With its WD TV Play streaming media player, Western Digital is going head to head with some big competitors. Its media player offers about 30 apps, including popular ones like Netflix and YouTube, but this is hardly enough to compete with powerhouses like Roku, which offers hundreds of apps, and Apple TV, which has fewer than a dozen but provides content via iTunes.
Instead, Western Digital is focusing on streaming content already stored on a computer or external drive. WD TV Play, which costs $70, has a long list of video formats that it can stream to a TV in 1080p resolution, either by USB port for external storage drives or wirelessly with DLNA-compatible devices.
Unfortunately, Apple devices do not support the DLNA standard, so WD TV Play does not recognize Apple products, which are plentiful in my home. To help, I downloaded Plex, a software program that manages content on Mac computers and facilitates streaming. WD TV Play recognized Plex, but could not stream the content. So I moved it to a My Book Live external hard drive, also from Western Digital. After a few hiccups, I was more successful there, although the player could not stream M4V files, a format developed by Apple.
Setup of the media player was simple, and the TV interface was easy to navigate and personalize. Streaming from Netflix and Pandora was smooth, and I was able to post updates on Facebook. The player includes a remote control, but Western Digital offers a free app that turns a smartphone into a remote. My coffee table is littered with remotes, so one less to take up precious real estate is a welcome idea.
For PC users with a large collection of digital media, WD TV Play is a great way to have access to all that content from a TV. Mac users may have to do a little troubleshooting first.