I love the wdtv live gen 3!

[yoda313]

I just bought the wdtv live gen 3 at bestbuy (on sale today for 90.00 usd).

I love it!

It's what I've wanted since I've started trying to do streaming media.

It so blows the chromecast out of the water. I shouldn't really have bought the chromecast but I'll still be able to use it on another tv just for youtube (so it's not a total waste).

But it's perfectly compact and most important to me is it still has the fiber optic output (I still haven't bought an hdmi amp).

And it has Vudu which is great.

I love that I can actually use the readyshare usb option on my netgear router. I attached a 500gb unpowered seagate usb harddrive to it and was able to add it through the windows network share option in the setup menu. I can play a h264 1080p video with dts flawlessly over wifi! No buffering! (n router).

I should have bought the first live model the day it came out a few years ago. But better late then never.



Only downside seems to be it doesn't have crunchyroll nor funimation apps for anime streaming.

Edit - Can it do bluray isos? I assume it does dvd isos since it says iso on the box. I haven't done a straight bluray rip yet.

Edit - also I did check out before I got it that it can't do 10bit h264, I tested it and it can't unfortunately. But i have my nexus 7 to play 10bit h264 so it's not a total loss.

[jman98]

There's no official BluRay support because doing so would require it to meet the consumer unfriendly licensing requirements of the BluRay Forum (ie. Cinavia). In theory you can open M2TS files and they may work, but if not, too bad so sad.

I just have an older first generation one which still meets my needs so I have no way to test more recent models, but you may possibly have issues with DTS-MA and DD+. Not sure. Bit streaming to a receiver that can handle those may do the trick but the device itself doesn't support those formats officially, so I'm not sure what happens if you play files that have them.

[Vidd]

I have a WDTV Live Gen 3 so I can answer.

Can it do bluray isos? I assume it does dvd isos since it says iso on the box. I haven't done a straight bluray rip yet.

Yes, the WDTV Live Gen 3 will play Blu-ray ISOs. Menus are not supported. It will only play the m2ts within the ISO. Blu-ray subtitles are supported.

also I did check out before I got it that it can't do 10bit h264, I tested it and it can't unfortunately. But i have my nexus 7 to play 10bit h264 so it's not a total loss.

It supports 8-bit only.

I just have an older first generation one which still meets my needs so I have no way to test more recent models, but you may possibly have issues with DTS-MA and DD+. Not sure. Bit streaming to a receiver that can handle those may do the trick but the device itself doesn't support those formats officially, so I'm not sure what happens if you play files that have them.

The December 2013 firmware update for the WDTV Live Gen 3 adds support for DTS-HD MA. In the menu you can select DTS-HD MA bit streaming. Or you can select the option to output the DTS-HD MA as PCM.

[yoda313]

Awesome news! Thanks vidd for confirming bluray iso support.

That'll save a lot of time and hassle. Though I'll have to buy more tb harddrives.

One other question - what's the max size the gen 3 can handle? Is it 2tb like most bluray players or can hanlde 3tb and up?

The December 2013 firmware

I did a firmware update as soon as I plugged it in so I have the latest.

This will be great.

I just have an older first generation one which still meets my needs

That was all I had for ever - a non mini first gen model. I really didn't use it much. But trying the ouya (no remote which sux) and the chromecast have given me fits. That's why I decided on going for a live model.

------------------------------

Also - what about pal support for those of us in ntsc land?

I've got a pal bluray (ok not really pal since its bluray but a european bluray) and a pal dvd I'd like to play as is.

Does it handle that without issues?

[Vidd]

One other question - what's the max size the gen 3 can handle? Is it 2tb like most bluray players or can hanlde 3tb and up?

The largest drive I have used has been 2TB, but I have read forum posts that up to 4TB drives work.

Also - what about pal support for those of us in ntsc land?

I've got a pal bluray (ok not really pal since its bluray but a european bluray) and a pal dvd I'd like to play as is.

Does it handle that without issues?

Playing a PAL video on a NTSC TV works.

[yoda313]

but I have read forum posts that up to 4TB drives work.

Was that on the wdtv website? Or just another tech forum?

It wouldn't be a waste obviously but it would be nice to be sure before investing in one.


What about the pal support?

I appreciate the answers.

[Vidd]

Was that on the wdtv website? Or just another tech forum?

It wouldn't be a waste obviously but it would be nice to be sure before investing in one.

