I have try out the WDTV units for 2 weeks now. In fact I have sold many units of it now and still have a couple sitting in my house waiting for delivery. Now I am not a dealer or anything like that, but I just help my friends purchase it and setup for them.

All I can say is that the WDTV rocks! It can play HD mkv files up to 1080P. When you say the quality can't compare to the Bluray, I fully agee with you, but I can tell you that the quality of mkv files can be damn good that you can't really tell much difference between bluray and mkv. With 1TB WD HDD that comes with 1000 movies/concert...i can tell you that this guys is going for quantity and not quality. I have a few WD 1TB Essential HD and I can only put around 200 HD movies in it. And those mkv movies that I have is only slightly inferior to bluray and i really don't mind at all.

I have a few 1080P mkv movies that is more than 10GB in size and I can tell you that the quality is absolutely great.

So the bottom line is that the WDTV can display FULL HD video with clear, sharp and details video if you have the right HD contents for it.

The WDTV does carry audio on the HDMI. For those who would like 5.1 or 6.1 surround, you need an optical cable. The WDTV can decode AC3(dolby Digital) but has no on board DTS decoder(common guys...this things only cost RM399) so you need a receiver with DTS decoder if you want to enjoy DTS sound.

The WDTV can also support multiple audio channels and subtitiles which can be turn on & off.

Besides that the WDTV can even play your favorites music and supports FLAC lossless audio for the audiophiles.

For the price and features...I think this is the best media player money can buy.

This post has been edited by lightning69: Mar 1 2009, 11:05 AM

I am not sure about HD audio passthru because I don't have a receiver that support it and I am not planning to get one soon. For me those DTS and Dolby Digital sounds that comes with the MKV files already sound awesome on my Denon AVR3808 and you can hardly get mkv files with HD audio. So far I am absolutely satisfy with the picture and audio quality of my 300+ mkv collections.

My mistake..its denon3806 i think...i am not at home so cannot confirm.

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Added on March 2, 2009, 7:08 pmI think your problem is specific to that particular movies. All my mkv files are from bluray and those sound are rip right off the bluray audio so the sound should stay true to the original sources. And by the way, even those AC3 5.1 sound awesome.

This post has been edited by lightning69: Mar 2 2009, 07:08 PM

For those that don't play...just use the program MKV2Vob and re-encode it. I have 1080P Transformer that pixelate but then i reencode it with mkv2vob and came out beautifully.

It took me about 12 hrs to re-encode 12GB 1080P Transformer. Not too bad. Somehow the Transformer file I downloaded doesn't play on my PS3 and also pixelate when play on my WDTV so i have no choice but to send it thru MKV2VOB and then it plays smoothly and no noticeable loss of quality.

I dont' think its firmware problem. I have many mkv files that can be recognise and play on my PS3 via PS3MediaServer, but this Transformer file cannot be play too. And it cannot be play on the WDTV too... I just think that the person who encode the video is not doing something right that cause the compatibilty issue.

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Added on March 5, 2009, 3:49 pmI have Planet Earth series and Transformer in 1080P with bitrate above 10000 and they play fine on the WDTV.



This post has been edited by lightning69: Mar 5 2009, 03:49 PM

Yes, I play my lossless flac music with WDTV and the audio quality is awesome. What do you "how to navigate the screen"? I suppose just like how you navigate the video files.

Use x264(slow) and output to m2ts. If you are using the latest version mkv2vob, make sure you check Always Tanscode DTS for those DTS audio mkv or else there will be no sound.

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Added on March 9, 2009, 7:21 pmNo problem streaming HD content via ethernet at all. I am streaming 1080P content to my LCD via PS3media server all the time. Buttery smooth!!!

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Added on March 9, 2009, 7:31 pmThe WDTV do support DTS but its implementation is still very flaw now. Most of my DTS mkv plays but with the audio clipping every 5 sec. So i have to convert file to m2ts with ac3 audio using mkv2vob.

Anyone who knows how to run DTS mkv smooth on the WDTV?

This post has been edited by lightning69: Mar 9 2009, 07:31 PM

Guide

You can go to playasia.com to order TOSlink at US$3.90 per cable. In fact I just order 10 about an hour ago.

I notice there are 2 types of remote for the WDTV. The very first batch i order came with piano black finish remote, but the newer batch comes with matte finish remote. The Piano black one is beautiful.

I think the newer ones all matte finish. Sad! So I will keep the last piano black controller for myself.

Most of the MKV with DTS audio would have audio clipping issues every 5 secs. AC3 audios is ok.

Can you provide your WDTV setting details here so I can try out.

Yep, Band of brothers is definitely clipping every 5 seconds and i think most DTS audio MKV have the same problem. I don't think its the problem of my AV receiver. I am using denon AVR3805.

Its the problem with the WDTV firmware. I read form other forums that many people having the same problem. Some mkv with DTS plays fine,, but some just have the clipping audio problem.

This post has been edited by lightning69: Mar 10 2009, 05:53 PM

Lowyat is a only 2 hrs flight from where I live. If only someone would care to post it here for sale, then he would have got some business from me.

This is very strange. Need more time to experiment on this.

I just try out all my DTS mkv and they all play fine except Band of Brothers. The other thing I discover is that the clipping only occurs to those mkv files with 2 audio stream.

Just set WDTV to your TV resolution manually. If you have a good LCD TV that can do a good job upscaling video, you might want to try to set the WDTV to your movies resolution you are watching everytime and leave the upscaling to your tv.

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Added on March 12, 2009, 6:09 pmFully agree with you. If you have a Rm20 HDMI cable that works fine, the picture quality will be the same as a Rm10k HDMI cable. The only difference is between your ears!

This post has been edited by lightning69: Mar 12 2009, 06:09 PM

I think your problem is a faulty unit. You might want to go for warranty.

You might want to try witha different HDD. It might also be due to slow HDD?