Reddit mentions of WD TV Live Media Player Wi-fi 1080p (Old Version)

you'll want to familiarize yourself with the varying options of devices called "set top boxes" or "media streamers". check the sidebar here and do a little google searching.

these devices that are generally small electronic boxes with their own power ins, hdmi outs, and usb ports for connecting media storage devices like flashdrives or external HDD's. they essentially display your saved media on your tv screen and allow for its playback.

sound like what you're looking for?

these boxes range from $60 to around $200 depending on the extra functionality you want.

my personal preference, especially if you want to playback local content, is the WD TV Live.

WD TV LIVE will work great but it is $80 not sure if that is too much for you.

I picked up the WDTV Live about 2.5 years ago and it's worked flawlessly. It plays every file I've thrown at it so far which is exactly why I bought it. It also has a ton of 'apps' but I've never tried using any of them so I can't comment on that. I don't think the WDTV Live is well-received around here for some reason though.

Sorry if this isn't what you're looking for but why not buy a media player with a NAS and a decent DAC?

You would have iPhone/Remote control, it would be fairly quiet, cheaper, and less of a hassle than a PC.

I bought my parents a WDTV (Western Digital TV). It plays every type of video/audio format I've given it. It has HDMI and two USB ports. It plays Hulu, Netflix, YouTube, Amazon. And it only costs $85 on Amazon (ironically).

http://www.amazon.com/Live-Media-Player-Wi-fi-1080p/dp/B005KOZNBW/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1396453724&sr=8-1&keywords=wd+tv

WiDi works by acting as a wireless cable. So imagine that it's like the same as connecting through hdmi, since the adapter will likely take in or output hdmi on either end. In this manner, it basically treats the TV as a monitor, so whatever you can do with your current hdmi connection, you should be able to do with the WiDi adapters.

In regards to the product, it'd be more helpful if you gave a direct link, but if you mean this item, then that's a different beast altogether. This one is basically a media player that looks for media shares, so similar in functionality to a Roku or similar.

Which one to get really depends on what your wider preference is. Both will let you stream netflix to your TV and play files from your local media shares, but the media player limits you to those activities. This comes with the benefit of a TV friendly user interface(usually) and a remote, so you don't even need your computer nearby as long as it's on the network.

WiDi will require you to keep a keyboard and mouse handy, wireless is helpful here, since you're basically operating your computer/laptop and the TV is acting as the monitor. However, WiDi allows you do to anything you can do on your computer on the TV screen, whether it's playing games, browsing the internet, doing work, etc.

I just bought one of these Western Digital Streaming Media Players. Supposedly plays everything, was $90.

14awg wire should work for just about anything unless you are putting them more than 10 feet.

There is a fella here who likes to put books under his heresy II's to angle them up -- I don't quite remember why but it may be something to keep in mind or try out when setting them up, I think it was about a 2 inch lift in the front.

The big idea of a preamp is to keep the low level signal away from the ridiculous power supply in the power amp.. in reality it's not a big deal and people do it mainly because high end gear is sold that way, you can get a higher end preamp that just does it's job and does it well instead of an afterthought add on part of a power amp.

Tubes do strange things to audio, it is distortion of the signal, but in a unique way that literally pulls out things that are quiet in a recording and basically raising their volume, this creates the sparkle effect you may have read about. Also they have an effect on the low end that boosts the bass frequencies by compressing the sounds, causing the bass to get fuller(louder). These effects can be subtle at low volumes, and vary from tube amp to tube amp.

Solid state has lots of different categories.. it breaks down into classes dictated by the way the amp is designed to to it's job not as a rating of good or bad. Class A is silly accurate, very hot, and very pricey in general.. if you have more than $700 to spend on just a stereo amp and don't mind 50 plus pounds of aluminum heating up your room then I can toss out a recommendation for these.. Class A/B is pretty much 95% of the market.. the first 1-5 watts of power runs at class A and the rest works with not so clean class B to do the job when you crank the volume knob or the music gets loud. Class D offers a huge swing of really crappy cheap amps just made to push power with no real design for fidelity, this will be used mainly in plate amps for subwoofers to OK cheap amps Dayton audio T-Amps would fall into this range to Holy crap that sounds amazing which is more of the B&O ICE amps and the Hypex module amps.

