6 for Western Digital WD TV HD Media Player for USB Storage Devices

Customer Rating

5.0 5

Impressive 12/31/2008
By MrBill425 from Seattle, WA

Value for Price

5.0 5

Video/Sound Quality

5.0 5

Performance

4.0 5

Ease of Installation

5.0 5

What's great about it: Price, Size, Convenience, Interface, Plays FLAC!!!
What's not so great: The remote could be a little more responsive and interferes with my fan remote.

"I mainly bought this to play xVid and not much else. I don't have HDTV so I don't do HD content, but when I do, I'm sure it'll work just fine. I took my 250GB MyPassport drive and loaded up about 100 xVid files (Movies, Music Videos, TV Shows), 1 ISO (DVD), a few FLAC and MP3 albums, hooked it back up and started testing it out. The first thing I noticed (and started laughing) is that the remote turned on my fan. The interface is nice and neat and easy to navigate. I immediately flashed the firmware up to 1.01 which went really smooth. With the exception of 1 xVid file (it was flaky even on my pc), it flew through everything it touched perfectly. I am really blown away that something works this well for 100 bucks! I am sure I will find some nuances with this thing when I go HD, but for now, it's a great alternative to converting xVid to DVD, burning the DVD and not having to worry about fingerprints and swapping discs all the time."

Would you recommend this product to a friend?: Yes

1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

Share this Review:

Review 7 for Western Digital WD TV HD Media Player for USB Storage Devices

Customer Rating

5.0 5

Great Product Great Price... Can't Beat it 12/30/2008
By MDoc from NY

Value for Price

5.0 5

Video/Sound Quality

5.0 5

Performance

4.0 5

Ease of Installation

5.0 5

What's great about it: Very easy set up, Cheap Price, Will play pretty much any video i throw at it
What's not so great: Takes a minute to recognize my hard drive (1.5tb Seagate)

"One of my new favorite toys. Plays MKV files which not many other players for the price will play as much as it does. Will work with almost any hard drive, like i said i have a 1.5tb seagate hard drive. It does take a minute to read the hard drive, probably because it is such a large drive. It also takes a minute to turn on sometimes but these are all minor issues that don't really effect how much I like this product.

The picture quality is great and so is the sound quality. I play 8-12gb MKV, WMV, and MPG files on it that are backups of my blu-ray movies and they look and sound great.

Normally when I get a product i won't waste my time to review it but I want everyone who is considering this product to know how great of a product it is.

Also for the price of anywhere from $100 -$130 you can't beat it."

Would you recommend this product to a friend?: Yes

Share this Review:

Review 8 for Western Digital WD TV HD Media Player for USB Storage Devices

Customer Rating

5.0 5

This things kicks *ss YO! 12/24/2008
By rpacio from Chula Vista, CA

Value for Price

5.0 5

Video/Sound Quality

5.0 5

Performance

5.0 5

Ease of Installation

5.0 5

What's great about it: Cheap, Easy to Setup, Great HDMI quality
What's not so great: I had to pick it up at another store far away, when it was available at my Best Buy down the street.

"For the price, how can you not enjoy the WDTV?

I had this unit up and running in a matter of minutes. I connected to my HDTV with an HDMI cable. The quality was far better than what I expected.

You just can't beat the value of the WDTV. It not only does movies but music and pictures too.

BTW, I didn't even bother fiddling with updating the firmware. Works fantastic for me. Hope this helps you!"

Would you recommend this product to a friend?: Yes

Share this Review:

Review 9 for Western Digital WD TV HD Media Player for USB Storage Devices

Customer Rating

5.0 5

I like it 12/23/2008
By Speeddbuggy from Connecticut

Value for Price

5.0 5

Video/Sound Quality

5.0 5

Performance

5.0 5

Ease of Installation

5.0 5

What's great about it: 1080p, HD, portable, plays lots of formats
What's not so great: none so far

"I like this little unit alot, for a 100 buks it beats trying to make a dvd movie on your computer to watch on tv when you can just plug in your hard drive and play the avi or what ever file you try on it, i havent tryed hd files yet so far just avi and mpeg4 mp3 and pics and they all seem to work, i seen some complaints about the menu system on it i have none about after all it aint a dvd player its a media player and the menu is simple to navagate, its small enough to take around with you witch is nice, maybe after the holidays i might get another one."

