Is anyone using this: WD Media Player

[mrrman]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...Media%20Player

Pros?Cons?

Will these device work if you are using it with a Linksys Powerline Adaptor?

Thanks

 

[Slick5150]

They're ok. Xtreamer or Popcorn Hour devices are far more versatile though.

And I'd think a Linksys Powerline Adapter would be FAR too slow to stream anything other than MAYBE an MP3 or something (at least from my experience with powerline networking)

 

[slackerinabox]

They're ok. Xtreamer or Popcorn Hour devices are far more versatile though.

Do you even own one? I hate hate hate internet misinformation...

The WDTV Live is a great product, along with the similar ASUS O-play (though the wd live is a bit slicker). I own both and am giving the wdtv live as a gift to my inlaws.

And I'd think a Linksys Powerline Adapter would be FAR too slow to stream anything other than MAYBE an MP3 or something (at least from my experience with powerline networking)

Oh, is the linksys powerline adapter really FAR too slow? I own 3 and stream MKVs at 1080p perfectly.. Are mine magic?

If you don't know, please don't guess.

 

[de8212]

Hmmm, this is tempting. Although I only have 3 HDMI ports on my receiver but I could get rid of my old dvd player and add this.

So, I can take any video file off of my main pc and stream it to this device. Connect HDMI from this to my receiver and play it straight to my tv. I was always wanting to build an HTPC but this would take care of that unless I'm missing something.

 

[amdhunter]

I am also considering the WDTV. I've been lurking their forums and WD has been really hit and miss with the firmware updates (Bricking, loss of HDMI output, GUI issues.)

For the most part, most people seem to like it. I might get one myself. I am tired of lugging around my laptop whenever I want to see something in my living room.

As for the Powerline adapters, we use a few at work, and they are hit and miss sometimes. We have one that is rock solid for months on end, then needs a quick reboot (unplug...lol) We've had others fail completely for no reason.

 

[Papagayo]

I have WDTV.. I am getting WDTV Live for Christmas..
I love them, they play almost everything. Only popular format that they don't support is RMBV ( you have to get WDTV Mini).. I agree with freedomsbeat212, if you don't own one, you have no idea how useful this is. I can't judge the other brands, but WDTV is great product.

 

[slackerinabox]

Hmmm, this is tempting. Although I only have 3 HDMI ports on my receiver but I could get rid of my old dvd player and add this.

So, I can take any video file off of my main pc and stream it to this device. Connect HDMI from this to my receiver and play it straight to my tv. I was always wanting to build an HTPC but this would take care of that unless I'm missing something.

Yep, you can stream most every format onto the WD Live, with surround sound in tact! That's the biggest win for me, personally, over using my old xbox 360 for media playback.

I have a media pc for my bedroom and the biggest difference is flexibility - I can watch web video (netflix streaming, hulu, etc.) on my HTPC without work arounds. But I prefer the streamlined, keyboard free interface for a WD LIve for living room use - I just got tired of explaining how to use my HTPC to people who visit!

 

[amdhunter]

I have WDTV.. I am getting WDTV Live for Christmas..
I love them, they play almost everything. Only popular format that they don't support is RMBV ( you have to get WDTV Mini).. I agree with freedomsbeat212, if you don't own one, you have no idea how useful this is. I can't judge the other brands, but WDTV is great product.

I'll come right out and ask this. Will it play downloaded bluray mkv's downloaded from usenet? 1080p and 720p with no issues? How does it handle subtitles, I occasionally will torrent bollywood releases with srt subs.

I also want to attach the thing to the back of my TV out of sight, is the remote sensor sensitive, or does it have to be line of sight? (I'd probably buy a Harmony remote with this also.)

Thanks

 

[de8212]

Yep, you can stream most every format onto the WD Live, with surround sound in tact! That's the biggest win for me, personally, over using my old xbox 360 for media playback.

I have a media pc for my bedroom and the biggest difference is flexibility - I can watch web video (netflix streaming, hulu, etc.) on my HTPC without work arounds. But I prefer the streamlined, keyboard free interface for a WD LIve for living room use - I just got tired of explaining how to use my HTPC to people who visit!

This would be great since I always have to burn dvd's to watch the movies on my PC. Does it have a decent GUI? I'm gonna google and see if I can find some screenshots.

Just want something with a simple interface for the wife/kids. WOuld be great if I could control this with my Harmony remote. Just hit one button and some type of directory comes up so the wife/kids can scroll though it and pick a movie. A lot better that scratched cd's.

 

[slackerinabox]

I'll come right out and ask this. Will it play downloaded bluray mkv's downloaded from usenet? 1080p and 720p with no issues? How does it handle subtitles, I occasionally will torrent bollywood releases with srt subs.

I also want to attach the thing to the back of my TV out of sight, is the remote sensor sensitive, or does it have to be line of sight? (I'd probably buy a Harmony remote with this also.)

