My fingers are itching (WD TV live)

[ben62670]

Well I have been looking at media players for a while now, and have found the only player that plays all the files out of the box is the WD TV live($99 free shipping).
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16822136593
I was kinda looking at the hard drive version, but it is an extra $100 for the internal 1TB drive. You can hook up an external drive via USB(I know more clutter), but it would make the drive more backup friendly. Another reason for my choice is the available hookups. It can do composite, component, and HDMI. It also has analog out(not the best I am sure) and an optical out. This would be nice for playing my media files off my puter wireless. It would also be very convenient for me to pack it up and go over a friends house with my whole audio and video collection. I was going to run two cables for digital and composite(I only have composite on my TV), but the run would require about 40 feet of cable. The digital I am not worried about, but the video I had concerns. Anyone have experience with WD TV?
Thanks
Ben

[Lasareath]

Ben,

I am running this for the past 1.5 years. Works very good. every once in a while I have to hard boot it so that it can connect to the shares on my HTPC.

The software does nothing, you just need shares on your PCs in order to spool your media.

The other nice thing is that Western Digital keeps updating it and that means as new formats come out you'll still be able to play them.

It has issues with SRT files (subtitles), it can read them and display them ok but it cannot read them if the movie file and the SRT are in a sub-folder. They must be in the root of the share.

Over-all I like it, I Also like the new one with the built in drive but this one is working fine and I have 1.5TB in my HTPC anyways.

Sal

[ben62670]

Thanks Sal I am close to pulling the trigger. I am just doing a little bit more research. How about BR through the device?

[unc2701]

Does fine w/ BR, as long as you rip it right. I have the version with Netflix; same thing with occasionally having to reboot, otherwise no complaints. I really like that you can rip your DVD's to an ISO and it acts exactly like you're using the original DVD: menus, everything.

Want to buy it? I've got the original box, manual, remote, etc. Wife was complaining about too many boxes, so I got an LG BD570. The WDTV is better than the LG in every respect, except that you can't put discs in it.

Anyhow, if you're interested, make me an offer- only used it for about a month.

[el_duderino]

I have it and it works extremely well. I was an early adopter of these boxes... I bought a first generation model in 2004-5 and it was severely limited.

While the WD is not quite computer-like in its speed and operation it plays anything I can throw at it. There are hacked firmwares and they are NOT worth it. The official firmware works extremely well and they actively fix bugs (a nice surprise)

You can play stuff directly off USB.
You can stream stuff off a connected USB to other UPNP players.
It can read stuff off UPNP servers
It can read stoff off standard windows or linux file shares
You can plug in a USB video to make Youtube searches easier.
It streams DTS, DD5.1, etc to a compatible receiver

For the price it cannot be beat.

There are other boxes from competing brands (same chipsets) with interesting features but IMO they're not worth the effort to research. the WD TV Live is an exceptionally good deal.

For the record, the box I got in 2005 cost about 6 times what the WD cost and it wasn't 1/10th as good.

The WD can be had for under $100. For me, if it sold for 150 it would still be worth every penny.

[concealer404]

If you take advantage of the $20 amazon gift certificate for $10 deal going on right now, you could get one of these for $50.

I'll probably be doing that tonite.

[unc2701]

If you take advantage of the $20 amazon gift certificate for $10 deal going on right now, you could get one of these for $50.

I'll probably be doing that tonite.

You'll need 5 email addresses for that, right? (limit one per person...) or is there a trick to it?

[concealer404]

You'll need 5 email addresses for that, right? (limit one per person...) or is there a trick to it?

Yep, 5 email addresses. Get to creating Gmail accounts. :tongue:

[mu1166]

I've been using the WD live for the past 1.5 years. It does it's job pretty good in my opinion. It mostly get's used on trips (taking movies along for a long car ride) anymore. Everyone once in a while it won't play one of my dvd rips, not real sure why as both my other players will play it with no problems. For the money, it has been a very nice player.

I have the Popcorn Hour C200 in my main setup (work awesome, plays everything) and recently purchased a Popbox (was very worried about it due to the poor reviews, etc) but it has turned out to work very well after the new firmware update. Plus it was on sale for $100 bucks and it included wifi.

[nguyendot]

I have had two WDTV's and just got the live....
Paid about $20 from an auction site and won it in a lowball offer.

I hooked it up via cat5e and have been streaming my BD rips to it.. so far plays everything.

It's slower than the standard WDTV but its perfectly fine. I use mine with a Harmony 720 as well.