WDTV Live (non Plus)

[redwudz]

I just ordered one from Provantage. $116US plus shipping, etc. The LAN setup sounds interesting. If I could avoid booting my HTPC everytime I want to watch a video on my projector, that would be a big bonus.

[yoda313]

Thanks for the clarification jagabo.

Still doesn't seem to be a deal breaker for me since I have my other hardware that does the same stuff.

Now if I used this in another room I could see the value of the ethernet ability.

If I could avoid booting my HTPC everytime I want to watch a video on my projector, that would be a big bonus

Are your harddrives internal or external? If your videos are on external drives than you can leave your pc off. If they are internal harddrives than you have to have your pc on to be accessed by the wdtv2.

[redwudz]

My videos are on several servers that I need to turn on first, then I can access them over a LAN connection.

[CBC]

I have V1 so I picked up V2 so as to compare.

The only gotcha I have found so far is I have a Thermaltake BlacX docking station. V2 did not detect the drive in the dock using USB connection to computer. Changed BlacX to the ESATA and it detected the drive and played the .TS files on that drive with no glitches.

And I feel V2 the remote and the menus respond faster. Overall I'm very pleased with V2.

Noticed your mention of the BlacX docker, and your mention of "changing to the Esata" from USB. I have the USB only version using a WD 1TB Green drive & it sees it instantly. Since the WDTV Live only has USB input, was wondering how you can use ESATA with it?
So far I love the WD TV Live except for playing music tracks using Shuffle Mode. No matter what I do, it will stop playing after a while (mp3s & FLACs)

[yoda313]

Ok then as long as they are not just on your internal pc tower you can leave it off.

[MJA]

I just ordered one from Provantage. $116US plus shipping, etc. The LAN setup sounds interesting. If I could avoid booting my HTPC everytime I want to watch a video on my projector, that would be a big bonus.

Newegg has the Western Digital WD TV Live Media Player (Generation 2 of the WD TV) for $109.99 after Coupon Code: EMCHDD10C (Exp 10/16). $1.99 Shipping.

[redwudz]

That figures. I must have missed that deal in the NewEgg ads.

[The old guy]

I have V1 so I picked up V2 so as to compare.

The only gotcha I have found so far is I have a Thermaltake BlacX docking station. V2 did not detect the drive in the dock using USB connection to computer. Changed BlacX to the ESATA and it detected the drive and played the .TS files on that drive with no glitches.

And I feel V2 the remote and the menus respond faster. Overall I'm very pleased with V2.

Noticed your mention of the BlacX docker, and your mention of "changing to the Esata" from USB. I have the USB only version using a WD 1TB Green drive & it sees it instantly. Since the WDTV Live only has USB input, was wondering how you can use ESATA with it?
So far I love the WD TV Live except for playing music tracks using Shuffle Mode. No matter what I do, it will stop playing after a while (mp3s & FLACs)

Its connected to my computer..... and I'm using the network connection....

[CBC]

I have V1 so I picked up V2 so as to compare.

The only gotcha I have found so far is I have a Thermaltake BlacX docking station. V2 did not detect the drive in the dock using USB connection to computer. Changed BlacX to the ESATA and it detected the drive and played the .TS files on that drive with no glitches.

And I feel V2 the remote and the menus respond faster. Overall I'm very pleased with V2.

Noticed your mention of the BlacX docker, and your mention of "changing to the Esata" from USB. I have the USB only version using a WD 1TB Green drive & it sees it instantly. Since the WDTV Live only has USB input, was wondering how you can use ESATA with it?
So far I love the WD TV Live except for playing music tracks using Shuffle Mode. No matter what I do, it will stop playing after a while (mp3s & FLACs)

Its connected to my computer..... and I'm using the network connection....

Ah, well that sure explains that! lol..thanks

[jagabo]

Thanks for the clarification jagabo.

Oh, the new h.264 decoding chip supports more reference frames. As mentioned earlier, the 16 reference frame test clip played fine from a flash drive. It does choke over my network connection though. I don't think it's a throughput problem. It can probably be fixed with a little more read-ahead buffering.

Oh, one other thing I though of: the WDTV2 should be able access files over 4 GB over the network (I haven't tested it yet). Both versions are limited to FAT32 format at the USB port -- so there's a 4 GB file size limit there.

Still doesn't seem to be a deal breaker for me since I have my other hardware that does the same stuff.

