Western Digital WD TV HD media player story

[russellhltn]

I see the church is recommending a WD Media Player that's USB only. Why not a model that also supports streaming and HD, like this model? Seems like some valuable future-proofing, not to mention it's $40 cheaper.

[starkjs]

Russell,

Great suggestion. In fact, you will see an update to the LDS Tech WIKI next week that will be recommending that exact device. Thanks for the feedback.

Cheers,
Jacob

[carljokl]

This is a somewhat older thread. I am interested to know about which media technology a media streaming device must support in order to be compatible with Church media streaming and where the preferred location is or the servers are from which to stream media?

My reason for asking is that many of the Blu-ray players include media streaming as an extra feature. I looked out of curiosity about how much the recommended Western Digital device costs in the UK and the cheapest I could find it for was £114 (probably about $160). Entry level Blu-ray players are now about £80. I know that the Church does not have anything available on Blu-ray but my thinking is that it would be a single device which can both play DVD and stream media. On top of that it may cost less than the recommended media streaming device. Certainly it should be less than a Media Streaming Device + DVD player purchased separately. It all really depends on what is compatible with Church media sources.

[silid]

Hi Carl

I have found one of the recommended devices on Amazon for £80
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Western-Digital ... 916&sr=8-1

[starkjs]

Carl & Silid, We are currently looking into a multipurpose device such as what you suggest. We'll keep you informed!

[kc7qwh]

Also wondering about buying a Blu Ray player with streaming and a USB input. This seems to do everything the WD media player does, costs less and has a Blu Ray player. Please help me understand if there are any downsides to this approach. Thank you for your assistance.

[russellhltn]

Also wondering about buying a Blu Ray player with streaming and a USB input. This seems to do everything the WD media player does, costs less and has a Blu Ray player. Please help me understand if there are any downsides to this approach.

While it sounds good in theory, the devil is in the details. Verify that the USB port can be used to play videos and it will play the format the church uses. Likewise on the streaming, make sure it will work with the church servers.

A few years ago when I looked at DVD players, the USB port was only to show stills - it couldn't play video of any format.

[gregwanderson]

Just this week I picked up a Sony BDP-S185 (for about $80). It doesn't have wi-fi and I don't plan to use it for streaming (because we're not supposed to rely on streaming in the church anyway). This plays downloaded videos from a USB drive beautifully. Also Blu-ray, DVD and Audio CDs. I was able to save a few dollars on a monitor because I didn't "need" the USB player built into the TV.

[kc7qwh]

With what I know now, I would probably purchase Android TV boxes instead.
What we did purchase were 2 Sony BDP-S390 blu-ray players. They work great for video from usb drive, they are able to wirelessly stream from local server in building, and they have connections for older TVs, but Sony doesn't make them any more.

[drepouille]

Funny story:
We had a stake general priesthood meeting on Sunday night. The second counselor wanted to show a video he had downloaded to a USB flash drive. As requested, I set up a TV and WD media player in the high council room. Since he did not give the flash drive to me before the meeting, I left it at that.
When his breakout session began, he inserted his flash drive into the WD media player, and wondered why he couldn't get it to play. While he had turned the TV on, he didn't realize he also had to turn on the media player. I am sure that was my fault...