WD TV Live

jflail2

Does anyone have any experience with one of these?:

WD TV Live

I picked up a 1TB WD Passport a few days ago, and am in the midst of loading it up with lossless pulls from my CDs and DVD's/blu-rays.

So I'm thinking of picking up one of those WD TV live setups so I can stream that media to my tv, as well as have it available as a media center on my network. Seems like a deal for $100 (I'm looking at the live plus) since I could run the HDMI through my receiver and control it with my Harmony One.

Anyone have any input on these WD TV setups?

nguyendot

I have the Live and the non networked version.
Works great! There are some issues with shares (sometimes, google it!), but mine works great. Even better is that if you attach a hard drive (or two) to it, it turns it into a NAS box. The harmony does control it, but you have to modify the buttons available, for some stupid reason in the activities mode, the options key doesn't work. In the device mode the options key works, but not the enter. You can change it though. I need to, just too lazy.
It plays every file under the sun through HDMI on my receiver. I have mine attached to a router configured as a client, wireless N so I get great speed.

maximillian

If you can, get the Live Plus version. It does Netflix too.

I bought a refurb Live Plus for $60. The deals come up every once in a while. Refurb quality is good, but it was missing the composite cable but not the component cable. You can use the component cable as a composite cable but you need both to do component video if you use analog audio (there is a TOSLINK connection). This isn't an issue if you use HDMI though.

Overall I like it. It can handle any file I give it, and it can do HD video. I don't like the user-interface though. it's not bad, could be better. I still use my Xbox/XBMC for most things since the user interface is far more enjoyable. However, this combo can't do HD.

Other nitpicks:
- Don't know if there is a way to quickly scan through a movie. So if you stop the movie in the middle it takes too long to get back to the same point. The 16X FF is too slow. Wish there was a resume feature.
- No easy way that I can tell to store a NAS location as far as I can tell. So eachtime I need to access movies on a NAS I need to navigate to the NAS, share folder, TV folder, and then find the file. Wish I could just setup a shortcut.
- Tiny fonts.
- The remote on the device is way too small.

Again, perhaps these features are there and I just haven't found them yet.

I just bought a 16GB mini flash drive and a 10" LCD. I am going to try to use this setup for car movies for long trips for the kids. The 16GB drive can store about a dozen movies. It's much more convenient than a portable auto DVD player.

On3s&Z3r0s

How do the firmware updates on these work? Are they automatic downloads from WD or do you have to go the manual steps of downloading yourself, putting the new rom on a USB, etc? I have a similar product from a competitor and flashing is major pain.

Also, does anyone know if it does gapless playback when playing a series of music tracks from a playlist (or even just a folder containing a single album)?

nguyendot

Both of my WDTV boxes (live and not) resume movies just fine. It just doesn't resume if the unit has lost power, because it has to boot 100% up again. I guess it stores it in ram.
On the NAS, you can just share out the folders you want instead of the whole NAS, it will only show the folders you want then.
The flash and LCD idea is awesome.. I just happen to have a 10" LCD I got from Target that I'm going to try that on .

Firmware updates work by either USB update, or you can download them via the network connection. Either works.

maximillian

This is what I bought just a few days ago. It was $23 shipped. The thing is really small.

http://www.superbiiz.com/detail.php?name=STU16GPCS&c=CJ

The setup works great but I have to find a good way to mount the LCD and do wire management.

To use the device in the car for long trips there will be times when we stop for a break and turn the car off. As you noted, without power the device will not resume. So stopping during the middle of the movie will mean searching for the resume point with the 16X FF function which will take a while.

I can't share out only the TV folder. There are lots of folders for different purposes. XBMC allows shortcuts so you can easily select pictures and it will take you directly to where you want to go. Same for music and TV programs. I even have videos setup with TV, movies, and kids movies. Easy to manage in XBMC but not as nice on the WDTV. It's easy for the car setup with flash since I can put all the movies on the root of the device. But when I transfer the device for home use and access the NAS it becomes less user-friendly.

The device writes some misc. directory/files on the flash drive while accessing it. It's conceivable that WD could develop a firmware where a flash drive could be required for the resume feature. Perhaps store the resume info every 5 minutes or so would save a lot of frustration.

Again, I like the device overall. It's just has some frustrating UI issues.

jflail2

Hmm, sounds like I might have to pick one up. I'm leaning towards the hub, which has a 1TB drive built in, so I'd be able to use that, as well as 2 1TB external drives.

This Livewire looks interesting as well, and maybe a good complement to WD TV?

http://wdc.com/en/products/products.aspx?id=310

It'd be nice to have a wired connection running through my powerlines in house, but I've not heard from anyone who has this type of set up. Seems relatively new, which is somewhat worrisome.