Since you already have the other stuff you probably don't have a need for the new version. By the way, it can run with a wireless N network, you just need to add a USB network adapter. It might be useful in a another room where you don't have a wired connection.

[stiltman]

The WDTV1 and 2 work just fine with NTFS and files over 4GB on USB drives
I never used anything else, I even did a firmware upgrade via a NTFS 500GB drive.....not knowing it wasn't suppose to work

[jagabo]

The WDTV1 and 2 work just fine with NTFS and files over 4GB on USB drives

Glad to hear that. I thought it didn't support NTFS so I didn't even try! LOL

[stiltman]

I connected the WDTV2 to my Samsung LNT 4665 via HDMI and set it up to output 1920x1080p60 RGB. The TV is set to "just scan", Samsung's pixel-for-pixel mode with no overscan. I used a 1920x1080 Belle Nuit test chart to verify that each pixel of a source image and video is displayed pixel for pixel all the way from the file to the HDTV.

An uncompressed BMP of the Belle Nuit chart viewed in slideshow mode filled the screen perfectly and there was perfect pixel-for-pixel mapping. The individual lines in the "1" area, both vertical and horizontal, were fully resolved, both black/white and red/blue.
...

So this got me wandering, and I posted this
https://forum.videohelp.com/topic374420.html#2015134

More TV related, so I posted it in the TV forum, plus I didn't want to hijack my own thread

[yoda313]

Since you already have the other stuff you probably don't have a need for the new version. By the way, it can run with a wireless N network, you just need to add a USB network adapter. It might be useful in a another room where you don't have a wired connection.

It's nice they are incorporating N standards. I saw that the Xbox 360 is supposed to start supporting or releasing its own N adapter.

I hadn't thought of it but maybe I could look into using the adapter in another room. Since I do have all the high tech stuff in the one room I could "expand" to another room. Hmmm.......

[stiltman]

The WD Live TV has been hacked
http://wdtvforum.com/main/index.php?topic=2439.0

[jagabo]

The WD Live TV has been hacked :)
http://wdtvforum.com/main/index.php?topic=2439.0

I wouldn't really call that hacked because the device is open source. Anyone can download the firmware and start playing with it. B-rad's mod has mostly to do with enabling access to linux shares in addition to the native SMB (Windows) shares. What we need is more read ahead buffering over the network to smooth out some high bitrate 1080p playback.

[stiltman]

I would call it a hack, since WD still hasn't released ALL the info it should of. B-Rad is also enabling USB hub support along with networking issues.
Not to mention DVD support (no menu support or CSS decryption)

[vhelp]

regarding navigation for video searching/launching

I realize that someone said the firmware was open source or something, but how hard is it (lanuguage, or interface os, etc) to work out a new nav system..i mean, does it have to be designed in linux (meaning you have be a linux guru or something) or could you use something else. I dont' know if it is actually an xml or html interface, but if it were, someone could easily modify it with an improved version.

well, what about paying some attention to the user interface design..navigating inside a ton of videos is a chore (and scarey at times) and it would be in everyones (i'm sure) best interest to modify (upgrade) the firmware with a better nav system..or do people just like scrolling through tons of vidoe listings, i don't know.

but i'm not interested in another one since its basically the same sluggish nonsense. At least my iMON is a faster lister other than that, i'm stuck deciding on what I want to do with these things

I saw one at my local bestbuy and easily passed it up, though it was selling for $139, figured!

-vhelp 5237

[newnews]

Oh my god, I just bought first version 4 weeks ago! The news of new WDTV is not good for me....

From WD website, I saw a WDTV MINI which supports RMVB. I do not know why this feature do not apply to WDTV2. Otherwise it will be the most perfect one!!

[misterbill]

I like the search option. Enter a couple of letters that are in the title of the video I want and press submit.
Been playing with it since Oct. 11th and the new navigation/features seem really nice. Although I still use the Thumbnail view rather than the Preview mode.
Best Buy priced matched mine. At the time $119 at BB on-line.

[jagabo]

I use list view.

[TBoneit]

I just ordered one from Provantage. $116US plus shipping, etc. The LAN setup sounds interesting. If I could avoid booting my HTPC everytime I want to watch a video on my projector, that would be a big bonus.

Newegg has the Western Digital WD TV Live Media Player (Generation 2 of the WD TV) for $109.99 after Coupon Code: EMCHDD10C (Exp 10/16). $1.99 Shipping.