If you have a budget, I'm assuming that you do and that it's possibly pretty low since these were given to you I would focus on two purchases to make these things work together in a nice clean user friendly way.

An interface to your music is a good start. I like the Logitech Squeezebox, it's the one peice of gear I have no desire to upgrade. It works with my phone as a remote control and pulls music from my computer and subscription services without any hassle. If you like using your TV while listening to music(I'll never understand this) the WD live box is pretty good and offers onsite storage via the western digital external hard drives that work well with it.

The next step is an amp/receiver.. your old Scott is probably planing to burn up and die. I would suggest getting a newer receiver. The cheap one I like is the Harman Kardon HK 3390 it's got low distortion figures (0.07 at 80 watts both channels driven) this is hella good for a Class A/B especially for less than $250 bucks.

If I've undershot your budget let me know.

If it wasn't for the "season pass" requirement, I'd honestly recommend a WD TV live. I've bought several WD devices (mostly the now-discontinued live hub) for technologically-illiterate family members, and all of them have loved it. It's dead simple to use, and "just works" with every media file I've thrown at it. I haven't used the new TV live, but it appears to have similar, WaF-compatible software.

Unfortunately, I don't think anything exists that will be as seamless as a tivo for recording. Sabnzbd + sickbeard will get the job done in a relatively painless fashion, but I still wouldn't trust my family to figure it out on their own. You may have to administrate that youself.

The passport series that WD has is very impressive. I got a 1TB one for $70 and I don't regret it at all and I'm more than happy. More space than I know what to do with it. I use it along with a WD media player which is hooked up to my TV. I pop in movies on the passport from my computer and watch them on my flatscreen, no need for DVD players or new high-end smart-tv's.

How about a WDTV Live? Has HDMI and optical ins. $79.

http://www.amazon.com/Western-Digital-Streaming-Media-Player/dp/B005KOZNBW/ref=dp_ob_title_ce

While the latest WD TV Live (WD TV Live Streaming, Released 2011) is less than $100 it doesn't have Composite inputs.

The one before the latest (WD TV Live Hub, Released 2010) does have component and composite inputs but currently costs more than $150 on amazon.

Edit: The latest one does have a composite input.

Have you thought about using something like a WD stream box? I was thinking of picking one up myself.

http://www.amazon.com/Live-Media-Player-Wi-fi-1080p/dp/B005KOZNBW

buy this instead:

http://www.amazon.com/Live-Media-Player-Wi-fi-1080p/dp/B005KOZNBW/

I do! This unit, specifically.

Amusingly enough, it's only set-top device that I've found that allows streaming directly from another computer (NFS or CIFS/SMB/Windows) without hassle. No transcoding bullshit, no worrying about file formats. If it has issues playing something, each time it's been the file that was jacked up.

The network control is wonderful. Who needs a remote? Shove the little box behind the TV, grab your smartphone, and control it.

Does streaming too, bunch of places (not nearly as many as Roku, but Roku doesn't do LAN streaming). Biggest gripe is that it doesn't support Amazon Prime.

Basically anything you would except to see in VLC/Mplayer/Whatever, it can do. Subtitless, audio tracks, slow-mo/freeze frame, etc.

Haven't figured out how to queue up multiple files at a time, but I haven't looked that hard, either.

wdtv live- shittier version of xbmc but you can stream from a network share. its great.

http://www.amazon.com/Live-Media-Player-Wi-fi-1080p/dp/B005KOZNBW

Something like that. I tried a few before settling on Serviio, and they all seem to be distributed with various codec packages. I haven't gotten that far into the nuts&bolts of it yet, I was more obsessed with finding something that works. The other two Universal Media Server and Home Media Center weren't nearly as effective. Serviio has been more of an install-and-play, though I dislike the fact that unlike the others it installs a Windows background service to operate.

