The WDTV Live is all about simplicity. This is a device that is ideal for regular folk, eliminating the need for any IT knowledge in order to get file to play on your TV. Using the networking features may take a little finesse but for most people, being able to plug in your USB stick and play movies, music and images with no fuss is exactly what they are looking for.
The interface is slick and sophisticated with everything laid out logically. When browsing through videos a small preview of the video begins to play so you know which video it is. This can get annoying but you can turn off this option if you wish. The device has two USB ports but no internal storage. This is the key reason which it costs so little over other similar devices. It is also only a media player so there are no PVR functions like a TV tuner. Any USB enabled external storage device can be used with the player and when inserted, the device is searched and its contents are collated into the three categories of movies, images and music.
We tested it with a wide variety of video files and didn't find any formats it didn't support. We didn't throw any really obscure formats at it though, so you may come across something it won't play but for all the popular formats you can download, it will display them with ease.
The previous WDTV was excellent but it was limited to only being used with USB devices. With the addition of a LAN port, the player can now stream across your home network. Having a box in the living room attached to a TV and your network means you can access any PC in the house.
