Product Description

WD TV Mini media player is an easy, affordable way to watch digital media on your big screen TV. Simply plug in WD’s My Passport portable hard drive, or similar USB drive, and play movies, music, and photos in a wide variety of file formats, including Real Media (RMVB) format. There’s no limit to the size of your media collection; just add more drives for more movies. Supports DVD-quality video playback. Also works with most popular USB drives, digital cameras, and camcorders.

Product Details

• Color: Black
• Brand: Western Digital
• Model: WDBAAL0000NBK-NESN
• Format: CD
• Dimensions: .80" h x 3.60" w x 3.60" l, 1.15 pounds

Features

• DVD-quality playback
• Play media from your USB drive
• Collect without limits
• Real Media playback
• Supports a wide variety of video, photo and music formats

Accessories Items

	AmazonBasics RJ45 Cat5e Ethernet Patch Cable (14 Feet / 4.2 Meters) Price: $4.77 AmazonBasics products are quality electronics accessories offered at a great value....
	AmazonBasics RJ45 Cat5e Ethernet Patch Cable (50 Feet / 15.2 Meters) Price: $12.15 AmazonBasics products are quality electronics accessories offered at a great value....
	Western Digital My Passport Essential 320 GB USB 2.0 Portable External Hard Drive WDBAAA3200ABK-NESN (Midnight Black) Price: $99.99 $69.00 The world’s most popular portable drive is now smaller than ever. And it’s smarter than ever with WD SmartWare data management and backup software that backs up your data automatically and continuously, shows your backup as it happens, and restores lost files effortlessly. Password protection and military-grade, 256-bit hardware-based encryption lets you secure your data....
	SanDisk Ultra Backup 64 GB USB 2.0 Flash Drive SDCZ40-064G-A11 Price: $179.99 $149.00 Introducing the first USB flash drive with a backup button. No wires, no fuss, just an easier way to protect your favorite photos, videos, songs so you’ll always have them with you. Back up critical files at the touch of a button with the SanDisk Ultra® Backup USB Flash Drive. With up to 8GB of storage, choose the size you need to protect your digital valuables wherever you...
	Western Digital Hard Carrying Case for My Passport Portable Drives WDBABJ0000NBK-NRSN - Black Price: $19.99 $5.91 Transport your Passport drives in style. This custom-designed black/red case, featuring a molded EVA shell that creates a protective barrier around the drive. Black Gucci nylon covers the exterior for exceptional durability. Featured include: Inside cable pocket, Black exterior and red interior suede lining. Designed for My Passport Essential, My Passport Studio, and WD...

Similar Items

	Western Digital WD TV HD Media Player WDBABF0000NBK-NESN Price: $129.99 $81.95 WD TV HD Media Player turns your My Passport, or similar USB drive, into an HD media player. Supports Full-HD 1080p video playback and navigation of a wide variety of file types. Simply plug in your drive to the HD media player. No need to delete movies to make room for more; simply add another USB drive to expand your collection....
	Sony SMPU10 USB Media Player (Black) Price: $69.99 $41.99 Watch DivX videos in near HD-quality, view JPEG photos in HD, and listen to MP3s all on your TV using USB devices....
	Western Digital WD TV Live Network-ready HD Media Player WDBAAN0000NBK-NESN Price: $149.99 $90.95 The WD TV Live HD Media Player from Western Digital has everything you need to play your HD media collection and the fun stuff you find on the web in brilliant HD 1080p on your big screen HDTV. Because it supports a wide variety of file types, you can instantly enjoy all your home digital media, regardless of the file format. Plus you get direct access to a huge selection of...
	ASUS O!Play - TV HD Media Player (Black) ASUS O!Play is the most convenient way access your media files on your TV. This device is easy to use and highly compatible with many video and audio formats. Equipped with an eSATA, USB, and LAN port, you can access your files from an external hard drive, PC, or NAS. The O!Play even supports HDMI so you can display your content in 1080p....
	Nbox Media Player for Tv Supports Sd/usb Flash Drive/usb External Hard Drive - Plays Divx/avi/rmvb/rm/xvid/mpg Price: $24.50 Features: 1)The high-speed USB2.0 interface supports "hot plugging"and enables connection with such equipment as digital cameras and portable drives. 2)It supports portable memory drives such as MMC, SD cards and USB hard disks. 3)For convenience, a remote control is provided. 4)Supports JPEG, BMP and GIF picture formats as well as several special effects for on screen...

