Smart Home Blog

A new firmware update brings to WD TV Live / Plus / Hub more features and online services. Now it’s possible to upload photos to your Facebook account directory from the player as well as share the status or see the latest friend updates and wall posts. Movie fans can get rent or purchase the newest movie releases the same day they become available on DVD and Blu-ray Disc through the Blockbuster OnDemand service. Flickr, Youtube and other popular online services also available. Additionally WD offers unique feature – support of any wireless keyboard which use RF and USB dongle. It’ll help to navigate online services and make using of the players much more comfortable.

[via eHomeUpgrade]

Seagate is going to produce a new network HD media player FreeAgent GoFlex. Comparing with FreeAgent Theater+ I can see a good progress. First of all, the GoFlex it’s more compact and looks much better then Theater+. It still uses approach with slot for external HDD – GoFlex or GoFlex Pro ultra-portable drives. But the disk is hidden behind the slot’s cover. The player supports all well-known codecs and media containers and allow to play media content from attached USB storage or network shares. Additionally it offers NAS function to share content from attached USB storage in your local network. The GoFlex player also provides an access to the online media services such Netflix, Youtube, Flickr, Picasa, vTuner, text or video RSS feeds, finance and weather widgets.

The FreeAgent GoFlex TV HD Media Player is already available for pre-order at $129.99 on the Seagate web site. Reasonable price, HD video and sound, nice looking design, big number of functions, user-friendly interface make it one of the best choice if you decided to buy network HD player

Syabas together with RealD will bring 3D support to its network HD players Popbox and Popcorn Hour. That possibility will allow to playback 3D video from local storage or network shares as well as from online video services. It’s planned that Popbox will have 3D support after release and Popcorn Hour A-200 and C-200 will get it with firmware upgrade.

Popbox looks very attractive. Even now it can be pre-ordered just for $129.99! It’s good price for HD and 3D support as well as access to the online services such Revision3, Facebook, Twitter, ShoutCast, blip.tv and more.

[via eHomeUpgrade]

Western Digital adds a compatibility with Windows 7 function ‘Play To’ to their network HD media player. It allows to push any supported media right to the player from any PC run Windows 7. That function together with reasonable price in $149.99 makes WD TV Live HD media player very attractive for the Windows 7 users.

[via Engadget]

Yesterday, Seagate released a new firmware of its network HD media player FreeAgent Theater+ HD. The most important change is support of online services such Netflix, YouTube, vTuner and Mediafly. The rest interesting ones are improved MP3 cover art and tagging, ability to create screensavers using personal photos, UTF 16 character support, WMA Pro audio support, motion JPEG support.

The FreeAgent Theater+ HD with new firmware is available at just $129. Which is very reasonable price for player with supporting of Full HD, online services and offering dock for external HDDs. Existing owners of the FreeAgent Theater+ HD will able to update firmware via Internet or from USB memory stick.

[via eHomeUpgrade]