When will Western Digital refresh their "Live" Media Player - I want USB 3.0

[TheDarkKnight]

Does anybody know if Western Digital will be refreshing their "Live" streaming media player. It's almost the perfect device at this point from what I have been reading. It doesn't leave much else for me to want. It plays almost every media format, you can mount either DVD or Blu-Ray .ISOs with full menu-navigation, and you can use a usb wireless keyboard. The only thing I could ask for at this point is USB 3.0 connectivity. Giving the fact that this device is like 2 years old now and given the fact that there are other multi-media players that already have implemented USB 3.0 connectivity I have to wonder what is taking Western Digital so long to get this done. Anybody got any insider information on this topic of a possible refresh for an almost perfect product?

 

[smitbret]

Does anybody know if Western Digital will be refreshing their "Live" streaming media player. It's almost the perfect device at this point from what I have been reading. It doesn't leave much else for me to want. It plays almost every media format, you can mount either DVD or Blu-Ray .ISOs with full menu-navigation, and you can use a usb wireless keyboard. The only thing I could ask for at this point is USB 3.0 connectivity. Giving the fact that this device is like 2 years old now and given the fact that there are other multi-media players that already have implemented USB 3.0 connectivity I have to wonder what is taking Western Digital so long to get this done. Anybody got any insider information on this topic of a possible refresh for an almost perfect product?

They just did a "refresh" with the WDTV Live Play. It's a little smaller and supports a few fewer MPEG-2 codecs. I haven't messed with one but it almost seems like a step back. Not sure what the future roadmap holds.

Although I don't know if I'd call them perfect, for local/network media playback they are very hard to beat. USB 3.0 would be 4th on my list of upgrades:

1 - a faster chipset to relieve a little of the sluggishness in the GUI
2 - upgrade the ethernet to "True" Gigabit
3 - Amazon media streaming

Then USB 3.0

 

[finbarqs]

Just make an app for the PS3 or PS4, and it'll be perfect 🙂

(I have a collection of Bluray movies)

 

[royo]

This is like the silliest request. What could you possibly need USB 3.0 for?

They should do a refresh maybe late this year or next year.

 

[TheDarkKnight]

They just did a "refresh" with the WDTV Live Play. It's a little smaller and supports a few fewer MPEG-2 codecs. I haven't messed with one but it almost seems like a step back. Not sure what the future roadmap holds.

Although I don't know if I'd call them perfect, for local/network media playback they are very hard to beat. USB 3.0 would be 4th on my list of upgrades:

1 - a faster chipset to relieve a little of the sluggishness in the GUI
2 - upgrade the ethernet to "True" Gigabit
3 - Amazon media streaming

Then USB 3.0

What is the maximum speed of the ethernet connection on this device? Is it CAT-5(10/100)...wow...if that's the case...this device sucks more than I first realized. Yeah, no hurry for me on this.

But could you please explain what you mean by "True" Gigabit?

I looked for the speeds on WDC and they were absent or just very hard to find. I never found the specs.

 

[sdifox]

Bluray is 36mbps. 100mbps is plenty. It doesn’t matter if the interface is usb 2.0 or 3.0, the hdd is not fast enough.

 

[TheDarkKnight]

Bluray is 36mbps. 100mbps is plenty. It doesn’t matter if the interface is usb 2.0 or 3.0, the hdd is not fast enough.

USB 3.0 is rated at 5Gbps. How is that not fast enough? Besides putting a 10/100 port on anything now days is just being cheap. I am surprised they are even still manufacturing 10/100 products.

 

[sdifox]

USB 3.0 is rated at 5Gbps. How is that not fast enough? Besides putting a 10/100 port on anything now days is just being cheap. I am surprised they are even still manufacturing 10/100 products.

The interface has the mex transfer rate of 5gbps, but the actual hard drive is nowhere near that. And the player cannot pocess 5gbps anyway. You need the 5gbps for multi drive operation, which is not the case on a media player.

The nic is part of the soc, so stepping up to gigabit would have cost a pretty penny with little to show for. Most people don’t have gigabit internet access.

 

[smitbret]

I say "True Gigabit" because I'm using the WDTV Live Hub and although the specs say it is a Gigabit connection, it is handicapped by the SoC and generally runs no faster than about 11MB/s.