WD TV Mini Media Player - A NEW product?

Maybe this is the start of a new wave of products. It's just like WD to drop something on the market without any notice.


Looking forward to the WDTV 2.

 http://accessories.us.dell.com/sna/p...15&lid=1003762


What's the point? And why do they say HD media payer when it doesn't even support mkv, HD DVD, or BD, or have HDMI, or optical? Weirdos.

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turns your My Passport™ portable hard drive, or similar USB drive into a HD media player. Additionally, it supports DVD-quality video playback and can play movies, music, and photos in a wide variety of file formats, including Real Media (RMVB) format.

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Wow, RMVB, one of the most useless formats ever made.



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Originally Posted by Heli Pilot /forum/post/16999814


Wow, RMVB, one of the most useless formats ever made.

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It's a bad format, but it's not useless. For reasons I've never been able to understand, RMVB is the codec of choice in China. Rips from Chinese TV or from R6 DVDs done in China itself are usually in this format. Web video in China is also frequently distributed in RMVB.


Not terribly useful for westerners, but certainly not useless.

If it wasn't for this which brings about some confusion: "...HD media player...", its specs match a SD player - no HDMI...lack of h.264 /AVCHD confirms this...however its VERY small and obviously made for people on the move...


it's nice for those packing just one bag and flying...its 113g, by god!



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Originally Posted by candre23 /forum/post/17000518


It's a bad format, but it's not useless. For reasons I've never been able to understand, RMVB is the codec of choice in China. Rips from Chinese TV or from R6 DVDs done in China itself are usually in this format. Web video in China is also frequently distributed in RMVB.


Not terribly useful for westerners, but certainly not useless.

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Not watching a lot of chinese TV, to me it's useless

maybe the WDTV's sales figures abroad in asia were nothing too spectacular and they are looking to crack that market on the heels of the WDTV2's launch? or, like their hard drive element of WD, they are considering creating a tier system for their products for greater consumer choice?



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Originally Posted by joshjoshlol /forum/post/17001132


maybe the WDTV's sales figures abroad in asia were nothing too spectacular and they are looking to crack that market on the heels of the WDTV2's launch? or, like their hard drive element of WD, they are considering creating a tier system for their products for greater consumer choice?

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Maybe, but they could add RMVB to the current WD with a firmware, that can already handle everything that one can, and has more output options, and cost about the same, it just doesn't make any sense. The only thing it has that the current one doesn't is component out. Which if they are doing a tier system, and this is to replace the current one at price point, and the new one doesn't have component out, but cost more, will be a step backwards.

Perhaps it's in Hong Kong dollars??? The rate goes 7.7:1 meaning it's just 13 $US :lol: That's what I assume it's really worth...


Just kidding of course...as light as the original WDTV may be, this one can be put in your pocket - it takes much less real estate than WDTV, I'd say together with the power adapter, it burdens you no more than a blackberry phone + adapter...

My take is much simpler ... WD snoops around china for manufacturers that have designed a unit and can make a zillion of them quick ..... re-badge them, even re-case them and may even tweak them some and flood the market with them. It's all about MONEY kids. It's about how much profit will WD pull from this product dump. I'm sure WD did not design this unit. These are bought by WD for likely under $20. By the way .... anyone of us could do the same thing if you know how to google your way to China suppliers. Most if not all will rebadge and tweak them to your liking. But you would have to order 500 units or more. I don't even want to know about the cheaper guts under the hood of this unit ... it is totally a backward step for WD which will hurt their reputation in the long run. But when profit is the motivating factor, miss steps often occur. I will sum up my opinion in one word ......


EMBARRASING !

I don't see why you are so upset...everybody does it...design-wise it's so WD I doubt that it was a rebadged chinese product...even if it was...everything today is made in China, so what's the problem? Did you really expect American Quality? It was probably made in China for WD, to their requirements...



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Originally Posted by mytbyte /forum/post/17033329


I don't see why you are so upset...everybody does it...design-wise it's so WD I doubt that it was a rebadged chinese product...even if it was...everything today is made in China, so what's the problem? Did you really expect American Quality? It was probably made in China for WD, to their requirements...

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My opinion ... this is a retail $39 unit with limited appeal.



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Originally Posted by WD TV /forum/post/17033360


My opinion ... this is a retail $39 unit with limited appeal.

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Well wheres your player your supposed to be making? And you obviously liked them at some point you made your damn username after them!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!



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Originally Posted by whiteboy714 /forum/post/17033481


Well wheres your player your supposed to be making? And you obviously liked them at some point you made your damn username after them!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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Correct, I was talking about the MINI not Western Digital. And I love the original WD TV. And I am hopfull that the WD TV 2 will be another sucessful product. I just don't agree with WD launching the Mini when it is a backward step and over priced. Like I said before, this should be a $39 product with limited appeal.


As for me launching a NEW product? I will only do so if I feel the product is better than anyone elses at a lesser cost. In other words, if I could launch a product as good as and with the identical specs as the original WD TV at $69 ..... I think I would have a market for it. The feedback I was getting on the one product I was considering launching failed the ultimat test of customer feedback before it was even launched. To bad WD isn't doing the same .... listening closely to what the customer really wants!



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Originally Posted by WD TV /forum/post/17033629


Correct, I was talking about the MINI not Western Digital. And I love the original WD TV. And I am hopfull that the WD TV 2 will be another sucessful product. I just don't agree with WD launching the Mini when it is a backward step and over priced. Like I said before, this should be a $39 product with limited appeal.


As for me launching a NEW product? I will only do so if I feel the product is better than anyone elses at a lesser cost. In other words, if I could launch a product as good as and with the identical specs as the original WD TV at $69 ..... I think I would have a market for it. The feedback I was getting on the one product I was considering launching failed the ultimat test of customer feedback before it was even launched. To bad WD isn't doing the same .... listening closely to what the customer really wants!

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I totally agree with you on the price of this thing. Not sure what msrp is on the wdtv1 but it can be had easily for $99.


This player should be half that imo.

This is perfict for my avic-z1 in my sequoia, most if not all in dash video is limited to composit inputs. Now I can only hope that it runs cooler and can be stored under the dash where it will have no air flow to cool it.