WD TV Play Media Player WDBMBA0000NBK-HESN WD TV Play Media Player WDBMBA0000NBK-HESN

Pros: cheaper than others

Cons: does not work for me

Other Thoughts: keeps disconnecting from my media server, and the only way to reconnect is to do a full factory reset. very convenient. it's a piece of junk.

Manufacturer Response:

We appreciate your feedback and apologize for any inconvenience you may have experienced with the WD TV Play, as this is not the typical experience with the product. We recommend ensuring that your device is up to date with the latest firmware, as this may easily resolve the problems you are experiencing. Firmware updates are deployed to improve functionality of devices, add features, as well as compatibility. Information regarding the procedures of how to update the firmware for your device manually or automatically can be located at the following link. http://wdc.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/9770
Information regarding firmware releases, and the functionality that has been added can be found at the following link.
http://support.wdc.com/download/notes/WDTV_Play_FW_Release_Notes_1.05.47.pdf
If you have not already done so, please perform a reset to factory defaults to the unit, as this may easily resolve the issue you are currently experiencing.
We would appreciate the opportunity to further assist you, and resolve any further technical concerns you may have with the device and/or your experience. You may contact us at 1 (800) 275-4932, or via our support website at: http://support.wdc.com/rs/. Please indicate within the online case creation or with the first support agent you speak with, that you are responding to a Newegg review, so we route you and your information to the correct team members.

Pros: Streams most video services(Netflix, Hulu, Youtube, etc)
Plays a large variety of media files(AVI, MP4, MKV, etc)
A great way to upgrade that old tv into a smart tv without dropping big bucks.
The Remote is nice with quick buttons for Netflix, Hulu, and Vudu.

Cons: Still some unsupported formats but hopefully that won't be the case as they update the firmware.
Can have some issues reading from flash drives but that is more of an issue with the drive, have to make sure your drive is in good quality because otherwise it can on occasion fail to read or cause poor video quality.

Other Thoughts: A number of the poor reviews have been due to poor implementation of network streaming(as in streaming files from a system on the same network). I personally haven't tried using it for that. If you use it simply for Netflix(or the like) and playing files off a flash drive you should be pleased with this product.

Pros: opens mkv files etc., easy to set up, small.

Cons: this gets hot to the touch even if its not being used. For $80 it`s mostly made of plastic. Respond on the remote delay.

Pros: Nice interface, lots of apps

Cons: SLOW, doesn't support many codecs for local streaming, and spotty performance on the ones it does. Not worth 79.99.

Manufacturer Response:

We appreciate your feedback and apologize for any inconvenience you may have experienced with the WDTV Live Streaming, as this is not the typical experience with the product. We recommend ensuring that your device is up to date with the latest firmware, as this may easily resolve the problems you are experiencing. Information regarding the procedures of how to update the firmware for your device manually or automatically can be located at the following link. http://wdc.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/5749
Information regarding firmware releases, and the functionality that has been added can be found at the following link. http://support.wdc.com/download/notes/WDTV_Live_Streaming_Release_Notes_1_13_18.pdf
Performing a factory reset to defaults may resolve the performance issues with your device, and we recommend trying this as a troubleshooting step.
We would appreciate the opportunity to further assist you, and resolve any further concerns you may have with the device and/or your experience. You may contact us at 1 (800) 275-4932, or via our support website at: http://support.wdc.com/rs/. Please indicate within the online case creation or with the first support agent you speak with, that you are responding to a Newegg review, so we route you and your information to the correct team members.

Pros: - Easy setup
- Extremely intuitive
- Worked immediately
- Ability to play any files from USB memory stick (A HUGE PRO)
- Quick access to NETFLIX, HULU + and other features

Cons: - No photos appeared when Facebook account accessed. I haven't figured that one out yet.
- Box generates a bit of heat - Just don't cover the box

Other Thoughts: I was thoroughly impressed with this Western Digital product. I read several reviews and of course there were those that managed to find problems I never heard of and certainly am not experiencing. I give this unit a big thumbs-up.

