I've had some personal sympathy for the WD TV box with the date of the original stretching at the end of the year 2008. Each model has improved markedly in the latest and newest play WD TV is the best of the bunch.
With its price of $ 69, play WD TV is competitive, fall directly between the two big dogs space streamer, media in the sub-$ 100: Roku ($ 50 to $ 100) and Apple TV ($ 100). Its interface is clean, installation is a breeze, and the play was during our testing without crashing. And he's got a lot of "must have" streaming applications, including Netflix, Vudu, Hulu plus and Spotify and YouTube--plus the SlingPlayer, two applications that are not currently available on the Roku.
Current weaknesses are the lack of Amazon instant and the lack of live sports as baseball, the NBA and the NHL — all of which, along with hundreds of other channels available on the Roku. And, of course, the WD TV does not play on Apple iTunes and Apple TV media that does so well. But the WD TV will do a great job of pulling the PC-based media-audio-especially that you already have in your network.
In other words, stick with Roku, if you want the largest number of Internet media and services Apple TV if you have already invested in Apple's ecosystem. But choose the WD TV play, if you're looking for Pennant, who offers the best combination of cloud streaming and playback, DLNA network/home. Especially if you're interested in the latter play, WD TV is the best player on the money.
Design
There are two constants when it comes to selling streaming boxes: 1) it should cost $ 100 or less and 2) it should look like a dot. While previous Western Digital boxes to stick first Maxim, they always were a bit flat and boxier than other designs. New play should be set for the new Apple TV and Roku, housing and from the square blue bottom templates.
Connections include HDMI, composite a/V breakout (for connecting to older HD TVs), USB port (for connection of external hard drives), optical digital output, Gigabit Ethernet and Wireless-N. The device features an on-screen keyboard that alphabetical or QWERTY, but unlike the WD TV Live is really easy to install by using the new control panel.
I described the clicker, that came with the 2011 year WD TV Live as "a wonderful, hateful, remote despite reasonable dimensions and feel was a tall, rubbery buttons. This year's version has improved greatly with the buttons, which are much easier to click and a simplified layout--the coloured buttons are gone, for example.
What you can watch
Although only 19 WD TV Live streaming services at launch, the WD TV can now boast more than 30. In my opinion, the most important are Netflix and Spotify, and they joined Voodoo, Hulu plus, blockbuster, CinemaNow, YouTube, DailyMotion, Pandora, TuneIn radio and Shoutcast. WD applications include Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, Picasa, and AccuWeather. Although there is an application for playing on WD, which perhaps gives the device its name-"Play"-the games are less distracting than most Smartphone applications.