Topic: Western Digital Media Player supports FLAC files

[live2496]

It's fine. You choose what type of media file you want to play. Movies, music, or photos. You can set some preferences.
It's covered quite well in the manual.
http://www.wdc.com/en/library/um/4779-705014.pdf?wdc_lang=en

I like the convenience of having a remote.

[MattD]

Can you explain more about how playlists work? It talks about using a playlist file (p. 32 of the PDF). Does that mean I have to create a playlist using a computer before I can play one, or is there an "on the fly" playlist/queue creation?

[live2496]

It seems like you create the playlists with Winamp or iTunes, but I will dig into it further to see if you can create them on the gizmo itself.

[JasonSobel]

Gordon - thanks for the reports of the capabilities of this unit.

It's great that it plays the 96kHz files. It raises the question, though about whether or not it is resampling always. ie. when playing 44.1kHz does it resample? or actually bypass the DSP?

while it's too bad that it doesn't output a 24/96 signal, in regards to whether or not it resamples all files before digital output, it should be easy enough to record the S/PDIF signal to a new wav file (like what you were already doing with PDAudio and Live2496), and then compare the new file with the original one that was being played.  That should tell us whether or not its being resampled, right?

[JasonSobel]

I just got this response from WD, confirming what Gordon has found with 24/96 files.

Dear Jason,

Thank you for your reply.

Only the sample rates listed are what play’s, it may play a 96khrtz file as 48khrtz.

the "samples rates listed" is the section of the VIDEO appendix that says "Audio sample rate must be: 8000, 11025, 12000, 16000, 22050, 24000, 32000, 44100, 48000".

I just sent back another question asking if all files are resampled before output, or only those with higher sample rates that aren't directly supported.

[live2496]

That should tell us whether or not its being resampled, right?

Yes. Exactly. I will setup something.

[live2496]

While preparing some test files I noticed that the WD Media Player created a folder on my flash drive when I had it plugged into it. Inside are references to sqLite and the names of files that I have played. It seems that it keeps up with play history in a lightweight database. This could be how it keeps up with playlists, but I still need to research the playlist creation.

Here is a directory listing of that folder..

F:\.wd_tv>dir
 Volume in drive F has no label.

 Volume Serial Number is 440E-003D

 Directory of F:\.wd_tv

01/01/2000  12:11 AM    <DIR>          .
01/01/2000  12:11 AM    <DIR>          ..
01/01/2000  12:11 AM            94,208 wdtv.cas
01/01/2000  12:11 AM                81 wdtv.cas.md5
01/01/2000  12:25 AM             5,120 ph.db
01/01/2000  12:25 AM             3,608 ph.db-journal
               4 File(s)        103,017 bytes
               2 Dir(s)   3,126,272,000 bytes free

[live2496]

One thing that is a negative is that there doesn't seem to be a good way to rewind to the beginning of a song. You can pause, but I don't see a way to backup to the beginning. It seems that the best way to start at the beginning is to select the previous song then go forward to the track again and then press play. I think that could be improved.

Regarding 96kHz. You can see from the screenshots that resampling is occurring. For this test I generated 40hz rectangular waves, then played the file from the WD Media Player, and then captured the output with PDAudio/Live2496.

Original 96kHz wave file...


Resampled 48kHz output...

[live2496]

Can you explain more about how playlists work? It talks about using a playlist file (p. 32 of the PDF). Does that mean I have to create a playlist using a computer before I can play one, or is there an "on the fly" playlist/queue creation?

I do not see a way to create playlists in the menu. It does support three types of playlist files.  [ PLS | M3U | WPL ]

I did see that when I connected a passport drive, it added any files to music/playlists that it found having a .wpl extension. So it adds playlist files to it's database when you connect a drive and it scans it.

So, you have to create your playlists in other software. I think I would have the playlist file in the same folder as the tracks.

[MattD]

Thank you for the comprehensive report, Gordon. I think the lack of playlist creation is a deal-breaker for me, especially since the drive can't simultaneously be mounted as a network share. I'm not going to know what I want to play and when in advance. I'll keep my eye on the Popcorn Hour machine, but odds are I'll get a Mac Mini that does all of the above and then some at one point.

+T if they still existed.

[tfrench]

Good information on the Popcorn Hours in this thread....

http://taperssection.com/index.php/topic,115355.0.html

Todd

[tfs8271]

I have an old DVD that works fine for rented movies/purchased movies but it has problems with burned DVDs....  I'm not too anal about video watching, due to my older non-HD TV.

I was thinking of buying this for downloaded concert videos to watch on my TV....  Has anyone tested it for this purpose?

[Krispy D]

that is what I was thinking as well...  as for.. um, pirated movies...   

[live2496]

I think it will play the files that are output files from Handbrake.