Bought a WD TV mini :(

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richms

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#84642 4-Jun-2011 01:26

Inadvertanly bid on one of these thinking it was a proper WDTV with the networking etc.

Anyway, I know there is some hacking of these players done online - given that it has a pretty hopeless featureset as stock, can they be made to do anything useful like connect to a network (wired) use a USB hub, etc? Or is it destined to just play old SD DIVX stuff off USB drives like a replacement for an old school DVD player with a USB slot and nothing else?

Richard rich.ms

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#477656 4-Jun-2011 08:39

If you wanna get rid of it, let me know

jjnz1

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#477681 4-Jun-2011 10:36

richms: Inadvertanly bid on one of these thinking it was a proper WDTV with the networking etc.

Anyway, I know there is some hacking of these players done online - given that it has a pretty hopeless featureset as stock, can they be made to do anything useful like connect to a network (wired) use a USB hub, etc? Or is it destined to just play old SD DIVX stuff off USB drives like a replacement for an old school DVD player with a USB slot and nothing else?

How much did you get conned out of for this lovely piece of equipment?

richms

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#477728 4-Jun-2011 13:28

$30something from graysonline.

will try it later on the tv with component and see if the ui is even readable. its not on composite really.

Richard rich.ms

xarqi

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#477772 4-Jun-2011 15:50

As a bit of an aside, I explored the possibility of a box with the functionality you seem to be looking for, and rejected all of the WD products I tried (WD TV Live; WD TV Hub; and the World Book drive/server unit).

The best advice I got was that if I were to go again down that path, I should look at a jail-broken Apple TV.

So, have you considered that option, and what was your basis for going with WD in the first place?

I'm not criticising your choice, just wanting to learn more about what my choices could be in future.

richms

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#477781 4-Jun-2011 16:31

It was cheap and I thought it was the normal one with HDMI out and HD support. Needed something to give to mum to play stuff I download onto USB stick for her. It said no HDMI in the description and I assumed it meant that there was no cable, not that the box didnt have it at all.

Not getting an apple product out of principle, same as I wont get anything sony anymore.

The o!play does what I want. Now I have this I was just hoping that there was something that can make it a little more useful, it would do fine in the garage on that TV (once I get another modulator) if it would stream ustream etc, which I hope there is a hack to do, but as they are so crap I dont think that there is any hacking going on with them compared to its larger brothers.

Richard rich.ms

ilovemusic

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#477785 4-Jun-2011 16:51

The WD media players are pooz in features, usability and performance.

A friend thought he was upgrading from his old Asus O!Play but the WD was several steps backwards in every regard.

robjg63

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#477790 4-Jun-2011 17:31

I bought an apple TV a couple of weeks back to replace an aging Mediagate box.

The ATV is crap out of the box - by that I mean its all tied up to apples proprietary file formats (they dont suit me and what I want to play on it). But I can confirm that jailbreaking it with Seasonpass and then installing xbmc on it has made it a pretty sweet little box of tricks.

It has no built in media storage and you can only use it for streaming. You cant hook up a USB drive to it either.

If you decide to get one make sure you have a micro USB lead if you want to jailbreak it. The wife has a Nokia phone that had such a lead so I didnt need to buy one.

I am just waiting for someone to hack a web browser into it and it will be a really neat media centre for $169. I gather the device has a currently unused bluetooth chip in it that can be activated and can be made to support a bluetooth keyboard.

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

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Dunnersfella

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#477845 4-Jun-2011 20:53

I'm yet to try the Bluetooth integration on the ATV2... but I can see the benefit, even if it's just for tweaking the XBMC library files. I have a HDD connected via USB to my router, and it's a brilliant toy - the PC doesn't need to be turned on, yet I can still access my entire library... choice!

xarqi

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#477851 4-Jun-2011 21:12

Dunnersfella: I'm yet to try the Bluetooth integration on the ATV2... but I can see the benefit, even if it's just for tweaking the XBMC library files. I have a HDD connected via USB to my router, and it's a brilliant toy - the PC doesn't need to be turned on, yet I can still access my entire library... choice!

