Hi.
I'm Ty Pendlebury and this is the review of the WD TV Play.
If you're like me, you're looking for a media player that will read from your library of music and videos as well as stream from services such as Netflix and Spotify.
While boxes such as the Roku HD and Apple TV are great, they are both limited in their own ways.
If I was buying a new stream today, I would probably get this new WD TV.
This is a 70-dollar set top player about the size
of your wallet, and it includes an impressive number of connections including HDMI, USB, Ethernet and wireless, optical digital, and an AV out.
The player offers a simplified user interface from previous players in the line doing away with the confusing colored buttons and upgrading to a better remote at the same time.
The interface is very configurable with a My Favorites page which lets you choose which of the 30 apps you want shortcuts to.
Even the remote shortcuts can be changed as well.
The player is more versatile than most other players
in its field due to a large number of supported download formats in addition to its streaming services.
The Slingbox app also comes in handy.
Whether I was using DLNA or streaming Netflix, I encountered no problems at all and playback was smooth, and I also found it easy to navigate my media.
While the competing NeoTV offers a laptop-mirroring feature, you need a recent Intel laptop to take advantage of it, plus their player isn't as good.
For the price, there isn't another player that can do the number of things the WD TV player can do
and also do them quite as well.
This is Ty Pendlebury for CNET.com
