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WDTV Live Streaming box = Holy Grail (LAN Playback + Web Services)

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Kaido said:
I've read that Playon does ESPN streaming to the Roku for a monthly fee: (or annual or lifetime - looks like they have a sale going on)

http://www.playon.tv/devices/roku

Not sure about the WDTV - didn't see it in the lineup.
Click to expand...

Thank you for the info. Good to know. I was just curious.
Apple TV2 w/ XBMC can do every channel on that PlayOn list for free including ESPN, ESPN2, ESPN3. I watched the live LSU vs Alabama BCS Championship football game last night on ESPN through my AppleTV2. 🙂
 
ponyo said:
Thank you for the info. Good to know. I was just curious.
Apple TV2 w/ XBMC can do every channel on that PlayOn list for free including ESPN, ESPN2, ESPN3. I watched the live LSU vs Alabama BCS Championship football game last night on ESPN through my AppleTV2. 🙂
Click to expand...

Can it do Hulu Plus?
 
ponyo said:
Thank you for the info. Good to know. I was just curious.
Apple TV2 w/ XBMC can do every channel on that PlayOn list for free including ESPN, ESPN2, ESPN3. I watched the live LSU vs Alabama BCS Championship football game last night on ESPN through my AppleTV2. 🙂
Click to expand...

Wow that's awesome! Is Playon free for ATV2 legit, or hacked? I will have to try that!

What is the latest hacking path for the ATV2? Firecore then plugins? I did mine manually last year. Does it have an app store of sorts for plugins, or do you still get them manually from repositories? Does someone maintain a list of what's currently available? Haven't looked at it in a few months...
 
Kaido said:
Wow that's awesome! Is Playon free for ATV2 legit, or hacked? I will have to try that!

What is the latest hacking path for the ATV2? Firecore then plugins? I did mine manually last year. Does it have an app store of sorts for plugins, or do you still get them manually from repositories? Does someone maintain a list of what's currently available? Haven't looked at it in a few months...
Click to expand...

I'll need this too if I'm going to get an ATV2 for my madre.. 🙂
 
Kaido said:
Wow that's awesome! Is Playon free for ATV2 legit, or hacked? I will have to try that!

What is the latest hacking path for the ATV2? Firecore then plugins? I did mine manually last year. Does it have an app store of sorts for plugins, or do you still get them manually from repositories? Does someone maintain a list of what's currently available? Haven't looked at it in a few months...
Click to expand...

You don't install any PlayOn. I don't think it exists for AppleTV. But why would you anyway? The channels on PlayOn are nothing special. You can get 99% of those channels if you install Hulu, Amazon Prime, Free Cable, Live Streams, and ESPN3 video addons for XBMC.

Install XBMC and do some browsing at Video Addons forum. If you never used XBMC add-on plugins, you missed out on the best part of XBMC. Understand the best plug-in, Icefilms, is no longer discussed or hosted there. Navi-X is still there but that will probably get closed and moved offsite as well very soon.
 
Can anyone help me find the cheapest possible HDMI-to-Component converter? My mother's TV only has Component/DVI/RCA connections. I'd like to keep the HD if possible by using a component converter, but it seems like the prices are about half of what a used ATV2 would be which is kind of making it pointless to grab one IMO.
 
dlock13 said:
Can anyone help me find the cheapest possible HDMI-to-Component converter? My mother's TV only has Component/DVI/RCA connections. I'd like to keep the HD if possible by using a component converter, but it seems like the prices are about half of what a used ATV2 would be which is kind of making it pointless to grab one IMO.
Click to expand...

Why not just use an HDMI to DVI adapter?
 
ponyo said:
You don't install any PlayOn. I don't think it exists for AppleTV. But why would you anyway? The channels on PlayOn are nothing special. You can get 99% of those channels if you install Hulu, Amazon Prime, Free Cable, Live Streams, and ESPN3 video addons for XBMC.

