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

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710 posts

Ultimate Geek

#265405 20-Oct-2009 18:19

garvani: As stated it deducts gst, im guessing they assume it will be charged when it enters the country.

They are deducting Aussie GST, which you don't pay. Whether or not you pay NZ GST will depend on customs when the item enters NZ.

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billgates

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#265412 20-Oct-2009 18:36

Shouldn't have to pay GST when it enters NZ. If the GST adds up to $50, then they will charge you and for that to happen, product + shipping has to cost over $400.

Do whatever you want to do man.

garvani

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#265446 20-Oct-2009 20:44

Im really considering getting one now.. will have to do some further research into it, its a really good price for what you get. hmmm
As for xbmc being ported, you heard some bad information there, it wont happen, the developers have no interest porting to these type of devices anymore (this includes ps3, xbox360 etc etc) they have open platforms being linux, windows and mac osx to work on without such strict hardware limitations that these platforms introduce.. sorry to burst your bubble just didnt want to get anyone elses hopes up

robjg63

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#265553 21-Oct-2009 09:18

garvani: I emailed the xstreamer guys about NZ post.. they came back with this:

"Hi Jason.

Shipping to NZ is already available for $25aud and the shopping cart will automatically deduct you GST charges.

Regards"

Upon entering new zealand as an option, it told me it was going to be $206 including the $25 international postage, which works out to be $253nz. As stated it deducts gst, im guessing they assume it will be charged when it enters the country.

Ah - that explains why the prices dropped when I went into the order page - I think I wanted to see what would be charged if I selected the unit + the WiFi antenna - and at some point (maybe I did something with postage) the price dropped lower than I expected. I figured there was something wrong with their website! So its a very good buy.

I see they want people to develop apps for the unit - hence the SDK kit they are making available for it. Thats about the best news for any device like that. The add ons and clever stuff will just snowball. Hmm - might have to be extra nice to the missus. Trouble is I have a mediagate (MG-350HD) which is actually a terrific unit really - I stream from my PC to the big screen TV over wireless. It plays nearly anything - but is limited to wireless G and because its a couple of years old doesnt do H.264/mkv. But the xtreamer has a lot more features - reckon if they added a USB keyboard (there is talk of that) and a moderate web browser them its a perfect device to hook up to your TV.

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

garvani

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#265997 22-Oct-2009 10:57

ugh.. im going to buy an xtreamer! Now the tricky part! do i chance my arm and get it through the EU or Aus? Getting it through the EU i will save $50nz landed than getting it through the aus distributor. Problem being that there shipping record from the EU is less than stellar from some forum posts, and having the international cut off for christmas looming i dont know what to do!
Thoughts anyone?

Edit: ahh screw it! Ordered through the EU.. now lets see how long it takes!

Wheelz

9 posts

Wannabe Geek

#266022 22-Oct-2009 11:54

Well after reading the forums about all the Xtreamer problems I won't touch them with a barge-pole. Think I'll also look at the WD TV Live as it least it's got a decent company behind it (and the reviews are great too).
Not worried about no flv playback as Youtube HD content saves as mp4 and you can also view them live from youtube with the WDTV Live, but I'll be mainly watching movies/tv shows anyway.

robjg63

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#266025 22-Oct-2009 11:59

Wheelz: Well after reading the forums about all the Xtreamer problems I won't touch them with a barge-pole. Think I'll also look at the WD TV Live as it least it's got a decent company behind it (and the reviews are great too).

Not worried about no flv playback as Youtube HD content saves as mp4 and you can also view them live from youtube with the WDTV Live, but I'll be mainly watching movies/tv shows anyway.

What things concerned you most?

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

Wheelz

9 posts

Wannabe Geek

#266037 22-Oct-2009 12:11

2 aspects concerend me - the problems with the company itself and its client communication problems and delivery problems; plus the problems with HD playback on the device itself - mainly the video stuttering and lip-synch problems, but also the noise issue with the fan. I hear the new firmware might solve the HD stuttering and fan issues so here's hoping they might be getting there...

garvani

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#266041 22-Oct-2009 12:20

Problems with HD playback? there isnt many problems!! ive read through the forums and as long as your files are in spec (4.1 profile etc) then you are sweet, its only when you have a file with 16 bframes etc that you get issues, but ANY hardware player will have issues with that. There is a guy that played an EXTREME specd file and it played it flawlesly (will find link)
The fan is a concern, there are numerous documented ways around this however and the latest batch of players have a low setting which seems to be very tolerable.
The company has had shipping troubles in the past but seem to have rectified that lately, expect for a few delayed/lost deliveries to Israel etc from the first batch, but this is a courier problem, hardly the fault of xtreamer. They are very customer focused and seem to take onboard what there customers want, just look at the frequency of firmware updates and features, most of which have been asked for by consumers, are WD doing this? i think not.
Anyway i ordered one today from the EU so we shall see how everything goes!

robjg63

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#266046 22-Oct-2009 12:27

The device is pretty new to the market and it did appear they were acting quite quick with bug fixes etc.
Not sure about the delivery issues - I saw that some people were getting cranky about not getting the units on launch date - I thought that looked like it settled down quite a lot. Looked like they were trying to do something funny in the EU to avoid VAT in the UK - think that caused some grumps.

The fan noise was the only thing that was concerning me a little - it did appear that it was confined to certain batches of the product and they appeared to be replacing a few - but it also looked like they were putting a bit more smarts into the software to control the speed.

