Western Digital announced the new Netflix-ready WD TV Live Plus HD Media Adapter. The $149 (SRP) box enables Netflix playback, YouTube, Flickr, Pandora, and even streaming media from USB WD hard drives or the home network. The WD TV Live Plus HD Media Player supports up to 1080p video, but a glaring omission is the lack of 802.11 WIFI support.
It's great to see Roku getting some competition -- it'll be interesting to see if Roku turns on that mysterious USB port for USB hard drive streaming...
via Zatz Not Funny.
A tech over at the Roku forum stated that the USB port will be accessable with their new SDK so it's up to developers to utilize it.
Posted by: Shawn | June 11, 2010 at 03:35 PM
They recently did a survey on streaming local media and/or playing it off an HD, and they referred to this as a new, no-cost, product addition from Roku, so they might very well be doing it themselves.
I think they can save a lot of effort if they did, or helped it's authors do a channel for the excellent "Air Video" streaming server that currently streams to iPhone and iPad apps: http://www.inmethod.com
Posted by: mpm | June 11, 2010 at 04:48 PM
As Shawn mentioned, the USB port is NOT mysterious. I posted a comment on the "Save $25 on Roku HD-XR until June 20th" post where you also called the USB port mysterious, with the following:
The USB port is not actually so mysterious anymore. I recently (May 20) received notification from Roku that a new SDK will be coming out soon with lots of new features, including:
Thus, the USB port on the XR is clearly intended for external hard drives (and perhaps more).
Posted by: Tyrel | June 11, 2010 at 04:51 PM
Based on the number of bugs that WD still has in the first 4 devices they have in this product space, I'd rather buy a Roku hoping for support for local media.
Posted by: nijaju | June 11, 2010 at 06:02 PM
I currently use the SeagateFreeagent Theater+ HD player to stream Netflix, not to mention EVERYTHING on my network of computers. Blu-Ray, DVD, every file format you can come up with. It is phenomenal. Best $120 I have ever spent
Posted by: Plaid | June 12, 2010 at 01:21 AM
A lot of very unhappy customers of the WD HD Live. And yes I am one of them. The Live will never support NF streaming.
I have not seen any confirmation that the Live Plus does HD streaming from NF.
With the rapid decrease in pricing for BD players and the apps that they support, how much longer will set top boxes like the Live Plus be around.
I wonder how many people are buying a BD player just for the apps and never play a BD - just DVDs.
Posted by: scJohn | June 14, 2010 at 01:51 PM
I just purchased the Live Plus for the Netflix access. I've noticed there is no "Search" feature for films, nor are all the same "Genre" categories available that are on the website. Is this a Netflix software handicap, or is it in the Western Digital app itself?
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Posted by: Jordan Spizike | September 21, 2010 at 02:19 AM
Happy to seeing more update of USB which makes our life more easier.
Posted by: Computer External Hard Drives | March 07, 2011 at 01:52 AM