Does anyone have a WD TV or Apple TV media player?
Trying to decide which - am leaning towards WD TV as dont want to be locked into Apple forever.
Years ago, WD had a whole range of these - seems just the 1 model now.
Looking for some real world reviews (not paid infomercials).
Agreed.
But only if you want to play Android or Shield exclusive games and/or use Geforce Now (game streaming subscription service) and/or use your own PC to stream games locally. Not much point in spending twice the amount for something you'll never use.
But it is a pretty kickarse if you do want those things and an Android media player. ;)
Thanks for the suggestion.
Wow, looks like a competitor to a PS.
I dont own any gaming devices, I'm just assuming its a similar device at a lower cost?
Was looking for a basic player around the $100 mark.
Too many Android versions flooding this area to know which to spend money on.
It's lower powered than PS or XB1 although the "Pro" version will play games in 4K and you will definitely feel like your playing a console.
Graphical power wise it's somewhere between PS2 and PS3 in my estimation.
Game title wise it's a mixed bag - all Android games that can play on Tegra GPUs will play which means there's a large amount of titles with a lot of rubbish. There are however many good titles amongst the rubbish as well as "made for Shield" games such as Doom 3 and Halflife 2 Episode 1 and they're almost all very low price.
Have 2 wdtv's, kinda feel they're getting a bit outdated now. New ones don't have Netflix.
That said, they play 99% of the files I throw at them, and it's nice having a physical remote (rather than a Chromecast)
Thanks.
Seeing we wont be connecting it to the internet and just need to play files from external HD - then it will be our choice.
We only have 4G on our mobiles and no endless allowance home internet to connect it to.
Was just worried about recent issues with device lock ups requiring users to do a firmware rollback.
Thanks for the clarification. Will get one tomorrow from O/W.
Could have upgraded TV - but a viewing panel is all the same to us.
Plug the hard drive to something on the network and just network connect to it :) saves unplugging the hard drive every time you wanna put a new file on there
i have had a basic WD media player for 6 years now (WD TV Mini)- doesn't play as many formats as newer models but it has worked playing xvids just fine.
It hasnt missed a beat is the size of the smallest apple tv and I have it mounted with bluetc at the back of the tv upstairs with a portable HDD attched. remote works fine.
I would choose the newest WD if I was getting another.
I have the new Apple TV
Never had an issue.
Netflix runs great. Has all the TV channel apps (abc iview the latecomer to the party). Plex implementation is the best feature imho.
Haven't played any games on it.
+1 on WDTV. Those things play everything.
Just switched to Plex on PS4 and have already found a couple of movies that would play on the WDTV perfectly, but won't run on Plex, so annoying!
dont want to be locked into Apple forever.
If you are only using any device for media streaming at home. (as you say only home streaming) then how does this apply.
If you go anyone one of these the only "locking forever" that will apply is if you want to use the device you want to buy now forever.
As all your media will reside on an external device and you acess via the network, if you change your device viewer later, then those viewers should be able to access the external device.
If I was deciding, I would look at display, ease of setup. fuure upgradeability (can you get software updates) and reliability - service etc.
Going back to Apple TV. I would only consider Apple TV3, not Apple TV4 as you are only streaming locally. No need for the features of Apple TV4. OW $109
Otherwise stick with the WD, historically has been a good product, as it also has good current features but some mixed reviews on Officeworks, which conflict with those offered here, OW $149
Only a few weeks back I was looking for a replacement media player.
The WD's seemed OK but only the WD TV Live has wifi for streaming as well.And they also played most video formats
What I wasn't happy with, was that WD only recommends specific brands of external harddrive and only up to 2TB in size, if you want to play local content.
There also seems to be a lot of complaints about them, when I was looking online for reviews
I came across the brand Mede8er, head office in Sth Africa and made in Taiwan or Sth Korea, I can't recall which one offhand, but thats a plus.
I emailed a question which went to head office, and I got a quick reply within 24 hours.
We are very happy with our media player, it plays the same variety of video formats as WD.
You can put in an internal 2TB hard drive,( we haven't yet.)
We are using an external 3TB hardrive at the moment.
There are only two stores in Aust that sell the brand, we bought one of the cheaper models, with an optional wi-fi ( an extra $20.00 )
It cost $159 delivered, $20.00 cheaper than the other store.
Just google the brand name " mede8er"
+1 for WD - Got the latest one myself though don't use it much any more, getting sluggish (more so with their updates) and the interface is lacklustre / slow. Plus side it still manages to play 99% of what I throw at it.
To solve my issue I got a second hand laptop and plugged it straight into my tv with an all in one mouse / keyboard.
Side note I also have the last gen apple tv for my mac, only used mostly for air play.
I have 2 of the new Apple TV's and they are great. Loads of apps and easy ways to play media from the network.
Thanks everyone for the great input and real world experiences.
We purchased the WD box and have thrown everything at it today and it has worked great.
No more having to pull out a laptop just to watch a movie.
The other prerequisite was it had to come from a legit store I could walk in and purchase the device.
No grey imports from some unknown IT store, or online to some "PO Box Contact Us" where RMA's then become an issue.
The Apple was the other choice but we are over Apple and all that and needing Apple ID's.
And seeing the WD isnt connected to the internet, we wont have issues with the recent firmware upgrade issues.
Enjoy and definitely set up your network to media share to multiple devices :)
Is any of them capable of adding a USB TV tuner and record live TV? (WD TV / Apple TV / Android TV)?
WD TV - no
I still recommend android tv box.
Nvidia Shield is very good.