WDTV Box HD ~ any good? alternatives? WDTV Box HD Live?

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4098 posts

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#269965 4-Nov-2009 11:52

Did you give it a whirl last night?
Any thoughts so far? Keen to see what you think...

Nothing is impossible for the man who doesn't have to do it himself - A. H. Weiler

Litespeed

90 posts

Master Geek

#269992 4-Nov-2009 12:57

Xtreamer review (w/vids) here:

http://usingwindowshomeserver.com/2009/09/13/review-of-the-xtreamer/

garvani

1873 posts

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#270055 4-Nov-2009 16:10

Well i am impressed with my limited testing.
I threw 4 HD mkv's at it, mix of 720p and 1080p, some flv's, xvids, wmvs and mp4s. Out of all of them the wmvs wouldnt play but no biggie as i dont have much. i didnt have time to setup streaming from a pc, all my content was coming from a local usb drive (which is what it will be doing once it goes to the gf's). I upgraded the firmware and noticed there was a few more features.
My tv handshaked with the device without a problem.
The fan is a non issue! my GOD people must be pedantic! this thing is pretty damn quiet on medium and low is even quieter, high is quite loud but you dont need to set it up on that.
As stated there are pleanty of reviews on the net so i wont go over whats already been stated.
Delivery from hongkong was exceptionaly quick, considering its cheaper (or was when i ordered) to get it from there instead of the aussie outfit you cant go wrong.

robjg63

4098 posts

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#270089 4-Nov-2009 17:02

Cheers. Thanks for the info.
I gather some of the earlier batches might have had more fan noise - maybe thats all sorted now.
Sounds like I will have to ask santa for one :-)

Nothing is impossible for the man who doesn't have to do it himself - A. H. Weiler

dontpanic42

1574 posts

Uber Geek

#270133 4-Nov-2009 19:20

Does anyone know if any of these WD TV type media boxes play streamed backed up DVD's? (i.e. with full DVD menu funtionality?)

garvani

1873 posts

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#270141 4-Nov-2009 19:57

oh i forgot to mention i tested an iso of a backed up dvd. it played fine, no issues at all, had full menu support and all.

trig42

5810 posts

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ID Verified

#270404 5-Nov-2009 16:55

So, for my xmas wish list...

Xtreamer or WDTV live??

I will want to stream over LAN from my PC. Will be mostly DivX, the odd .iso and whatever HD content I can get. Prolly won't be using an external drive.

Would be nice if they made one with video inputs that could record stuff (eg SD content wife continually records on MySky that fills up it's pathetic little HDD.)

Wise

Send money globally for less with Wise - one free transfer up to NZ$900 (affiliate link).

ALTRON

577 posts

Ultimate Geek

#279402 4-Dec-2009 18:06

i just tried to update to latest firmware on my wdtv live hd via network and its bricked itself.
turn it on and just get a "please insert usb with firmware to reset" i did, nothing happens.

Many others are having this problem and WD hasn't said anything.
you might want to hold off doing the fw update for now.

Wheelz

9 posts

Wannabe Geek

#279882 7-Dec-2009 08:41

I had no problem whatsoever doing the firmware upgrade. Sorry to hear about yours having a problem :( I assume they will replace the unit or is there a way to reset it?

I ended up getting a WDTV Live as an early xmas present and have found it fantastic.
Loving the High Def on the projector!

ALTRON

577 posts

Ultimate Geek

#279897 7-Dec-2009 09:39

Just my luck they brought out the update the same day I bought the WD TV :S
So only had it for a day then it was bung.

http://www.engadget.com/2009/12/05/wd-tv-live-boxes-left-bricked-by-firmware-update/

robjg63

4098 posts

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#279904 7-Dec-2009 10:03

This sounds like your problem:
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=1203076
No solution there though - but it seems a common issue - ie. latest firmware bricked the unit.

Another forum - same problem - but a few bods have some potential fixes:
http://wdtvhd.com/lofiversion/index.php?t9399.html
Worth trying some of their suggestions if your unit is a doorstop - though no doubt you might have found these forums already....

Nothing is impossible for the man who doesn't have to do it himself - A. H. Weiler

ALTRON

577 posts

Ultimate Geek

#279906 7-Dec-2009 10:06

I tried all fixes suggested, none worked.
Sending it back.

Id like a replacement because from the firmware issue I thought it was a pretty good media player for the price.

Citrixguy

2 posts

Wannabe Geek

#283938 19-Dec-2009 05:59

sxz: Hey there,

http://www.dse.co.nz/dse.shop/4ada394701fd8e6a2741c0a87f3b06ed/Product/View/XH9817

I have been thinking for a while about the above Western Digital TV Box.

You plug in your hard drive, (+ room for a second) and the way I see it - it's like VLC it will play everything.

I see they have just released the new one too (not in NZ yet) that adds network support.

So - my question is has anyone tried it? or something similar?
How well do they work? what does the network support do and how easy is that to use?

are they practical? any advice?

cheers guys

Just my personal experience, but I had a WDTV, and I thought of it as little more than a toy.

Chris

www.mediastreamingstore.com

Lipex666

444 posts

Ultimate Geek

Trusted

#283939 19-Dec-2009 07:12

I love my WDTV Live and have been using it for the last month or so and I'm pretty impressed with this unit. It was a upgrade from a Dlink dsm 320 with TVersity running on my WHS.

1. Does what it says
2. Backed by WD so they do support there product in way of firmware upgrades
3. There is another souped up firmware called WDLXTV really easy to flash from a usb stick no Linux knowledge required (as yet im sticking with the official firmware)
4. We have all our vids on the Windows Home Server with various XP, Vista and Win 7 machines and finds content on them ok.
5. Plays HD content no stuttering and this really is dependant on how and who coded the file you are watching.
6. I no longer needs server software like TVersity

Only issues and well documented is around Network Shares as it can sometimes take a while for them to popup on the WDTV live. Info is the server 2003 / 2008 are not fully compatible but works ok for me.

Also only finds your network if you all belong to "WORKGROUP" so had to change my network workgroup name back to the default.

Any case if the network shares don't popup I can always stream from the WHS through the media server.

For the price and size this is a great little unit, portable, not perfect prob around 4 out 5 mark overall.

For me all my vids are on network server and to get these to my TV 3 rooms away this is the answer.

"The only way to learn some- thing is to do it"

System

521 posts

Ultimate Geek

#286251 31-Dec-2009 11:15

I would get one of these:

http://www.popcornhour.com/onlinestore/index.php?pluginoption=catalog

I recommend the A-110

PC: 3.3ghz Core i5-2500, 8gb DDR3, ATI Radeon 5850, 27" QHD IPS Monitor

Mobile Phone: iPhone 5 32gb Graphite.

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