I have not purchased a music CD in ten years.  Like most tech geeks, I buy my music online.  The very idea of owning a silver disc filled with just forty-five minutes of music makes my skin crawl like Regan from The Exorcist.  I would just as soon use the disc as a coaster than stick it in some machine to play music, and the so-called jewel case just takes up space in my life that might otherwise be filled with less obsolete junk (like my prized fertility doll from Raiders Of The Lost Ark!).

The revelation of living without movies on silver discs may have arrived more belatedly than the chucking of my music CDs, but arrived it has.  I stare at the solid wall of movies invading my living room space and I want to have myself a silver disc skeet shoot .

Enter the WD TV from Western Digital.  This small unobtrusive device allows you to watch movies from any USB hard drive.  It outputs via HDMI cable to your HDTV.  It supports a massive variety of video formats, including MKV, and supports resolutions up to 1080p.  As a bonus, it also plays music from your hard drive and shows off your family photos as well, provided you have time for a family with all the movie-watching you’ll be doing.

Best of all, the device is small and noiseless.  Before the WD TV, I was using the Xbox 360 as a media extender.  Someone might want to inform the designers at Microsoft that their cooling fans do not have to come from decommissioned 747s.  The WD TV was the ideal replacement.  At just $100 retail, it was a no-brainer.

The interface is straight-forward and intuitive.  The device turns on instantly and goes into a menu that displays either all of your movies, or sorts them by folders on the hard drive, which comes in very handy for organization.  The menu will display either poster art or a simple file listing, depending on your preferences.  Like most devices of this kind, it remembers where you left off or lets you start over.

Like myself, the remote control is simple but effective.  No need for numerical buttons or channel or volume controls.  Fast-forwarding and rewinding are smooth and responsive.

On the negative side, the device only supports chapters for MKV files, not mp4.  Western Digital does release regular firmware updates, which are very easy to apply, so I hope they can address this problem sooner rather than later.  The last update added numerous menu controls that give me some hope in the future of the device.

For questions on how to get the movies onto the device in the first place, I will simply refer you to Google.  As for my DVD collection, it now joins my music CDs in the dark and damp catacombs of my back room closet.

Comment on this article by clicking here