Install XBMC and do some browsing at Video Addons forum. If you never used XBMC add-on plugins, you missed out on the best part of XBMC. Understand the best plug-in, Icefilms, is no longer discussed or hosted there. Navi-X is still there but that will probably get closed and moved offsite as well very soon.
Click to expand...

I've been in the HTPC scene for almost a decade now, and I can't believe I've never run into IceFish...holy shit. This changes everything...
 
SLCentral said:
I've been in the HTPC scene for almost a decade now, and I can't believe I've never run into IceFish...holy shit. This changes everything...
Click to expand...

Lol. That's usually the first thing people say when I show them. Now you know why people buy AppleTV2. It sure isn't because of anything by Apple. XBMC crew needs to get paid %$ of every AppleTV2 sales. And HTPC not running XBMC? Time to join the party. 🙂
 
dlock13 said:
How we would go about getting sound then?
Click to expand...

Depends. The ATV2 has a separate optical audio output jack, so you could do it digitally. For analog...well, I picked up an Optical to Stereo RCA adapter box from Monoprice awhile ago that I've been meaning to try. My vision was to use ATV2's for whole-house audio using Airplay instead of the Airport Express units (more hackable, same price, more or less the same dimensions). I believe I got this unit:

http://www.monoprice.com/products/p...=10423&cs_id=1042302&p_id=6884&seq=1&format=2

I'll have to try it out sometime soon. Although I'd probably wait until the ATV3 comes out before investing in a dozen of them :awe:
 
Kaido said:
Depends. The ATV2 has a separate optical audio output jack, so you could do it digitally. For analog...well, I picked up an Optical to Stereo RCA adapter box from Monoprice awhile ago that I've been meaning to try. My vision was to use ATV2's for whole-house audio using Airplay instead of the Airport Express units (more hackable, same price, more or less the same dimensions). I believe I got this unit:

http://www.monoprice.com/products/p...=10423&cs_id=1042302&p_id=6884&seq=1&format=2

I'll have to try it out sometime soon. Although I'd probably wait until the ATV3 comes out before investing in a dozen of them :awe:
Click to expand...

Still pretty expensive. I was looking at an HDMI-to-Component Converter, but they were 40$. I found an ATV2 for $70. So its still about the same price if I were to get that adapter.
 
dlock13 said:
Still pretty expensive. I was looking at an HDMI-to-Component Converter, but they were 40$. I found an ATV2 for $70. So its still about the same price if I were to get that adapter.
Click to expand...

Yeah. I've read mixed reviews on the HDMI-to-Component adapters (due to HDCP & resolution, mostly), so I'd be interested to hear how it works out.
 
ponyo said:
Lol. That's usually the first thing people say when I show them. Now you know why people buy AppleTV2. It sure isn't because of anything by Apple. XBMC crew needs to get paid %$ of every AppleTV2 sales. And HTPC not running XBMC? Time to join the party. 🙂
Click to expand...

I've been doing a lot of research and still can't find a 100% definitive conclusion - can the ATV2 (with XBMC) play 1080p mkv files via SMB/network? Yes or no?
 
SLCentral said:
I've been doing a lot of research and still can't find a 100% definitive conclusion - can the ATV2 (with XBMC) play 1080p mkv files via SMB/network? Yes or no?
Click to expand...

In my experience yes, although I have read that a lot of people have trouble with some 1080p files. XBMC on ATV2 has played everything I've thrown at it myself, though.
 
SLCentral said:
I've been doing a lot of research and still can't find a 100% definitive conclusion - can the ATV2 (with XBMC) play 1080p mkv files via SMB/network? Yes or no?
Click to expand...

Yes, as long as the bitrate isn't too high. The bitrate is the problem, not the resolution. You could easily have the same problem with a 720p video with sky-high bitrate.
 
dclive said:
Yes, as long as the bitrate isn't too high. The bitrate is the problem, not the resolution. You could easily have the same problem with a 720p video with sky-high bitrate.
Click to expand...

