HD Supernova – A Review of WD’s New HD Media Player

So you finally decide to do away with your old but faithful 29 inch conventional TV. You want to step up a few notches, keep up with the times, and perhaps with the neighbors. You go out and get yourself a brand new HD Ready LCD TV. Despite the stratospheric price, you are pleased as punch, as you have your spanking new piece de resistance wall mounted, to give it its rightful pride of place in your living room.

Something vital is still missing. You are not terribly happy with the sound of your new LCD (after all, they are paper thin, what kind of sound can you really expect!). Plus, you really can’t show off properly until you’ve completed the package with a proper sound system. You buy a state-of-the-art Home Theatre System.

‘Neighbor’s Envy, Owner’s Pride’, those vaguely familiar words from your childhood race through your head. You swell with pride. You gloat in your accomplishment. You are smug in the realization that you’ll never have to return to a theater again!

WRONG!!! You put on your television, pop in a film, and realize – it just does not look as good as it did in the showroom!!

I tell you from personal experience, this is precisely the mistake I made just recently. The fact is, like a lot of things in this country, the ‘primary’ is available, but the ‘peripheral’ is non-existent. Take our airports for example, they are each being converted into efficient, modern, cutting edge travel & transit hubs. That’s great. But the ancillary infrastructure is totally missing. So while you have the fantastic Bangalore airport, you have absolutely no roads to get to it. Similarly, you have the very latest LCD TV’s out there, but no cable service that transmits a true HD image. There are the best home theatre systems money can buy, but on them, we end up viewing low resolution DVD’s and then wonder why the picture is not good enough (suspecting the TV, who’s fault it really isn’t).

So is there a way you can salvage your seemingly wasteful LCD home theatre splurge? Oh yes there is.

The Western Digital HD Media Player; what is simply otherwise called, the WD TV. And while we are on price, and before I can familiarize you with this wonder-gadget, lets right away tackle the cost issue. It is only 7,500 rupees! So if you had started getting sweaty palms wondering how you’ll justify another large purchase (after the financial debacle of the home theatre), worry not. And do not click your mouse to navigate away from this just yet either. Stay with me…

The WD TV. Those acquainted with external hard drives (and most of us ‘downloading champs’ are), would know Western Digital well. They are the leading manufacturers of external hard drives. What that immediately addresses (as tends to be the case especially with gadgets) are quality & reliability issues. So this is WD we are talking about, not some cheap rip-off kind of brand.

Its a seriously simple device actually. The WD TV is a one-box HD Media Player. It supports a very wide range of audio & video file formats, and plays true HD content upto 1080p on your LCD/TV. Now all that HD or Non-HD content you download on your computer can simply be put onto a hard rive, the hard drive plugged into the HD Player, and you are ready to experience rich viewing and listening on your large screens and home theatre systems. It has 2 USB ports (where 2 external USB 2 drives can be plugged simultaneously and run). Connectivity is basic but good. You can connect the HD TV to your home theatre amp/receiver or directly to your LCD/TV using the supplied Composite AV cables (one end from the AV outs behind the tiny media player, while the other end into the AV In of your TV/Receiver). However, to enjoy the true talents of the HD Player, you ought to buy your own HDMI cable and connect using this. The unit is supplied with its own tiny remote, that helps you conveniently perform a host of functions that include zooming, panning, skipping, fast forward & rewind, resume etc. Not only can you playback your audio & video content using hard drives, the HD Player also connects to most modern Digital Cameras and HD Camcorders, so you can directly play your recordings and share them with family, all on your flat panel TV! The best part, the package comes with its own software that helps you format and organize your hard drive to give you even more options and ease of operation for your data.

And if you are worried that after all the already existing equipment you’ll have no space left for an additional gadget; no such problems!! Like a shrunk version of WD’s own My Book hard drive, the WD TV is an adorable, cute little mini-me version of the hard drive. No problems about its portability, and it will hardly take away any space from your entertainment consoles!

This is one simple, thoroughly usable, value-for-money HD gadget. For all you people suffering poor picture on your expensive big screen HD TV’s, its a MUST HAVE. You can find out more about this product here.

Just one note of caution (that actually connects to my earlier ‘rant’ about peripherals not being available) – the WD TV, though officially launched in the Indian market, is hard to come by. None of the larger electronics mega stores (Vijay Sales, Croma etc) have had the good sense to stock this product. So no point wasting time going to them. They’ll be convinced you are asking for a Hard Drive the moment you mention Western Digital! Look instead in your city/town’s computer market. In Delhi, I know you’ll find this at Nehru Place. Similarly, in Mumbai you can buy the WD TV in Lamington Road. If you are in an area that does not have a robust computer market, you can also try the more established online shopping portals like Rediff or eBay India

And when you have experienced the true delight of HD viewing on the WD HD Media Player, you’ll have me to thank!

[Kartik Bajoria, a regular contributor, runs his own creative agency called BOLD & is also involved in Films & Music as a force of habit!]

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