I was invited to the Press Event of Western Digital introducing their latest WD TV Mini Media Player. It has been released in other part of the world though. The event was held at Conrad Centennial Hotel. If you would like to see the Press Release, click HERE. For those who are familiar with Western Digital WD HD TV Player, this is just a lower end range of it. One of the key point is that it incorporates the RMVB (RealMedia Variable Bitrate) files which is missing from the WD HD TV Player.
The event was held in a room by the pool side.
It was not a very big Press Conference. However, you can see all the big names like Straits Times, CNET Asia, T3 Magazine, attending it. Of course, there were some bloggers. Was glad that I was invited.
The place was surrounded by WD TV Mini Media Players (it was quite a mouthful to pronounce it fast 
) in showcases. Here is a closer look of it with the controller.
A close up of the controller.
The event started with representative from Western Digital, Ms Margaret, giving a welcome speech.
Following that, Mr. Craig Davis, Director, Sales & Marketing, Branded Product Group, Western Digital Asia Pacific Region provided us with more insight on this new product.
He mentioned about how the RMVB was introduced due to the great demand of it, especially in Asia. And also how this product was package to be easy to use and handy to carry around. Of course, as compared to its big brother, the WD HD TV Media Player, the price is lower at MSRP: SG$129.
It can play a big variety of format: –
- Video: AVI (Xvid, AVC, MPEG4), MPG/MPEG, VOB/ISO, MP4/MOV (MPEG4), RM or RMVB 8/9/10
- Picture: JPEG, GIF, TIFF, BMP, PNG
- Audio: MP3, WAV/PCM/LPCM, WMA, AAC, FLAC, MKA, OGG, APE
Subtitle: SRT, SSA, SUB, SMI
Note:
– RMVB supports up to 1024x576x24, 1024x576x30, or 800x600x30 compressed video resolution
– MPEG1/2/4 supports up to D1 resolution (720×480 in NTSC, 720×576 in PAL)
– MPEG2 ML/MP conforming to ISO-13818
– MPEG1 ML/MP conforming to ISO-11172
– An audio receiver is required for multi-channel surround sound via the digital optical output
Click Here for the FULLL SPECIFICATIONS
Following that, we were given a live tour of the user interface. It is neat and have many language support.
The presentation ended with the usual Question and Answer from the Media. Here are some of the interesting ones: –
1. Does it has a bookmark function?
Answer: No.
2. Does it support MKV or H.264
Answer: No.
3. Reason for not having a HMDI port
Answer: This player is cater for RMVB and RMVB do not support full HD at this moment. So Western Digital did not include it into the mini. (BTW, WD TV Mini Media Player does not have full HD capabililty. It plays up to 1080i resolution).
4. Why not incorporate RMVB into the WD HD TV Media Player instead of making a new Mini series.
Answer: The Mini is catered for another market who wish to view DVD quality and it is of lower price than the HD version.
5. With this pricing, will it be difficult to compete with the “Chinese” market who has flood the market with cheaper yet similar function media player
Answer: The WD TV Mini Media Player is supported by the good brand of Western Digital and good support structure. This is missing from the “Chinese” market.
Remarks: These questions are NOT the original posted to Mr. Craig Davis but was from my memory. Pardon me if I have got it wrong. Please do let me know if there is any mis-information in them.
There are many other questions about their marketing strategy and the targeted group of buyers. However, as it is a new product launch, we will not know until it is out.
We were provided some units to play with. Although it was mentioned that there is no bookmark function, you are still able to resume the show even though you have exit from it.
I have requested a review set to compare it with one that I have bought in a computer show. It is those “Chinese” one. Hope to test it to see how it compares with Western Digital WD TV Mini Media Player.
That’s it! Hope that you enjoy my coverage of the event.
Click Here to Go to Western Digital WD TV Mini Media Player site
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