Western Digital today introduced the WD TV Live Hub media center, a Full-HD 1080p media player with a 1 terabyte (TB) built-in network hard drive. The WD TV Live Hub media center brings new features to the WD TV family, including instantly renting or purchasing the newest releases through the Blockbuster On Demand service, the same day as DVD/Blu-ray release, as well as interacting with personal Facebook communities. In the U.S., the WD TV Live Hub media center is initially available exclusively at Best Buy online and at all Best Buy stores nationwide.

The WD TV Live Hub media center plays a wide variety of media file types, including popular Full-HD 1080p video formats such as .mkv, .mp4 and .mov. The integrated 1 TB hard drive enables users to centralize their digital media from multiple sources for smooth playback of even the highest resolution videos. Digital media can be transferred to the internal drive from shared folders on PCs and Macs on the network or directly from external hard drives, thumb drives, camcorders or cameras connected via one of the two USB ports. Users also can stream videos from home network drives with a DLNA/UPnP server.

The WD TV Live Hub media center also is a media server: HD video, music and photos can be streamed from the onboard hard drive to any DLNA/UPnP-compatible TV or multimedia device, anywhere in the connected home, including the WD TV Live Plus HD media player, connected TVs, Blu-ray Disc players, Xbox 360, and PlayStation 3 game consoles. Users also can stream content from their WD TV Live Hub media center to iPads, iPhones or Android smartphones using third-party applications.

The WD TV Live Hub media center offers Facebook integration, which lets users upload photos and videos, share their status, view their wall and get the latest newsfeed from their network of friends - all on the big screen TV. In addition, the WD TV Live Hub media center provides viewing of Netflix for movie streaming, YouTube and Flickr, as well as listening to Pandora, a personalized Internet radio service. Additional content includes local and international weather forecasts from AccuWeather.com, and MediaFly daily video podcasts from CNN, NBC, MTV and ESPN.

The customizable WD TV Live Hub media center's user interface enables personalization of screen backgrounds and user interface themes, as well as setting of favorites and content ratings. Standard wired or wireless USB keyboards can be used for simpler text input for activities such as searches of local content and YouTube and Facebook interaction.

Other key features of the WD TV Live Hub media center include:

* Compatibility with all TV sets thanks to an HDMI 1.4, composite video and component video output;
* Automatic sync of shared digital media folders from PCs and Macs on the network with the internal hard drive to provide easy playback of new content;
* Customizable user interface and programmable remote;
* Ultra-compact design that easily fits into almost any entertainment center;
* Two USB ports that allow seamless media playback from USB drives, camcorders and digital cameras;
* WiFi-readiness (with adapter); and,
* A 1-year limited warranty in PanAm.

The WD TV Live Hub media center is available worldwide (Netflix, Blockbuster and Pandora services are available only in the U.S.) and can be purchased in the U.S. exclusively at Best Buy and online at wdstore.com. MSRP for the WD TV Live Hub media center is $199.99 USD.