As I said earlier I have a nearly 3 year old mediagate MG350HD - Its been pretty good and the software has been very stable - but if you look at the first few months of release they had a few upset people apparently. Seems to be that companies launch products these days and fix issues on the wing. I guess thats because products contain more software driven features rather than the old days of being all hardware driven.

I think its still early days for the xtreamer - but it looks very promising so far.

Will be keen to see what you think Garvani - I am still mulling the idea of purchasing for now.

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

Wheelz

9 posts

Wannabe Geek

#266048 22-Oct-2009 12:35

OK, maybe I'll put it down to "teething problems" with a new product :)
Though I believe the fan is a fundamental flaw in the design and can't be fixed with software, only by doing a manual mod/replacement.

But I'll wait till Garvani gets his and hopefully puts up a local review (please) before I decide. I'm looking at a Xmas present so I have some time before purchasing.

Edit: Just saw on the official site theat they still haven't fixed the 1080p playback problems with the latest firmware upgrade :(

Next version TODO list:
1. Some HDMI TV, HDMI 1080P not smooth playback and flickering.

garvani

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#266071 22-Oct-2009 13:08

im getting it for a xmas present too! :) but ill have to play with it first and will try and do a review..
check this thread if you havnt Xtreamer 1080P compatability tested and confirmed by users. Alot of people arnt having problems, theres the odd one that wont play but as stated, they arnt in spec!
Check this file for instance found on page 5, which he said played fine on the system, no stuttering..

General
Complete name : I:\High-Def Sources\Fast_H264@1920x1080+AC3 (133Mbps 31secs).mp4
Format : MPEG-4
Format profile : Base Media
Codec ID : isom
File size : 492 MiB
Duration : 31s 0ms
Overall bit rate : 133 Mbps
Encoded date : UTC 2009-09-11 18:13:15
Tagged date : UTC 2009-09-11 18:13:15

Video
ID : 1
Format : AVC
Format/Info : Advanced Video Codec
Format profile : Main@L5.1
Format settings, CABAC : No
Format settings, ReFrames : 2 frames
Codec ID : avc1
Codec ID/Info : Advanced Video Coding
Duration : 31s 0ms
Bit rate mode : Variable
Bit rate : 133 Mbps
Maximum bit rate : 235 Mbps
Width : 1 920 pixels
Height : 1 080 pixels
Display aspect ratio : 16:9
Frame rate mode : Constant
Frame rate : 24.000 fps
Resolution : 24 bits
Colorimetry : 4:2:0
Scan type : Progressive
Bits/(Pixel*Frame) : 2.668
Stream size : 491 MiB (100%)
Title : C:\Users\SeeMoreDigital\Desktop\Video.h264:fps=24.00
Encoded date : UTC 2009-09-11 18:13:15
Tagged date : UTC 2009-09-11 18:13:59
colour_primaries : BT.709-5, BT.1361, IEC 61966-2-4, SMPTE RP177
transfer_characteristics : BT.709-5, BT.1361
matrix_coefficients : BT.709-5, BT.1361, IEC 61966-2-4 709, SMPTE RP177

JayTaicho

294 posts

Ultimate Geek

#266476 23-Oct-2009 21:30

Hey guys. I bought an xtreamer online about 2 months ago. I actually sold my wdtv HD to buy it. The wdtv is awesome. Plays back 1080p files flawlessly (which is the only reason I bought it). But the downfall was that it didn't have dts audio support. Which unfortunately, more than half of my 1080p movies had. An issue by the way the new wdtv live fixes, which is great. Anyway, the only reason I bought the xtreamer is for the dts support. Now, I do have playback on all my movie files, but not without some work arounds. For you see the xtreamer engineers have totally disregarded the mac community. There currently is no way to stream to the xtreamer on a mac. And the only way to connect your USB drive to the xtreamer is to reformat it to ntfs, cos it won't read hfs+ formatted drives. So, I'm going to be purchasing the wdtv live very shortly. So if any of you pc users want an xtreamer, I'll be putting it up on trademe within the next couple of days. It's actually pretty awesome having my 2.5" connected to it with all my media on it. Was just a shame I had to reformat. Anyone else tried the xtreamer?

driller2000

932 posts

Ultimate Geek

#266857 26-Oct-2009 13:19

re xtreamer...

have owned one for 2 months now - orderered via xtremer.net site - there was a delay with batch 1 and 2 - incl mine - but i understand these delivery issues are a thing of the past - as no one on the forums is complaining about delivery anymore (note: i did not have any duties or tax added by nz customs)

at any rate it seems we can order from the aussie outfit - at a better final price - and this is where i will likely get my 2nd one

as for its performace (running 1.0.3 fw)- have thrown various files and it has played them all

am streaming from pc over wired lan and it has streamed everything incl 720p files flawlessly on my setup (havent tried 1080p as i dont have any content...)

as for the xtreamer company - from what i have seen they are more connected to their customers - via their forums - then pretty much any other company i have seen

they also seem pretty dedicated to their project as evidenced by planned fw upgrades and features

at the end of the day i shelled out (only?) $250 to land a device in nz - which does everything i want it to do - so i am happy - and most likely when they add more features and sort some bugs - i will buy a second one for the family room

cheers

ed

ps: their nas looks interesting too.....
ps: i am not an xtreamer employee - nor a mod on their forums - just another kiwi who likes tech toys :)

garvani

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#269584 3-Nov-2009 12:48

Got my Xtreamer today. Ordered on the 21st of oct. It left Hongkong via UPS on friday and arrived today (yesterday was a public holiday in blenheim). So thats not bad turn around. Ill be having a go with it tonight, will post my impressions on the latest firmware out.

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