Thanks for that information. I ordered on the 17th Saturday evening with the code and it worked, and the tracking number shows it arriving today. Up until today the Bestbuy website had no availability locally, Today it shows one store semi local.

NewEgg invoice shows that
$119.99 - discount $10 = $109.99Tax: $7.84Shipping and Handling: $1.99 Total Amount: $119.82

So I ended up paying 17cents less after tax & shipping because of the discount code. Thank You!

[redwudz]

I've played with it a little and I'm pretty impressed so far. It quickly found one of my video servers that was on and I was able to watch a MKV HD over the LAN with no problems. I have it plugged into my VGA/HDMI monitor for trying it out. It also seemed to be able to sort out a USB drive with a few thousand photos on it with no problem. Once you get the hang of the menu setup, easy enough to navigate.

I might try it with one of my USB 'N' adapters and see how that works. I have a wired LAN where I'm using it, but would like to try wireless for a different location.

I'm thinking this could replace a lot of HTPCs for a really low price. It has most of the needed functions of a HTPC. You could share one of your PC optical drives on the LAN for DVD playback. I tried this and it works fine.

I also tried watching a few YouTube videos. But I eventually blocked it from the internet with my router as I'm not sure how secure it is compared to a PC.

Another application that comes to mind is to feed it directly to a video projector with a short HDMI cable and use a wireless link to the LAN. That would avoid running a long HDMI cable and a LAN cable. (I have a 50' HDMI cable.)

Question: Does it output through the toslink at the same time as it does the audio through the HDMI? I don't have a easy way to test this at present.

[jman98]

Question: Does it output through the toslink at the same time as it does the audio through the HDMI? I don't have a easy way to test this at present.

I don't have the new one, but the first generation model definitely does this. That's exactly how I have it connected (no HDMI input on my receiver, only toslink). So I would expect the current model to also do that, but again, I don't have it. Just that the odds are in your favor here.

[MJA]

woow .player is selling like hot cake.you have to wait from 1 to 2 months if you buy it from amazon ,or u pay pay top dallars to get it right away from other sellers ($173)

[redwudz]

Thanks, jman98, I'll try to test it out later this week. I have both Toslink and coaxial on my surround sound amp, so not a big problem. There are also Toslink>coaxial adapters out there. They both use the same data format, so not a hard conversion.

[misterbill]

Newegg is still allowing you to Add to Cart.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136472&Tpk=wd%20tv%20live&gui...4966a3148d292b

WD has them also, at List.

[TBoneit]

FWIW I like it mor ethan the old one which is a good player itself.

In my playing around with my new toy last night it seemed appreciably faster than the old one.

I plugged in one of my externals and moved files to the WD live player using the file management. Nice!, I didn't even have to fire up the computer to move them from the temp holding external to the use external for the WD Live.

I don't really plan to use it networked. However I wonder if it will work with the WD 1TB that has Ethernet and DLNA. I'm guessing a crossover cable since no hub. I'm wondering if it will just see it and use it as a third drive or if the networking only works through the computer.

It's a fair premium for the ethernet equipped drive vs the USB only version.

Oh yeah, the video looked the same to me fwiw.

Cheers

[TBoneit]

An addendum to the previous:

The WD Live will FFwd at the highest speed on my HD Captures from a Hauppauge HD-PVR, whereas the old WDTV the video would just freeze and you couldn't see where you were FFwd'ing to.

I'll most likely plug it into the router Sunday and see what happens with the WD Discover software.

[misterbill]

Just a couple of things I noticed.
The thumbnail colors on Live are harsher/more saturated.

With both WD TV and WD TV Live hooked up to network pc and playing the same movie at the same time, the pictures look the same. I paused both at the same scene, took a picture of each. Flipping between pics on a pc photo viewer I can't see any change.

All of my iso movies play flawlessly on WD TV, however some of them will blank the screen for 2-3 seconds and then resume playing the video, in sync, on the WD TV Live.
On the computer, I run MakeMKV and load the problem iso from the USB drive still on WD TV Live. I tell it to output the MKV to a different partition on the USB drive. The resulting MKV plays with none of the problems of the iso. Nice to see we can read/write through the Live.
With the USB drives on the WD TV Live I have watched Star Wars I on the tv, Independance Day on the computer and Goldeneye on a wireless laptop all at the same time with no problems.
All in all, a very nice, powerfull media player.