WD TV HD Media Player Ready for H.264, MKV & Full HD

BitTorrenters shopping for an affordable USB-based HDD-less media players (eg. Iomega ScreenPlay TV Link) may find the lack of H.264 support to be somewhat disappointing as more files uploaded are in high-definition and in specific container like the Matroska. Western Digital now has a new video extender that should put a smile on your face. Its new WD TV HD Media Player, instead of clogging up your wireless network, simply playbacks whatever that is on your USB hard drive(s) - supporting up to 2 drives to combine into a single pool.

Unique to the WD TV HD Player is the support for 1080p output through HDMI and most importantly, video compatibility for MS' WMV9, QuickTime's MOV (MPEG-4, H.264) and MKV. Audio compatibility includes the usual plus OGG, LPCM, AAC, FLAC, Dolby Digital (2-channel) and MKA. Nothing is perfect; the same goes for the Western Digital which omits MPEG-2 VOB and DivX decoding. But dual USB ports and MKV at 1080p are good enough to satisify most bitTorrenters, if not all. MSRP for the WD TV HD is $130, but it is likely to come down by the Christmas time.