Western Digital this week made its WD TV Live internet media player more competitive with the likes of Apple TV, Roku and the Logitech Revue, adding more hardware features, new content channels including the Spotify music service and pitching it at a lower price.
This category of small set-top boxes seems up against it compared to the more integrated efforts of internet-connected TVs, Blu-ray players and game consoles, but they keep fighting back with lower prices, improved interfaces and imaginative additions to their services.
Western Digital’s box is no different. It has been reduced from around $150 to $100 in order to match its rivals’ price and its inclusion of Spotify in the US and Europe makes it one of the first such media players to feature the service.
I tried Spotify, it worked well and it has similar functionality to the PC and Mac program, although searching is more time-consuming using the remote and an onscreen keyboard.
There is also richer identification of any of your own music or video files you choose to stream from an attached external hard drive, network drive or PC on your home network – for example, movies are represented by a picture, synopsis and other information rather than a simple file name, as it pulls information from online databases MusicBrainz and TMDB.
Notable services offered by WD’s box include Netflix, Blockbuster on demand, CinemaNow, Pandora radio and HuluPlus in the US, YouTube’s Leanback mode, Dailymotion, Deezer, Live365 and tunein radio. There is also Flickr and Facebook integration and the ability to add RSS news feeds.
In terms of the hardware, the box has been redesigned to look different from its predecessor with a more angular look and Wi-Fi connectivity has been added. The ugly but functional remote remains the same and there is no smartphone app to improve things. There are USB connections front and back, along with HDMI, ethernet and optical audio ports.
It has no storage compared to the larger $200 WD TV Live Hub, which has a terabyte of storage for content inside and allows it to be streamed to other TVs and computers on your home network.
The WD box also offers casual games in an attempt to catch up with Roku, but they are primitive fare and there is no Angry Birds here. Logitech’s Revue box seems better value than the competition now its price has been slashed to $99, with full internet browsing on offer, a full keyboard and universal-remote capabilities. But the lack of apps for Google TV count against it and the same could be said for Apple TV, which remains very much a hobby for Apple.
If you prize being able to stream content from your PC, network drive or USB-attached hard drive, the WD TV Live seems best equipped of the four for this task in terms of its interface, connectivity and file compatibility. Otherwise, all these boxes can be recommended for easy access to internet content services provided at a bargain price.
