Why do so many of you like the WDTV? What am I missing here?

Why do so many of you like the WDTV? What am I missing here?

its cheap....

Ohhh... but not if you add an external hard drive to the picture right??

It plays .mkv, files, it is very small (easy to carry around). You can hook it up to any tv using either HDMI or regular old RCA type connectors.

Excellent support, great quality build, customized fw as an extra thrown in now, great fun to play with and it simply rocks my jocks.

Can someone point me to where I can find the external firmware? Is it pretty smooth operating it from a UPNP source? Like streaming from my iMac to the WDTV? (of course I understand it needs to be hacked). Will it also display cover art when streaming from a source like my iMac??

Thanks for the info, might go pick one up today.

Why do so many of you like the WDTV? What am I missing here?



Its cheap (compared to other Media Tanks) and available in brick and mortar stores.

couple of questions that I can't seem to find answers for...

Does it play M2TS or TS files passing through TrueHD and DTS MA?

(This the peice de resitance of the NMT's at the moment)

will it play MKV's with upto 7.1 FLAC embedded.....

( I know this is a popular alternative to the first but notsure why. NMT's cant do this).

Will it output 24bit 88/192Khz FLAC, WAVE, AIFF files over HDMI or other digital interfacew without downconverting

Curious, can you get the network connectivity via the USB Ethernet dongle with the stock firmware or must it be hacked first...

Seems like a great little box with a good price. really puzzling to me that it does not have an ethernet port...

Sean

couple of questions that I can't seem to find answers for...

Does it play M2TS or TS files passing through TrueHD and DTS MA?

No. It plays M2TS and TS files but it will not pass TrueHD and DTS MA, it will pass through DTS core. It would require HDMI 1.3 this box has HDMI 1.2.


will it play MKV's with upto 7.1 FLAC embedded.....

It supports FLAC but I don't think it does in a MKV container.


Will it output 24bit 88/192Khz FLAC, WAVE, AIFF files over HDMI or other digital interfacew without downconverting

Yes, with the latest firmware.

Curious, can you get the network connectivity via the USB Ethernet dongle with the stock firmware or must it be hacked first...

No. To get an ethernet dongle to work you must use a custom hacked firmware that will add such a support. Easily available and free.

Seems like a great little box with a good price. really puzzling to me that it does not have an ethernet port...

Some speculate that WD is primarily a hard drive manufacturer and want you to buy hard drives to go along with this device so why would they add a feature that would allow you to bypass this?

Thanks for the info....

seems like a good solution for a lot of folks.... The brick and mortar aspect I am sure is very appealing for many. Ordering an NMT from company in Asia through google checkout is not exactly "mainstream"... :)

to me the lack of ethernet is still weird... glad to see the hackers are addressing this limitation.

The HD argument I get but if the info lives on a network its still on a HD somwhere.... I have tons of HD's in my NAS's...

Sean

Why do so many of you like the WDTV? What am I missing here?

IT´S A DREAM COME TRUE

:D

Nothing more simple definition

Thanks for the info....

seems like a good solution for a lot of folks.... The brick and mortar aspect I am sure is very appealing for many. Ordering an NMT from company in Asia through google checkout is not exactly "mainstream"... :)

to me the lack of ethernet is still weird... glad to see the hackers are addressing this limitation.

The HD argument I get but if the info lives on a network its still on a HD somwhere.... I have tons of HD's in my NAS's...

Sean

this box makes a nice portable player. just grab the wd and a drive and go to your friend's house.

just for yucks, i installed the hacked firmware and an ethernet dongle that was attached to my Wii. the ethernet dongle was $15. i personally have no use for ethernet on this wd box.... just wanted to see if it works. the firmware was just as easy to install as the official firmware and it worked.

this box makes a nice portable player. just grab the wd and a drive and go to your friend's house.

just for yucks, i installed the hacked firmware and an ethernet dongle that was attached to my Wii. the ethernet dongle was $15. i personally have no use for ethernet on this wd box.... just wanted to see if it works. the firmware was just as easy to install as the official firmware and it worked.
Sorry if this has been discussed in WDTV firmware thread. Does anyone make use of the network to stream movies?

