Western Digital has outed its latest media-streaming set top box, the WD TV Live Hub, a low-profile 1TB drive with Full HD 1080p playback support and Netflix, Blockbuster on Demand, Pandora and YouTube. As you’d expect, there’s a fulsome list of supported file types – including MPEG4, Xvid, MKV, H.264 and MOV – while ports include gigabit ethernet, two USB 2.0, HDMI, composite and component video, and optical audio.
Wester Digital throw a remote control into the box as well, and there’s support for DLNA and UPnP streaming so you should be able to squirt content to the TV Live Hub from your PC, Mac or smartphone. In fact the only thing missing for your $199.99 is integrated WiFi, though the company will happily sell you a WiFi dongle.
The team over at DesktopReview has been putting the WD TV Live Hub through its paces, and they seem more than impressed, particularly given a WD 1TB standalone drive on its own is around $129.99. They criticize the absence of third-party apps but generally can’t fault it; however, they also say that Western Digital has been making suspicious noises over Google TV, and while the company won’t confirm they have such a box in the works, that’s certainly what it sounds like.
[Thanks Kevin!]
Press Release:
WD’S NEW HD MEDIA CENTER STREAMS POPULAR MOVIES AND THE BROADEST RANGE OF PERSONAL CONTENT
WD TV® Live Hub™ Media Center With 1 TB Storage Allows Users to Centralize Video, Music and Photos and Play Full-HD 1080p Video on HD TVs Throughout the Home
LAKE FOREST, Calif. – Oct. 26., 2010 – Western Digital® (NYSE: WDC), the world’s leader in external storage solutions and maker of the popular WD TV media player family, today introduced the WD TV® Live Hub™ media center (photo), a Full-HD 1080p media player with a 1 terabyte (TB) built-in network hard drive that gives users the freedom to play all their personal media on any screen in the home. The WD TV Live Hub media center brings new experiences to the WD TV family, including instantly renting or purchasing the newest releases through the Blockbuster On Demand® service, the same day as DVD/Blu-ray release, as well as interacting with personal Facebook® communities. In the U.S., the WD TV Live Hub media center is initially available exclusively at Best Buy online and at all 1,093 Best Buy stores nationwide.
The WD TV Live Hub media center plays a wide variety of media file types, including popular Full-HD 1080p video formats such as .mkv, .mp4 and .mov. The integrated, compact and quiet 1 TB hard drive enables users to centralize their digital media from multiple sources for smooth, glitch-free playback of even the highest resolution videos. Digital media can be easily transferred to the internal drive from shared folders on PCs and Mac®s on the network or directly from external hard drives, thumb drives, camcorders or cameras connected via one of the two USB ports. Users also can stream videos from home network drives with a DLNA/UPnP™ server such as the recently announced My Book® Live™ home network drive.
The WD TV Live Hub media center also is a media server: HD video, music and photos can be streamed from the onboard hard drive to any DLNA/UPnP-compatible TV or multimedia device, anywhere in the connected home, including the WD TV Live Plus HD media player, connected TVs, Blu-ray Disc™ players, Xbox 360®, and PlayStation® 3 game consoles. Users also can stream content from their WD TV Live Hub media center to iPads™, iPhones® or Android™ smartphones using third-party applications.
The WD TV Live Hub media center offers unique Facebook integration, which lets users upload photos and videos, share their status, view their wall and get the latest newsfeed from their network of friends – all on the big screen TV. In addition, the WD TV Live Hub media center provides viewing of Netflix® for movie streaming, YouTube™ for user-generated videos and Flickr® for photo sharing, as well as listening to Pandora®, a personalized Internet radio service. Additional content includes local and international weather forecasts from AccuWeather.com®, and MediaFly® daily video podcasts from CNN®, NBC®, MTV® and ESPN®.
The customizable WD TV Live Hub media center’s user interface enables personalization of screen backgrounds and user interface themes, as well as setting of favorites and content ratings. Standard wired or wireless USB keyboards can be used for simpler text input for activities such as searches of local content and YouTube and Facebook interaction.
“The WD TV Live Hub media center lets users create a personalized media jukebox that brings your entire personal content collection and the best of Internet content to the biggest screen in the house,” said Dale Pistilli, vice president of marketing for WD’s branded products group. “With the WD TV Live Hub media center, consumers can take their home entertainment experience to the next level, streaming personal content to multiple rooms at the same time, so they can play a Netflix video on their HDTV screen in the family room, while sharing vacation slideshows on the computer in their home office.”