Pros: - Streaming quality of SD video is excellent, even over WiFi.
- Firmware updates are quick and painless as they require no additional media. (Done over your internet connection)
- Interface is fairly easy to setup and navigate once you get the hang of it.
- USB connection not only supports an external hard drive but a keyboard as well. (Using a remote to 'type' gets tired quickly)
- There's an app for smart phones that literally turns your phone into the remote.
- Though not the fasted UI I've ever used on a streaming media device, it's more then responsive enough for what you need.
- If you have one of those 'all-in-one' remotes, you should be able to set it up with this device with little difficulty and, for the most part, full functionality. Though I don't consider the remote they provided bad, it's definitely nothing special or intuitive.
- HDMI and Optical output is a nice little bonus for this tiny device.

Cons: - Over the first 2 weeks I had two seperate occasions where the unit just would not power on. I had to physically unplug/plug in the unit to resume functionality. Though, since the latest firmware update, I have not had that issue return in the last 3 weeks. I would definitely recommend that a firmware update be the first thing you do after getting connected to the internet.
- Lack of support for NFS/SAMBA shares.
- Seems like you can only connect to certain DLNA products.
- Converting unsupported video formats to supported ones is not only annoying but most likely outside of the technical skill sets of most users that this unit was designed for.
- Lack of support for Prime streaming. Though I don't personally have an account for this, they have made a name in the streaming market. Hopefully this will be added/licensed at a later point but the fact that it's not there now is a little puzzling.

Other Thoughts: I've had a bit of a love/hate relationship with this unit at first. While it's an excellent 'light' streaming media solution, it's a little too light for my taste. This made coming up with an appropriate review score very difficult as I was severely disappointed with its lack of features that I (and if you've read the other reviews, quite a few others) would want/expect even in an entry level device.
But (and this is a big but) this IS an entry level model and WD does make it very clear what the device does and does not support. It's also a fairly inexpensive solution if you just want something simple to stream Netflix, YouTube, Hulu, etc and play around on Facebook or check the weather quick. Though I use the word inexpensive, I don't consider this very competitively priced given what you get when moving up a model.
If I had to review it based on what I would want in a streaming media device, such as support for NFS shares, the additional media formats, and some form of internal storage or option to add it, it'd probably get around 2 eggs. However, to be fair, it delivers on exactly what it says it offers and, when I look past the few things I'd personally want, it really is a fun little device to own.
While I do feel that most users (more specifically most technical users) would be happier with a step up to the Live or Live Hub models, those not needing the additional features offered in those models or not wanting to spend the additional money on them should be happy with the WD Play.
Though not perfect, for a very basic streaming media player it gets the job done and, as long as you understand what you're getting, it earns 4 eggs in my book.

Pros: Well to start off it's load time is lightning fast compared to the older one I had from netgear known as the neotv. Don't get that one, not at all worth it. This one however I tested in many points. Going in to Netflix, all the movie and tv show titles and pictures and descriptions loaded almost instantly.

While clicking load to start a movie, the system loaded faster than my PS3, and went back to the main menu with the click of a button in just seconds.

The keyboard layout is significantly better than others but still not the greatest, no real ideas on how to make it better but it's still better than the neo tvs.

The remote that came with it was nothing short of intuitive and well made. It's very light and has just a few simple controls on it in order to get things going, you don't need much else.

Facebook was much better completed by WD than I've seen in others. My neotv wouldn't even load any of my facebook pages, let alone the pictures, but this TV Play by WD loaded it all like a champ with an easy to look at layout I could stare at for days. If I had no computer to use for facebook, this is probably what I'd spend my time on, but alas, nothing beats a computer screen.

The setup flew by before I knew it. Just a couple simple cables and it was already updating by the time I turned on the tv.

