Western Digital TV Live

[photon]

Picked one of these up on a black Friday sale and must say it's neat, but broken.

I figured these things would have been around for long enough that they'd be pretty stable, but no, one of the first things I tried (playing VOB files from my NAS) doesn't work. Quick check of the WD forums and it seems they broke that with the latest firmware update.. seems a lot of things get broken and fixed with various firmware "upgrades".

I might return this, though the ability to play the content is very cool.

Anyone recommend one that works better? Playing VOB files will be a common thing so one that does that would be nice.

[Rathji]

I will say, O!Play Air is not much better. There about about a dozen or so firmware updates, each one seems to break more things than it fixes. I stopped even trying to mess with it since I have been busy with school. If you have a decent UPnP server it isn't that bad, if you have the right firmware.

It will play .iso files really nicely though, It supports VOB files as well but I have never tried it.

Supported Formats
Video: MPEG1/2/4,RM/RMVB,VC-1,H.264
Video File Extension: .mp4,.mov,.xvid,.avi,.asf,.wmv,.mkv,.rm,.rmvb,.flv ,.ts,.m2ts,.dat,.mpg,.vob
Audio: MP3,WAV,AAC,OGG,FLAC,AIFF,Dolby Digital AC3,Dolby Digital Plus,DTS Digital Surround
Image: JPEG,BMP,PNG,GIF
Subtitle: SRT,SUB,SMI,SSA

[psicodude]

I have to admit that I am not really impressed with mine either. I find I have to reboot the thing every week or two or else it gets stuck trying to play anything. The whole thing feels sort of cheap as well.

[FlameOn]

Originally Posted by Rathji

I will say, O!Play Air is not much better. There about about a dozen or so firmware updates, each one seems to break more things than it fixes. I stopped even trying to mess with it since I have been busy with school. If you have a decent UPnP server it isn't that bad, if you have the right firmware.

It will play .iso files really nicely though, It supports VOB files as well but I have never tried it.

Do you find you have trouble fast forwarding and it being really slow or just becoming non-responsive? Mine is doing that lots of times, PS3 is so much better with the UPnP.

[Russic]

I believe an apple tv with Atv flash installed will play vob's but I can't be certain.

[Rathji]

Originally Posted by FlameOn

Do you find you have trouble fast forwarding and it being really slow or just becoming non-responsive? Mine is doing that lots of times, PS3 is so much better with the UPnP.

I have problems with many things remote related. Even if I use the Harmony remote.

[Bill Bumface]

You can downgrade the firmware on your WDTV Live. I found the last version (which might be two releases ago as I think two came out really close together) played everything perfectly. I have the new firmware now with no problems yet, but I haven't been using it too heavily the last couple of days.

There is also the B-Rad firmware that is supposed to work really well, although I've never tried.

I've found using Twonky on my DNS-323 as a UPnP server has been the biggest improvement in the stability of my streaming to all devices in my house.

[cKy]

I have the B-rad firmware and it allows you to do some really awesome Mod's to the GUI and allows way more functionality.

I have it streaming from my D-Link Nas (DNS-323) with a wireless USB dongle and it is flawless on 1080p mkv's.

If you a little technical, and know some Linux (you should have no issues Photon) you can make this thing look AWESOME.

Install b-rad. (http://www.b-rad.cc) and then check out the mod's for it (I really recommend MovieSheets)

The stock firmware is garbage for the look and functionality. The homebrew stuff with this is really what keeps it going.

[photon]

Yeah mkv's play great, really smooth, DVDs stored as IMG files play fine, just VOBs don't play. Oh and login to samba shares is broken as well apparently.

I'm going to roll back to an earlier firmware to see if that helps.

As for b-rad, yeah it looks cool but apparently it's still built off the normal firmware so it doesn't help with media playback bugs and stuff.

[cKy]

Originally Posted by photon

Yeah mkv's play great, really smooth, DVDs stored as IMG files play fine, just VOBs don't play. Oh and login to samba shares is broken as well apparently.

I'm going to roll back to an earlier firmware to see if that helps.

As for b-rad, yeah it looks cool but apparently it's still built off the normal firmware so it doesn't help with media playback bugs and stuff.

I'm sure mine plays VOBs. I'll check when I get home and let you know.

[FanIn80]

I messed around with one of these a while back. I returned it within a week of buying it.

I've been on this kick for a few years, in fact I remember buying a dvd player with DivX support from MemEx about 4 years ago. Back then, I just dumped 5 avi files on a dvd and watched them that way...

After all these years of dicking around with going from internet to TV, I've finally come to the conclusion that the best solution is just media conversion.

I was converting to mp4 and streaming with my Xbox, now I'm doing it with my Apple TV. I no longer care about what I download, I just convert it to 720p h.264 and then wrap it in an mp4 container, and everything else is gold. There isn't a media player on the market worth discussing that won't play an mp4 file.

[cKy]

Originally Posted by FanIn80

I messed around with one of these a while back. I returned it within a week of buying it.