Amherst

Been using a WD Live plus for at least half a year . No problems and love it. The updates automatically are downloaded from the web, you just click OK when the unit detects an available new firmware. I enjoy the Pandora feature for web music.
This unit is a steal for the money.

There is another older thread here with a bunch of us discussing this thing.
Enjoy!

spock 2054

Been using the WD TV Live Hub since November - added another one about a month ago. Utilized more as extra storage for bd rips. I can access the hubs from any computer on the network for playback of media with Total Media Theater 5. I use the HTPC in the living room as the main playback device for content from the hub because of the ease of navigation the TMT 5 affords me when watching BD content from the hubs.

I already have Netflix on my LG BD 390, so I really don't use the hubs for streaming Netflix or Blockbuster OD, but I really like the Pandora and Mediafly applications. The only gripe I have is that file transfer is a little slow when moving 25 gigs of blu-ray data from my office pc to the hubs in the living room..

ben62670

This is the media server that I will get if I do get one. It runs on 12vdc so I could easily use it in a vehicle as a server there too. Some WalMarts are selling them at close out prices because most WalMart shoppers don't about how the unit works. As stated above it will run nearly anything. If I get one I will pop the top and see if the analog stage is worth messing with, or if it should be used with a DAC.
Cheers
Ben

On3s&Z3r0s

Did a little Googling on my own about the gapless audio playback question... seems like people have been asking for it since the device was introduced, and it hasn't been implemented. I copied this out of a thread I found... not sure how well informed it is, but sounds reasonable as an explanation of why this hasn't been implemented:

Even the first generations of iPods did not support gapless playback.
The reason: It requires HARDWARE. It's not a Software-Only thing.

To do gapless playback, you must have multiple DECODERS. Why? Because Song A and Song B may have two entirely different bit rates, resolution, or format. Just "buffering" the additional data isn't enough; it has to be able to have Decoder B ready to play Song B *BEFORE* song A completes.

That Gap you hear at the end of Song A is the box reynching the decoder for SONG B. Without that additional decoder, the gap is NOT going to go away.

On PCs, all the decoding is done in SOFTWARE, and it's easy to have multiple processes running.

On the WD's, the Media is decoded in HARDWARE. If there aren't multple decoders built-in, Gapless is NOT going to happen.

The Patriot media server I run is definitely not in the same league as the WD TV products UX-wise, but I'm generally really happy with it. The only thing that kills me is the lack of gapless audio. First one of these little boxes that can implement that and I'm upgrading... otherwise not worth it.

nguyendot

I need to run to walmart and see if they have them clearanced out. They have 1.5 TB hdds for 60 right now too.

ben62670

Is that an external 1.5TB for $60?

nguyendot

yup yup
i believe freeagent 1.5

ben62670

I'll be there Saturday. I need something I can carry around with me, and use it for backups.

ben62670

I made it there today. It was still marked at $89. I told the manager that they have been sitting there for months, and newegg is selling them for $54. She gave it to me for $54 Nice tiny unit that is easy to hide. I will see if I can adapt it for auto use.
Ben

jflail2

ben62670 wrote: »

I made it there today. It was still marked at $89. I told the manager that they have been sitting there for months, and newegg is selling them for $54. She gave it to me for $54 Nice tiny unit that is easy to hide. I will see if I can adapt it for auto use.
Ben

Woah, was this walmart Ben?

k0tuynh

I have WD HD Live. The problem is I have so mamy ISO music video files and WD doesn't have skip function...only FF (16x max).

I'll pick up Brite-View. It plays ISO just like regular DVD player and you can always resume even if you lose power. Price is almost the same between 2 players.

ben62670

That was WalMart. Newegg has them at $46 refurbished. The unit is sealed. I couldn't crack it open with out making a mess.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136452&Tpk=wdtv

maximillian

That unit is the regular WD TV, not the Live, right? I got the Live Plus from Ebay for $60 a couple weeks ago. It was from ecost. I took a chance, yes I know. I complained to them about the missing cable and they gave me $5 back. This really surprised me coming from ecost. Perhaps they didn't want the neg. feedback. :cool:

For the car I think the non-Live version is fine if you only intend to use it an external drive. However, I also use mine for Netflix and NAS streaming.

WD has also sold the Live Plus refurbed for $60 direct from their website. Tech bargain aggregate websites will help you find these deals if you have patience.

ben62670

Correct mine is not the live version. Shoot I didn't realize the non live version didn't do networking. I wanted to play my files from my puter on it. That is fine for me because I run the puter as an HTPC with video and audio out to the system. I bought this to be used as a portable media player for visiting friends, or in the vehilce of camping. This will be great for road trips with the kids. Also it does flac which is important to me.

maximillian

Walmart has an excellent return policy. :biggrin: Yeah, I like this device quite a bit. Just wish the UI could be tweaked a little. I know there are hacked firmwares out there but none currently that are stable for the Live Plus.