It seems as though Netflix and other shave put pressure on them to offer streaming services and minimize the ability to play local content. Similar competing boxes were bought up and then never brought back to market. If my WDLive boxes die then I will be forced to build my own dedicated HTPC and switch to Kodi which has a good menu system for viewing files and playing subtitled movies.
Kodi is what I plan to use also. Agree, this does seem a bit weird since they are not selling them today. Until smoke emanates from either, I will be good to go for a while. I even have a new Live Streaming player still in sealed box if I need to break into it.
I have no avi files with my movies on them, but I would suspect Kodi could do a decent job of playing them like a WDTV can. Also using Firestarter aka AppStarter. Trying to keep my file sizes down on my NAS. Nevertheless, how does one block auto update of the FW? But, in a few cases I have made a m4v file from BD-mkv to play on iPad. It was released as a Fire TV version by the new Twonky owner back in the fall. Both finally worked well. Must be due to improvements in the Connect app and FW updates.
This will be handy for travel purposes, but totally unnecessary at home since I have WDTV and other less geeky ways to get my movies playing.
OK, will check it out. Later on I will check on the Kodi app on the Fire Stick. Darn well be still working! I like the case you chose. Where did you buy the stuff? For UK users … they can get one here. Thanks for the info.
I just found it on Amazon. Any suggestions for the initial programming of the RPi3. I am assuming you are using Kodi as a media streamer for avi, mp4 and mkv files. Support Downloads Knowledge Base. German Spanish Italian French. HGST Support. Professor: You say you searched stores, etc.
Competitively priced. Pleasant and fairly flexible user interface, with many user customization and usage options available. Video and audio clarity is quite good and very fluid the great majority of the time.
Supports Dolby and DTS various audio formats. Audio is usually crystal-clear with no sync issues with the video output.
Available free remote control app for Apple and Android devices, use your smart-device as a remote. Supports dozens of languages. Connects via USB 2. Optical audio output if needed for external receiver, etc. Cons: Slow! Even this is longer than one would expect for such a device, and considerably longer than a competitor's similar streaming-content apparatus.
This unit also often lags for a few seconds sometimes several seconds between remote control input and actual response. At times the lag is so pronounced that if seems as if the input was not registered at all, so the user makes another input, only to have them both register many seconds later, which typically ends in frustration as the result is not at all what the user intended.
In particular, the video playback controls Play, Pause, Fast Forward, etc. Freezes and locks-up, particularly during Netflix sessions. A particular experience using Netflix Kids comes to mind, when each time a minute animated children's show was finished, the kids were unable to queue another show from the menu; the device simply refused to play the next program until Netflix Kids was completely exited back to the WD TV Home menu, then re-entered.
This occurred even after the device had been reset, and left the kids particularly disappointed with this unit. This is a shame, too, as the Netflix Kids interface is mostly picture-based and easy albeit slow to navigate, even for younger children. We encountered the same experience both times we tried it, to the point where the kids would rather just watch a DVD or satellite-TV show instead of wrestling with the WD TV.
This requires the user to go through the connection setup process again, further increasing the frustration factor. If the SSID broadcast is enabled, however, the unit does a good job of connecting reliably. Connects to Facebook, but steadfastedly refuses to display a single picture from my wife's photography page, returning a non-specific "browser error" message instead.
Will not display any media from the satellite-TV DVR, even though other PCs and devices have no difficulty displaying the same content. The WD TV will show a list of the content available, but fails every time it tries to display the files. No USB 3. Remote is IR-based and not Bluetooth or other non-line-of-sight wireless format.
Many of the user setup and customization options have no tool tips or explanations, requiring the user to search the web for additional info and support. Overall Review: I was excited to try out this new networked and web-connected streaming multimedia device, but overall, I ended up quite disappointed.
The annoying lags, frustrating freezes and overall mediocre to poor functionality left me wondering if WD has thoroughly thought-out such a foray into the increasingly-crowded consumer entertainment realm. Western Digital has a well-deserved, solid reputation for their fantastic hard disk drives, so I am greatly surprised by the the sub-par, lackluster -- based on my experience -- return on the Ben Franklin at the time of this writing investment required to acquire this appliance.
Straight out-of-the-box this appliance took nearly 10 minutes to initialize at first I thought it was DOA, and has never really impressed since. Admittedly, my perception of the WD TV's performance is colored by prior experience owning a competitor's similar unit, which performs much more reliably and immediately, for the most part. The comparison device - when it exhibits any pauses or lags at all - almost never pauses for more than 1 or 2 seconds, which feels acceptable to everyone in the household who has used it.
To be fair, it has also locked-up on occasion, but the occurrences are very few and far between, the most recent of which I could not even begin to pinpoint due to the amount of time that has lapsed since. I can confidently say, though, that even had I zero experience with any similar appliances, the WD TV would still have left me frustrated and dissatisfied. Perhaps WD took a wrong turn in trying to make their small unit do too much; maybe this little box is not quite cut-out to be a full-fledged multimedia entertainment hub supporting so many different file formats and content locations.
It is possible a future firmware update might resolve some or all of these issues, but this apparatus has already downloaded two revisions -- one upon install and one subsequently -- with no end to the aforementioned problems in sight. Purchasing one of these appliances in the hopes of a firmware fix is a long-shot at best, one I would highly discourage unless offered a very significant discount. Once you do get a video playing, the WD TV does put on a great show.