I've been on this kick for a few years, in fact I remember buying a dvd player with DivX support from MemEx about 4 years ago. Back then, I just dumped 5 avi files on a dvd and watched them that way...

After all these years of dicking around with going from internet to TV, I've finally come to the conclusion that the best solution is just media conversion.

I was converting to mp4 and streaming with my Xbox, now I'm doing it with my Apple TV. I no longer care about what I download, I just convert it to 720p h.264 and then wrap it in an mp4 container, and everything else is gold. There isn't a media player on the market worth discussing that won't play an mp4 file.

The best solution is to convert everything?

I don't know, I think the best solution is to watch it streaming with no hassle and no time wasting conversion.

[FanIn80]

Originally Posted by cKy

The best solution is to convert everything?

I don't know, I think the best solution is to watch it streaming with no hassle and no time wasting conversion.

Obviously, I would agree. I just have yet to find the device that does this with all formats.

There is always:
- All formats + hassle
- Some formats + no hassle

*Hassle = crashing, freezing, clunkiness, quirkiness, et al.

[Wormius]

Hi, just interested in bumping this and seeing if anybody is using the WD for streaming and what they think of it. Since Sony updated the f/w for the ps3 with more of its drm policing, i am looking at alternate means.

So do the WD Live products stream all file formats without need for converting? I am thinking most ISOs and avi files like you would normally get through torrents.

It looks pretty slick and would be great for adding to a few TVs that dont have Telus boxes.

[cKy]

Originally Posted by Wormius

Hi, just interested in bumping this and seeing if anybody is using the WD for streaming and what they think of it. Since Sony updated the f/w for the ps3 with more of its drm policing, i am looking at alternate means.

So do the WD Live products stream all file formats without need for converting? I am thinking most ISOs and avi files like you would normally get through torrents.

It looks pretty slick and would be great for adding to a few TVs that dont have Telus boxes.

I still use my WDTV Live for everything. I do use my 360 for the odd Netflix use. My father-in-law has picked up the boxee box, and he now swears by that. I'll own one of those in about a week. For the price of the WDTV live now (its about $40-50 cheaper now) i still think it is a great solution for playing the most common formats (ISO, divx, MKV, youtube)

I should add, the stock firmware for WDTV is just pure crap. Add the b-rad firmware adds SOOO much to it, that it is worth playing around with.

[Wormius]

Originally Posted by cKy

I still use my WDTV Live for everything. I do use my 360 for the odd Netflix use. My father-in-law has picked up the boxee box, and he now swears by that. I'll own one of those in about a week. For the price of the WDTV live now (its about $40-50 cheaper now) i still think it is a great solution for playing the most common formats (ISO, divx, MKV, youtube)

I should add, the stock firmware for WDTV is just pure crap. Add the b-rad firmware adds SOOO much to it, that it is worth playing around with.

Thanks. What is the advantage with the Boxee Box? It would be nice if the WDTV had built in wifi, but its a simple fix. Any issues streaming HD content over wifi? I know the ps3 and ps3 media server required compromises with the video quality when streaming over wifi, but the ps3 only has 802.11g.

[J Diddy]

I replaced my WDTV with a Boxee and it is a night and day difference. The Boxee box just works...where the WDTV is just frustrating. Boxee has a better interface, pulls internet content into one spot (City TV, CTV, etc.), movie covers for your local video library, scrapes info for your videos, plays everything and anything I throw at it, has apps (live NHL Center Ice), has a keyboard on the remote...I could go on and on and on.

I am streaming 720p over wifi and have had no issues. I have even tested 1080p content and no issues either. The boxee does all the work...unlike PS3 media server that does all the work...so there is no quality loss....picture looks amazing.

The only downfall of the boxee is the remote needs to be pointed directly at the box and the keyboard is not lit so in the dark it is a bit of a pain. Music and photo interfaces aren't up to par yet but that will likely come.

I plan to buy all the WDTVs that I can find so that I can smash them into pieces and then melt the pieces down to build more boxee boxes.

[Rathji]

With the new Apple TV's and Boxee for those who want more features and formats without jailbreaking, I am surprised that anyone would consider a WD TV or the O!Play. I can't believe I put up with O!play air as long as I did.

[Wormius]

Originally Posted by Rathji

With the new Apple TV's and Boxee for those who want more features and formats without jailbreaking, I am surprised that anyone would consider a WD TV or the O!Play. I can't believe I put up with O!play air as long as I did.

The Boxee looks good. I would be concerned with Apple putting their DRM policies into their hardware like they do with everything else, ala Sony.

[CubicleGeek]

Originally Posted by J Diddy

The only downfall of the boxee is the remote needs to be pointed directly at the box and the keyboard is not lit so in the dark it is a bit of a pain.

For iPhone users, Boxee has a free remote app that allows you to control any instance of Boxee in your house on your phone over your Wi-Lan. I have both Boxee running an a Windows HTPC and a Boxee Box and it works fantastic. You could be in a different room controlling the box if you really want.

http://blog.boxee.tv/2009/03/15/boxe...the-app-store/