I jumped on youtube for a quick internet load and framerate/quality test and everything went even better than expected. The quality of movies and videos on this device is amazing. The vids on youtube loaded fast and skipped not at all.

Lastly it's sensitivity to the remote was nicely heightened and I didn't have too much trouble at all in getting the system to do what I needed.

Cons: I don't have much for cons because I was really impressed by the performance of this item. Anyone looking to make their non smart tv smart, this is the device you should be looking for, and theres no need to be spending anything more.

The only thing I can really gripe about is the fact that it came with no HDMI cable. I feel like many more people would jump on this beautifully cheap package if it had come with one.

Other Thoughts: A lot of the reviews on here are all over the place but for the wrong reasons. They're from people who didn't know what product they were buying. To the core this device is a Netflix and hulu/youtube streamer, and nobody should ever expect more as it doe as all of that beautifully with plenty of extras to keep you going if need be.

Pros: Small size
Low price
Phone app volume control
Dynamic Range Control (DRC)
DLNA streaming
YouTube
Multiple format support
Keyboard support

Cons: No AmazonInstant
No volume control on remote
No Miracast
Single band Wi-Fi

Other Thoughts: Good functionality with nice user interface, and good remote except for lack of volume control. (What is WD thinking?!)

Beats Roku (including the new 3) for local streaming, but not as good for Internet streaming, especially lack of AmazonInstant. (What is WD thinking?!)

Manufacturer Response:

We appreciate your feedback and apologize for any inconvenience you may have experienced with the as this is not the typical experience with the product. The WD TV Play has many applications that enhance your multimedia experience. We update our firmware in order to add new features and services for your viewing pleasure. We don’t offer Amazon Instant at the moment. We look forward to adding new apps and features in the near future, and will forward your suggestions to our development team for further review.
We would appreciate the opportunity to further assist you, and resolve any further concerns you may have with the device and/or your experience. You may contact us at 1 (800) 275-4932, or via our support website at: http://support.wdc.com/rs/. Please indicate within the online case creation or wit the first support agent you speak with, that you are responding to a Newegg review, so we route you and your information to the correct team members.

Pros: Small.
It does play back 1080p video smoothly and the color output is pretty high quality. Likewise, the remote is well done. Yay for being able to put regular usb devices in the USB port. Being able to play from USB key can be a saving grace for the odd file you can't get to work with your DLNA server and don't want to re-encode.

Cons: This thing drove me nuts. Outside of Netflix it's mostly useless.

The GUI is laggy to the point that I'd often watching nothing happen for 5 or 6 seconds after hitting a button. Many the 'apps' are even more poorly performing than the regular GUI and seem completely unusable. This kind of product really needs nearly instant response and that it does not have. At all.

I had trouble with DTS audio tracks on videos (supposedly this supports it, but it definitely would not work over HDMI no matter how much I struggled with it and my TV).

The subtitles are hideous. It's claims of subtitle support refers only to being able display hideous and pixelated words on a screen. In not a single one of the dozen MKVs I tried could it detect embedded fonts.

Even more obnoxious the only way to get stuff to play over your network is DLNA. What a headache. I tried at least three different DLNA servers for my content. None of them succeeded in being able to serve all of it. So be prepared to re-encode random things and have to monkey around to get all your content functionally served by the DLNA server of your choice. Maybe if you're lucky you won't have a random MP3 that refuses to serve for no obvious reason.

Of course with every DLNA server I tried, the WD TV Play still failed to be able to play a fair number of the files that were actually served. The reasons are completely opaque. Most of my files are regular H264. Some of them just happen to refuse to play even once you get them served up through DLNA. (The same files would play just fine in VLC or XBMC via DLNA, so clearly the player, not the server.)

My absolute favorite bug seemed to happen on any file that had a DTS and non-dts audio track. While the DTS obviously refused to play back through my TV despite herculean machinations and liberal use of Google, switching to the non-DTS track would make the whole video (including sound) play in something like 4x speed complete with totally garbled audio. As in selecting the alternate audio track would flat out prevent the video from playing at actual normal playback speed. It was fun.

