Western Digital WD TV Live Plus HD Media Player

Pros: Worked out of the box with my Rosewill RNX-EasyN1 Works with my Linksys Cisco AE1000 after updating the WD to the latest firmware (shipping firmware didn't work) Streams my DVD ISO collection from my home server to my TV just fine. If you have kids that destroy DVDs, you know why this is a pro.

Cons: Doesn't play my DVDFab-created Blu-Ray ISOs (I only rip the main movie - no menu, no extras, etc). Sees them on the network & local attached storage, but gives some kind of error when trying to play (doesn't even actually open it).

Overall Review: Sort of a 50/50 for me. I have all of the movies I own ripped onto my NAS because the kids destroy pretty much any physical media within a month or two and I don't really feel like buying the movie all over again. This allows them to watch the movies we buy without destroying the discs, but it only works with the DVDs, not the Blu-Rays. I haven't tried ripping the entire Blu-Ray movie b/c my kids don't care about the extras and it saves a ton of space, but I am disappointed that it doesn't work with my Blu-Ray ISOs. I would buy again for the DVDs, but not for the Blu-Rays.

Pros: This is my fourth of these devices, plus another I bought for a friend who loves it as well. This thing does it all, despite some assertions by other reviews herein. It plays Netflix perfectly, it has all kinds of Internet freebies that Samsung, Sony and LG are trying to charge hundreds more for on their newest batch of LED's, and it plays everything. I've got mine connected to a switch to my router, which enables it to go online full-time (for Netflix, updates) and allows me to share the contents of my media JBOD (a five-bay Drobo) and play back all my BD rips, DVD (Video TS) folders, and ISO's. Nothing trips this thing up. It plays back FLAC and mp3 and mp4 and wmv and wma and avi and mpg and everything else holding portable media. And it does so pretty elegantly. And to their credit, WD keeps the firmware updates coming (see cons). Also, it plays back at 1080p in high color on my Samsung. Couldn't be more pleased or a more satisfied WD -- or Newegg -- customer.

Cons: It takes about two or so hours of tweaking over a few days and some experimentation before it performs perfectly. The next-to-most-recent firmware update brought up some conflict with MS's Live Sign-In Assistant. So I dumped that on the PC side and everything works beautifully yet again. I think within another year this type of device will be far more commonplace than it was when I got my first WDTV, but the truth is for anyone with an above-average PC-related skill-set, this is a no-brainer. It does everything really, really well, except it doesn't do the dishes.

Overall Review: Q: How can you beat something that does everything asked of it and more, efficiently and inexpensively? A: You can't.

Pros: Contrary to what has been said this will play MKV files. I use dvdfab and save movies as MKV's, vob, m2ts or mp4 formats. if its a reg dvd I use MKV aac leave the bitrate alone use dual pass encoding i set my audio bitrate to 512 use 5.1 dolby set my volume to 175% I have ripped over 500 movies using these settings with NO issues (none caused by the player at least) problems caused by dvdfab well that's a whole other ball game! Blurays MKV h264 aac once again don't mess with the bitrate people tend to set it too high and that's part of what's causing problems audio to 640 kbps 5.1 ch yes volume to 175% again I have tried saving files to vob or M2Ts but this takes up much more space on your hard drive. plus it doesn't stream as well with files that are over 15gb. An 8tb server fills up quickly with 50gb blurays on it.

Cons: firmware updates are buggy AFTER FIRMWARE UPDATES DO A RESTORE TO FACTORY DEFAULTS

Overall Review: when I access my movies by selecting "media shares" then videos I get nice folders each displaying an image of the movie. (I keep a picture of the movie in its folder I name the picture "folder" Yet if I access my movies by going into "media servers" then not only do I lose the cover art for each movie but the device doesn't see about half of my movie files. and yes most of those are MKV's No idea what that's all about one of these days when I get bored (unlazy) I'll figure it out. I'm sure its a problem with how my computer or windows home server is setup. In other words don't blame the device for poor network infrastructure or your inability to properly configure it. Lastly when I copy a movie I always copy it to my hard drive and then process it (rip) into the file format of my choice.I then save the original file to an external HD so that I can re-rip it as needed. I have used DVDfab for 2-3 years and they have ALWAYS been plagued by issues USE CURRENT VERSIO

Pros: Small compact footprint Wireless G is perfect for Netflix streaming and DVD's that are compressed to 4.3 GB or less. Netflix Streaming built in, great interface for selecting movies off your queue, no limit to how many you can see. Connects perfectly to home networks properly setup for sharing files. Works great with Playon TV. No issues with HDMI connection, although I used a $25 HDMI 1.3 cable. Good picture quality on a 32" 720P HD TV Delivers up to 1080P Connects perfecly and easily to USB drives.

