Late Sunday evening (10/11) it was discovered that online retailers and select brick and mortar stores already had the much anticipated WD TV Live HD Media Player in stock and listed for around $119. Unfortunately for Western Digital’s marketing department, the news came out a bit earlier than they would have liked and have had to play catch up by posting an official press release (attached below) and a product page on Tuesday (10/13) for the second generation WD TV — which, by the way, has an MSRP of $149 and is featured in the company’s new WDTVLive.com community portal. In any case, the WD TV Live HD Media Player is a very capable device with newly added online content tie-ins, DTS audio playback, and DLNA / UPnP network media streaming features built right in. MORE »

Leaked photos have surfaced on what appears to be the second generation WD TV, dubbed the WD TV Live Media Player. Stand-out new features include: Ethernet, DLNA / UPnP support, Internet streaming, DTS downmixing, and an A/V jack for component and composite video out through separate cables. Obviously, all much welcomed features spurred on by requests from current WD TV owners. Below are the specs, but be warned that the details haven’t been confirmed. MORE »

I’ve been hearing the quiet rumblings of people hacking their WD TV HD Media Player and making it do all sorts of wild things done typically with an HTPC. So, I decided to do some investigating. It turns out you can now add a USB Ethernet adapter for LAN connectivity to the device and flash it with the custom WDLXTV firmware and then load that with the OptWare package (originally created for the NSLU2-Linux platform) in order to install / enable SSH, FTP, UPnP, USB hub support, Samba, and other exciting features from its available catalog of ~1300 apps. Not bad for a roughly $99 product [Amazon]. MORE »

More storage anyone? Western Digital is now offering a dual-drive RAID 1 configured NAS server to their line of network storage products. The standard mirrored configuration lends itself well for backing up critical data. So, if one of the two drives fails, you’ll have a prestine copy available to access. The downside: you’ll only have half the space quoted on the box available for storage — i.e. a 4TB My Book World Edition II will really only provide 2TB of storage. Another nice perk, since this is a My Book World Edition product, is that it comes bundled with PC / Mac backup software, is preloaded with a DNLA 1.5 / UPnP / iTunes media server, and makes use of the company’s GreenPower 7200 RPM drives. MORE »

Got $1,699 and the need for 8TB of storage? If yes, then you’ll be happy to learn that Western Digital is now shipping the WD ShareSpace with 4 x 2TB drives for a total of 8TB. The new configuration leverages the latest WD Caviar Green drives providing up to 30% faster transfer speeds of large sized media files (ideal for those interested in streaming their DVD  & Blu-ray movie rips). Product highlights: DLNA / UPnP support and built-in iTunes Music / FTP Servers. Full press release attached below. MORE »

Thinking of adding storage to your PC or Home Server? Then hold off until you see the WD Caviar Green 2 TB hard drive on the store shelf. Western Digital claims that not only will you be getting massive amounts storage from their product but you’ll also be getting superior performance, energy efficiency, and ultra quiet operation in a SATA HDD designed to significantly reduce wear over long periods of use. Sounds like a winner to me. MORE »

Western Digital (WD) is today unveiling their new HD media player that’s designed to work with the company’s line of My Passport portable drives, as well as third party USB storage devices. The stand alone unit connects directly to your TV or HDTV and provides media center style navigation and playback of photos, music, and videos. Prospective buyers will also be happy to learn that the WD TV HD Media Player provides an HDMI connection and resolution support up to 1080p. Suggested retail price is $129.99 and is available now at select retailers. MORE »

WD® today introduced its new My Book® Mirror Edition™ dual-drive storage systems, which can automatically store valuable personal content not once, but twice, to maximize data safety. This RAID-based continuous data protection feature, called mirroring, makes WD’s My Book Mirror Edition storage systems the safest place for storing irreplaceable data.

Personal collections of digital content, such as photos, music, and videos, continue to grow on desktop and notebook computers around the world. Consumers are increasingly aware that taking precautions to protect their data is vital and are looking for a simple solution.

When users store their personal content on a My Book Mirror Edition system, their valuable data is automatically mirrored for extra protection – making it easy and economical to benefit from the data redundancy typically found in corporate data centers. This mirroring technology makes the new dual-drive systems an ideal storage solution for photographers, home users and small offices and anyone looking for extra assurance that their data is safe. MORE »