Replacement for my WDTV

[dannyboy48888]

I got my Pi 4 hard wired, and it easily does the full 100-110 MEGABYTES per second, to the attached usb 3.0 hard drive I got mapped as a network drive in windows 10. this is faster than most cheap USB keys. If you can't do wired than usb is better but if you can, the Pi 4 is awsome in that aspect.

[jagabo]

I just received the box ! so it's now plugged to my router with Ethernet and to my TV through HDMI.
For now I'm struggling to transfer a movie directly in Wifi from my MacBook to the box. Any thoughts ?

Is this just a quick test to see if it plays that file? Or are you looking for an ongoing method to transfer files, or play files on the MacBook?

[StarrySky]

I just received the box ! so it's now plugged to my router with Ethernet and to my TV through HDMI.
For now I'm struggling to transfer a movie directly in Wifi from my MacBook to the box. Any thoughts ?

Is this just a quick test to see if it plays that file? Or are you looking for an ongoing method to transfer files, or play files on the MacBook?

Looking for an ongoing method to transfer files. I don't plan on streaming files from the laptop though.

[teodz1984]

WITH A GOOD FILE MANAGER like Mixplorer es file explorer or solid file explorer you can easily browse through the network...Kodi can handle network shares..

[StarrySky]

WITH A GOOD FILE MANAGER like Mixplorer es file explorer or solid file explorer you can easily browse through the network...Kodi can handle network shares..

You mean I would install mixplorer on the android box and browse my laptop ?

[jagabo]

I've used ES File Explorer on my Android devices to access Windows (SMB) shares. I don't know if it works with Mac shares.

[teodz1984]

make your mac shares as smb

[StarrySky]

I've used ES File Explorer on my Android devices to access Windows (SMB) shares. I don't know if it works with Mac shares.

Can I install it on my android Box ? for now it seems like I cannot install any other programs on the box.

[jagabo]

There should be a way to add apps from a repository. Mine isn't set up right now and I don't remember the exact procedure.

[teodz1984]

android settings

security

allow unknown sources

[lingyi]

Once the OP gets his/her sharing squared away, aren't the limiting factors still the wi-fi and SD card write speeds (assuming that's where the files are being stored). Just trying to set expectations of what may occur. Still should be faster than transferring the files twice, to/from a flash drive.

Oh, and if you're worried about the plugging/unplugging of a flash drive, you could use a USB female to male coupler like this: https://www.amazon.com/ELUTENG-Superspeed-Extension-Connector-Compatible/dp/B07QBNG4RJ...513829&sr=8-18. Leaving one permanently attached directly to the box an done to the drive. If you don't like the coupler sticking out, there are right angle adapters: https://www.amazon.com/Adapter-Degree-Coupler-Connector-Oxsubor/dp/B0793NQRYZ/ref=sr_1...5514000&sr=8-1.

[StarrySky]

Once the OP gets his/her sharing squared away, aren't the limiting factors still the wi-fi and SD card write speeds (assuming that's where the files are being stored). Just trying to set expectations of what may occur. Still should be faster than transferring the files twice, to/from a flash drive.

Oh, and if you're worried about the plugging/unplugging of a flash drive, you could use a USB female to male coupler like this: https://www.amazon.com/ELUTENG-Superspeed-Extension-Connector-Compatible/dp/B07QBNG4RJ...513829&sr=8-18. Leaving one permanently attached directly to the box an done to the drive. If you don't like the coupler sticking out, there are right angle adapters: https://www.amazon.com/Adapter-Degree-Coupler-Connector-Oxsubor/dp/B0793NQRYZ/ref=sr_1...5514000&sr=8-1.

Actually I was more worried in terms of electronic/memory (it's not an optical drive but still). But I like the idea of your adapter, thank you !

[jagabo]

Or short pigtail adapters: https://www.amazon.com/Extension-Degree-Angled-Female-Extender/dp/B07LBFFTDD/

By the way, on my older Pendoo TX3 Mini ES File Explorer can be installed via the Google Play Store.