“People are looking for a versatile, easy-to-use media player that gives them a smooth streaming experience regardless of where they are in the home and whether they’re viewing Internet content or personal media content. That’s exactly what the WD TV Live Hub media center delivers,” said Frank Bedo, merchandise director in computing at Best Buy®. “We are excited to collaborate with WD on this innovative entertainment product.”
“Connected media players are an exciting new category that is helping to redefine home entertainment,” said Wendy Fritz, senior vice president, computing, at Best Buy. “The WD TV media player series’ broad ability with personal content has made it a leading seller. Add to that the premium content services, and the new WD TV Live Hub media center is bringing a whole new dimension to home entertainment.”
Other key features of the WD TV Live Hub media center include:
Compatibility with virtually all TV sets thanks to an HDMI 1.4, composite video and component video output;
Automatic sync of shared digital media folders from PCs and Macs on the network with the internal hard drive to provide easy playback of new content;
Customizable user interface and programmable remote;
Ultra-compact design that easily fits into almost any entertainment center;
Two USB ports that allow seamless media playback from USB drives, camcorders and digital cameras;
WiFi-readiness (with adapter); and,
A 1-year limited warranty in PanAm.
The full set of features and list of file compatibility is available on WD’s website.
Capacity and Compatibility
The WD TV Live Hub media center is available in 1 TB storage capacity and supports a large variety of the most popular file formats, including HD camcorder video formats. It is also compatible with Windows® 7, including the Windows 7 Play To feature, and any DLNA/UPnP-enabled device.
Price and Availability
The WD TV Live Hub media center is available worldwide (Netflix, Blockbuster and Pandora services are available only in the U.S.) and can be purchased in the U.S. exclusively at Best Buy and online at wdstore.com. MSRP for the WD TV Live Hub media center is $199.99 USD.
If you like your players orange and portable but don’t have a tablet, you may be in luck. The VLC Media Player app, which recently made the iPad a little more codec-friendly, is now available in the App Store for the iPhone (4 and 3GS) and iPod touch. This new version is also said to support even more file types, offer better performance, and allows for the deletion of files right through its own interface. It’s available now, so get downloading — your classic cartoons await.
Here’s a blast from the past: Winamp, that mainstay media player of college dorms and LAN parties since time immemorial (er, 1997 or so) has made the leap from PC to handset with the release of Winamp for Android. This bad boy is available for Android 2.1 and up, and features a playback widget for the Android desktop and Last.fm integration. But that ain’t all! If you install Winamp 5.59 beta on your PC, you can sync and manage your libraries via USB or WiFI. Pretty sweet! We only have one questions, really: will it still whip the llama’s ass? Check out the QR code after the break (or search the Android Market) for the mobile app. Winamp 5.59 beta is available in the Winamp forums (More Coverage link, below).
Netgear already has its own range of media players, but the company has decided to take the easy route for Netflix support and rebadge one of Roku’s well-esteemed models. The Netgear Roku XD Player is, unsurprisingly, the Roku XD with some new labels, which means you get Netflix and Amazon Video on Demand support (with select 1080p HD content), integrated WiFi b/g/n and a straightforward remote control.
There’s also Pandora, Flickr, Vimeo and other sites offering free content as well. It’s worth remembering that you can have up to six Roku players activated on any one Netflix subscription, too.
You’ll have to stomach a higher price for the Netgear name, however; whereas the Roku XD is $79.99, the Netgear Roku XD Player NVT250 is $89.99. Annoyingly Netgear don’t even bundle an HDMI cable, despite that extra cost.
Looks like the Apple TV is on its way to being an unqualified success, with the streaming STB not only cheap for the Cupertino company to make, but selling in pretty huge numbers. Barrons quotes JMP Research analyst Alex Gauna, who reckons Apple is on course to sell at least 1m Apple TV units per quarter.
That estimate is based on inventory checks in various US Apple stores, many of which have sold out of the compact mediaplayer. Preorders began shipping in late September, but new online orders are still listed as not expected to ship for 1-2 weeks.
It’s been a while since we’ve heard from ASUS about their USB 3.0 toting O!Play HD2 multimedia center, but now – with the launch tipped for this week – the company is being a little more forthright about the specifications. Supporting USB 2.0 and eSATA external drives, the ASUS O!Play HD2 also has an internal 3.5-inch hard-drive bay and can be used as a regular USB 3.0 external HDD in its own right.
