Western Digital WD TV Live Plus Digital HD Media Streamer

Play media from your home network and the Internet on your big screen TV. Plus, enjoy access to your Netflix unlimited membership and other premium content. Don't confine your movies, music, and photos to your small computer screen. Experience themas big as life on your TV in Full-HD 1080p with WD TV Live™ Plus HD media player.

Bought this item to use as 1 product of others I'll need to shut down the satellite service we now have. I consider this item inexpensive to purchase and it was refurbished, which I am not opposed to on certain items (NOT all items). This unit is very small (took me back at first glance). Should fit just about anywhere. Excellent performance for what it's intended to do. Just a short lag startup time to get it going. Three different types of hookups available for different types of TV's. Haven't tried the USB ports (2 of them) yet. Not much to the thing and this is good (not much to confuse you). Unfortunately, most of the stuff I'd want to watch are not full length here - just snippets of 1 to 10 minutes long. Like watching shameless trailers. Those that do run full on (Netflix, Pandora, etc) look and sound great. I only have 1.5 Mbs service on fiber optical, but streaming 1080P is no problem unless something else is utilizing the bandwidth such as a laptop. Reducing down to 720P free's things up a bit from that dilemma, but there's no immediate button for this. Must be done in setup as far a I can tell. Love the Flingo addition to it's listings and that one's free. Unhappy with the lack of adding in alot of different internet apps, but will do the basic stuff rather nicely. I needed a blue-ray player to upgrade my system and purchased one with internet capabilities. That appliance works so well and has many, numerous apps to download that it replaced this unit as my main TV viewing appliance, but I plan on still using the WD for those shows (like Flingo) that I can't get on the new BD. Buy this if budget is low for such items and demands for appliance is realized to be of basic (movies, vids, music) needs. I'd recommend it.

The WD TV Live features industry-leading format support and built-in Wi-Fi. Its broad selection of streaming services includes Spotify, Netflix, Hulu Plus, and Pandora, among many others. The interface is friendly, and video and sound quality are as good as you'd expect.

simply the WD TV Live is the best full-featured media streamer you can buy today,

I originally read the review in my Jan issue of Maximum PC, which compared this unit favorably (got a 9 KickA$$ rating) to the Netgear NeoTV200, although the reviewer mentioned it had an integrated wireless n adapter, which it does not. I did have a Netgear wireless n adapter (WNDA3100), which I popped into one of the two available usb ports, configured and successfully had Netflix up and running. I wasn't always able to get the best resolution through wireless, so I ran a cat6 cable to the unit and now have Netflix and all the other included internet media streaming applets running perfectly.
I've read other reviews complaining about what a hassle it is to program and enter text using the small remote that comes with it, and, although it is just like most remotes that don't come with an attached keyboard, I was able to use a wireless keyboard through a usb port without a hitch. So if you plan on using Facebook or anything else that requires a lot of typing, I'd recommend that method. Just for Netflix, it's not necessary.
The only other minor issue I noticed, if it can even be called an issue, is that the rear usb port is a bit recessed and the wireless adapter I mentioned earlier would not fit completely in that port--the side port had no such issue, however.
So, my opinion of this product is high, however the wife and I have only had it for a week or so, so I can't attest to longevity. It is relatively easy to set up though, and we liked watching Netflix with it enough to have shut off our cable tv service.

This is an upgrade to the original model without wifi and what a difference it makes. The media selection interface is just soooo much easier to use and even lets you delete files you no longer need. The link to preloaded websites is ok too but not really the kind of thing I'd do on my tv when the laptop is so nearby. But speaking of the laptop here's the neat thing. You can transfer what ever media is on your laptop or other computer directly to the hard disk attached to the box. So no more unplugging, usb transfer time. It's direct. As always with WD the advantage is the long long list of compatible formats it will play. I just love it. Now I need a HDTV to go along with it. The remote works fine, a little soft on the buttons but again just a super experience.