Cons: Very small remote, but can be programmed to a logitech Harmony remote. Does not connect well to Wireless N USB adapters that require drivers for N speeds, such as the Linksys WUSB600N, even though it is an approved adapter, G speed only. You will need to use a Wirelss Bridge for N speed or hardwire it. No component output to standard TV's that require 480i, must use composite output.

Overall Review: Thus far this device has perfromed well and met all specifications as advertised.

Pros: Essentially replaces a media center PC Dead silent Plays 1080P Plays everything you need it to

Cons: None unless you have unrealistic expectations (Like It will set itself up for you) and can’t do the following… Know how to set up a network share Know how to add Meta data to your movie folders Expect a $120 device to come with $200 remote and boot as fast as a PC with SSD Expect to stream HD over wireless G without a stutter

Overall Review: Moved all my DVDs and Blurays to a media server and stream them to this device. Plan on buying two more once I get all the network cable run. This thing just works, boot time is a little slow but not that big of a deal. Playback of MKV is flawless, and that really simplifies HD movie storage. Hard to believe this small device can do so many things this well. I was amazed at the quality of Netflix when you have a fast connection to the internet. If this thing had an internet browser I could dump a few PCs; nice work Western Digital.

Pros: Nice size, Quiet, plenty of supplied cables to cover all possible TV connection needs. Plays a wide selection of file types with a noteable exception (see cons). Works great with WD external hard drives and my thumb drives. Remote is small but functional and the screen layouts are easy to navigate. If your network connection is a hard wire you can easily access your entire network and the popular internet sites. If you are planning on using the Wi-Fi connection see the cons.

Cons: The box plays an incredible variety of video files but what it will not play is an AVI-DV file. In other words anything shot with a tape based camcorder. A Wi-Fi connection may be possible if you have an old USB dongle that appears on the WD list. If you have to buy a dongle good luck finding an old enough version. This thing is very specific about what it "sees" and just because it's on the WD list doesn't mean it will work. Avoid any dongle with the "*unspecified version" listing because you have no way of knowing what model WD used when they compiled their list. Chances are the one you buy will be a newer version than the one WD tested and certified... and it won't work. The box gets pretty hot and there is no internal fan so not sure how well that's going to work out in the long run.

Overall Review: If you are lazy and never edited camcorder footage or if you did the editing in any common Windows NLE program and saved the project in the standard AVI-DV format this box isn't for you. If a wireless connection is important this box isn't for you. If you have a lot of video in wmv, xvid, mpeg 1, 2 or 4, AVC, m2t or mov then you will be stunned by the ease of use and great picture. But forget the Wi-Fi feature.

Pros: Plays just about anything you throw at it, including some FLVs, Netflix, Flickr, and more. Even got it to play a funky mp4 off a cheap cell phone and it even made the 320x240 15fps video look half decent.

Cons: For me the big one is no searching on Netflix. You have an Instant Que that you can add movies to, but you have to use a PC to do it. You also get a few categories that seem to swap in and out at random with roughly 50 titles to choose from. Another big one is the Youtube - 90% of the video we search for is not viewable on TV-connected devices. And there are a few medium to small things. We have about 50GB of music, mostly albums but about 4,000 singles in a separate folder. Most of the time this is OK, but the OSD sometimes will freeze while paging through the list and you have to go back to the home screen and wait a few seconds before trying again. And there's no way to create playlists without a PC. Finally, the OSD is not very intuitive. For me it's fine - but my family doesn't care what a local drive or network share is - they just want to watch TV! But my only really REALLY BIG CON? Not enough hard disk space! :)

Overall Review: Purchased as a late X-mas gift for my two housemates - my brother liked it so much he slept with the remote for a week! Don't let the cons scare you - this really is a great little device, especially for the price. "The Box" as my family calls it really was a hit. And some of the cons listed above may not even be WD's fault - I'm sure they're probably forced to use what Netflix/Youtube gives them, no matter how limited. My recommendation if you get this is to look into the WDLXTV alternate firmware - it's easy to install and you gain a few features in the bargain. Like Shoutcast, Youtube freedom and a few others. I even have my own semiprivate Icecast station streaming into my living room - quite nice!

Pros: Plays almost any media format, had this model since it first came out..stil the best out there, my brother in law got himself a sony hd player(not a match for this model)...I did buy him the newer model of this product..but that one sucks...it stutters at high frame rates when it heats up...the problem with that one , I notice is it has no ventilation holes...heats up very fast..tried to look for this model ..but it's not being sold anymore...A very good product for WD ...

Cons: no wifi..simple graphics..but who needs them anyway...

Overall Review: Definately a keeper.. . worth every penny you pay for it...and more...the best one out there..