WD TV 2, Release Date?

Hopefully we'll see reviews popping up, and more videos on youtube too...
 
From the manual I can see the following features and new features

http://drop.io/wdtvlive

New Functions

* still has 2 usb ports, great for adding ie a wireless adapter and a hd

* Search function for all types of media, and on-screen keyboard for input

* support and cables for Component og Composite and HDMI (no HDMI cable included)

* Music can be sorted by album, genre, Artist, Number, and it can read Itunes and normal playlists

* Network DHCP or static IP adr.

* Option for adding wireless adapter by USB port, and support for wireless setup in the menu with WPA2

* a connected usb harddisk can act as a network harddive when connected to the wd tv, other clients can see and acess the harddisk and MAC support.

* flickr, youtube, 365 og Pandora web services built into the menu with login and search

* file magement for delete, copy, move on usb harddisk

* change of border and size of subtitles

* Photo scaling size, Diff transitions in slideshow and interval between pics in slideshow
 
For anyone interested the WDTV Live manual has been posted up on the net.

The manual (page 56) also reveals that a wireless USB adapter is to be sold separately for the WDTV Live


You can also share any USB storage device connected to the WDTV Live over the network & copy/delete data from it.

You can also cycle between three display modes for videos- much better options than competing Realtek players.
Thumbnails - you use your .jpg with this
List - just a straight up list nothing else on screen
Preview - a combination of list mode with a video preview window on the side

Edit: daskino beat me to it : )
 
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I'm a bit confused. Is the new unit still aimed at mainly living off a USB attached device? ie: If all your media is on a PC or NAS, can you easily use the WD Live to browser/play media from over your network (& not have a USB device atall)?

Will you lose out on any functionality?
 
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I'm a bit confused. Is the new unit still aimed at mainly living off a USB attached device? ie: If all your media is on a PC or NAS, can you easily use the WD Live to browser/play media from over your network (& not have a USB device atall)?

Will you lose out on any functionality?

Nope, You can stream directly from Windows or Mac or NAS from the menu.
I guess WDTv has found out that selling extra harddrives are nice, but becoming the market leader in this new catagory might be just as interesting. So leave your harddrives in the closet. :clap:
 
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Nope, You can stream directly from Windows or Mac or NAS from the menu.
I guess WDTv has found out that selling extra harddrives are nice, but becoming the market leader in this new catagory might just be as interesting. So leave your harddrives in the closet. :clap:

But all the search facilities will work how then?

With the old unit, it scanned it's local USB hard drive and could obviously build up a media library. With the new unit though, with media held remotely on a NAS or PC, it surely doesn't have that luxury anymore? So all browsing/searching would have to be 'live'?
 
I guess so, I have been using the wdtv 1 on a network always, and have just been browsing folders or thumbnails, so i have not used the media libary functions built in to the player. However the 0.2 appserver can scan you network libaryes for music and vidoe info such as picture, album info etc. so maybe they will port it to the new wdtv 2.
 
I've bit the bullet and pre-ordered from scan... order confirmation indicates a delivery date of wed 14th...
 
Would love to know more about the chip in it... If it's as fast as the C200 at pocessing photos (which seems to be quicker than the realteks) that could be VERY interesting!
 
This looks like a good alternative to the C200 for my uses. Couple of Q's:-

Will this play video_ts dvds ok incl. selection of audio/subtitles?
Anybody know what the scaling is like for dvds? - maybe someone with a WDTV1 can answer...
Can you specify regular 480/576p HDMI output and let the TV do the scaling if the internal 1080p scaling is a bit duff?

Cheers, Matt.
 
This looks like a good alternative to the C200 for my uses. Couple of Q's:-

Will this play video_ts dvds ok incl. selection of audio/subtitles?
Anybody know what the scaling is like for dvds? - maybe someone with a WDTV1 can answer...
Can you specify regular 480/576p HDMI output and let the TV do the scaling if the internal 1080p scaling is a bit duff?