Official WD Forum:
http://community.wd.com/t5/WD-TV-Live-Streaming/4TB-HDD-on-WD-TV-Live-GEN-3/td-p/595497

What about the pal support?

I appreciate the answers.

Look above at post #5.

[johns0]

Does it play dvd-video and blu-ray and data discs from a usb to blu-ray drive?

[yoda313]

Does it play dvd-video and blu-ray and data discs from a usb to blu-ray drive?

I don't think that is an official option.

If memory serves there was mod firmware to do just that on the first gen wdtvs. Though I think it was only to read data files off of dvdrs.

Thanks again vidd

[Vidd]

Does it play dvd-video and blu-ray and data discs from a usb to blu-ray drive?

No. The firmware does not support optical drives. Only USB flash drives, USB hard drives, and network shares are supported.

[yoda313]

I'm ripping a bluray to iso right now. This will be exciting to test out.

@vidd - is there any way to add apps to the wdtv? Like plex or playon or something? Or is it stock only? Which I'm perfectly ok with but adding would be nice too.

[_Al_]

Wdtv Live does not care about frame rate, PAL, NTSC, any sort of categories, it plays them all, you have old NTSC CRT - you set 480i out and that's it, you have latest TV you set out accordingly. This is (was) another important reason that I was pushing forward those players, because they are here for people.

For BD ISO or BDMV is http://www.mediasmartserver.net/2013/02/07/review-dune-hd-tv303d/ better or maybe some Mede8er models or yet something else. But even Dune had to back off, thanks to Cinavia, is offering BD Lite version in menu, but in Dune case it does not look bad at all, read that review.

If you are about to start to rip, why would you choose ISO, that is the solution if you have tons of it and you want to keep all of the BD content or you are lazy. Why not to make MKV (video +AC3) or MP4 (H.264+AAC).

[jman98]

I'm ripping a bluray to iso right now. This will be exciting to test out.

To each his own, but lack of menu support would pretty much kill all my enthusiasm for this. Again, I want to point out that this is not a licensed BluRay player, so ISO support is probably offered on an "as is" basis and if you have problems with specific movies, I doubt there is much you can do about it.

Yes, the old first gen WDTV players did have a modified 3rd party firmware that could in theory work with external DVD drives connected via USB, but it was poorly tested and didn't work very often. It was admitted by the firmware writer that it wasn't guaranteed to work, but you could try it and hope for the best.

Thanks for the info on DTS-MA, Vidd.

Finally, when using large drives, ALWAYS be sure to have them in an enclosure with its own power supply to have the best chance for success.

[vhelp]

i picked up one a few weeks ago for testing different media. i was dissapointed to learn that the unit is always on ill-regardless of the fact that the remote has a button for power on/off because the unit is still hot when connected to the power supply and you manually turn it off (the blue dot, light will shut off) but the unit is still on.

also, why do people refer to this device as gen 3 or, "wd tv live gen 3" when the packaging and the unit does not state it anywhere ?

i looked on my package and unit for a lable of some sort but did not find any and thought it wasn't a gen 3 model, then i googled to find a packaging example and found this one that matches mine exactly. so i guess i have one too:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JDhotgfypPA

[Vidd]

i picked up one a few weeks ago for testing different media. i was dissapointed to learn that the unit is always on ill-regardless of the fact that the remote has a button for power on/off because the unit is still hot when connected to the power supply and you manually turn it off (the blue dot, light will shut off) but the unit is still on.

Pressing the power button on the remote will put the unit in standby mode. If you press and hold the power button 3 to 5 seconds, the box "should" turn off.

also, why do people refer to this device as gen 3 or, "wd tv live gen 3" when the packaging and the unit does not state it anywhere ?

The 3rd gen should have a WDBHG70000NBK model number. PAL regions have a WDBGXT70000NBK model number.

[jagabo]

also, why do people refer to this device as gen 3 or, "wd tv live gen 3" when the packaging and the unit does not state it anywhere ?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WD_TV_Live

[Seeker47]

Some possibly extra good news here: there are occasional firmware updates that enhance either what the box can do, or how. I have a Gen 1 and a Gen 2. (Probably should not be confused with the $200. "Live Hub" model that I think came with its own HDD. ?) I think the first of these has gone through f/w upgrades at least twice, the Gen 2 more like 4 or 5 times, thus far. I guess there must be limits on how much storage capacity these have for f/w. My Gen 1 received major upgrades in regard to the UI and its ease of use, but never got Netflix support or several of the other services that either were in the Gen 2 originally or got added to it by said f/w upgrades. That one also got some nice UI tweaks. I noticed that over time both units developed the ability to play certain media files that they could not previously play. Gotta be codecs support improvements of some kind.