What have people generally found to be too high? I'm guessing my BR rips that have 30mbps won't play, but something more reasonable (10-15mbps) would be fine?
 
ponyo said:
You don't install any PlayOn. I don't think it exists for AppleTV. But why would you anyway? The channels on PlayOn are nothing special. You can get 99% of those channels if you install Hulu, Amazon Prime, Free Cable, Live Streams, and ESPN3 video addons for XBMC.

Install XBMC and do some browsing at Video Addons forum. If you never used XBMC add-on plugins, you missed out on the best part of XBMC. Understand the best plug-in, Icefilms, is no longer discussed or hosted there. Navi-X is still there but that will probably get closed and moved offsite as well very soon.
Click to expand...
Damn you ponyo, you just caused me to take up my entire afternoon learning about and configuring XBMC on three different systems in my house! 😉

I still prefer MC7 (ATSC TV shows are 80%+ of my use), but I also installed the XBMC add-in for MC7 so I can switch back and forth easily.

/end thread derailment
 
Last edited:
I still don't understand the love for Icefilms/Navi-X. I have Navi-X on my Boxee Box but never use it unless I'm bored and just poking around for something to do.

Maybe I'm a snob, but if I actually want to watch something, it's going in to my Sickbeard queue if it's a TV show and my Couch Potato queue if it's a movie so I can watch it in good quality.
 
bearxor said:
I still don't understand the love for Icefilms/Navi-X. I have Navi-X on my Boxee Box but never use it unless I'm bored and just poking around for something to do.

Maybe I'm a snob, but if I actually want to watch something, it's going in to my Sickbeard queue if it's a TV show and my Couch Potato queue if it's a movie so I can watch it in good quality.
Click to expand...

Agreed.
 
bearxor said:
I still don't understand the love for Icefilms/Navi-X. I have Navi-X on my Boxee Box but never use it unless I'm bored and just poking around for something to do.

Maybe I'm a snob, but if I actually want to watch something, it's going in to my Sickbeard queue if it's a TV show and my Couch Potato queue if it's a movie so I can watch it in good quality.
Click to expand...

It's for convenience and instant streaming. It would be same for Hulu, Netflix, Amazon Prime, and ESPN3. I don't really bother with Navi-X since that has too many broken non-working links and the quality is bad on majority of the videos. But it's fun poking around in there when I'm bored. But Icefilms is fine for me. I view Icefilms as SD Hulu+SD Netflix. I'm fine with watching DVD so it doesn't really bother me.

I use ESPN3 more than anything. I love ESPN replay. There's always some previous played game I want to watch and it's awesome during college football and basketball season.
 
I have the WDTVLIVE and was happy with it. Ran great until i upgraded my computers and now run into problems. WDlive saw my network shares just fine on my old XP machine. Now running Win7-64bit and am struggling to get it to work.

I managed to somehow get it to see the shared folders but it takes a few tries. Keeps wanting to look on the C: drive that i guess windows 7 defaults to for media centre stuff.

If i back out of the shares menu a couple of times my movie folders show up. But every time says there is no media in said folders.

I have resigned to just give up on networking this (again that was working with XP) and just copy things to the WD Elements ext drive. Just a pain because i have to physically move the drive to my computer. copy files and then move it back. Ok for things i may want to keep but the network part was great for things to watch once then delete.

In the windows 7 network section all devices are there. 2 win 7 machines and the WDLive. I noticed that if i go thru the media servers on the WD it still shows folders on my C:> drive (i have those folders unshared and it still looks there) if i go into a folder it brings up all my videos.

I have searched and gone over all the network settings people have come up with to get it to work. Royal pain in the ass if you ask me. It should just work. Some suggested even going in and altering the registry.

Anyone running a Window 7-64bit on the WdLive get it to see network shares?

Am considering just dumping this whole thing and get a Boxee Box.
 
Working great mapping shares on a 2003 box and a 2008 box.

Do a 'net view' and paste the output for us. Then post the output of 'net view \\Your-Server-Name' for us. Ex: STORAGE is your servername, so 'net view \\storage' - and give us the output.

Those are your shares, so that's what you should be connecting to when you browse for media via the Files menu.
 
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