Also completely obnoxious is the fact that it won't work at all with plain and simple Windows/Samba/CIFS shares like you probably already use to share your documents and media to all the computers in your house.

Unfortunately there doesn't seem to be an alternate firmware at this time. Because this thing could really use one.

Other Thoughts: I expected a cheap XBMC or Plex competitor, but the Play is utterly lacking. The only way you could give this thing a good review is if you only intended to use it for watching Netflix or youtube.

If you don't care about subtitles and your library is correctly served and (via luck or good fortune) all playable, it will probably be passable considering the video playback quality is good, but the laggy remote and gui will likely still drag you into the pits of despair.

My TV will continue to use XBMC on a 5 year old low-power junker PC as its media player of choice (despite many shortcomings).

It can (and prepare to be amazed):

1) Play DTS audio just fine and dandy all day long.
2) Read all of my files and play them back, whether from Windows share or DLNA.
3) Render subtitles using embedded fonts.
4) Play every single file on my home server in any format I've ever encountered.
5) Respond to my remote when I click a button instead of 5 seconds later.

Sadly, it takes up at least 16 times the volume of a WD TV Play and is somewhat noisier, but at least it works.

Why the WD Play can not do these simple things is another question entirely.

Manufacturer Response:

We appreciate your feedback and apologize for any inconvenience you may have experienced with the WD TV Play, as this is not the typical experience with the product.
We recommend ensuring that your device is up to date with the latest firmware, as this may easily resolve the problems you are experiencing. Firmware updates are deployed to improve functionality of devices. Information regarding the procedures of how to update the firmware for your device manually or automatically can be located at the following link.
http://wdc.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/5749
Information regarding firmware releases, and the functionality that has been added or removed can be found at the following link.
http://www.wdc.com/wdproducts/updates/?family=wdfwdtv_play
As a troubleshooting step, please perform a factory reset to defaults, as this may resolve some of the issues you are currently experiencing.
We would appreciate the opportunity to further assist you, and resolve any further concerns you may have with the device and/or your experience. You may contact us at 1 (800) 275-4932, or via our support website at: http://support.wdc.com/rs/. Please indicate within the online case creation or with the first support agent you speak with, that you are responding to a Newegg review, so we route you and your information to the correct team members.

Pros: The device is very easy to setup. All setup option are easy to understand. There are two options for connection; HDMI or RCA plugs. I used a HDMI cable and the video was excellent watching Netflix. This is 1080p with HD audio at a decent price.
There is also a port for USB connection for either keyboards, thumb drives, or storage devices to stream, listen to music, or view personal pictures.
There are quite a few Apps that come with this box. I have an App ready TV and Blue-ray in my living room and both combined do not have as many Apps this box has. Apps include movie Apps such as Netflix, Hulu, and Vudu to name a few. As for social Apps; Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter. Music Apps include Pandora and radio station Apps. Just too many to list.
You can also turn your Smartphone into a remote with the WD remote App.

Cons: Not a real con but causes me to take a half egg and no more, unable to add additional Apps. But considering this is could be seen as the basic model, what more could one really ask for.

Other Thoughts: This is definitely a plus for TV's that only have regular TV programs and no App options.

Also, when looking through the reviews and seeing the negative ones. Understand there are some that have no clue what a review is all about. All they want to do is vent due to poor selection.

As stated, this box is considered the basic model of the WD series. Of course, it will be limited in what it brings to the game. If it had everything, then it wouldn't be at a low price. As a few have seemed to do, they have compared this box to the WD TV Live boxes and then gave this a poor rating. That's like comparing a Pentium 4 processor to the i5 processor and then giving the P4 a bad rating because it doesn't stack up. Of course it doesn't but it does what it was meant to do as the WD TV Play does. If you are looking for a box that offers more then by all means upgrade.