Sorry if this has been discussed in WDTV firmware thread. Does anyone make use of the network to stream movies?

i didn't try to push the limits. just wanted to see what happens with min effort. it will stream some things. not sure what it won't.

here are some links for useful reading on hacks...

http://b-rad.cc/

http://wiki.wdtv.org/doku.php

http://wiki.wdtv.org/doku.php?id=supported_usb_devices

Another reason why it may "appear" everyone is going crazy, is because of all the various posts.

It's a relatively new product, and WD has released a couple of "official" firmwares, and are now on, what, 6th or 7th "pre-release" of the next firmware? (think they might have skipped a .0#).

Anyway, as mentioned, small, cheap, got at BB for $90 I think - 10% off coupon on top of sale price. Grabbed a 1.5TB external for $135. Works great in sons room. If I get to the point where I feel the need, may grab Popcorn Hour for the living room.

Do wish you could copy from Thumb Drive to Hard Drive.

...

Do wish you could copy from Thumb Drive to Hard Drive.

would be cool to support a gizmo like this...

http://www.startech.com/item/ST4205READ-3-Port-USB-20-Hub-with-Multi-Memory-Card-Reader.aspx

then you could plug in a usb keyboard and have a file management app.

plus, you could move things around on various memory cards.

Why do so many of you like the WDTV? What am I missing here?

Its small, cheap and plays almost all of my multimedia files without a need to convert them, unlike the stubborn ps3. That wdtv came highly recomended from a friend didn't hurt either.

Its cheap (compared to other Media Tanks) and available in brick and mortar stores.

This was the biggest factor for me. I didn't feel comfortable ordering a PCH* online and waiting. I got my WD TV from a B&M store knowing I had 30 days to return it if I didn't like it.


* Not trying to start a flame war, just sharing my experiences.

Yes, yes, yes! We play our dream in HD every night :D:D:D:)

IT´S A DREAM COME TRUE

:D

Nothing more simple definition

Another reason why it may "appear" everyone is going crazy, is because of all the various posts.

It's a relatively new product, and WD has released a couple of "official" firmwares, and are now on, what, 6th or 7th "pre-release" of the next firmware? (think they might have skipped a .0#).

Anyway, as mentioned, small, cheap, got at BB for $90 I think - 10% off coupon on top of sale price. Grabbed a 1.5TB external for $135. Works great in sons room. If I get to the point where I feel the need, may grab Popcorn Hour for the living room.

Do wish you could copy from Thumb Drive to Hard Drive.

Just curious. Which 1.5GB external do you have. I have a Seagate FreeAgent 1.5TB and I cannot get it to play HD videos without a brief pause in the video and audio within the first 1 minute (or so) most of the time. Same files copied to my other USB HDD play without any issues.

Just curious. Which 1.5GB external do you have. I have a Seagate FreeAgent 1.5TB and I cannot get it to play HD videos without a brief pause in the video and audio within the first 1 minute (or so) most of the time. Same files copied to my other USB HDD play without any issues.

Ron,

Same piece of crap I got. I'm sure you've read about the failures, but I haven't had any issues with it.

I do have a few MKV files on there that are HD, and will test tomorrow.

Does it pause just the once and then continues on fine until the end of the movie?

If I don't get back to you, PM me to remind me. It's in my son's room.

What the big deal is?

It's small, it's black, it's powerful.

It plays most HD material without a hitch, the main appeal of this little box, and it does this at a fraction of the price of the competition. At a $100 price point, there simply is no better media player available, especially for HD material. And thanks to the continued firmware updates, which include suggestions and requests by the community here and elsewhere, it's going to be even better in future.

Just curious. Which 1.5GB external do you have. I have a Seagate FreeAgent 1.5TB and I cannot get it to play HD videos without a brief pause in the video and audio within the first 1 minute (or so) most of the time. Same files copied to my other USB HDD play without any issues.

