Western Digital WD TV Live HD Media Player

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If your planning on networking this unit and have Windows XP, I believe the WDTV Live would probably be a great complement to your home entertainment system.I'm running Windows 7 and have had nothing but headaches. I'm writing this while I'm yet again waiting for the WDTV to recognize my network shares. Despite the fact I have had years of schooling as an Electronics Engineer, I have not been able to get this working seamlessly. Most of the time it's bearable as long as I make sure that my computer is not asleep upon booting the WDTV. If that isn't the case, It takes a minimum of 2 minutes, maximum of about 10 to recognize the shares. Often, such as right now for me, it claims that there is nothing in the share directory and I need to do a hard reboot of the WDTV and soft reboot of the computer to get things working again, after which the standard 2-10 minute time applies to recognize the directory again.I've spent MANY hours going over various forums looking for workarounds. The best I have gotten to is my current setup with homebrew firmware on the unit and a variety of registry edits on my system. All of the symptoms I've listed above are at the point I've gotten to now unfortunately--it was much worse before. And all this not mentioning the fact that my system was bricked by a firmware update  only weeks after purchase!I've nearly thrown it out the window a number of times now, and believe it's due to all of my machines running Windows 7. According to what I've read in forums it's more reliable for XP users.Overall I certainly would not recommend the product due to the issues I've had. I'm giving it a 2 star review because I believe Western Digital falsely advertises it as being "compatible with any PC or drive on your home network." Obviously not with Windows 7!!! This was my first purchase from NCIX.com, and I would not hesitate to order from the site again--just not this device!

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I use this device every day and I am 85% satisfied with it.The original firmware was pitiful, as it would take ~5 mins to find network shares AND you could not change the workgroup name. These issues have been resolved. The device now takes ~10 seconds to find network shares and you can change the workgroup.I connect this device to a wireless bridge behind my cabinet. It plays video flawlessly from a FreeNAS server, an OpenFiler server, my Windows XP shares, thumbdrives and external USB harddrives.My main complaints are 1) if you leave a song or video paused for a long time, the device loses its ability to read files. This requires a full reboot (power plug yanked). 2) USB thumdrives become hot. Hot enough you don't want to touch you cheek to the metal. External powered HD's do not suffer from this issue.3) Button layout sometimes irritates me. I can't count how many times I've gone to fast forward a video and I end up skipping to the the next video file.

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I bought this to replace an Asus O!Play Air that developed problems with its wireless hardware. The menus are simple to understand and navigate. Installation and setup was easy, but the unit is so small and light that the cables plugged into it tend to dictate where and how the unit sits as it is fairly light. All file formats play well, but the unit runs hot where the Asus did not. Check WD's wireless adapter support before buying if you're planning to use the wireless feature as not many adapters are supported yet. Improvements WD could make include improved cooling and a slightly larger remote with a volume control. Overall a decent unit for the money.

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Overall super solid little player, especially for the price. Connected to DNS-323 via wifi. Found all my network shares. Plays almost anything. Browsing for media is a bit of a pain. Poor integration into flickr (i had hoped to be able to browse my own stream, but only browses public content as an anonymous user). 'typing' with the remote is extremely painful. Makes browsing youtube etc tedious. Would be nice if it could connect to a larger variety of media sources.

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Plays with no problem every media file I tried (DVD,AVI,MKV,etc) over wireless network(I use D-Link DWA 125 USB adaptor) didn’t tried Blue Ray yet, but I’m impressed by this small device.

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The Asus has some cool things going for it but the WDTV Live HD Network Media Player is solded,The furmware update  is fast & fixed all the little troubles.Ive used it for 4 weeks , it iis so great with my sony home videos.

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This device gives you the ability to play HD media without putting the media to disk and using a blue ray player. I have a DNS 323 that provides online storage, has access to shared drives on PC and connect to usb HD as well. I found that the local USB drive was slow to discover after turning the device on. I have it programed on Logitech Harmony programable remote. You are only limited by your storage capacity.

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I got the WD live hd for xmas from a family member, i already own 2 popcorn hour A-110's so i thought it would be neat to see what everyone is raving about, when it comes to these. the WD live hd will play all the same formats as the A110, the WD can view you tube, and the a110 in stock form cannot.however. the gui on the wd is awful in comparison to the a110. and no internal storage makes loading apps or themes onto the wd live hd impossible. my suggestion is spend the extra 35-40 and pick up the popcorn hour.

