I wasn’t sure what to make of this device when it arrived. It looked interesting, but I really wasn’t certain I had any use for it.
So it took me a while to build up enthusiasm for getting started on the review, which was my big mistake – I could have had far more fun with this if I’d made better use of the time I had it for! Whilst it’s nothing much to look at, just a black box - smaller but otherwise looking very similar to the WD My Book range of external hard drives, it did the job it’s designed for excellently!

So what does it do? Well, basically the HD TV unit is designed to sit between your external devices (eg. External hard drive, PDA etc) and your television, and allows you to play content from them on the big screen. Nifty!

The box contains: the unit itself, a power cable with both UK & Euro plug attachments, a remote control, CD based User Guide & Software, plus a composite video cable for connecting to the televisions. Sadly lacking from the box is an HDMI cable for connecting to HD televisions. As this is marketed specifically as an HD unit, I really had expected that to be included. Still, it does work with composite, so if you don’t have an HDMI knocking about, you can still use it, just with out the bonus of High Def.

As it is, I did have a cable handy, so I plugged in, and connected up the WD My Passport Elite I’ve just reviewed, hoping to flip through the content I’d copied over to it.
“No Device Found”
Hmmm, that’s not a great start! I fiddled about, tried all the menus, unplugged, replugged – Nothing!
Which is when I remembered – I password protected that drive. D’oh! The excellent security of the My Passport, meant no one else could read it, but, through the WD TV neither could I, because there is no function available to type in the password and unlock it!

I unplugged it all and started again, this time with my older My Book – instant success! Around 10 year’s worth of data available to browse through, and all displayed on my 27” screen. Pictures I’d forgotten I’d taken, videos of firework displays and wedding 1st dances, albums of music I hadn’t heard in years! It was a marvellous walk down memory lane. As we sat, browsed, watched and listened, my other half and I giggled and guffawed at snippets of our past. So much so that at one point Alex, who was upstairs at the time, came down to see what had got us so entertained.
The quality on screen is obviously very dependant on the quality of the file you’re trying to display, but overall, even pictures taken on my camera phone blew up to large screen with minimal distortion and videos looked great on the bigger screen.

The onscreen menus were really straightforward and easy to navigate using the remote, and I didn’t need to reference the manual at all to make use of all functions. The remote control itself is a cutie; palm sized and really well shaped to rest comfortably in your hand, with all the standard buttons you might need for video, music and slideshow playback.

As well as external hard drives, the HD TV can be connected directly to your video or stills camera, allowing you to playback direct from those devices to your television using their usual USB cables.

I’m really impressed with this device; I just wish I had some good (and long) HD quality video to playback through it, but from the little tasters I’ve seen it certainly does what it claims, simply, easily, and not requiring any technical know how at all.

RRP: £74.99 and available from Amazon and other retailers.