DLNA is basically the language they've established so devices can talk to each other. If your television works with wifi or can accept a USB adapter, phones and tablets, or in my case I bought a WD TV Live. Roku and I believe Chromecast are other alternatives.

You're right about that. The Roku plays h.264 natively; DivX-encoded AVI requires Plex or XBMC to transcode.

This looks like your best option (and it's on sale right now):
http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B005KOZNBW?qid=1343016979&sr=1-1

Western Digital Media Player is arguably the most popular. Pretty much any media player you get will have streaming ability, but it's first and foremost a way to plug in an USB full of videos and play on your TV or projector:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B005KOZNBW?pc_redir=1412256797&robot_redir=1

Here's the version I swear by http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B005KOZNBW?cache=013c40e7e3a21c163a3bd534f2f7e4bc&pi=SX200_QL40&qid=1404226025&sr=8-2#ref=mp_s_a_1_2

This is the model that has the most file support. Meaning it plays more file types than any other version. And it still offers the standard online streaming services.

I've moved on to Android set top boxes at my main TV, but still have 3 of these connected around the house.

I can't really remember the plex differences off hand, but I remember liking it better. I'll try them both out tonight and let you know. WDTV definitely has more connection options. Such as Plex (DLNA), NFS, and SMB.

That isn't to say that the WDTV isn't without it's problems. The ideal way to hook up media is using the SMB option where it stores meta data in a .wdtv folder on the SMB/NFS share itself, but I couldn't get this to work reliably with the current firmware. Using a Windows server was unreliable. The share would disappear randomly and was unable to reconnect the share without deconfiguring the share, rebooting the device and trying again. And using Linux/Samba or NFS as the server wouldn't even work claiming it didn't have write access (it did). So I use Plex on Windows and it works well, although some movies might take 30 seconds or so to start up, but once they're playing it's fine. There is a newer firmware revision out that I haven't had a chance to check out yet. I'm sure other people have it working fine, but there's something about my network (possibly the Linux Samba server) that it doesn't like.

If I had to buy it again, I'd opt for the version with the hard drive as all the SMB/NFS/DLNA woes would not be an issue, and hopefully everything will just work as there's no other computers that need to be configured, turned on, etc. 1TB wouldn't store all my media, but at least all my home videos, pictures and music would have fit...


EDIT:

I have this:

http://www.amazon.com/Western-Digital-Streaming-Media-Player/dp/B005KOZNBW/ref=sr_1_1?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1347034810&sr=1-1&keywords=wdtv+live

But would rather have this:

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B004GK0GKO

I'm a big fan of the WD TV live streaming media player.

Not only can you plug in a USB hard drive and have all of your media on there, it also can stream from your mac with Playback or PS3 Media Server. It's compatible with pretty much every format I've thrown at it, and it you set it up right, it can play your itunes collection right through your mac as long as they're on the same wifi.

It's cheap, and I really couldn't be happier with it.

http://www.amazon.com/Western-Digital-Streaming-Media-Player/dp/B005KOZNBW

The changes a year has wrought:

AppleTV

Roku

Western Digital Live

Vizio Co-Star

Many Blu-Ray players

Many Smart TVs.

Most current gen game consoles (PS3, Xbox 360, Wii)

All support Netflix and all support 5.1 sound. It depends on personal preference to define what is best for you.

I am partial to: http://www.amazon.com/Western-Digital-Streaming-Media-Player/dp/B005KOZNBW/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1348069546&sr=8-2&keywords=western+digital+live+plus

After doing some research, I figured that the WD TV Live Streaming Media Player was the best choice for me. It will read nearly every file I throw at it except for .flv files. It'll do YouTube, Hulu, Netflix, and a bunch of other sites but unfortunately won't do Amazon streaming. It can hook up to any computer I make available on my network, or I can just plug a USB drive or stick into it. It can also go to the net and pull information for TV shows and movies. Finally, one of the big draws for me was the fact that it could play DVD ISO files. It has a lot more flexibility than a Roku for only a few dollars more.

