Internal Hard Disk Drive

This Western Digital Elements Play media player comes with a Caviar Green AFT 2 TB hard disk drive built-in. Officially, this hard disk drive spins at a fixed speed between 5400-7200 RPM. Western Digital refuses to reveal the actual spindle speed, but it is said to be just a tad above 5400 RPM.

For more details on this hard disk drive, please take a look at the Western Digital Caviar Green (Advanced Format) 2 TB Hard Disk Drive Review.

The Elements Play's internal hard disk drive has a formatted capacity of 2,000,398 MB, and comes preformatted in NTFS. The actual formatted capacity was 2,000,396,832,768 bytes. This is slightly (1.2 MB) lower than the official formatted capacity. With about 155 MB allocated to the NTFS file system, the actual usable capacity remained slightly above 2 TB.

This hard disk drive uses the new Advanced Format Technology, but it is not a true Advanced Format drive as it only supports 4 KB sectors internally and emulates 512 KB sectors externally. For more details on Advanced Format Technology and its effect on performance, please take a look at the Western Digital Advanced Format Performance Comparison Guide.

Power Adaptor

The Western Digital Elements Play comes with a unique power adaptor. It uses a common power adaptor with interchangeable connectors. This particular kit shipped with the two-pin Type A (US) plug and the 3-pin Type G (British) plug. By depressing the lock in the middle, you can slide out the removable plug and slide in a different plug. How convenient!

Incidentally, this is the same type of power adaptor that ships with all current WD TV models. However, do not make the mistake of using a WD TV power adaptor with the Elements Play as the WD TV power adaptor only has a power output of 18 W (12 V, 1.5 A). The Elements Play requires a power input of 24 W (12 V, 2.0 A).

Remote Control & USB Cable

The remote control, on the other hand, is identical to those used with the WD TV players. If you have experience using a WD TV player, you will have no problem using this remote. Similarly, you should have no problem adapting, should you eventually upgrade to the WD TV Live.

The WD Elements Play comes with a USB cable, which allows you to transfer your media files from a computer to the player's built-in hard disk drive. It is also possible to transfer files via a portable hard disk drive or flash drive attached to the Element Play's side USB 2.0 port, but that's not as convenient as directly transferring the files from a computer. Our only issue with this cable is that it's really short - just 38 cm long, if you exclude the connectors.

Support Tech ARP!

If you like our work, you can help support out work by visiting our sponsors, participate in the Tech ARP Forums, or even donate to our fund. Any help you can render is greatly appreciated!