Thanks

Yes- mkv playback is flawless at up to 1080p plus dts/dolby digital (ah hum, whatever your source). This is on powerline/ethernet, 720p is choppy on 802.11n for me, using a router in bridge mode.

Subtitles are very similar to how DVDs are treated - there's a SUBTITLE button. SO much easier than my experience with HTPCs, which were sometimes frustrating with subtitles (why do they work sometimes and not other?!? argh!!).

The remote on both the asus o play and the wd live require line of site, as far as I can tell. But they're smaller than they look based on pictures, I have mine vertically between my receiver and sat receiver. Takes up about.. 2 inches?.. of horizontal space that way.

 

[Aharami]

ive basically given up my plans for a HTPC ever since I found out about these devices. I just have to get one now

 

[slackerinabox]

This would be great since I always have to burn dvd's to watch the movies on my PC. Does it have a decent GUI? I'm gonna google and see if I can find some screenshots.

Just want something with a simple interface for the wife/kids. WOuld be great if I could control this with my Harmony remote. Just hit one button and some type of directory comes up so the wife/kids can scroll though it and pick a movie. A lot better that scratched cd's.

The WD Live has a prettier GUI (over the otherwise very similar ASUS O-play). I would call both wife friendly, but the asus is pretty old school with it's actual media browsing (the front menu is pretty nifty looking with their large MUSIC, VIDEOS, etc. icons, but folder browsing is pretty old school, kinda like those DVD players from the early 2000's that were able to play MP3s).

ISO playback works fine but, honestly, I think just ripping the DVDs to XVID or MKV would be your best bet, since you're taxing your network a lot less and (personally) I find menus/trailers/FBI Warnings annoying anyways.

 

[slackerinabox]

ive basically given up my plans for a HTPC ever since I found out about these devices. I just have to get one now

Well, HTPCs have their place as well. I just built my parents one for next to nothing ($50 AMD X2 processor, $70 780g motherboard, plus spare parts) and they like it because they watch mostly web video (from indian language sites) vs dvd rips.

But, yeah, HTPC keyboard can cost more than a WD Live.. Then there's the heat issues of a HTPC.. And the troubleshooting when your wife wants to watch something and can't get it to work... So, for convenience and cost, I like set top boxes.

 

[mrrman]

thanks everyone....I am going to buy one...B & H Photo has them for $109 shipped...

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/produc...V_Live_HD.html


I am tired of buring discs...you can also run this off a USB stick to...the link posted is for the newest unit

 

[de8212]

It's 109 at amazon as well.

mrrman - what do you mean by running off a usb stick? Are you using it that way instead of streaming to the unit via cat5?

 

[Aharami]

Well, HTPCs have their place as well. I just built my parents one for next to nothing ($50 AMD X2 processor, $70 780g motherboard, plus spare parts) and they like it because they watch mostly web video (from indian language sites) vs dvd rips.

But, yeah, HTPC keyboard can cost more than a WD Live.. Then there's the heat issues of a HTPC.. And the troubleshooting when your wife wants to watch something and can't get it to work... So, for convenience and cost, I like set top boxes.

WAF is pretty much my only reason why Im considering the WD live HD over a HTPC.

 

[mrrman]

It's 109 at amazon as well.

mrrman - what do you mean by running off a usb stick? Are you using it that way instead of streaming to the unit via cat5?

You can copy the files of your PC to or grab files from your friends PC if you are at their house and save them to a USB drive and play them directly off the USB drive....I just bought one from B&H

 

[slackerinabox]

thanks everyone....I am going to buy one...B & H Photo has them for $109 shipped...

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/produc...V_Live_HD.html


I am tired of buring discs...you can also run this off a USB stick to...the link posted is for the newest unit

Enjoy! If you only plan on using USB you can get the WDTV or Wdtv lite (is that what they call it)? It'll save you a few bucks, but I strongly recommend the convenience of the WD Live/ethernet..

As for the powerline - the linksys powerline AV is what I have and costs significantly more than most powerline kits.. But I've owned 2 sets of cheapies (a belkin and netgear) and they worked fine for web browsing but were useless with anything other than low bitrate XVIDs.

Buy this:
http://www.amazon.com/Linksys-PLK300...1494008&sr=8-1

1080p flawless, of course that's ymmv if you have ancient wiring in the house.

 

[mrrman]

Enjoy! If you only plan on using USB you can get the WDTV or Wdtv lite (is that what they call it)? It'll save you a few bucks, but I strongly recommend the convenience of the WD Live/ethernet..

As for the powerline - the linksys powerline AV is what I have and costs significantly more than most powerline kits.. But I've owned 2 sets of cheapies (a belkin and netgear) and they worked fine for web browsing but were useless with anything other than low bitrate XVIDs.

Buy this:
http://www.amazon.com/Linksys-PLK300...1494008&sr=8-1

1080p flawless, of course that's ymmv if you have ancient wiring in the house.

I am running 4 of these in my house now and they work great

 

[slackerinabox]

WAF is pretty much my only reason why Im considering the WD live HD over a HTPC.

Yeap, I really wish they'd integrate a web browser and an onscreen keyboard into Windows Media Center- right now there's way too much alt-tabbing and keyboard use, and I hate having a keyboard in the living room... I don't know why, but it felt so nerdy explaining my system to everyone who visits, with their "why does it have to be so complicated?" So I move the HTPC to the bedroom

 

[de8212]

Just looking through review at amazon. Someone says "Only passes dts into stereo. Licensing costs too much WD says. "

So, forgive me for being clueless but that means even if I have a Blu Ray rip of a movie on my PC, it will stream the movie so that the video is 1080p but will not have DTS sound??? So, it won't be 5.1?

EDIT - Looking at the specs on WD's site it says "Audio - MP3, WAV/PCM/LPCM, WMA, AAC, FLAC, MKA, AIF/AIFF, OGG, Dolby Digital, DTS"

So, I'm even more confused?

 

[Modelworks]

110% thumbs up for the WDTV Live.
First thing to do when you get one is update the firmware to the hacked version.
The box houses two processors . One runs at 500Mhz and the other is a dsp running at 433Mhz . The box also has 512MB ram and runs linux.

There is already a version of debian linux for use with the box. They really went overboard with the hardware as they could have easily done it with less. You can do things like download torrents while watching 1080p video and never see a stutter because of the hardware decoder. It has two usb ports and ethernet, wireless via usb adapters. Upgrading the firmware is very easy.
Download the firmware from http://b-rad.cc . Format a usb drive as FAT. Copy the firmware files to the drive. Turn on the box and it will ask if you want to update, select yes and wait for it to finish, takes about 10 minutes. After that you can telnet, ssh, ftp into the box and set it up how you like. You can change the OSD, run a web server, or whatever else.

I took apart mine and put it inside an old tivo box along with some hard drives so it fits nicely in the entertainment center. For under $200 I got about as much function as a HTPC and it looks great and only uses 12 watts.


Hacked firmware adds :

lighttpd-1.4.25 webserver w/gd included (default enabled)
Deluge-1.2.0-rc4 Bittorrent client included (w/ webui)
nzbget-0.7-r357 & nzbgetweb-0.1.4-t5 include
hellanzb-0.13 included
pure-ftpd-1.0.24 w/TLS included
perl-5.10.1 included
python-2.5.4 included
php-cgi-5.2.11-2 included
screen-4.00.03jw4 included
unrar-free-0.0.1 included
par2-0.4 included
wakeonlan-0.41-10 included
Rezmus USB-power-on-suspend patch
bash-4.0-4 included
sshfs-2.2-1 included
unionfs-0.23.hg.20090611-1 included
NTP fix for DHCP users

 

[slackerinabox]

Just looking through review at amazon. Someone says "Only passes dts into stereo. Licensing costs too much WD says. "

So, forgive me for being clueless but that means even if I have a Blu Ray rip of a movie on my PC, it will stream the movie so that the video is 1080p but will not have DTS sound??? So, it won't be 5.1?

EDIT - Looking at the specs on WD's site it says "Audio - MP3, WAV/PCM/LPCM, WMA, AAC, FLAC, MKA, AIF/AIFF, OGG, Dolby Digital, DTS"

So, I'm even more confused?

The amazon reviewer is an idiot.

 

[Modelworks]

I'll come right out and ask this. Will it play downloaded bluray mkv's downloaded from usenet? 1080p and 720p with no issues? How does it handle subtitles, I occasionally will torrent bollywood releases with srt subs.

I also want to attach the thing to the back of my TV out of sight, is the remote sensor sensitive, or does it have to be line of sight? (I'd probably buy a Harmony remote with this also.)

Thanks

It has played everything I have thrown at it even things VLC would not play because of bad indexes. Subtitle support is good .The processor it uses is the same one used in many bluray players. I haven't had any issues with the remote not being seen by the box. My one complaint is the remote itself , it is too small for me, but if you got a learning remote you are fine. There are not many codes that exist for non learning remotes so if you have one of those that just takes codes you are probably out of luck.

 

[de8212]

The amazon reviewer is an idiot.

Thanks for the clarification.


OK, So I ordered it from Amazon. Another dumb question. I will have to store all the media on my external Mx-1 listed in my sig. It's connected via eSATA. That should be no issue with streaming, right? I just see mentioned of USB external drives but I think they are referring to connecting them directly to the WD device. My setup will be:

PC with mx-1 (1TB hard drive eSATA) -> cat 5 to 2nd router in living room -> WD device ->hdmi to Denon receiver -> hdmi out of denon to LCD TV.

Anyone see any issue with this setup?


Bad news is that it will be here thursday but I probably won't be able to set it up until next week.