[StarrySky]

By the way, on my older Pendoo TX3 Mini ES File Explorer can be installed via the Google Play Store.

Yeah but I don't find a way to access the Google Play Store. Could it be disabled ?

[jagabo]

On my device there's an Apps icon on the main screen. Select that and you'll see all installed apps. Google Play Store should be there.

[jagabo]

I had always used only Kodi on my Android box to play files stored on my NAS. So I played around with various file managers on the Adroid TV to copy files from a Windows share to the Android drive. The UI's were not very good at this. The best method I found was to enable an SMB share on the Android device and use Windows to copy files to it. It's much easier to select folders and files at the PC end and drag/drop them to the Android drive.

I used an Android app at the Google Play Store called "LAN Drive - Samba Server & Client" to share a USB drive (or internal folders) on the Android TV. I only used the free version of the app -- which is limited to glacially slow transfer rates. But the full version only costs $3 and is only limited by your LAN speed.

I have a very old (2006) MacBook Pro that could not access the Android share. I think that's just an SMB1 vs. SMB3 version problem. Modern Macs (with Windows SMB file sharing enabled) will probably be OK.

[lingyi]

I think if you login to play.google.com from the browser on your box you download the Play Store and can setup your account from there.

[StarrySky]

On my device there's an Apps icon on the main screen. Select that and you'll see all installed apps. Google Play Store should be there.

Yes found it. I was blind I guess
I tested the FTP transfer which is pretty fast. 2 minutes for a 900MB movie.
The only thing that is annoying is that as long as the FTP server is active on th android, it displays a popup box on top of the screen. As a security warning I guess. Any way to remove that ?

Talking about screen, in Kodi I don't see the edges of the app, cropping some text all around my TV. How can I change the app window size ?

[jagabo]

FTP transfer... displays a popup box on top of the screen... Any way to remove that ?

That probably depends on the particular app.

Talking about screen, in Kodi I don't see the edges of the app, cropping some text all around my TV. How can I change the app window size ?

Make sure your TV has overscan disabled. Different TVs call it different things: pixel-for-pixel, perfect scan, etc. And make sure the Android box is set to 100 display size. If you can't disable overscan on the TV you can set the Android box to something less than 100 percent display size. That way it reduces the desktop size and adds empty borders around the edges -- those empty borders are then cut off, not the desktop.

[cornemuse]

WDTV Live Hub

Would a WD303DTV be similar? Box says WDTV Live, (not Hub) I happen to have one, 'low miles', so to speak, still in the box, , , , ,

I goofed! The WD303DTV shoulda been HD303DTV. Got the box(es) out. It is "Dune HD303DTV". The WD I have is:

WD TV Live Streaming (WD TV Live 3rd Gen)
Released in October 2011.[16] It has customizable themes, a larger remote control, can get content information from the internet, plays DRM-protected services, has a built-in wireless adapter, a 10/100Mbit/s RJ45 Ethernet port and is the first WD TV model to include the Spotify service. The WD TV Live has WiFi and a Sigma Designs SMP8670AD 700 MHz processor with 512MB of DDR2 memory from Nanya. It is also known as WD TV Live Gen 3 (NTSC model number WDBHG70000NBK, PAL model number WDBGXT0000NBK).

No internal drive, the Dune does have removable rdd/ssd tray, but I never use it. It allus got HOT with internal drive used. So usb hdd.
Also have Argosy, with int hdd, that one ran HOT also, so usb hdd also.

The WD Live was ok, but some things (with remote/settings) I could not deal with.

Anyway, the WD live, there it sits, packed up in its box, , , , , , ,

[lingyi]

The WDTV boxes (except the streaming only boxes) deserved the praise they received, but sadly without H264, H265 and 4K support, for many, they're best relegated to the box. We can only wonder why they didn't continue development of the boxes (they seemed to be good sellers) and switched to streaming only in the last incarnations.