The full list of supported formats is in the table below, but highlights include MPEG 4, H.264 and RM/RMVB, as well as direct ISO support and Dolby Digital AC3/DTS Digital surround sound. There are also various image and audio codecs, while outputs include composite, component, both optical and coaxial digital audio, and HDMI 1.3.
A memory card reader and 10/100 ethernet port – that allows you to use the HD2 as an iTunes/Samba/FTP server – round out what’s looking to be one of the more interesting media players around right now. The ASUS O!Play HD2 should be appearing in UK sales channels by the end of this week, priced at £109 ($172) with no internal drive fitted.
Press Release:
Connect to a Cosmos of Entertainment with ASUS O!Play HD2
World’s First USB 3.0 Multimedia Centre Combines Enhanced Content Sharing with Greater Storage Flexibility
With the HD2 model, the O!Play range expands its multimedia functionality to cover even more ground, including the world’s first media device with USB3.0 support to transfer high definition video and audio in ultra-fast speeds. The new device also features standard 3.5-inch hard drive compatibility, NAS support, iPhone® interconnectivity and DLNA compatibility for effortless access to online entertainment.
Better Sharing with USB 3.0, 3.5-inch Hard Drives and Network Attached Storage Support
O!Play HD2 features USB 3.0, which works up to ten times faster than USB 2.0, so even an entire HD movie only takes around 70 seconds to transfer.
O!Play HD2 expands the amount of content users can keep with support for 3.5-inch hard drives and an easy swap-and-store design so consumers can easily use O!Play HD2 as an external hard drive.
Complementing its mass storage capabilities, O!Play HD2 can be configured as a network attached storage (NAS) device for seamless network integration. It comes pre-setup with iTunes, Samba and standard FTP server functions. Users can manage their content and data quickly, all on one device. It even works as a jukebox, with on demand browsing of stored music files.
iPhone® Remote Control
Special enhancements make it possible to use an iPhone® as a remote control with O!Play HD2. This feature supports all major playback and content handling settings, extending O!Play HD2’s range in addition to promoting greater device integration.
Rich Connected Entertainment
O!Play HD2 brings more online entertainment home. It delivers access to live streaming of over 20,000 radio stations, Picasa and Flickr, plus a wealth of infotainment, including weather and stock quotes.
Easy Home Networking with DLNA
DLNA, or Digital Living Network Alliance, offers a standardized format for handling content such as movies, photos and music across different devices. O!Play HD2 comes fully compatible as a DLNA client, helping users share content through networked devices. This makes media streaming throughout the home effortless.
Multiple Format Support and Upgradable Firmware
O!Play HD2 supports the most popular formats, including MPEG2 (AVI/VOB), MPEG4 (AVO/Xvid), M2TS (Blu-ray), MKV (H.264), rmvb and DVD functional navigation of ISO and IFO formats. It also supports Dolby TrueHD decoding and pass-through, taking full advantage of Blu-ray Disc quality to produce 100 percent lossless audio. O!Play HD2 lets users experience 7.1-channel audio output for theatre-like enjoyment.
ASUS offers constant online updates to O!Play firmware and drivers. As new standards emerge and existing ones are refined, O!Play devices receive prompt operational revisions.
Only yesterday we heard that Apple had begun taking pre-order payments for Apple TV; now there’s speculation that the whole thing is delayed. TechCrunch spotted that new Apple TV orders aren’t expected to ship for 2-3 weeks, and some customers have heard back from Apple that their expedited shipping upgrades have been refunded.
Their assumption is that there is a delay; another possibility, of course, is that sales of the Apple TV have been so successful that the company is faced with a stock shortage. We won’t know for sure until the first units start showing up with pre-order customers and/or until Apple announce official sales figures.
Bad news for NVIDIA, whose Tegra 2 chipset has been dropped by D-Link and Boxee for the upcoming Boxee Box by D-Link. According to Boxee’s Avner Ronen, despite NVIDIA’s hype the Tegra 2 chipset couldn’t cope with H.264 HD video as it was able to with high-profile VC-1, and as such they replaced it with Intel’s Atom CE4100. Boxee has partnered with Amazon and Best Buy to kick off preorders of the now $229 Boxee Box later on today.
Update: Boxee has been in touch to let us know that, while the MRSP of the Boxee Box will be $229, it’ll be up for preorder – and have a street price – of $199.
