WD Live player

Hemps

Hemps

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I have Amazon gift card balance that I want to use towards a "toy"

I have an HTPC at home but it's clunky and I'm looking for a quick power on solution, was interested in the Roku 2 thread but the audio support kills it.
Apple TV would be nice since I have an iPad already and am intergrated into iTunes etc. but again I would have to have a PC on all the time.

WD Live http://www.amazon.com/Streaming-Media-Player-Wi-Fi-1080p/dp/B005KOZNBW/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1358840245&sr=8-1&keywords=wd+live

I'm assuming this is the latest model, it looks like it can play the most video and audio formats out the entire lot and external hard drive support.

Anyone have one?
 
We actually have one hooked up to a TV in the office. It's a pretty awesome device.

I haven't tested it with external storage connected to it myself, but I believe there weren't any issues.

At the moment it's connected via WiFi for streaming from other devices, so far there doesn't seem to be any major issues with it.

Last I saw, someone had hooked up a MS Arc Keyboard to it as well...not entirely sure why, but it works so shatever :p

The only real gripe I have with this device (and with most media players) is that I prefer an all-in-one solution. E.g. my HTPC has XBMC with SABnzbd, uTorrent, Sickbeard.....the usual suspects. So there is never the hassle of having to download on one device and transfer to external storage to play on the media player, or to have a PC always on for the player to stream from.

If you don't mind working like that, you may have a winner.. Would be interesting to hear if other members have experiences and suggestions as well.
 
That isn't a bad price - roughly R200 less than we paid initially.

RE the firmware - there are updates quite often. Every few weeks the update icon pops up.

One thing that really stands out (should probably have said before making it sound like I am anti-WD live :p ), the size of the device and the overall performance.

If you are purely looking for something to tap into a stream or play from an external/flash, this is a pretty awesome toy.
 
I have one of these connected to my TV at home. I have a 3TB WD harddrive hooked up to it.

I have only encountered 1 file that couldn't play. It downloads all the cover art and info for movies and tv series which is great. My only gripe, is that it doesn't sort the tv series episodes correctly unless you switch to tv series sorting; once you do this, you lose all access to movies until you set the sorting back to alphabetical.

I have the player running through my router that has been configured to use UnoTelly DNS service; I can stream netflix directly through the player now.

It can be a pain to have to copy new files to the external storage all the time. You can setup a network drive from your pc to copy directly to the external storage through the player, so it does lessen the pain somewhat.
 
I've had one for a couple of years now, and - in general - I'm a happy camper.

  2. The unit is connected to my home hard-wired network, reading files from a Windows 7 Ultimate PC. There can be hassles: if so the WD forums are your friend.
  4. I did have hassles with USB drives: the unit is only certified for WD drives. It didn't have anything to do with FAT32. In the end I found a couple of thumb drives that the unit was happy with & use these if I take the unit to a friend for a video evening.
  6. The files displayed as being on the server are not always refreshed. This is a Microsoft Media Center problem (Microsoft use the WMS for DLNA) : the solution is to use drive-sharing.
  8. WD's technical support basically sucks. The most recent firmware release - 2013/01/17 - was about a year overdue, with the result (for me) that I couldn't play some [mainly] British movies, which use the latest version of MP4. Eventually one kind gentleman documented a relatively simple fix - do a format conversion from MP4 to MP4 using VLC - which worked. The firmware update resolves the problem, though many are complaining.
Other than that - as I said above - I'm a happy camper
 
I have a WD TV Live Hub - which is WD TV Live's big brother, and I guess shares a lot of the code. It's a bigger, more expensive box with an on-board 2.5" 1GB HD, but the same simple UI and remote.
Big appeal is the family-friendly simplicity. We use it very simply as a player, downloading content to it from elsewhere in the house via Gbit ethernet. Firmware upgrades are automatic and frequent. Biggest nuisance factor is the box's need to go and refresh the library index every time you add new content - not a very efficient process.
 
Thanks guys, I think i might look into getting myself one of these babies, how old is the current model 2012?

I see there are some pretty cool themes as well.

I have direct mkv copies of Blu Rays like Avatar etc at around 50gb, I'm assuming it'll have no worries playing these off usb external 2TB Seagate HDD?
 
Hemps said:
Thanks guys, I think i might look into getting myself one of these babies, how old is the current model 2012?

I see there are some pretty cool themes as well.

I have direct mkv copies of Blu Rays like Avatar etc at around 50gb, I'm assuming it'll have no worries playing these off usb external 2TB Seagate HDD?
Click to expand...

I originally had problems with the unit not seeing a 2TB Seagate FreeAgent GoFlex drive plugged into the unit.

This may now have been resolved via a firmware update.
 
Hemps said:
...I'm assuming this is the latest model, it looks like it can play the most video and audio formats out the entire lot and external hard drive support.

Anyone have one?
Click to expand...

I have one.

what do you want to know?

Hemps said:
...

I have direct mkv copies of Blu Rays like Avatar etc at around 50gb, I'm assuming it'll have no worries playing these off usb external 2TB Seagate HDD?
Click to expand...

Works no problem.

Only issue: do not unplug the external drive before pressing EJECT, causes a few hassles.
 
Last edited:
I have one.

what do you want to know?
Click to expand...

I want to be able to connect a 2TB external to it and have it play everything, also need to know if it'll play direct mkv copies of BluRay disks , supports LPCM so sound should not be a problem.
It'll be connected to my Sony AMP.
 
Hemps said:
I want to be able to connect a 2TB external to it and have it play everything, also need to know if it'll play direct mkv copies of BluRay disks , supports LPCM so sound should not be a problem.
It'll be connected to my Sony AMP.
Click to expand...

mkv - copies no problem
 
Hemps said:
Can you stream movies/music from iPad 2 to WD?
Click to expand...
No you would need an Apple TV for that.

If you going to be accessing your media via USB I can highly recommend the WD and reckon it is your best option.Will pretty much play any media format you throw at it.If set-up properly you can also play Netflix,Hulu +
 
I see there are tons of Media players on amazon from android to other makes, maybe I should look there rather.
 
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