I just got this in the mail today: http://www.amazon.com/Live-Media-Player-Wi-fi-1080p/dp/B005KOZNBW/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1383151793&sr=8-2&keywords=western+digital+tv

I'll let you know how it works after set up.

WD TV Live is a pretty awesome little machine. Netflix app runs just as good as anything I've seen, wireless capabilities, hulu, youtube, pandora, and can play basically any video format via the usb hub for $90.

Well, I meant streaming from my computer via media server, to a PS3. I have a 2tb in my computer currently that my PS3 reads just fine, and it's formatted in NTFS. If it can read that via media server, I suppose it should do exFAT just fine too! if not, I suppose I could invest in something like this. I'm sure my wife wouldn't mind the nexflix/hulu/spotify hub right there at our TV/stereo. hm. exFAT it is! thanks reddit!

This one?
http://www.amazon.com/Western-Digital-Streaming-Media-Player/dp/B005KOZNBW/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1343932605&sr=8-1&keywords=wd+tv

You may want to look into the WD Live Media Player on Amazon, it seems like it might fit your needs.

I tried out several years ago one of these and it didn't work all that well. To be fair though it was trying to stream over Wifi, which I would not recommend for HDTV. It was also several models before this one.

I have a WDTV Live that does all of those things. WD still supports it with firmware updates and it plays more format types that any other streamer box I have found. Some people complain that the interface has too many options and is not very friendly for non-technical people in the house, but I like it. I stream content from a Plex server, and that requires Plex to have an accurate DLNA profile for this device for every content type that I want to play so that Plex knows how to transcode the content. That works most of the time, but not always.

Not to derail, but sure you don't want to just get a WD TV Live Media Player and a big enough external?

I have had the pleasure of using one and it seems like exactly what you need without spending more than $100 dollars. It plays almost any video file, can stream locally, has hulu plus/netflix, and does all this through wifi (or ethernet).

To echo others in the thread, most tablets and laptops will be more expensive than some of the small set-top boxes for digital media, like the Roku 2 XS, Roku 3, Amazon Fire TV, or WDTV. All have their trade-offs, but I know the first 3 at least can connect to a few varieties of media server on a separate computer, such as the very popular Plex, or play local media from an attached USB device. They all sell at $100 USD or less right now.

I have used both the USB and Plex options personally on Roku 2 XS and Amazon FireTV and really enjoyed the experience, though my preference of the two is Plex for a home setup, while USB is fairly convenient if you want to go binge a show at a friend's house.

The Plex client for the device should support more than one server machine, so if you have other members of the household with their own media, they can fire up a Plex server of their own when they want to watch on the set-top box.

I cannot say anything about the WD TV from first hand knowledge, only the Roku series and Amazon Fire TV.

Is this the one?
http://www.amazon.com/Western-Digital-Streaming-Media-Player/dp/B005KOZNBW

I've got a WD TV Live(Get that one because for some reason the latest one does not get netflix) and it beats out the Roku in my opinion because it can play any external storage, and it can find computers with Plex installed on the network.

Would this be the best one? Its the newest. Amazon Link WD TV
This has no Netflix for some reason..

There is also this one which has older software I believe. Amazon Link WD TV Live

There is also a WD TV Play, but no USB included.


...

Ordering a WD TV Live 3rd Gen WDBHG70000NBK. Seems to be the best.

Ok thanks, that seems to be the consensus on my Amazon question too. I guess i'l have to exchange it.

By any chance do you know the difference between this version and the version I have?

One seems to be newer, more expensive, but doesn't have netflix, while the older, cheaper one seems better. Is the more expensive one worth it at all?

How does that differ from this?
http://www.amazon.com/Western-Digital-Streaming-Media-Player/dp/B005KOZNBW/ref=dp_ob_title_ce