If the Intel CE4100 sounds familiar, that’s because it’s at the heart of the Google TV box that Logitech will be bringing to market as the Logitech Revue. It’s able to churn out 60fps 1080p H.264 video, while the rest of the Boxee Box specs remain the same: Flash 10.1 with GPU acceleration, HDMI and digital optical outputs, various USB 2.0 and analog audio ports, and a memory card slot.
Boxee says it’s still working with NVIDIA and might consider the Tegra 3 whenever that hits production lines, but right now Intel are the ones scampering to the bank. If you want a Boxee Box of your own, check out Amazon and Best Buy later on today.
ARM has been muttering about their upcoming Eagle processor for some time, and now the chip has made its official debut. Confirmed as the ARM Cortex A15, it’s a quad-core processor running at up to 2.5GHz and offers, ARM reckon, five times the performance of current generation smartphone chipsets.
However it’s also fully compatible with previous ARM Cortex A-series applications, smoothing out upgrade potential for existing hardware and software developers. That’ll include Android, Adobe Flash Player, Java Platform Standard Edition (Java SE), JavaFX, Linux, Windows Embedded Compact 7, Symbian and Ubuntu.
ARM are targeting not only mobile computers and smartphones but low-power servers and high-end digital home entertainment systems with the Cortex A15, with smartphones using 1-1.5GHz versions of Eagle while home servers might get the 1.5-2.5GHz chips. That’s more a limitation of power consumption than anything else. The first ARM Cortex A15 chips are expected in 2013 from TI and others.
Press Release:
ARM Unveils Cortex-A15 Mpcore Processor to Dramatically Accelerate Capabilities of Mobile, Consumer and Infrastructure Applications
Unprecedented levels of performance, power-efficiency, and technology leadership accelerate industry momentum to deliver extraordinarily innovative products
CAMBRIDGE, UK– SEPT 8, 2010 – ARM today introduced the Cortex™-A15 MPCore processor that delivers a 5x performance improvement over today’s advanced smartphone processors, within a comparable energy footprint. In advanced infrastructure applications the Cortex-A15 processor running at up to 2.5GHz will enable highly scalable solutions within constantly shrinking energy, thermal and cost budgets. The Cortex-A15 processor is available for licensing today and is targeted at manufacture in 32nm, 28nm, and future geometries.
As the latest addition to ARM’s Cortex-A family of processors, the Cortex-A15 MPCore processor will enable a new and vast array of products ranging from next-generation smartphones, tablets, large-screen mobile computing and high-end digital home entertainment devices through to wireless basestations and enterprise infrastructure products.
“The launch of the Cortex-A15 MPCore processor marks the beginning of an entirely new era for the ARM Partnership. It brings together more than 20 years of ARM expertise in low-power design with a host of new and very aggressive high-performance technologies,” said Mike Inglis, EVP and GM, Processor Division, ARM. “The Cortex-A15 MPCore processor will become the next major step along the industry’s energy efficient computing roadmap and open up a wide range of new application possibilities for our Partners.”
The debut of the Cortex-A15 MPCore processor enhances the ARM Cortex-A Series of processors by providing the electronics industry with the broadest range of software and feature-set compatible processors. The Cortex-A15 extends the capabilities of the ARM Cortex-A Series by adding efficient hardware support for OS virtualization, soft-error recovery, larger memory addressability and system coherency. While remaining true to ARM’s power-efficient design heritage, the Cortex-A15 MPCore processor brings a new level of performance scalability as well as a feature set that enables ARM Partners to address a range of innovative and traditional markets with a single processor architecture.
The Cortex-A15 also enjoys full application compatibility with all of the other highly acclaimed Cortex-A processors. This enables immediate access to an established developer and software ecosystem including Android™, Adobe® Flash® Player, Java Platform Standard Edition (Java SE), JavaFX, Linux, Microsoft® Windows® Embedded Compact 7, Symbian® and Ubuntu, along with more than 700 ARM Connected Community™ members providing applications software, hardware and software development tools, middleware and SoC design services.
“The operational and economic benefits of cloud computing will transform the high-tech industry over the next decade. Everything from the handheld devices to the network infrastructure will require more performance and efficiency to handle the increasing amounts of information that will emerge from the use of remote resources,” said Jim McGregor, Chief Technology Strategist at In-Stat. “ARM has been at the core of the mobile industry and the Cortex-A15 MPCore and accompanying technologies extends the potential for this highly efficient and flexible architecture to other applications critical to our connected world.”
Collaborative differentiation through partnership continues to be the main driver of the ARM business model and the launch of the Cortex-A15 MPCore processor is the result of ARM’s work with lead licensee partners Samsung, ST Ericsson and Texas Instruments, who were key drivers of the definition of the processor, ensuring it meets the key challenges faced by the industry.
