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The thoughts, opinions, happenings, and just plain ramblings of a seemingly boring person.

Western Digital Are Awesome & Ankle Owies

WDTVAfter the recent death of my Mediagate and the subsequent (although discounted) refund i did get from Umart, i was looking around for a new media player, because there was no way in heck I was getting another Mediagate.

It just so happened that afternoon I got the refund that I stumbled upon the WDTV (Western Digital TV).

I've always been a fan Western Digital (they are one of the biggest manufacturers of computer hard-drives). I always bought their drives; they're reliable, quiet, and efficient. Plus their external drives (especially their small 'Passport' range) are really decent too.

So it's surprised me that they've released this type of product. It is basically a media player for your TV, and it can play many formats (of video, photos, music) from data stored on an external USB-connected storage device (usually hard drives).

It's format coverage is better than my previous Mediagate (it plays HD mkv/H.264), although it is missing wireless networking. The wireless was a PITA on the Mediagate, so it didn't bother me much that this doesn't have it (and it's obvious why this doesn't have any network functionality, as WD are obviously trying to shore up more of the external hard-drive market with this).

So I ended up buying one along with a tool-less hard drive enclosure, so I can easily remove the drive from it and take it to the computer to transfer new files onto it.

The WDTV media player isn't perfect, but it does a pretty good job. Plus some WD reps have been posting in some forums that some of the bugs/shortcomings of the device are going to be patched in future firmware releases.

So in short, WD are awesome. 🙂

To lifeblogging, it's been an eventful weekend. I worked on Friday night as well as Saturday doing out-of-hours maintenance and upgrades. On Saturday night we had a dress-up party. Me and Des went as Arsenal players, sporting our new merchandise from England (Arsenal have been going absolutely shocking lately btw, but that's too depressing to go into detail).

On Sunday I had our indoor game. It wasn't too good: I rolled my ankle quite badly in the first half and basically had to sit out the rest of the game. It's the same foot that I broke over three years ago, so i'm a bit surprised that it rolled like that considering I play every game with that ankle strapped to prevent a re-injury (maybe it's time to replace the brace...).

The ankle was so sore this morning that I couldn't go into work. I don't think i've injured it bad enough to go and get x-rays (i really think that it just is a severe sprain), but I do need to keep off it and let it heal.

It has given me a chance to finish of Call of Duty: World at War though...

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