ListmaniaLists Items

• The Future Of Electronics

Customer Reviews

Small and attractive but limited capabilites compared to WDTV
Pros:
+ very small and minimalist design, akin to the Apple TV. It's square and flat. Measures 3.6 x 3.6 x 0.8 tall.
+ plays RMVB @ 1024x576x24, 1024x576x30, or 800x600x30
+ $20 cheaper than WDTV
+ great support for various music formats, including the lesser known FLAC (free loss-less audio codec), OGG, and APE
+ retains the look and feel of the WD TV interface (mostly)

Cons:
- no HDMI output
- no MKV support
- 1 USB port

The $20 price difference does not make this an attractive buy when compared to its fully-featured big brother, the popular Western Digital WD TV HD Media Player. The only reason you might buy this instead of the much better WDTV is for RMVB support, but the trade-off simply does not add up.

A "wide variety of file formats" is a subjective term here. WD added RMVB support, but took away MKV, one of the player's biggest selling points. RMVB is only useful if you intend to watch a lot of internet-downloaded shows from mainland China/Hong Kong, as the low CPU requirements for this format makes it a popular choice for encoders there. For hi-def encodes, MKV is the format of choice.

For audio, the only new format is APE, which is very rare and unlikely to be of use to the vast majority of users. You also lose AIFF support with the Mini, but that is unimportant.

It's advertised by WD as being "small enough to take with you", but the WDTV was already compact enough to transport. The Mini flew in under the radar, just like the WD TV originally did, but it's a puzzling new addition to the product line considering the existence of the superior WD TV and the anticipated release of the WDTV's successor.

WDTV owners have been clamoring for network support for a long time, and I'm surprised WD went and devoted resources to making this new, under-powered (and un-asked for) product instead of putting all their efforts into bringing the WDTV 2 to market earlier (officially called the WD TV Live Network-ready HD Media Player).

If you need a player right now and don't need RM/RMVB support, I recommend the WDTV instead of saving the $20 here. If you can wait 2 months for the release of the WDTV 2, then wait. It will have network support (wired) and DTS-downmix (so you don't need a separate audio receiver), 2 very big and important additions requested by users. If WDTV 2 retains RMVB, it will be the best of both worlds.

UPDATE: 10/30/2009. The WDTV Live is out now. It's networked and WiFi enabled (via third party USB dongle). If you need RMVB playback and networking, you may wish to consider the excellent (if homely) ASUS O!Play - TV HD Media Player (Black)

Good media player for SD contents
Pros:
-Easy to use for people just want to play and enjoy contents. It is pretty much as easy to use as your TV. This is designed for general consumers than the techies.
-Play SD movies and RMVB materials really well. It will play the dvd menu and the entire movie if you select the VIDEO_TS folder. No need to manually play each VOB file and no need to create iso file either. I have not encountered any issues playing movies or RMVB files since I received this player two months ago. Subtitles and language tracks all played properly. This is also the only WD player that will play RMVB.
-Good video quality. When connected to my 40" LCD TV, video quality from 1080i output seems to be very good for both movie and RMVB materials. I do not see perceivable differences between the mini and my oppo dvd player in daily viewing. Quality from composite output is fine for what you would expect of such signal.
-Energy efficient. Consumes 5 watts when powering an external usb drive. 4 watts if a flash drive is used. It also cuts power to the attached player-powered usb drive when off. This player does not get hot even while powering a usb drive.

Cons:
-Video cables come with the player are short. You have to position the player close to TV and that limits the placement flexibility. These cables are proprietary design so you can not easily swap them out with regualr cables.
-No support for 1080p output. No hdmi so you have to run video and audio cables separately to your tv/receives.

This player has served me well for what I seeks. With the current going price this may be a good choice for people looking to enjoy their SD collections now and wait for better HD players and contents couple years down the road.

Only good for RMVB and low resolution videos
Pros:
-Tiny, play Real Media videos, nice menu with preview.
Cons:
-Cannot play any videos 720P or higher, Hi def MKV, MP4 videos do not work. Only the low resolution RMVB and AVI videos work well.
-1080i Max (?, but 720 RMVB did not work), NO HDMI.
Other thought:
If you have large library of RMVB, it is worth a try.
Got it from newegg for $79, it will probably be returned because of lack of HD video format support. Hopefully the WD TV 2 will support RMVB, it reportely comes with network interface.