I'm not really missing the lack of NF on the Gen 1, since streaming performance really blows here, no matter what devices attempt to deliver it. The router is not the weak link either, and my broadband service claims to be up to the job but clearly isn't. Or, very likely, the problems like with the NF infrastructure itself, and how badly over-subscribed it is vs. available resources.

I just disconnect the power cord when the WDTV Live is not in use, rather than take any chances. It's no big deal.

Finally, when using large drives, ALWAYS be sure to have them in an enclosure with its own power supply to have the best chance for success.

That would be contrary to my usage to date, but then the largest portable HDD I've paired one of these with is a 1.5 Tb. I'm using various self-powered USB WD HDDs from the Passport line -- newer ones that were made for USB-3, and older ones that were designed for USB-2. I haven't had a good enough reason to look to HDDs that are 2 Tb. or larger. What sort of risks do you associate with this ?

[lingyi]

One other question - what's the max size the gen 3 can handle? Is it 2tb like most bluray players or can hanlde 3tb and up?

I'm running four powered hard drives [edit: currently Seagate, Toshiba, WD] on an unpowered hub, three 4TB & one 3TB without any issues. Largest partition on each is 2TB, so not sure if it supports larger individual partitions (though posts on the WDTV forum suggests it does).

[edit: Posters on the WDTV forums mention issues with 4TB drives and a hub on the rear USB port. The latest firmware reportedly fixed that. My hub and drives are connected to the rear port without any issues. I'm running the latest firmware]

There may be a setting to get around this, but only the first partition on each drive is initially listed. When you choose a drive, then the additional partitions are listed.

I'm ripping a bluray to iso right now. This will be exciting to test out.

@vidd - is there any way to add apps to the wdtv? Like plex or playon or something? Or is it stock only? Which I'm perfectly ok with but adding would be nice too.

No need to add Plex as a channel. Choose Videos > Press the Red Button on the remote > Choose Media Server > Plex Media Server

I would think this will work for PlayOn or TVersity also.

For the WDTV Live Plus, Plex when you choose DLNA Server

As for Add-on Apps, won't happen unless someone like B-Rad offers a modified firmware like he did for the 1st & 2nd Gen WDTVs.

i picked up one a few weeks ago for testing different media. i was dissapointed to learn that the unit is always on ill-regardless of the fact that the remote has a button for power on/off because the unit is still hot when connected to the power supply and you manually turn it off (the blue dot, light will shut off) but the unit is still on.

Pressing the power button on the remote will put the unit in standby mode. If you press and hold the power button 3 to 5 seconds, the box "should" turn off.

Even if the unit is "off", as long as the wallwart is connected, it's still drawing a very small amount of power. Generally not an issue, but adds up if you have a dozen different devices (media players, hard drives, video switches, etc( all plugged in at the same time. I use individually switchable outlet strips with "cord liberators (6" - 12" extensions) for all my devices. A quick search on Amazon will bring up both items.

[jagabo]

i was dissapointed to learn that the unit is always on ill-regardless of the fact that the remote has a button for power on/off because the unit is still hot when connected to the power supply and you manually turn it off (the blue dot, light will shut off) but the unit is still on.

Any device that you can turn off/on with a remote control is never really off. At least a small part of the device must be powered on to receive input from the remote. I measured the power consumption of my old WDTV Live at the wall. It was 4 watts when "off", 10 watts when playing a 1080p video.

[lingyi]

Finally, when using large drives, ALWAYS be sure to have them in an enclosure with its own power supply to have the best chance for success.

That would be contrary to my usage to date, but then the largest portable HDD I've paired one of these with is a 1.5 Tb. I'm using various self-powered USB WD HDDs from the Passport line -- newer ones that were made for USB-3, and older ones that were designed for USB-2. I haven't had a good enough reason to look to HDDs that are 2 Tb. or larger. What sort of risks do you associate with this ?

Looking forward to jman's experiences. Here's an issue I had. I have a 750GB Passport that stopped being recognized by both of my WDTV Live Plus. Even swapped out the drive with a 500GB, not recognized. All my powered externals worked fine and the Passport worked fine on my Seagate Freeagent Theatre also.