With smooth, clear video and audio, you'd never even suspect you're not watching a cable or satellite feed. Should you need to pause, rewind or change to another program or service, however, hold tight to the remote and resist the temptation to chuck it at the nearest breakable object, or your pricey HDTV itself. Instead -- for the time being, at least -- aim your dollars in another direction if you're interested in a stand-alone, streaming web appliance.
The competition may not do it all, but what it does, it can do quite a bit better. Pros: Packaging was well done. In the box you have a remote with batteries, a DC adapter "wall wart", the unit, composite yellow, red, white cable, quick start guide, and warranty info. The remote is high quality and does not feel cheap with a nice rubberized texture bottom half.
Nice looking user interface from what I saw of it. Cons: See my other thoughts, but in short: 1. Unit is very slow on boot. Remote control input is very "laggy" 3. Unit simply won't work after the most recent firmware is installed on it 4.
Unit is prone to freezing 5. Unit would still freeze upon boot after power cycle, and following the reset procedure 6. Only supports 2. This product is not even close to matching the polished usability present in competing streaming devices Apple TV, and Roku for example 8. Why the composite cabling? I realize that just about every TV will have composite connections but most new ones have either HDMI or component connections and in order to get high quality video experience out of the box.
Western Digital should have bundled a HDMI or component cable setup with this unit, as neither of these cables is incomparably more expensive any longer. Overall Review: If I could give this product zero eggs I would.
The average person buying this product and trying to get it to work would end up returning it inside an hour.
When I approach a review product I take into consideration who is likely to use it. This product is something likely to be picked up by someone who does not want to deal with a HTPC and just wants to stream internet content to their big screen in the living room.
So, I opened the box and followed the instructions exactly in the quick start guide. The unit did boot and asked to connect to a network, which at first it did. It then immediately highlighted the firmware update option so I had it run through the update. Upon completion of this process it would refuse to reconnect to the wireless network, using the previous connection saved or even starting over by recreating the connection.
I figured the firmware update was the cause so I power cycled the device and the result was the same. I then followed the reset procedure with the reset button and paperclip to reset the unit to default. The unit refused to reset to factory settings no matter how I tried to use the reset function. After power cycling again the unit came up and then stopped responding to remote control input altogether. Changing the batteries in the remote had no effect. Additional resets and power cycles did not work.
The unit is now in a non-working state. I was unable to test any of the streaming capability. I went through as many, if not more, steps that the "average Joe" would be likely to perform before giving up and seeking a refund. I could, of course, jump through a ton more hoops since my technical knowledge spans 20 years of building and configuring PCs and networks to attempt and get this device to work. I am unwilling to give the product this much due.
It should not have reacted the way it did and average person would be at a complete loss. This product is now in that category. The unit is now living in my trash container. This little media streamer supports a very large number of formats and playback methods. The silent operation is a blessing for a home theater and the remote is well laid out with soft-touch plastic covering the back of the device. The most common options are located around the arrow buttons and select button with many of the more unique options presented on screen with the push of a button.
Western Digital clearly put a lot of work into getting the hardware right. The firmware of the device is relatively simple to use and can be learned in just a few minutes. Media is gathered by type such as music, video and services. Some file types require specific folder structures on the removable media to play properly, however most do not and can simply be dropped into the root partition where the WD TV Live will still properly organize the media libraries based on file type and meta-data.
The playback quality of the device is quite astounding providing 2. The menus were responsive, the video playback was a consistent frame rate and the audio had high fidelity. I threw a large number of different file types at this device, and almost all played without a hitch, provided they were DRM-free. All of these services worked out of the box; however they did have issues with playback and freezing, as described below.
Cons: While this device has a lot going for it, it also has a lot against it. In several days of testing I was unable to get key features working on this device and have complaints about many aspects of the firmware.
Some things, such as the options menu, are also confusing in that the UI still needs a little work. The on-screen keyboard is also inconsistent, offering at least 4 different layouts depending on which application prompts the user for input. Other elements, such as the colored buttons on the remote are never fully explained. I was unaware of what the on-screen symbols meant until after I had used them, sometimes bringing up a menu that would crash the device.
The WD TV Live would be much better if these little quirks would be worked out, however it appears that through many firmware revisions Western Digital has yet to address any of these issues. The TV Live tries to connect to these shares by running a search of the entire network and always hangs, leaving the screen with a spinning arrow.
Upon searching the forms I discovered that I am not the only one experiencing these problems. The dates and firmware numbers listed in the forum posts suggest that this problem has existed since the first version of the TV Live and there were many suggested solutions, however none seem to work.
To this day I still have not been able to connect my network shares and have instead had to rely on using a portable USB hard drive. I was able to connect to the media server on my HTPC; however playback was also unusable here as well.
After the first 5 seconds of playback, all media would freeze and kick back out to the dashboard. All of these things work flawlessly on other devices. The firmware on this device, while beautiful, also suffers from extreme performance issues. The menu lag and frequent freezes almost make this device unusable.
The TV Live hangs and lags on everything besides local media playback. I was able to use the Netflix, YouTube and Pandora applications without issue until I tried to prompt the menu during playback or quit to the dashboard, often times leaving the device hard locked. I usually had to pull the power to reboot the device as pushing the power button on the remote would take up to 20 minutes to power down.
Overall Review: This device works extremely well at several things but breaks on everything else. If Western Digital would fix the few existing issues I would easily recommend this device. The problem lies in that this is the third generation TV Live and the same issues still exist, even after several firmware updates.
This device regularly fails to even power off without pulling the power cord from the back of the device.
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