Western Digital rolls out TV HD Media Player

Storage maker Western Digital today quietly rolled out a new technology that will allow it to enter our living rooms with a new product straying away from its normal hard disk drive products.

WD today launched the WD TV HD Media Player, a new player capable of turning your digital content into 1080p resolution that can be displayed on an HDTV.

Simplicity has long eluded companies trying to enter the living room, but WD may have finally gotten it right with its first foray into the living room.  The media player should be connected to a TV, then consumers simply plug in a WD MyPassport portable HDD into the media player.  The end result is content from your PC that can be easily shown on the TV in HD.

The WD TV HD Media Player costs only $129.  The drive is available immediately from the WD web site and will be headed to Best Buy soon.

Companies are making a strong push to head to consumer living rooms, as manufacturers and services are adapting to a growing market.  For example, Netflix is working alongside Microsoft, Roku, and several Blu-ray manufacturers so its streaming service is more widely available in the living room.

The emphasis on playing content on TVs is increasing because, according to IDC, there is around 334 million GB of photos and 3.1 billion GB of video on PCs and laptops.

WD will most likely have to launch an intense marketing campaign for its media player, as the company is mainly known as a storage drive maker, and nothing else.  Regardless of how good the player could be, it may stumble out of the blocks because WD is still relatively unknown to the casual consumer.