Would you recommend this product to a friend?: Yes

Share this Review:

Review 10 for Western Digital WD TV HD Media Player for USB Storage Devices

Customer Rating

5.0 5

Won't find better HD Media Player for low price! 12/22/2008
By LasVegasHDjunkie from Las Vegas

Value for Price

5.0 5

Video/Sound Quality

5.0 5

Performance

5.0 5

Ease of Installation

5.0 5

What's great about it: 1080p,HDMI,Toslink,Vast video Format support,HD,Small+Portable,video quality
What's not so great: Thumbnail not supported for MKV yet,some MKV DTS audio doesnt work, but only few .WD announced new firmware will resolve

"You cannot find a better hard disk drive media player that has the abilty to display at full 1080p and also has digital audio...and this player has the MOST SUPPORTED VIDEO FORMATS!! especially the new standard for HD video files such as MKV,x264 and WMHD. For only $99, you cannot beat this deal!! If you bought it in the last 30 days. make sure you go get a refund for the price drop!!! I have a $400 1080p media player that cannot play 1080p MKV files! Also, you can view movies by cover art, just scroll through the movie covers like you were at the video rental store!! then hit play! If you have lots of of your movies backed up as iso file or compressed divx,avi,etc on a hard drive..this is a MUST BUY!!

ps- you can take this small media player and connect it to your cars dvd video screen and hook up a tiny har drive like and ipod, or thumb drive...and watch any movie you want in your car... if you got kids...this is 100 times better than a dvd..NO DISKS TO LOSE OR SCRATCH!!"

Would you recommend this product to a friend?: Yes

Share this Review:

Review 11 for Western Digital WD TV HD Media Player for USB Storage Devices

Customer Rating

1.0 5

Terrible Product! 12/21/2008
By burtcg from Le Claire, Iowa

Value for Price

1.0 5

Video/Sound Quality

3.0 5

Performance

1.0 5

Ease of Installation

4.0 5

What's great about it: It will power up
What's not so great: More firmware bugs than a Roach Motel

"Great product idea, but firmware bugs make next to unusable. WD tech support acknowledges bugs and has no idea when firmware will be updated. All portrait pictures show sideways and slide show performance is real slooooooooooow. Remote control is real jummpy. Good way to blow $100."

Would you recommend this product to a friend?: No

0 of 1 people found this review helpful.

Share this Review:

Review 12 for Western Digital WD TV HD Media Player for USB Storage Devices

Customer Rating

5.0 5

WD HD Player 12/17/2008
By Anonymous Reviewer from Sausalito

Value for Price

5.0 5

Video/Sound Quality

5.0 5

Performance

5.0 5

Ease of Installation

5.0 5

What's great about it: Portability, compact, very clear
What's not so great: fast forward x16

"I bought it on Friday 12/12/08 connected to my LCD and watched some movie that I decrypted into hard drive, and I got locked when I fastforwarded to x16, I could stop it. I unplugged and restarted the box, and even I reset the box. This is a recommended product if you had young children that used the dvd player or entertainment player on your vehicle. I can connect to a Toshiba 15" LCD to watch movies on a long trip. Remote control sometimes it crosses with other devices like Wii console, DVD player and it locked to cause inoperatable on this unit. I recommended to unplug and reboot when you had problem like mine."

Would you recommend this product to a friend?: Yes

Share this Review:

Review 13 for Western Digital WD TV HD Media Player for USB Storage Devices

Customer Rating

5.0 5

Great Alternative 12/12/2008
By Hugonut from Mpls

What's great about it: Small, easy to set up, nice menu structure

"This is a great and inexpensive way to watch the movies that you've ripped to your computer. It sets up very easily and plays any file type. I had a mixed bag of avi, mpg4 and wmv movie files. No problem at all. Quality of picture is excellent as long as you rip them correctly at a good resolution. It's not wireless and requires that your movies are put onto a USB drive and then that drive hooked up to the media player."

Would you recommend this product to a friend?: Yes

Share this Review:

Review 14 for Western Digital WD TV HD Media Player for USB Storage Devices

Customer Rating

5.0 5

Welcome to the future!!! 12/10/2008
By Picosauce from Springfield, IL

Value for Price

5.0 5

Video/Sound Quality

5.0 5

Performance

5.0 5

Ease of Installation

5.0 5

What's great about it: Will allow you to stream Video, Music, and Pictures to your TV from all types of Hard drives
What's not so great: The converting software is worthless. Small remote (don't lose it).