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This machine is a dream of a life time for any couch potato. You never have to get up to put in a video or disc. If I had a toilet next to me and a fridge on the other side or a good maid I'd be in heaven. Forgot to mention have 3 green 1.5 tb drives hooked to it works perfectly.

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Bought this before christmas, and as for now. No problems at all, firmware updates automatically when plugged over the ethernet port. Did not try HMDI out but event the composite/component give a nice sharp image. Some potential problems can be caused by win7, workarounds have been found though

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I'm trying to find a replacement for my XBMC XBOX and am trying this. One huge benefit is it plays H.264 content which the XBOX cannot. Very small size, quiet operation and quick boot times are all positives.The interface could use some work - a little to "simple". The biggest headache (compared to my XBOX) is that .RAR files need to be unpacked before they can be played.I'm still using it and will likely retire the XBMC at some point soon. No regrets on this purchase as the pros outweight the cons.

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I am not quite sure what the one reviewer was talking about, but this unit plays every type of file and codec that you can find. IT plays mp4, mkv, divx, xvid, you name it. It's like a hardware version of the VLC media player.Wireless is not included but can be added with a USB wireless adapter, although not all of them are supported. Be sure to check the site to find which ones work before buying one. The D-LINK DWA-125 works well and it's cheap.I can't say enough about these devices. It is so much better than any media player I've tinkered with to date - and there have been a few. I now own 3 of these bad boys and even my wife loves using them. The interface is very simple and intuitive.

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I am satisfied with my wdtv live but it by no means blows me away. While it has been able to play absolutely any file I have thrown at it, the journey to this point has been long. Western Digital seems unwilling or worse yet, unable to fix some glaring issues with the device.

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Summary This is a very good player. I love it and because I dont need Cable anymore, it is my favorite toy. I been playing music, youtube, and ISO DVD files on my network since I got it. All the stuff about it being laggy or choppy seems to depend on the network and computers or devices that the media is on. Networks that are in use by others may cause it lag, this problem would be on the whole network. My network is only used by me so I have no problems as I dont use the net while viewing a 4 GB movie. However media may be slow if my computer is compiling a program I worte to the same drive. However so far my dual core, 4 GB of ram, and 64-bit OS have done fine.

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The functionality of this thing is awesome - some of my friends have raved about Apple TV but it seems to me this does all the same for a fraction of the cost. I was amazed it will play MKV as well as other more common video stuff and with a gigabit connection it streams beautifully from my Win Home Server. The picture and music functionality is icing on the cake. This is now the (very tiny) centre of my modest home theatre setup.The downside which is not apparent in any reviews here is the fact that this thing has several reliability issues. Do some googling for "WD TV Live problems" or any similar search and you find a lot of people having a lot of issues. Some have solutions, some are outstanding issues and the owner community seems to have been further aggravated by a recent firmware update  that bricked a whole load of units (I didn't have that problem). I have been pretty lucky on the whole but still have to workaround one or two annoying glitches on a regular basis.Overall, I am *just* hanging on to mine as the benefits marginally outweigh the frustrations of it's problems. When it works, which is does for my most common activity (video streaming over the network) it is awesome. I'm also hopeful that the issues (all of which seem to be software-related) will be sorted out in future issues of the firmware.Just wanted to give some balance so nobody else gets the same suprise and elements of frustration that I did when it plays up. This review was modfied by poster @ 01-02-10 04:56 PM

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This is the best thing ever. I love it and because I dont got Cable anymore, it is my favorite toy. I been playing music, youtube, and ISO DVD files on my network since I got it. All the stuff about it being laggy or choppy seems to depend on the network and computers or devices that the media is on. Networks that are in use by others may cause it lag, this problem would be on the whole network. My network is only used by me so I have no problems as I dont use the net while viewing a 4 GB movie. However media may be slow if my computer is compiling a program I worte to the same drive. However so far my dual core, 4 GB of ram, and 64-bit OS have done fine.Only problem is over heating. it can reboot from it and it does get super hot, so keep it in a cool place with air flow.So if you looking for a media player, this should be on your list. I believe that as long as your network is ok then this well be ok. If not you can always configure your router to deal with this device 1st over others. Even do a 2nd network with a 2nd nic so that it runs on its own network. but that may be over kill. Wired is also better then wireless. Less memory used on wifi drives and better data trafer.

