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Nice product. Definitely needs a firmware upgrade. Some of my mkv files cause the playback to get out of sync with the video. Not sure if another firmware upgrade is in store, but for $100 its a good value.

About the same old price again.Still no RMVB support after firmware 1.01

nice ... reads ext. usb hdd (fat32 AND ntfs), nice upconversion to 1080p, reads most, but doesn't play all formats (had probs w/ some mpeg, vob)... doesn't page down on videos, photos or music screens, thumbnails appear only on selected video formats, displays at most 12 items per screen ... overall nice unit, but definitely can do better ... tested through latest f/w upgrade 1.01 ... only chapter support is a 10min. advance in videos available in latest f/w .. only subtitles played are those hard encoded in video

Try the Iomega Screenplay HD 500GB. I've been very happy with it and no extra hard drive needed.

Screenplay won't play HD material like this does. This is definitely a superior product, just needs some features to be ironed out.

#1,new FW v1.01 at wdc.com

improvements required:
needs VC-1 support
needs DVD menuing
better DTS passthrough
L5 MKV support
software to generate thumbnail menus

Does it support "RMVB" Format (Real format)?

There already is a firmware upgrade:

http://support.wdc.com/product/download.asp?groupid=1001&lang=en

Fixes all kinds of glitches.

Great product, btw.

Last week Ben ahd this one up for $99 too:
http://bensbargains.net/deal/89209/

Isnt HDMI, but does COmpoenent & Composite. Had 0 problems with it playing any of my divx files.... soo sweet to download from my pc onto a usb drive then plug into the media player on my plasma

A sales guy at my local Best Buy said they were clearing these out and had no plans to sell them again. He didn't know why, as he'd read good things about it on web forums, but his management said they weren't going to sell it any longer.

Glad BB employees are your source of tech info #9.
Did you leave with the $199 or $169 Monster HDMI cable?
Now STFU!!!!

Won't recognize my Seagate 60Gb portable. Plus, in the setup menu, I can't switch it out of "PAL" format. Latest firmware is installed, 1.01.02. Only been able to play a lousy .avi file off of a SanDisk 2Gb Flash Drive.

yes they need to clear out these pirate loving mkv files playable player. so they can sell you $30 a pop bluray movie.

does this thing hold the correct aspect ratio if you're just hooking it up through composite? seems like a nifty little box but i don't want it if movies are gonna be stretched and crap like that.

Relax #10, all # 9 said is they were not going to sell it any more, that might only apply to one store. and a best buy manager could change their mind quickly if the company said they were getting this item again. it is not exactly "tech info".

#8, how is this better than getting a divx ultra capable DVD player with a USB port like the philips DVP5990 that goes for $50 (or 40 on sale) at costco? I havent tried it with a harddrive attached yet, since a rally2 8gb thumb drive hold more than needed and is easier to move and use than a harddrive.

I am thinking the next step might be to have a networked computer plugged into the TV with HDMI. that only cost $229 AR on BF.

bah no network support

Would this be a better pickup than a Popcorn unit?

Anything exits that can hook to a TV via HDMI & playback XViD files? I know it's probably a pipe dream unless I hookup a PC to the TV.

has anyone had any problems playing mkv files with this? i have some mkv files that will just play the video not the audio and I downloaded the new firmware and still nothing. any suggestions? is thewre a way to just change the audio in the mkv file?

#18...check to see if the audio is DTS...if it is, that is your problem, the WD can't handle DTS unless it is neing outputted using the TOS Link cable to a compatible receiver...you can change the audio to AC3 though with a program...that is what I did for the few MKVs that had DTS audio

i used Audio Converter and it worked great