"Primary use is for playing my extensive library of ripped DVD movies (.vob files), Music (.mp3), and Pictures (.jpg) to my HD TVs. In the future I also plan to stream AVCHD video from a HD camcorder.

Currently have a 1Terrabyte Western Digital Drive hooked up to the device. Will read all data and be ready in seconds. Using a HDMI cable to the TV and a Optical Link to my receiver. To play a movie I select the folder containing my .vob movie. I start on the first file then it plays them in order seamlessly. I have heard other reviewers saying they had to combine the .vob files (don't not neccessary). The picture and sound are the exact same as playing a DVD disc.

I have also played data from a thumbdrive which works fine. Currently testing playback from a high capacity SD card with data using a USB card reader.

The only real negative I have is the software that comes with it. Its a watered down version of Arcsoft media converter. Basically you can convert video to low quality .avi. Really most tech savvy individuals will use their favorite 3rd party software to rip movies, mp3, etc."

Would you recommend this product to a friend?: Yes

Share this Review:

Review 15 for Western Digital WD TV HD Media Player for USB Storage Devices

Customer Rating

4.0 5

Great Little Media Player 12/09/2008
By JimmyNola from New Orleans, LA

Value for Price

5.0 5

Video/Sound Quality

4.0 5

Performance

4.0 5

Ease of Installation

5.0 5

What's great about it: Plug it in and go!
What's not so great: No User Manual Included in Box

"I just bought this today and am still exploring it's capabilities, but I'm already very happy. I have the Media Player plugged into my TV by HDMI cable (sold separately), and also plugged into my stereo receiver with the included RCA cables. At the same time, I bought a 500GB USB hard drive (on sale for $90). The only time-consuming aspect of the set up was plugging the hard drive into my computer and copying over my music and video files. Then it was just a matter of plugging the drive into the Media Player. That done, no configuration was needed: I was ready to play the music over my stereo or watch the videos on my TV.

For the price, this is GREAT idea. The one annoyance I see is that I will have to disconnect the Hard Drive from the Media Player, take it in the other room, and copy new music and video files to it from time to time. An ability to have the player log in to my household wireless network so I could copy files to it that way would be excellent, but would add to the price, of course.

Oddly, the box does not include a user manual, and Western Digital's website makes it hard to find the downloadable version -- maybe because most of their products don't really require a user manual (not that you'll need this one much). You can find the user manual at the end of some of the technical articles in their knowledge base, or at this link:

http://wdc.custhelp.com/cgi-bin/wdc.cfg/php/enduser/fattach_get.php?p_sid=6RP9lZkj&p_li=&p_accessibility=0&p_redirect=&p_file_id=79402&p_tbl=9&p_id=2697&p_created=1226691264&p_olh=0"

Would you recommend this product to a friend?: Yes

Share this Review:

Western Digital WD TV HD Media Player for USB Storage Devices

Customer Reviews for Western Digital WD TV HD Media Player for USB Storage Devices

Review 1 for Western Digital WD TV HD Media Player for USB Storage Devices

Review 2 for Western Digital WD TV HD Media Player for USB Storage Devices

Review 3 for Western Digital WD TV HD Media Player for USB Storage Devices

Review 4 for Western Digital WD TV HD Media Player for USB Storage Devices

Review 5 for Western Digital WD TV HD Media Player for USB Storage Devices

Review 6 for Western Digital WD TV HD Media Player for USB Storage Devices

Review 7 for Western Digital WD TV HD Media Player for USB Storage Devices

Review 8 for Western Digital WD TV HD Media Player for USB Storage Devices

Review 9 for Western Digital WD TV HD Media Player for USB Storage Devices

Review 10 for Western Digital WD TV HD Media Player for USB Storage Devices

Review 11 for Western Digital WD TV HD Media Player for USB Storage Devices

Review 12 for Western Digital WD TV HD Media Player for USB Storage Devices

Review 13 for Western Digital WD TV HD Media Player for USB Storage Devices

Review 14 for Western Digital WD TV HD Media Player for USB Storage Devices

Review 15 for Western Digital WD TV HD Media Player for USB Storage Devices

Review 16 for Western Digital WD TV HD Media Play