“The market’s demand for more functionality and connectivity with low power consumption requires ever more advanced processor, system and chip design. By combining the advanced CPU technology from ARM with Samsung’s world leading chip design and manufacturing capabilities, Samsung has already achieved considerable success in offering high performances and low power Application Processor products to the market place,” said Yiwan Wong, VP of SoC Marketing, System LSI Division, Samsung Electronics. “We believe this new Cortex-A15 MPCore processor core from ARM, with its quantum leap in processing capabilities, will successfully enable many next-generation electronic products and redefine the level of experience consumers will demand from their smartphones and mobile computing devices.”
“We have entered a new era for smart devices where wireless computing solutions bring 3D navigation, augmented reality, HD video filming, high speed broadband and other advanced capabilities to more consumers, enabling our vision of an all-connected world,” said Edgar Auslander, Senior Vice President, Strategic Planning at ST-Ericsson. “Following our pioneering single die integration of modem and application engine featuring a dual Cortex-A9 processor, we are pleased to continue to work with ARM as a lead partner for the Cortex-A15 MPCore processor. Integrated into our leading-edge system-on-chip solutions, the new ARM core will enable our customers to build extremely power-efficient devices with an unprecedented level of performance.”
“As a long-term key partner, TI has worked with ARM for 17 years to innovate and deliver more than 3 billion ARM processor-based system-on-chip (SoC) devices. As an advanced lead partner and first licensee of the Cortex-A15 MPCore processor, we look forward to leveraging the Cortex-A15 core to deliver industry-leading processors that will provide the high performance demanded by the next generation of connected devices, all within a low power envelope. When pairing the Cortex-A15 MPCore processor with TI’s SmartReflex™ 3 technology, future OMAP applications processors will yield a 60 percent reduction in power, enabling TI to continue delivering the industry’s most energy-efficient, high performing solutions. We also see the potential for broader market implementations, leveraging the Cortex-A15 core for home entertainment and multimedia applications,” said Remi El-Ouazzane, vice president, OMAP platform business unit, TI.
Supporting Technology
The Cortex-A15 MPCore processor will be supported by specifically optimized ARM Physical IP that was developed jointly with the processor. These optimizations enable rapid development of leadership physical implementations, initially targeting 32nm and 28nm technologies with a roadmap extending to 20nm.
The processor is also supported by a broad range of ARM technology including the AMBA 4 compliant CoreLink™ system IP, CoreSight™ debug and trace IP, Mali Graphics, and a robust set of development tools. This technology is complemented by a broad range of SoC and software design solutions, tools and services from the ARM Connected Community™ ecosystem to provide ARM Partners with a smooth path through the development, verification and production of full function, compelling devices while significantly reducing time-to-market.
For details on the specific new features and capabilities of the Cortex-A15 MPCore processor and the supporting technology go to http://www.arm.com/products/processors/cortex-a/cortex-a15.php
The rumors were true, the Apple TV really has slimmed-down, gotten wise to streaming and turned itself into an affordable and tempting home entertainment device. We grabbed some hands-on time with the impressively compact media player after the Apple keynote, and while we’ll need to get one into our living room to know exactly how well the Apple TV’s new rental focus delivers, we’ve still got some first impressions after the cut.
Ditching the hard-drive and switching to Apple’s A4 processor has obviously meant the Apple TV can be smaller, but it’s still a surprise when you first encounter it. Palm-sized, fanless and with no moving parts, it’s silent just like a Roku or Netflix box, but comfortably exceeds it on features. The bundled aluminum remote – which has been available for some time now – has just enough controls to navigate through the straightforward UI, though we did find ourselves wishing for a QWERTY keyboard like the Boxee Box by D-Link will offer.
On the back, connections are pared down to just HDMI, optical digital audio, power and ethernet – 10/100 rather than gigabit – and so hooking up the Apple TV will be reasonably straightforward as long as your HDTV is relatively recent. There’s a microUSB port, too, though Apple tells us that will only be used for “service and support”; presumably loading new versions of the custom OS that the Apple TV runs. Contrary to the early rumors, there’s no iOS App Store on here, but that’s certainly something Apple could deliver in a future firmware update should they decide to.
Navigation is quick and simple, and picture quality was impressively high given the speed at which the streams began.
The Apple TV is available for preorder now, priced at $99, with deliveries expected in around four weeks time.