Tried it on my WDTV Live Streaming it works fine now. Same cables, same drive.

edit: I even tried it with a different SATA to USB adapter. Didn't work.

[yoda313]

I bought the full play on package.

I was able to find it using the media server content source as mentioned earlier.

The strange thing was I couldnt play a bluray iso rip that was on that computer that has the playon server.

But other stuff did play.

I bought playon so I can easily stream off websites like CBS. That worked perfectly.

Is there anyway to use the playon website streaming without having the computer on?

Its not a deal breaker but it would be nice to stream the websites without leaving the computer on.

Other than that I like the wdtv live and playon combo.


Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk

[lingyi]

Was fiddling around in the WDTV Live Streaming (Gen 3) settings and there's a DVD Menu On/Off setting. So it officially does support DVD ISO's with full menus (confirmed by my being able to view DVD menus).

Found something else. Under the Subtitles menu, in addition to SRT size and position, you can change the text and border colors.

Yeah...if I RTFM, I would have already have known this, but it's more fun fiddling!

[yoda313]

Is it OK for it to be compiling a long time?

I have hooked up a powered USB 2tb drive and its been compiling for at least ten minutes now. Its not even half full. I do have a few thousand pics on it though. Is that the slow down?

What sucks is it won't let me go to the services tab and use vudu or YouTube.

How long should I expect it to take?

It only has about 1gb on it.

Thoughts?

Is there a reset button or should I just unplug the wdtv if it keeps compiling?

It finally let me use vudu. It still says compiling though and its getting close to an hour now.

Edit

It finally finished. It must have been at least 40 minutes. It must have been the sheer number of files and not the size.

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk

[Seeker47]

Some time has now passed since the last messages in this thread. I was struck by a couple things: I've noticed almost no advertising or promotion on the Gen 3; no one (such as Fry's) seems to have ever had it on sale -- or even in their ads -- whereas they seem to have the Roku or Apple TV every other week. I've also read a number of reviews. A lot of them complain about how slow the device is to load (also true of prior models, to a large degree), most of them describe the lack of Netflix support as a fatal flaw. In looking over the list of features for this latest model, I see no real advantages over the prior model, which does have Netflix . . . though I admit I don't really understand some of this network-related stuff. (But I have no interest in syncing a WD-Live or the tv with a smartphone, or other Android device, which seems to be a major part of that.) If the Gen 3 could handle a bunch of file formats that the previous models could not, that might be a different story. So, I can't find any compelling reason to consider making a change.

Started to read some stuff about Amazon's new entry into this category, which has a quad processor and 8 Gb. of internal memory, but I haven't seen any indication that it pairs with a HDD the way the WD Live does, in order to play your stored MKV, AVI or etc. files, and that is really 90 % of the use I have for such a device.

[cornemuse]

I have had one of these things for 3 + months now. I use it ONLY for watching movies. (movie only rips 2 iso).
For that, it works fine for me, but it generates a lot of files for remembering where one is in watching them. Only thing there is, it dosent do it for all vids, & does not upgrade when I watch a little more of a specific vid. Or it jumps to a location 20 minutes AHEAD of where I left off. When pressing for 'info' ('enter' with keyboard & 'OK' on remote) it 'greys out almost half the screen. Pause or info on a white or light (snow or clouds) part of flick & see, looks like black snow up almost to the center of the screen.
The info part takes 25 % or so of the screen. the 'bar' "0:00:00______(ie) 00:30:00_______2:00:00(end of movie) is like 3 feet wide on the TV, yet the info for subtitles/audio (one above the other) fits in the black bars above on 2.35:1 widescreen movies. They have a page for posting improving interface, etc, but most all of my issues have been posted by (many) others, starting several years ago. They dont listen to others, prolly wont listen to me, why even post?
-c-

http://community.wd.com/t5/WD-TV-Ideas/idb-p/streaming_ideas

I bought it 'cause I couldnt find any Argosy players "ANYWHERE". I much prefer Argosys system.

[Seeker47]

One day after my post above, Fry's has finally featured this Gen 3 in a weekly ad, with about 10 bucks knocked off of the MSRP. (?) How 'bout that for synchronicity ?!

The feature I was probably failing to identify correctly is this Miracast business. Still, I'm not seeing any advantages over my prior gen player, and maybe some disadvantages, so I think I'll just stick with what I've got. If some truly better streaming device / player comes along, I would very much like to know about it, and would certainly consider it.