Western Digital's WDTV is widely accepted as one of the most capable media jukeboxes on the market, being easy to use with an excellent interface and wide range of format support. The only thing lacking was the ability to stream media over a network, something that has now been addressed with the release of the WDTV Live.

The new box apes the dimensions of the original almost exactly, making it one of the most compact on the market, and now adds a component connection to the standard composite and HDMI for up to 1080p playback, with optical available for audio.

Twin USB ports allow you to attach external storage and, like the WDTV, there's no hard drive built in, so this along with access to networked storage will be required in order to gain access to media. We were disappointed to note that there's no built-in wireless support, though Western Digital does list a series of compatible adapters on its site for those who would rather avoid stringing wires around the home.

It comes as no surprise to see that the WDTV Live retains the same excellent interface as its predecessor, offering fast and easy access to the range of configurable settings and media files utilising category searches of artist/genre/album for music, as well as the ability to search via date, folders and recently viewed content for all media. This makes it easy to browse large collections of files, which cannot be said of many rivals, and of course it's now possible to view files over a network as well as local drives.

Setup here is straightforward and in most cases the WDTV Live will automatically configure network settings as soon as it detects an appropriate connection. It uses SAMBA folder shares and so requires you to share appropriate folders in Windows before they can be viewed, but considering the presence of localised category searches this does seem like an appropriate choice.

Video streaming quality is excellent in most cases, and although we did notice some issues with audio compatibility when viewing some HD content, the vast majority of our varied selection of test files were handled with aplomb. It's possible to search back and forth through files with little or no buffer delay and there's subtitle support, zoom, pan and repeat controls for tweaking playback. A range of controls for audio are typical of what you'd find on a decent MP3 player and, similarly, slideshow and transition control makes it a joy to view photo collections on the big screen.

The WDTV Live also allows you to view online content through a television, though this is fairly limited at present and the main site that will be of interest is YouTube. There's both good and bad news on this front. We were impressed by the buffer speed and playback quality over a network connection; it's possible to log into a personal account or view via favourites, featured content and by searching manually.

This latter option is rather awkward due to the restrictive nature of the remote control, which requires you to scroll through keys using an on-screen keyboard and is a rather cumbersome approach. Strangely it's not possible to browse back and forth through YouTube media either, so once a video starts playing you have very little control.

Despite these drawbacks there are plenty of good things to say about the WDTV Live and perhaps the most significant of these is the price. At £99.99 it's far cheaper than most rivals offering similar features: consider the excellent NetGear EVA9150, which offers the same core benefits but will set you back more than three times as much, to see exactly what you're getting for your money here.

In this light the lack of built-in wireless and issues with YouTube playback seem like justifiable sacrifices for such a significant saving, and as such we're still inclined to recommend the WDTV Live as a versatile and powerful jukebox that represents superb value for money.

Verdict
The WDTV Live is compact, powerful and extremely easy to use, offering excellent playback support for a wide range of digital media. It's not perfect, but the low price goes a long way towards compensating for its faults, and in this light it would be difficult not to offer it a hearty recommendation.

Company: Western Digital

Contact: 01372 36 0055

Tags: youtube western digital hdmi universal serial bus windows multimedia music and audio mp3