WD TV Live

[Draeve]

Originally Posted by Vladdo

The biggest complaint that I always hear about the WDTV is that it's ugly.. the default firmware doesn't scrape data either.

But for $88 that can play pretty much anything you want to throw at it, it's really hard to beat.

Thanks for the reply mate. Is there a similar unit out there that is able to scrape metadata?

[Vladdo]

Well xbmc has now been released (or about to be released) for android, so maybe there will be a spate of those coming onto the market..

[redav]

Originally Posted by Vladdo

The biggest complaint that I always hear about the WDTV is that it's ugly..

You know I find that notion pretty funny. I completely understand in that it's not a nicest looking unit but it's so small it's unobtrusive and you hardly look at them so I don't think that's a big issue.

Originally Posted by Vladdo

But for $88 that can play pretty much anything you want to throw at it, it's really hard to beat.

Ths is true but just remember that $88 get's you the previous version, not the latest.

[Vladdo]

Originally Posted by redav

You know I find that notion pretty funny. I completely understand in that it's not a nicest looking unit but it's so small it's unobtrusive and you hardly look at them so I don't think that's a big issue.


Ths is true but just remember that $88 get's you the previous version, not the latest.

Well, I meant more of the UI than anything else...

I keep forgetting that there's now an updated version with just added wifi.. sorry for any confusion..

[Daedalus01]

Originally Posted by Draeve

Hi guys,

I'm currently using an older model WDTV Live as a media player, simply moving it from room to room in conjunction with a USB hard drive to which I transfer media from my PC.

I'm about to buy a NAS to use as a media server (trying to decide between a prebuilt NAS or a HP Microserver) and I'm thinking about buying another WDTV as well. I plan on having the older WDTV in the bedroom, the new one (the Streaming model most likely) in the lounge room and building a dedicated HTPC for the theatre. Each of these will be connected via wired network to the NAS.

Is the WDTV still the best bang for buck for its price range? Or is there a better option similarly priced to perform the job I need it for?

Cheers for any info you can provide

yes! the wdtv is the best bang for the buck. i have been using htpc for years now, and bought a wdtv streaming. it does all my htpc can do in terms of playing video files - eg it can even do adv functions like move the screen around, zooming in 0.1 increments, changing subtitle position and size etc

those features would normally take me ages to setup on the remote via mpHC, and even so would be slightly buggy

i bought my WDTV streaming (new version not the $88 gen 2 jb hifi one) for $105. will post my receipt up for others to price match over the next couple days

[Daedalus01]

Originally Posted by Draeve

Thanks for the reply mate. Is there a similar unit out there that is able to scrape metadata?

just got mine so have yet to try. will try over the next few days and post back

howver it seems possible, or at least scraping with a pc while wirelessly connected to the wdtv that is connected to the usb hdd of movies via usb

http://community.wdc.com/t5/WD-TV-Li...ex/td-p/328743

[Daedalus01]

i have a wierd problem with my wdtv smp.

in my setup i connect the wdtv via hdmi to a panasonic plasma tv, and connect via optical to a DAC (Beresford). audio settings is on stereo. This setup works perfectly

now if i replace the tv with a projector, i no longer get any sound via optical! The optical port no longer shows the red optical signal light. Analog out still works however

if i unplug the projector whilst the wdtv is on and replug the tv (both via hdmi) the sound comes back on

anyone know why? its really wierd.

[Blue_muppet]

Hi all,

I can't really seem to find anywhere that definitively says the WD-TV Live supports SAMBA shares directly over the network?
(note this is not the 'WDTV Live Streaming' version, but the one that JB hifi currently has on sale, which is the second most recent model I believe).

If it does can anyone comment on reliability and how they have found streaming from a samba share over wifi?

Not interested in DLNA so that doesn't count

Thanks.

[SpudBoy]

Originally Posted by Blue_muppet

Hi all,

I can't really seem to find anywhere that definitively says the WD-TV Live supports SAMBA shares directly over the network?
(note this is not the 'WDTV Live Streaming' version, but the one that JB hifi currently has on sale, which is the second most recent model I believe).

If it does can anyone comment on reliability and how they have found streaming from a samba share over wifi?

Not interested in DLNA so that doesn't count

Thanks.

they do, and they dont.

it depends on the version of samba.
older versions (windows xp, mac os 10.6) work out of the box.
newer version (windows vista+ mac os 10.7) require a bit of tweaking (there are many guides)

[Volnhar]

Hi,

I have used SAMBA shares and straight Linux shares as well.

This is with Ubuntu Server version 10.04.4.

This is on a wired connection, but I have used wireless before with no issues as well.

No I just use a Linux share as this works fine for me.

SAMBA is only for my other windows boxes on the network.

[Blue_muppet]

Thanks for the replies Volnhar and SpudBoy. Lucky for me I went the lazy option when I built my media server and is just running Windows XP. It sounds like I will be ok

[methodMAN]

Originally Posted by MR CHILLED

"WD-TV Live for $88 at JB Hi-Fi"

http://www.ozbargain.com.au/node/74254

Great price for a great unit

Picked one up at office works yesterday for $88, had a $50 voucher and I really don't need any stationary, thats what the stationary cupboard at work is for.

Originally Posted by ni9ht_5ta1k3r

so no one has tested the 4GB limit on MP4 files to see if they play on the WDTV?

I tried a file 5,725,573 KB *.mkv (Codec: H264 - MPEG-4 AVC (part 10) (avc1)) and it just sits there with the loading logo - the blue segmented circle.

I tried another file, around 2Gb in size *.mkv same codec as above, it did the loading thing for about 15sec then it worked flawlessly.

I am streaming the files over a LAN from my PC through a 2wire adsl/modem/router to a $15 5 port hub at the entertainment unit (TV/PS3/Receiver/HTPC/WDTV).

So far pretty happy with it, beats running the HTPC 24hrs a day, running up my electrical bill.

Side note 1: As soon as I turned it on for the first time it did a update for anyone wondering, so I figure its running the latest firmware. Can check if anyone is that interested.

Side note 2: I am running WinXP SP3 on my main PC

mM

[Vladdo]

I've been running 20gb mkv files through it just fine over ethernet.. Wifi also works but it does take a min or two for it to load up..

I can't comment on mp4 files as I have none...

[GooSE]

Yep, I can also confirm that large mkv files work fine. methodMAN must have a bad file.

[MR CHILLED]

I play 4-10Gig mkv's over wireless and it's straight into the movie, no buffer time.