Regular readers will know I reviewed a media server and external hard drive bundled supplied by Western Digital earlier in the year. They recently loaned me one of their new range of wireless products a neat little box that has many of the features of the WD TV Live Hub except that this new device has built-in wireless rather than using their LiveWire power outlet networking system.

The WDTV lacks the internal terabyte hard drive, but that’s no problem as it can connect across the wireless network to WD My Book Live terabyte storage and so stream media, including video, music, photos from that network-attached storage hard drive. Alternatively, one can plug a USB 2.0 hard drive directly into the WDTV and access any and all media on that device. Being fully networked (either wirelessly or via ethernet), one can then access that attached USB drive from any computer on the network to add media that is then available for viewing or listening on the TV later.

The WDTV unit gives full high-definition via a standard HDMI cable into your HD TV. Its menus appear sharp and crisp and HD media are bright and colourful, there is no pixellation nor slurring of moving images.

As an alternative to Apple TV, www.cablenet.net cable, or Google TV, WDTV lets you stream your digital media straight to your TV, where you can watch videos, movies, as well as listen to music. One of the most exciting aspects of the WDTV (and the Live Hub) is the selection of internet services, including SPotify, Youtube, Facebook, Flickr, Picasa, AccuWeather, Pandora, NetFlix, HuluPlus and on the WDTV unit RSS.

An optional keyboard would make logging in and navigating any of those services much easier than using the programmable remote control. UPDATE: There is an iOS app for that now that works across your wireless network, making things a lot easier. BBC iPlayer is now enabled for UK TV licence payers.