Digital media streamer WDTV Live Plus has been updated to offer Hulu Plus. Although Western Digital’s platform (review here) may not feature as many “channels” as Roku’s, they clearly offer a solid and growing lineup of online content including Netflix, YouTube, Pandora, and two video on demand services. Additionally, as I frequently mention, one of WDTV’s prime selling points (over Roku) is their support of local media playback via USB or network devices (including DLNA). In fact, if that’s a priority the Roku 2 may let you down. Roku’s Director of Product Management recently reinforced their position to a customer via email:
If the ONLY thing you purchased the Roku 2 for was local media streaming, you should return your player for a refund. We are primarily an Internet streaming device (Pandora, Netflix, Vimeo, MLB, Hulu, etc.). We don’t have the broad file type/codec support that some more dedicated local network/USB streaming boxes have.
I no longer hoard much media, digital or otherwise, locally and prefer others handle content aggregation for me. But if you desire well rounded local media playback, the WDTV Live (~$100) is worth a look.