Western Digital Elements Play: A Media Streamer, Minus The Streamer Part

Media players, and media streamers in particular, are just about everywhere these days. It's not difficult to find one to suit your needs, but a lot of the more modern versions have network connectivity. That's a fine feature if you're in need, but it's an extra expense if you never really planned on looking to the Web for content in the first place.

Western Digital has offered a number of media streamers over the years, with their latest box having no access to the Internet at all. It's a basic, stripped-down version of the WD TV Live Plus, with the WD Elements Play having no integrated Wi-Fi and no Ethernet port. Instead, it can be filled with a 1TB or 2TB hard drive, which should give users plenty of internal space for keeping their favorite multi-media clips, family photos, etc.

It also offers 1080p output via HDMI, a USB 2.0 port for easily transferring local files and support for most major file formats including MKV, H.264, RMVB, VOB/ISO, etc. It's basically a media streamer without the "streamer," but no price has been placed on it yet. We're guessing it will be sold for something under similar network-enabled units, though.

An easy, affordable way to supersize your movies and photos on your big-screen TV, and play your music collection on your home entertainment center. Simply connect the drive to the TV and you’re ready to enjoy all your digital media in Full-HD 1080p resolution.

Product Features

Full-HD 1080p resolution - Experience spectacular Full-HD video picture quality and crystal-clear DTS 2.0 digital audio. The HDMI port lets you connect to the highest quality HDTV or home theater.
Plenty of room for your media collection - The built-in high capacity hard drive offers room for tons of media. If you need more space, plug USB drives into the available ports.
Supports a wide variety of file formats - Most popular formats are supported including RMVB, H264, and MKV.
Camera compatible - Connect your digital camera or camcorder and play or transfer content from your camera to the drive.
Easy, intuitive user interface - Simple, intuitive and beautiful, the user interface provides the following navigation options:

    * DVD navigation with complete menu navigation, chapter listings, special features, and subtitles
    * Photo slideshow with unique transitions and music on your HDTV
    * Supports photo thumbnails, video cover art and music album art
    * Music playlist support for PLS, M3U, WPL file types
    * Preview your video during navigation
    * Multi-language subtitle support for video playback

Automatic play - Set the player to play a selected media file automatically when the unit is turned on. Perfect for living art on your HD TV or for digital signage.
Composite video connection - Composite (RCA) outputs ensure compatibility with virtually all television sets.
Digital optical audio - High fidelity audio or pass-through digital audio signal to your AV receiver for surround sound experience. Supports SPDIF and Dolby Digital native playback.

Languages supported

User Interface:

    * English, French, Italian, German, Spanish, Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, Korean, Japanese, Russian, Portuguese, Turkish, Hindi, Thai, Serbian, Albanian, Polish, Croatian, Bulgarian, Ukrainian, Slovenian, Slovak, Romanian, Hungarian, Greek, Czech

Subtitles:

    * English, French, Italian, German, Spanish, Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, Korean, Japanese, Greek, Russian (KOI8-R & Windows 1251), Portuguese, Central European, Turkish, Malay


Compatibility

    * AAC, MP3, JPEG, USB 2.0, Energy Star, Real Media, HDMI, SimplayHD, H.264, MKV, Dolby Digital
    * Note: Compatibility may vary, depending on user’s hardware configuration and operating system.


Package Contents

    * Multimedia drive
    * Compact remote with batteries
    * USB cable
    * AC adapter
    * Quick Install Guide