WD (Western Digital) launched it's WD TV Live HD Media Player in the Indian Market today featuring network capability and Full-HD 1080p resolution. For all those who have seen and experienced the WD TV HD Media Player, the WD TV 'Live' adds a better interface,  an Ethernet port, streaming of contents from popular sites such as YouTube, Flickr, Pandora and Live365, HDMI 1.3 port, composite video as well as a component video output. It can also play the movies and photos stored on your digital cameras, camcorders and portable media players.

We got a chance to preview the player and it looks quite promising. The User Interface is neatly done, adding categories for Music (such as Albums, Genre etc), and it was easy to navigate. The display on the HDTV would have been better had the TV been Full-HD but none-the-less, the player was quick to load the HD Movies and display the HD Images. The remote control was easy to operate and the HD menus looked stunning on the display. It supports a wide range of Media Formats. Also, there's no problem as far as storage is concerned, since you can add more portable drives for extra space.

Here are some pictures from the preview event:

The Features of the WD TV Live HD media Player include -

• Full-HD 1080p video playback and navigation with the included remote control and crisp, animated navigation menus;
• Play a wide variety of file formats including support for a wide variety of the most popular file formats with no need to spend time transcoding;
• Play videos, music and photos from the Internet on your big screen TV and discover new music with Pandora Internet radio or listen to thousands of radio stations via Live365 Internet radio;
• Ethernet port for wired or WiFi connection (WiFi adapter is needed which is sold separately) to access files anywhere on the network to play movies, music, and photos from any PC or drive on a home network;
• Turns a USB drive (optimized for use with WD's My Passport portable hard drives) into an HD media player and plays content from most popular USB drives, and digital cameras, camcorders, and portable media players that can be recognized as mass storage devices;
• Unlimited media collection, just add more USB drives for more space;
• Two USB ports for seamless media playback from multiple USB drives and ability to access them simultaneously while a media library feature collects the content on all the drives into one list sorted by media type;
• Transfer files by copying, moving or deleting files stored on a USB drive, a network drive,  camcorder, or a camera to the attached USB drive using the on-screen menus;
• Picture Transfer Protocol support to show photos and movies directly from digital camera or video camera and or any digital imaging device that supports Picture Transfer Protocol;
• Advanced navigation options including thumbnail and list views, media library and search;
• Photo viewing to create custom slide shows, zoom and pan and search;
• Movie viewing with fast-forward, rewind, pause, zoom and pan, view subtitles, and search;
• Music playback with fast-forward, rewind, pause, shuffle, repeat and search;
• File copying between USB devices;
• HDMI® 1.3 port, composite video and component video output for the highest quality HDTV or home theater;
• SPDIF digital output that sends digital signals to your AV receiver for the best surround sound experience; and,
• Ultra-compact design to fit easily into a home entertainment center.

Pricing and Availability:

The WD TV Live Media Player is priced at Rs. 10,500 covered by a 1-year limited warranty and is available through select distributors & retailers. The price, according to me, is just a bit on the higher side. For some, importing it from the US might be an option where it retails for about $150.

WD TV Live HD Media Player: