WD TV vs...?

[angry hampster]

I've been wanting a digital media adapter for a while now. I have quite a few 1080p and 720p videos on my computer, and want to make use of my new 37" vizio.

I have a $25 Best Buy gift card, and was thinking about picking up a WD TV unit. Are they worth the money? Any issues?

Note, I will be streaming from an external hard drive, not through my network as I don't want to run wires all the way across the place.

I know BB has AppleTV as well. However, Apple products are always overpriced, and I see it can only do 720p.

 

[sdifox]

you could get a compatible usb 802.11 card for the wd hd live. I do have a wd hd live and it works reasonably well.

 

[angry hampster]

you could get a compatible usb 802.11 card for the wd hd live. I do have a wd hd live and it works reasonably well.

1080p would be too heavy to stream across wireless G, correct? Don't feel like upgrading to N if it's not necessary.

 

[sdifox]

1080p would be too heavy to stream across wireless G, correct? Don't feel like upgrading to N if it's not necessary.

personally, I prefer hard wire connection. So I use USB hdd. I am not a streamer. I use the wireless for youtube and shit like that.

 

[Modelworks]

The live plus is the best media player in its price range right now. WD really came through on updates , they have added quite a few features to it since release. It now supports facebook, , deezer,mediafly, youtube, bluray and dvd iso files, usb keyboards. I don't know how much more they can add as the firmware storage chip is about filled up. The only down side is it will not support advanced format 2TB+ hard drives currently due to the need for extra code to support them. It does read FAT,Fat32, NTFS, Ext2,3 linux files since the box runs linux internally. If you worry about power usage, the live consumes 7 watts at peak and about .1 watts on standby.

I use it with network and local drives, of course usb drives will be faster.

 

[0roo0roo]

depends what you feed it, i gave up on the wdtv and got a htpc.
wdtv, atleast the first version would get hung up on files and stuff,it was slow... general pain to use. playing avi's is aboutthe only thing it did well. it is a super cheap impimentation of htpc, and well, something had to give. it was all a little half baked.

 

[angry hampster]

I pi9cked up the regular WDTV HD. BB had it on clearance for $71.99. I had a $25 gift card, so I made out pretty well. I will try a few files on it, and if it works out well then woohoo!

 

[sdifox]

I pi9cked up the regular WDTV HD. BB had it on clearance for $71.99. I had a $25 gift card, so I made out pretty well. I will try a few files on it, and if it works out well then woohoo!

how much more was the live plus?

 

[angry hampster]

how much more was the live plus?

It was $120. I used the WD TV last night. VERY impressed. Attractive menu layout, easy to use, and played back a high-bitrate 720p file flawlessly. Great sound and video quality.

 

[sdifox]

It was $120. I used the WD TV last night. VERY impressed. Attractive menu layout, easy to use, and played back a high-bitrate 720p file flawlessly. Great sound and video quality.

it can handle 1080p so 720 should not be much of a challenge.

 

[angry hampster]

it can handle 1080p so 720 should not be much of a challenge.

I assumed as much. Just nice seeing it first hand.