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I bought this unit for one reason, to play hi-def movies on my tv without having to burn blu-ray disks, and well it orks great. i love how it plays pritty much every format and the fact it does pictures and music as well is a bonus. the networking options are great, now if you want to show someone some photos or videos on your comp you dont have to bring them to your computer room or bring out the laptop, just run through the menu and you get it on your tv.the youtube channel is nice, though most videos on youtube and not great quality, so on 50" it looks terrible, but you get the idea. the other channels, like live365 for music do require subscriptions, though th others are not available in canada.the two usb ports are great as well, you can plug in an external HD (like I do) and play you movies off that, or in some cases if its one of those "watch only once" movies you can play off a flash card without unplugging the other port, or you can also plug in a usb wireless card in that slot.its so tiny it barley noticeable, small than my HDD.the only real anoyance is when i plgged it into my computer via the network cable, vista knew it was a media player, which is great, so it shares the viles with it in the public folder. but, if you have an MKV file for hi-def movies, vista doesnt allow the unit to see it and you can play it, so you are forced to put it on a storage device.Also, there is no dvd menu and you cant skip through chapters in movies, you are forced to FF maually with a max speed of x16. at the least they should put a curser on the progress bar you can quickly select  a point in the movie.so afr i have had no problems loading through USB, or it locking up. though networking ca get annoying This review was modfied by poster @ 12-31-09 11:31 AM

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Works okay, but not all the hype its made up to be. The unit will lock up sometimes on files it has played in the past. Annoying when you are watching a movie in 2 parts. Plays most files, but tends to lock up easier on the HD movies. Didn't install the bios that apparently bricks your unit, but raises the question of WD's product testing. The blame it on "the internet" or some lame excuse like that. Whatever the case, it shouldn't have been issued. Their response has been okay however as they will replace any unit that downloaded this defective bios (which it wants to do everytime its connected to the network)

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I absolutely LOVE this little box & it gets my highest recommendation - in spite of its few flaws. There may be a player out there that's perfect but I haven't found it yet. Not in this price range.WD Live does it all for me ... for now.

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Great little product. It plays everything that I want it to play using the Synology CS407 and my file server.

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I really don't know what to say. I am really dissappointed Windows 7 is not compatible out of the box with the newest firmware. It states its Win7 compatible, but it isn't. The Library sharing that we setup with Win7 "partially" works, I don't see everything in my library some folders are missing. And when some of the folders do work, they don't auto refresh. I have to physically turn off the receiver and turn it back on.I cannot play .mkv format which is the most known 1080p x264 format out there. It plays .avi well though. The sound and video is "very" good. Better than VLC PC->TV (pixelish)Personally, I loved it when I didn't connect it to the network. There is clearly network issues, and I believe over the next couple of firmware updates, it will be resolved. But in the current state, it is kind of horrible.I will rate this satisfactory because I will buy a network storage and connect it next to it. There are some articles online that users say they hacked it to make it work on Win7, I tried some and it partially worked but still same issues randomly happening.I know my way around Computers/Technology and I am a Software Engineer. And as an Engineer, this product needed more testing before bringing it out to the market. In its current shape and form, it is unacceptable.

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This is simply the best thing I've done for my living room, out of the box it worked, cable management is very simple, and the build, picture, and reliability are the best! This review was modfied by poster @ 12-06-09 08:50 PM

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This is a nice unit if you want to play avi files from your computer on your TV. I have an LG BD390, and while that is a fantastic machine, the WDTV Live has been able to play files that the LG cannot.However, DO NOT update  THE FIRMWARE TO V12!! The new firmware has bricked so many units that WD has removed the firmware from their site. Remember the rule of update s - if you don't need it, don't do it. At least wait for a couple of weeks to let others ensure the validity of the update . I wonder what NCIX's policy would be on a unit that was broken through the manufacturer's "required update "?

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This media player just works, and works great! Plain and simple, easy-to-use, and it plays every 720p or 1080p video I've thrown at it, be it with DTS audio or AC3 audio. Western Digital has done an excellent job with this device.The only gripe I have is that the interface is a little bland. It would be nice if the device automatically downloaded cover art and backdrops for movies, as MediaPortal does on my HTPC.But for the price, this is an incredible device.

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One of the best purchase for my TV, ever! WDTV Live is very small, but offers a lot in terms of functionality. It decodes and plays DTS audio from BluRay Rips (WDTV doesn't, only the Live). It's very thoughtful of WD to not include built-in wireless, some people like myself already have CAT5 wires set up for media centers, etc.The only downside is the 2 internet radio station that it offers: live365 is a paid service, pandora discontinued its service for Canadian users, simply put WDTV Live doesn't have internet radio capabilities out of the box anymore.It's nice to not have a huge tower computer humming next to the TV anymore!