AfterDawn: News

Western Digital introduces media hub

Western Digital has announced the release of the HD TV Media Player, a networked media hub that will allow users to attach up to two USB hard drives, media devices or other gadgets and browse the contents via your TV.

Electronista says "the Media Player merges the content of two USB drives into a single pool of media and uses both file names and metadata for menus and the search process, so those with incomplete music or video tags can still find content."



Video playback is supported for up to 1080p through HDMI although what formats are playable was not disclosed. RCA outputs also allow for SD compatibility for older TVs.

The hub is available today and is priced at $130 USD without any HDDs.



Written by: Andre Yoskowitz @ 4 Nov 2008 0:51

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• 5 comments

• badmanvan

  File Formats*
  Music - MP3, WMA, OGG, WAV/PCM/LPCM, AAC, FLAC, Dolby Digital, AIF/AIFF, MKA
  
  Photo - JPEG, GIF, TIF/TIFF, BMP, PNG
  Video -MPEG1/2/4, WMV9, AVI (MPEG4, Xvid, AVC), H.264, MKV, MOV (MPEG4, H.264)
  Playlist - PLS, M3U, WPL
  Subtitle -SRT (UTF-8)
  *Note: (Disclaimers for bottom panel of Packaging)
  - MPEG2/4, H.264, and WMV9 supports up to 1920x1080p 24fps, 1920x1080i 30fps, 1280x720p 60fps resolution
  - An audio receiver is required for surround sound output. AAC/Dolby Digital decodes in 2 channel output only
  - JPEG does not support CMYK or loss less.
  - BMP supports uncompressed format only.
  - TIF/TIFF supports single layer only.
  
  Performance Specifications
  Serial Transfer Rate
  USB 2.0
  Serial Bus Transfer Rate (USB 2.0) 480 Mbits/s (Max)
  
  Physical Specifications
  Capacity N/A
  Interface USB 2.0
  
  Physical Dimensions
  English
  Height 1.57 Inches (Max)
  Length 3.94 Inches (Max)
  Width 4.94 Inches (Max)
  Weight 0.67 Pounds
  
  Metric
  Height 40 mm (Max)
  Length 100 mm (Max)
  Width 125.5 mm (Max)
  Weight 303 g
  
  Environmental Specifications
  Temperature (English)
  Operating 41° F to 95° F
  Non-operating -40° F to 149° F
  
  Temperature (Metric)
  Operating 5° C to 35° C
  Non-operating -40° C to 65° C
  
  Electrical Specifications
  Current Requirements
  Power Dissipation
  AC Input Voltage 100-240 VAC
  AC Input Frequency 50-60 Hz

  4.11.2008 07:42 #1

• badmanvan

  As the same as above more info can be found here:-
  
  http://www.westerndigital.com/en/product...veid=572#jump11

  4.11.2008 08:00 #2

• emugamer

  Thanks for the info badmanvan. Interesting device. It's a stripped down popcornhour, but provides a basic function at $85 less. Just lacking network connectivity and everything that comes with that and a few codecs and formats at a glance. Looks like a good deal for what it is. Nicer interface that the PCH. I would totally consider this as a cheaper alternative to the PCH if all I wanted to do was load up a couple TB drives with movies and music.

  4.11.2008 12:15 #3

• borhan9

  A very intresting device i would not mind getting one where could i aquire one of these bad boys :)

  6.11.2008 05:24 #4

• dinkydoo

  I got this last night ($99 at BestBuy). Naturally, I had to order another LaCie drive to store media. And of course, an HDMI cable (because who wants to use RCA connectors with 1080p?) and a Toslink cable (for the surround sound).
  
  So that's basically one-thousand blank DVDs worth of equipment.
  
  But it is so worth it for the geekporn factor. And it's a lot smaller than 1,000 DVDs.

  6.11.2008 15:42 #5