Last October, Western Digital launched the WD TV Live HD media player, and saw strong sales.
Today, WD has introduced that latest version of the box, the WD TV Live Plus, which adds built-in support for Netflix and MediaFly. If you are a Netflix subscriber with a $8.99 or higher monthly package, they can stream over 12,000 “Watch Instantly” movie and TV titles.
MediaFly offers podcasts from CNN, NBC, MTV and ESPN.
Just like with past versions of the box, the Live Plus will allow for playback of mostly all formats of video and music and pictures. Also built-in is support for Internet radio such as Live365 and Pandora. You can connect the player to the Internet via Wi-Fi or ethernet, and even stream content from your computer via DLNA.
HD playback is available up to 1080p.
Twice lists the compatible file formats, and you would be hard pressed to find a file you cannot play via the Live Plus:
Compatible file formats include: AVI (Xvid, AVC, MPEG1/2/4), MPG/MPEG, VOB, MKV (h.264, x.264, AVC, MPEG1/2/4, VC-1), TS/TP/M2T (MPEG1/2/4, AVC, VC-1), MP4/MOV (MPEG4, h.264), M2TS and WMV9 video format; and JPEG, GIF, TIF/TIFF, BMP and PNG image formats.
For audio: MP3, WAV/PCM/LPCM, WMA, AAC, FLAC, MKA, AIF/AIFF, OGG, Dolby Digital and DTS music formats.
The unit allows users to create playlists such as PLS, M3U and WPL and subtitle format such as SRT, ASS, SSA, SUB and SMI.
The player is available for pre-order with a $150 MSRP.
Result for: podcast
A new study from the Pew Internet & American Life Project has revealed that 61 percent of Americans now get their news online, although local TV remains the most popular method of getting the news.
Overall, 50 percent of Americans read local print newspapers, and 17 percent read national papers. 59 percent of Americans get their news from online and offline sources, with only 2 percent getting their news exclusively from online sources.
Figuring out where users get their news is not as easy, however. 65 percent do not have a favorite site, and 80 percent use 2-5 sites for their daily news. 56 percent use portals such as Google News, Yahoo News or AOL, and younger users follow specific news organizations or journalists via Twitter and Facebook.
18 percent listen to daily podcasts from the news organizations.
What are people searching for when they go online? 81 percent looks for the weather, 73 looks for national events, 66 percent look for health events, 64 percent look up finance or other business. Rounding up the top 5 is international events, at 62 percent.
Pics via RWW:
Result for: podcast
According to a report over at Open Salon, the upcoming Apple iPhone 3.0 firmware update is expected to hit the phone next month, and with it will come direct downloads of movies and TV shows, eliminating the need for a PC with iTunes.
Alleged screenshots (posted at the end of the article) seem to show direct links to “iTunes Movies,” “iTunes TV,” and “iTunes Movie Rentals.” All movies and episodes are separated by genre.
Apple has not confirmed or denied the rumor.
Currently iPhone/iPod Touch owners can only directly download podcasts.
We will keep you updated.
