Western Digital WD TV Mini Media Player Model WDBAAL0000NBK-NESN

Pros: Plugged this into the SDTV in my son's room via composite. Ripped his cartoons and movies to .mpg and copied them onto an old USB HD I had laying around. It works like a charm. Now I don't need to worry about his DVDs getting lost or scratched. It also plays his music, with support for playlists. Remembers where you left off with any video file, and asks if you want to resume or start over from the beginning. Drop dead simple to operate. My son is 4, and he has no problems using it, because video thumbnails make it easy to select the file you want. A little wider than a deck of cards.

Cons: Despite what some reviewers have said, this model does NOT have HDMI. Composite and component only. (Another WD TV model has HDMI) You'll need to pay more for a true HD solution, but for my old home movies and all my VHS tapes I've converted to .MPG, this thing is superb.

Pros: Compared to the WD TV: - half the price - half the size Other pros: - superb language support - smooth GUI - rmbv support Overall, if you can work with the limitations, this is a great value. (especially when on sale)

Cons: There are some BIG gotchas that most reviews fail to mention. The max *file* resolutions are: rmbv = 1027x576 everything else = 720x576 Compare this to the original WD TV: mpeg/h.264 = 1920x1080p mp4/wmv9 = 1280x720p (both with some bitrate limitations) Just because the WD TV Mini outputs 1080i does -not- mean it can play back 1080i files. I personally wish they were more upfront with this, instead of nesting this in page 54 of the manual: http://www.wdc.com/wdproducts/library/UM/ENG/4779-705033.pdf Most reviews have these other shortcomings covered: - No MKV support - No h.264 support - No HDMI - No 2nd USB port - cables a bit on the short side

Overall Review: IMHO, this is a niche use-case device. If you absolutely *need* the: - compact size - rmbv playback - low price ...and if your files are: - already encoded to <720p, non-mkv, non-h.264 - not encoded yet anyway ...and since someone else's random file will likely be mkv, h.264, or too high a resolution -- you only plan on watching content that you provide... ...then this is for you. That's a lot of "if"s. Honestly, unless you're really strapped for cash, you ought to buy the WD TV Live and you'll be a lot happier. Personally, I just couldn't resist buying this because it was on sale for 1/3rd the price of a WD TV Live, and I figured it would make for a good, throwaway, media repository while on vacation. One last thought: All WD TV's do a fine job of supporting SDTV and HDTV, but if you're considering recycling a monitor, make sure you price out the RCA-to-3.5mm, HDMI-to-DVI/VGA, component-to-DVI/VGA adapters and factor those in first before you buy. Good

Pros: Small, intuitive, good resolution. Plays the files it is supposed to.

Cons: Other Reviewers have stated DIVX plays for some and others not. I found the answer. At first most of my divx files did not play. I was not looking forward to re-encoding over 5000 files! I found out that the files that had an extension of .divx. I changed a few to say .avi, played perfect. So no weeks of reencoding, just extension names.

Overall Review: Those who said that files do not play need to do a little homework first. It will play, just a matter of figuring out video config.

Pros: Hardware seems to be OK.

Cons: Incredibly bad firmware. If you don't have a big screen TV, you'll need binoculars to read the tiny fonts used for file names. Unit doesn't recognize Rosewill SDHC readers. Search function operates on entire drive instead of the subdirectory you're in. You can't terminate a search without unplugging the power. Search crashes after about 10 minutes on 500 gig drives. No searching for directories, only files. Directories are alphabetized only by the first two characters, after that it's random, causing you to scroll through a huge number of essentially unordered directories (only partially displayed) to find the one you want. Search function can not be made case insensitive. Playlists only work on the subdirectory level they're written in and then they pay the files in alphabetical order only. This firmware should never have made it through testing. I don't believe that it was tested by anyone using it for playing large drives of MP3 files.

Overall Review: Nearly useless for any drive with more than a gew gigs of MP3 files.

Pros: Very easy to use, Plays nearly all formats of video I have. VERY Compact. Using it to play the cartoon collection for my daughter and it works perfectly.

Cons: Unable to create a playlist to randomly shuffle through videos. Only way to access the menu is with the remote

Overall Review: Will be nice when the firmware gets an update available. This is a great buy for the price, Def worth to money but would be nice to be able to set it to shuffle through the available videos.

Pros: It does what it's meant to do -- play the video files on your external harddrive on a tv via RCA jacks. It's small (seriously not much bigger than a pack of playing cards) and it's so easy to set up and use that anyone could do it. I highly recommend this for anyone with kids, parents or grandparents. No more burning DVDs or CDs, this thing will not only play movies, but shows picture slideshows and plays audio files. GET IT!

Cons: It doesn't play all video files. Whether it's because of the codecs or whatever, it will not play my .mov or all of my .avi files. Kind of a bummer, but what can ya do? That's my only real gripe.

Overall Review: This thing is lightweight, small and easy to set up and use. If you think you want to get this, get it. I've been wanting something like this for awhile and when I saw the mini version of the bigger WD TV I jumped at the price. It doesn't do HDMI, but so what? It's a great little device that gets the job done, and done well. Western Digital never fails.

Pros: Interface is very easy to navigate, supports all the major audio/video formats, is very fast when switching between movies, so small it can fit practically anywhere (with the exception of the external drive), absolutely simple to setup, never need to burn a DVD again, never need to convert videos to DVD or hook up my laptop to the TV. My kids love it!!!

Cons: The A/V cables are a bit short... but the device can fit anywhere so not a big deal. The remote is tiny can easily get lost with kids around.

Overall Review: I am so glad that I purchased this device and have been recommending it to all my friends and family!

Pros: Perfect way to watch all those videos I have on my computer! Worked great right out of the box.

Cons: I have to press the reset button when going back to composite from component video, otherwise I get no video. No big deal once I figured out the issue and I don't swap between the different TVs much anyway.

Overall Review: I wish I had discovered this thing a long time ago!