WD TV Live Review (2011) - Part 1 of 2

[roqe666]

Be aware this player DOES NOT support custom firmware!!!

I wish I knew this before I bought it :-(

[polaris911]

this does have built in Wifi right?

[polaris911]

no analog audio/video outputs? seriously wtf...

[MistaRayman]

Does this come with a built-in web browser? Thanks

[mrsmegz]

@MistaRayman No, it does not. If you need that I would suggest some kind of ITX HTPC.

[LuminatX]

Would it be using your bandwith to stream to this?

and can you just hook up an external hard drive to it if so?

[MrMalakalopoulos]

hello, is it possible to live stream internet channels, the ones that open up with windows media player. is there any menu that lets u input a url or code or anything? thanks :)

[helltownhorsemen]

Well done and thank you! I have been trying to decide between this and Boxee Box. I mostly want it for streaming wireless from my PC (although I will use the other features as well). Thanks for showing that part in real-time so I could observe a realistic demo of this.

[ShitWrangler]

this thing is sweet, so compact yet so powerful. unless you wanna try and watch full 40 gig bluray rips this thing seems to handle it all

[leo22bra]

This is a great review... Thanks a lot!

I do have some questions though:

- The old WDTV Live Plus would not play bluray rips. Do you by chance know if this one is playing them?

- With the old one I felt some lag when changing menus. Do you feel this lag is improved?

Thanks anyway!

[mrsmegz]

@leo22bra

1) I have not tried any BR-Rips yet, would you like me to try some .iso files or something else? Im considering doing another video on this w/ some of yall's questions and requests.

2) Lag is much Improved, I mean, its not XBMC on a SandyBridge Fast, but its more Like XBMC on ATV2 (Apple TV 2) fast.

[HLM190586]

this media player is great, i have the 1st gen wdtv and thinking of upgrading to newer model like this one.

[cbrown3oo]

A fistful of dollars! thats a bad ass movie

[jin37uk]

Can I plug standard headphones into this? (3.5mm jack) thanks

[cwlithium]

thanks for the upload i was wondering whether or not it was worth getting the new version of the wdtv or going with another set top box and it looks like the 2011 model is a substantial upgrade from the previous version

[TejasM14]

One of the few reviews of this version of the product. Could you add WDBHG70000NBK-HESN to the tag in this video and part 2 of it? It will help people find it. And you should also add western digital to the tags/title.

[mrsmegz]

@TejasM14 Fixed, thanks for the suggestion.

[Mrvijayvaibhav]

Hello, a couple of questions.

1} Does it have any problem in playing files which are folder in folder? Cause my Blu-ray player has that issue.

2) I'm using a CRT tv, how do i connect the player to my television? :)

[mrsmegz]

@Mrvijayvaibhav

1) not sure what you mean, but it will navigate folder tree's w/ no problem to play the videos

2) It comes with what looks like a mini 1/8 headphone jack on the back, except its got 3 rings on the connector instead of 2 like mp3 players (more like digital cameras) It come complete with a cable that connects it via 3 RCA plugs (yellow red and white) to your standard analog TV.

[jmichaelyu]

GREAT GREAT review! One question though, did you have to putt n the cover arts of each video/movie yourself? Not automatic? I believe the boxes box does it automatically right?

[BehrBob]

Thank you for posting this review. You gave one of the best reviews of this product that I have seen on Youtube.

[MasterO2]

at 3:30, can you input other special characters for a wireless password, besides @ # or &

It doesn't look like there is an option for special characters, such as [ { or $

Can anyone here answer?

[krishin80]

can it play mkv/dts on a/v cable??? or do u need a receiver?

[mrsmegz]

@krishin80 On the Standard Composite cable they provde. you can play MKV across it but it will output the audio over the RCA cables in stereo.

[krishin80]

@mrsmegz So mkv/dts can work on older tvs even with just RCA cables?? i have the older model too. and it cant play dts without a receiver. Thx for the reply btw.

[veermaharaj01]

@krishin80 it plays ever video format known to man including mkv (not real media). No receiver needed, just HDMI right into the TV and ur fine. If u have a Receiver with HDMI passthrough you can use that as well.

[kevinmichaelmcguire]

how did you get the thumbnails to display? did you have to keep an image file in the same folder as the video file? if so, is there any way of doing it other than assigning each movie an indvidual folder?

also, do you know of any interface hacks, such as brad roms or anything?

[mrsmegz]

@kevinmichaelmcguire I use ember media manager, it puts png files (I believe) in the directories. Ember's default settings will provide you with the file types the WDTV can read.

[Timothy17Fan]

Is there any way to have it display larger icons/pictures for the movies? I don't care for such tiny pictures of each movie. I prefer having the wall type view. But I do like the rest of the interface.

[mrsmegz]

@Timothy17Fan I have not found a way to get the thumbnail files to read from the drive, I think i have to "add folders to library" for to work. I scrape images to each folder with Ember media manager. In the next few days, I will see if I can get thumbnails to work with each folder. I personally am not a big fan of thumbnails and would just have larger lists on the screen for my gigantic archives of Shows. However, like I said, I will promise to try to get it working in the next few days.

[Timothy17Fan]

@mrsmegz From what I read, it isn't displaying the thumbnails unless the drive is directly attached. But supposedly the next firmware update will fix that. I did buy this media player after posting before, I like it very much. My only complaint is a little delay when moving between full screen photos.

[kumarankiru]

@mrsmegz Thanks!

[kumarankiru]

Hi, is the Ethernet port gigabit, is it hdmi 1.4 and does the wireless n support 5ghz? Pls answer thanks.

[mrsmegz]

@kumarankiru HDMI 1.4, it does have, the Ethernet port on my Gigabit router is showing 10/100, and im 99% sure the WiFI N, is 2.4ghz only.