Cheers, Matt.
The previous model had no problem with video_ts dvds most of the time. NP with sub/audio either. The wdtv 1 uses the same chip as the A110.
I thought the best results were achieved when the output was set to 1080i or Auto.
 
Would love to know more about the chip in it... If it's as fast as the C200 at pocessing photos (which seems to be quicker than the realteks) that could be VERY interesting!


no the 8655 chipset is a different chipset than the 8644 C-200 uses. The C-200 have a higher clockfreq. and should in theory be faster, however, this chip is definetly better at handling high bitrate video than the SMP 8635 SoC used in the old A-110 and WD TV, how the extra RAM on the WD tv plays a difference remains to be seen, but in general the more ram the higher the buffer can be. Photo wise the more ram the better, but lets see how good it chews on the big TiFF pics, how was your impression from the xtreamer regarding photos?
 
no the 8655 chipset is a different chipset than the 8644 C-200 uses. The C-200 have a higher clockfreq. and should in theory be faster, however, this chip is definetly better at handling high bitrate video than the SMP 8635 SoC used in the old A-110 and WD TV, how the extra RAM on the WD tv plays a difference remains to be seen, but in general the more ram the higher the buffer can be. Photo wise the more ram the better, but lets see how good it chews on the big TiFF pics, how was your impression from the xtreamer regarding photos?

Photos on the XTreamer? Large photo (megs big) take a good couple of seconds to show - Fine for slideshows, but too slow for manually navigating round. Small photos (sub 1meg) are almost instant. In my case, I mirror/resize all my photos down to 1080p size... The XTreamer is relatively quick around these (over a network), the major problems/annoyances being:-
1) There is no thumbnail view (ie: so you can see 10-15 images at a time).
2) Every action when viewing a photo starts the slideshow. So if you want to manually move around photos:-
- Enter to view a photo (full screen)
- Press play/pause to stop slideshow
- Press next to view next photo
- Press play/pause to stop slideshow
- and so on...

It's a diabolical bit of design. I've suggest the slideshow ONLY comes on when you press PLAY.


Anyway, if the WDTV is as quick, or quicker than the realtek's, with photos then it's a box ticked for me getting one...
 
Does anyone know if I could connect 2 WDTV Live units to one of these My Book World Edition 2 TB Hard Drives ( WDH1NC20000 ) via a router and not have any issues? (I'm no good on networks and what works with each other .... )

I would like to know that too. I would be able to tell you soon if Scan have it in stock tomorrow.
However a USB attached to the WDTV seems like a safer bet and as mentioned earlier, you can share any USB storage device connected to the WDTV Live over the network & copy/delete data. This would make the WD World edition rather superfluous.
 
I would like to know that too. I would be able to tell you soon if Scan have it in stock tomorrow.
However a USB attached to the WDTV seems like a safer bet and as mentioned earlier, you can share any USB storage device connected to the WDTV Live over the network & copy/delete data. This would make the WD World edition rather superfluous.

But doesn't that mean having both WDTV's on at once (not that thats a big deal)? How long will a 4gig movie take to copy from one to the other, guessing it's quicker and more convenient to just stream from one place ...... assuming the NAS drive works well.

Let us know how it works if you get one :smashin: It'll be a while before I can afford one.

Edit: One last question ..... when your browsing movies over a network can you do it by thumbnail or is it only by list?
 
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I had been recommending the WDTV 1 for my brother in law who was looking for a simple media player setup to run through his Amp (Optical) and to his Pioneer Kuro Plasma (via HDMI).

As he doesnt have any network setup in his house (and perhaps not likely to use net work features that much) im wondering what the WDTV2 does that the original doesnt?

A few questions about this one.

Does the WDTV2 downmix DTS to stereo?

Is the WDTV2 faster than the original version?

Any thing else the WDTV has over the original version?

Ive tried doing a search but i cant find a straight answer.... thanks.
 
The answer is yes, DTS downmix is included on the 2 and yes it should be faster than the 1.

Can it downmix and send out unprocessed to the toslink at the same time? ie: So you'd hear stereo on your TV and say dolby 5.1 or DTS via your amp at the same time?
 

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