The WD TV Live’s success is based on its easy to use and simple design yet plays just about any digital fi le format you can throw at.

It’s simple to set-up and it’s incredibly small, with only two visible lights on the front (indicating ‘on’ and ‘connected’).

For me, the video playback wasn’t as good as, say, the Seagate, but the audio quality was impeccable. The GUI is a little more refined than the other players and incredibly simple to use. Navigating the menus is straightforward, and they offer the nifty feature of a preview panel to watch a portion of the file before hitting play.

Connecting to the network and internet, however, was incredibly easy – there is an ‘auto configure’ option that makes programming a breeze. The only downside to the internet access is the on-screen keyboard used for navigating YouTube; it was almost painful.

But that’s where the WD TV Live differs; it doesn’t pretend to be a device that does it all. What it is made for is streaming media either over the network or USB and that is where is shines. Home theatre installers can benefit from this simplicity because their customers simply want their home cinema to work.

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