Anyone Using Wd Live Tv Unit?

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Truman42

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Im moving house on the weekend and previously I used to have my computer situated in the family room where we would use Itunes to play all of my music etc.

However in the new house the computer will be based upstairs in a den. I still want to play music from Itunes in the family room so have been looking at the option of buying a WD Live TV box and streaming my music to the TV via either wireless or ethernet over power if we don't get good wireless transfer.

I will also use this to stream movies onto the TV as I have a shitload Ive downloaded over the years.

So anyone else using the WD Live TV box and if so is it any good? Do you get good wireless data transfer without buffering or will I have to use ethernet over power? (Cant run ethernet cable as its a rented house)

I know I can plug a USB into the device but prefer the option of browsing all my music and movies on the TV and then playing songs through my amp.

Or can anyone suggest a similar device that does the same thing or has better features etc??
 
If all of your music is in iTunes then an AppleTV is a good option. It will stream music provided the computer is on and iTunes is running.

You can also get it to stream downloaded shows/movies - check out www.firecore.com. its beta software and you need to jailbreak the AppleTV... not difficult but if you are computer illiterate then probably not for you.

Having said that my bro runs a WD TV and is happy with it.
 
appletv with xbmc = win

Having used a wdtv and since moving to a jailbroken apple tv 2 with xbmc i wont be going back. all the itunes and airplay works for the missus's apple gadgets and streams hd files easily through xbmc side of things. There are heaps of guides on the net if ur not overly techno.
 
Have a look at the Asus Eb1501p. or the Acer aspire revo. They are more expensive than the WDTV, but a lot more flexible.
They run full windows 7 that only uses approx 25-35 watts.
I don't think that there is anything that they won't do.
 
I have a WDTV Live and it's pretty good. Streaming it works well for standard def. material but it lags on 720p. You need to buy a USB wireless adapter that is approved for use on the WDTV, and you have to manually update the firmware to load the USB wifi adaptor firmware.
Besides these headaches when I was first setting it up its been flawless and plays pretty much any filetype I have tried.
Highly recommended.
 
I use a Aspire Revo with XBMC. Pretty easy to setup (took a few days of stuffing around). Now that its hooked into my server with a few hundred movies and TV shows, the Mrs couldn't be happier.

A friend uses a WD Live at work. They sound pretty good, but some downloaded shows have issues he recons. Probibly a codec issue. I don't have any such issues with XBMC.

If you don't mind the stuff around, XBMC is the way to go. They have a Live edition you can boot from a USB Stick if you want to try it.
 
If all of your music is in iTunes then an AppleTV is a good option. It will stream music provided the computer is on and iTunes is running.

You can also get it to stream downloaded shows/movies - check out www.firecore.com. its beta software and you need to jailbreak the AppleTV... not difficult but if you are computer illiterate then probably not for you.

Having said that my bro runs a WD TV and is happy with it.
I was against the AppleTv because I heard you had to convert all your movies to mpeg4. If you jailbreak it can it play Avi's etc? Im very computer literate so shouldnt have a problem doing this.
 
Having used a wdtv and since moving to a jailbroken apple tv 2 with xbmc i wont be going back. all the itunes and airplay works for the missus's apple gadgets and streams hd files easily through xbmc side of things. There are heaps of guides on the net if ur not overly techno.

So can you use your iphone to control the music etc? We both have Iphones so that would be a handy feature, and Ive mucked around with Iremote before to control Itunes.
 
The price of a ps3 (or xbox) at the moment - sub $300 is pretty good. Pairing with tversity, which transcodes on the fly will play any file type. Plus you get internet connectivity if you want to stream straight off the web. Or can also record tv with playtv. Even if you never played games I reckon it's still worth it as a media centre.
 
Have a look at the Asus Eb1501p. or the Acer aspire revo. They are more expensive than the WDTV, but a lot more flexible.
They run full windows 7 that only uses approx 25-35 watts.
I don't think that there is anything that they won't do.

So you can network these things with your main PC via wireless and basically have Win 7 on your TV to play songs and movies via Windows media player or whatever media player you choose? I assume you can install programs on them etc?
 
I use my WDTV live all the time, i steam 720p and 1080p files fine (Cat5 cable to my computer)

The unit plays just about anything. Ill probably be modding the firmware soon as its a pain not being able to watch some youtube videos that are protected.
 
Nother recommendation for jailbroken appletv with XBMC.

Perfect iTunes integration AND killer compatbility with everything else via XBMC
 
Nother recommendation for jailbroken appletv with XBMC.

Perfect iTunes integration AND killer compatbility with everything else via XBMC

How does the Itunes intergration work? Can you see your itunes play lists etc on the XBMC GUI? Also will XBMC show you a list of all your AVI's etc on your main PC HDD and you can just choose one to play it?
 
The apple tv works the same just has the xbmc as an additional app on the home screen. think of it as a functionsl addition
 
I initially bought a WD Live TV unit and took it back after a weekend of testing after I found it didn't do what I wanted.

I needed wireless and bought a dongle along with it thinking it would work fine but was aweful.
I know this may not be all the WD units fault but the dongle was recommended as being compatable and it buffered for 10-15 secs every minute or so and that was if it even played a video file!

After taking it back I ended up buying a Boxee which has wireless built in and this thing has worked flawlessly!
Has played averything I've thrown at it so far which is all located on a NAS drive.
 
So you can network these things with your main PC via wireless and basically have Win 7 on your TV to play songs and movies via Windows media player or whatever media player you choose? I assume you can install programs on them etc?
You can either connect wireless, or via Ethernet cable. Connect to the Internet, watch webtv, YouTube. Connect it to your home pc and share files. Plug your USB devices into it to watch movies/Download torrents.
The Asus comes with a DVD drive, so yes, you can install anything you want that is windows compatible. You don't have to worry about iTunes integration, you run iTunes on it. You can also run software on it to be controlled by an iPhone/iPad.
I think the only drawback is gaming - but that was not your reasoning behind it.
 
You can either connect wireless, or via Ethernet cable. Connect to the Internet, watch webtv, YouTube. Connect it to your home pc and share files. Plug your USB devices into it to watch movies/Download torrents.
The Asus comes with a DVD drive, so yes, you can install anything you want that is windows compatible. You don't have to worry about iTunes integration, you run iTunes on it. You can also run software on it to be controlled by an iPhone/iPad.
I think the only drawback is gaming - but that was not your reasoning behind it.

Sounds good Hammo but a bit over my price range. I like the idea of a PS3 but would want to put this upstairs on the kids TV. I want this option for downstairs on our TV so will probably go with either the WD or the aTv 2. Although this Boxee sounds okay might check it out too. Ive been looking at the setup and different skins available on XBMC with aTv 2 and they look awesome.
 
I used to use XBMC on my appletv2 but have just started using MediaPlayer from firecore... no issues with the latest version and love the native integration to appletv menu system. also allows music playback from network storage so no iTunes required.

not dissing XBMC cos it is great, however did find the navigation was a bit slow.

downside is it isn't free.... but is too simple to setup and use.
 
I used to use XBMC on my appletv2 but have just started using MediaPlayer from firecore... no issues with the latest version and love the native integration to appletv menu system. also allows music playback from network storage so no iTunes required.

not dissing XBMC cos it is great, however did find the navigation was a bit slow.

downside is it isn't free.... but is too simple to setup and use.

Is that the actual flashtv Ive seen on Firecores sight? If not what exactly is flashtv.
I looked at Boxee but id have to have another PC down near my TV or a very long video lead to run from the Pc upstairs to the TV downstairs.
 
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