So, your router or the HDD is acting as a file server then? SMB, DLNA, or similar? Which is doing it? What's it doing? What brand is it? Is it expensive? Is it easy to manage? Does it work reliably?

That's like what I wanted to do using the WD WorldBook drive/server, but it had big problems, the deal breaker being that if I deleted files from a drive attached to it, the directory became corrupted (error messages given, files disappeared, but space was not reclaimed.)

Dunnersfella

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#477861 4-Jun-2011 21:36

I'm running an Apple Airport Extreme, simultaneous dual band (A,B,G,N) router - the HDD is a 1TB Western Digital unit. It mates up to my Apple TV2, running XBMC brilliantly, sure I initially had to spend some time tweaking file names so that the IMDB scrapper would pick the right artwork / actor bios etc.
I'm using SMB - seems bullet proof to date, I am now hard wiring the whole shooting box though, not because I had buffering issues, just because I can :-)
The router is relatively expensive, no doubt it'll be going cheap soon as the rumours say Apple is bringing a new version out soon...

tdgeek

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#477885 4-Jun-2011 23:17

---The WD media players are pooz in features, usability and performance.
----

Keen to know why you feel this. I have a WDTV, plays everything, fault and problem free. Thats been relegated to the bedroom plasma, and I got a WDTV Live 6 months or more ago, thats sweet also. The wireless works well, remote menu is faster. These have always have good reviews

Featurewise, well its just a media player, not a media centre, but I find it great. What features are you expecting ilovemusic?

Cheers

xarqi

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#477889 4-Jun-2011 23:31

Dunnersfella: I'm running an Apple Airport Extreme...

Thanks for the info.

JimmyH

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#477969 5-Jun-2011 12:30

ilovemusic: The WD media players are pooz in features, usability and performance.

A friend thought he was upgrading from his old Asus O!Play but the WD was several steps backwards in every regard.

Curious why you say this. I have a WD TV, which I demoted to the spare room when I got a WD TV Live, and I love them both. While I admit the interface is ugly - they are virtually idiot-proof, work right out of the box, do what they say they will and play almost anything. Currently considering moving up to the Live Hub, which can be had online for circa $340.

ilovemusic

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#477984 5-Jun-2011 13:37

It's a nice compact size.

Mediocre construction, poor quality connectors.

Tiny, often unresponsive remote.

Ugly uniformative interface.

Poor info display modes, that lacks basic info like picture resolution, frame rate, number of active audio channels, data rate etc.

No flv or rmvb playback, problems with mkv compressed headers.

HDMI connectivity issues.

Mediocre picture and sound quality (HDMI into a Marantz 8002 AVR and Panasonic 50" TV).

The newer WDTV Live Hub has a better interface and remote but still lacks a display mode with basic info and still has HDMI issues like audio dropouts when using the auto resolution setting.

The re-scanning of newly attached or re-attached external drives is also a PIA.

tdgeek

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#477996 5-Jun-2011 14:45

Well, you must have a faulty one

Heres my comments...

--It's a nice compact size.

True

-Mediocre construction, poor quality connectors.

Mines fine, no issues with connectors or connector sturdiness

-Tiny, often unresponsive remote.

The remote can be slow the Live is better

-Ugly uniformative interface.

Its a media player not a media centre

-Poor info display modes, that lacks basic info like picture resolution, frame rate, number of active audio channels, data rate etc.

Its a media player not a media centre

-No flv or rmvb playback, problems with mkv compressed headers.

No issues with flv or mkv, never tried rmvb

-HDMI connectivity issues.

None here

-Mediocre picture and sound quality (HDMI into a Marantz 8002 AVR and Panasonic 50" TV).

Awesome quality here whe playing HC content, it plays 1080p and as i Have MySky HDi with HD and Tivo, I can verify HD quality. I have Panasonic Viera 50 Plasma

-The newer WDTV Live Hub has a better interface and remote but still lacks a display mode with basic info and still has HDMI issues like audio dropouts when using the auto resolution setting.

The remote is the same. The interface is the same, with added functionality

Again you must have issues or poor setup

-The re-scanning of newly attached or re-attached external drives is also a PIA.

Happens once if you add a device with added content, does not last long. Can only cause a delay if there are a large number of new items.

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