WD TV Play unboxing and review, with comparisons to Apple TV 3. Play local USB flash drive media files, built-in Wi-Fi and access NetFlix, YouTube, Flixster, CinemaNow and more video, audio, blogs and photos (Facebook, RSS Feeds, Weather, Flickr, etc). Great for people who have movies that are stored outside iTunes, and want to have freedom to play any content.
Apple TV 3 is nice, but Apple and the Entertainment Industry have restricted Apple TV to work through iTunes only. Apple probably had to implement these restrictions in exchange for getting the rights to host so much iTunes content. Apple TV 3 will not play any local USB media, so it always requires a network connection which uses up bandwidth. Home-sharing is unreliable on my Windows network.
Until a jailbreak or hack is developed for Apple TV 3 to use local USB drive content, it is severely limiting my use. If I want to take a movie to a friend's house or cottage, the WD TV just plugs in and plays off the USB memory. With Apple TV I would require other equipment (iPhone, Laptop, iPad) hosting the media to stream to the Apple TV.
