Video

WD TV Live

Here's a very quick and sloppy test that took less than an hour. A lot of wasn't tested yet, so don't put too much value in this. I mostly just tested .mkv playback because I needed that specific feature.

Pros

+ It has HDMI output (digital video).
+ Component and composite out (analog video).
+ Digital audio out (toslink).
+ USB and ethernet.
+ Can even copy and delete files.
+ At least it has samba sharing rather than something obscure.
+ Perfect .mkv playback even when there are subtitles.
+ Remembers list view settings seperately for pics and videos and audio.
+ Adjustable subtitle font size and border size.
+ Built-in Youtube support, with login.
+ Somehow I like the cute little remote.
+ Affordable.

Cons

- Slightly clunky interface with few settings.
- Long filenames (over 50 chars) do not fit on the screen and scrolls extremely slowly.
- Only 7 files visible at a time because of the waste of screen space.
- Analog output seems a bit low.
- No analog SCART / RGB or S-Video output.
- You have to log into samba every time, but at least it remembers user/password.
- UTF-8 support seems to be missing from the encodings list.
- Does not play XviD with GMC properly (sigma chip inside?)
- I miss the +30, +90 and +270 second skip buttons that the KiSS has.

Jump right to the conclusion: Yeah it's pretty nice. ;-)

Website by Joachim Michaelis