If I fill my 1 tb drive to near capacity (less than 10 gb space), it will have 20-150 second delay on all video loading. Take out a couple of large files may solve your provblem.

Sorry if this has been discussed in WDTV firmware thread. Does anyone make use of the network to stream movies?


Yes, it works great. I have it streaming from my three HTPCs. One has Vista Media Center HD recordings (dvr-ms) another has DVB-S HD recordings (.ts files with h264 video and AC3 audio) and the third has my movie library made up of mostly mkv files with h264 encoded video @720 and 1080p. All stream without any problems. I did have to setup NFS streaming for the 1080p movies otherwise CIFS did not provide enough bandwidth.

...
It supports FLAC but I don't think it does in a MKV container.

...

it supports flac in mkv. i haven't done much with it but it played 24bit 5.1 48khz flac + 1080p vc1 in mkv the last time i tested.

also it played 5.1 pcm in mkv.

Why do so many of you like the WDTV? What am I missing here?

1) It's cheap (ie easily gotten for less than $100). Granted you also need a USB device (HD or thumb drive) but I suspect most people with PC multimedia type files (AVI, MKV, etc) already have one such (i've already had both a spare HD and spare thumb drive that I've dedicated to the WDTV).
2) It's easy to find in B&M stores. I got mine at Best Buy the very same day that I had read about it on one of the forums I frequent.
3) It's versitile. It plays a wide veriety of formats without breaking a sweat.
4) WD is listening to it's customers feedback and provides support for the product as evidence by the recent firmware updates that have been taking user suggestions to heart.
5) It's looks cool (all sleak and black) sitting in my entertainment center.

In short it's great value for the money IMHO.

Maybe people are easily pleased?

- No GbE
- No dvd/blu-ray/hd dvd playback from folders

Back to htpc for me. Maybe next time as I like the brand name, build quality, small form factor, look & feel, no fan no noise approach, just the feature set is appaulingly poor at least for me, lots of people seem to find uses for it.

Maybe people are easily pleased?

- No GbE
- No dvd/blu-ray/hd dvd playback from folders

Back to htpc for me. Maybe next time as I like the brand name, build quality, small form factor, look & feel, no fan no noise approach, just the feature set is appaulingly poor at least for me, lots of people seem to find uses for it.

Maybe some people have realistic expectations for a $90 device? I say some people because from the threads in this forum there are a lot of people that sure expect and demad a lot.

Maybe people are easily pleased?

- No GbE
- No dvd/blu-ray/hd dvd playback from folders

Back to htpc for me. Maybe next time as I like the brand name, build quality, small form factor, look & feel, no fan no noise approach, just the feature set is appaulingly poor at least for me, lots of people seem to find uses for it.

Runs smoother than a lot of peoples htpc's, a lot smaller also. No dvd/blu-ray/hd dvd playback from folders( what?)

I'm sorry, I read the title like Jerry Seinfeld...

"What's the deal with WDTV?!"

Maybe people are easily pleased?

- No GbE
- No dvd/blu-ray/hd dvd playback from folders

Back to htpc for me. Maybe next time as I like the brand name, build quality, small form factor, look & feel, no fan no noise approach, just the feature set is appaulingly poor at least for me, lots of people seem to find uses for it.

HTPC is definitely the way to go if you want something that can do (almost) everything. I will probably go this route eventually.

You aren't building a HTPC that comes anywhere close to the WDTV in terms of playback ability, power consumption, ease of use, and noise, for $100.

WDTV is by no means a perfect media player solution. As long as you know its limitations and accept it, it's the best bang for the buck by far.

Runs smoother than a lot of peoples htpc's, a lot smaller also. No dvd/blu-ray/hd dvd playback from folders( what?)

will it play them from ISO's, or what format do DVD's and BRD's have to be in?

I'm the original poster of this thread. So I saw all the excitement and bought the WDTV. I also bought a 400gb passport. The passport is really tight! I love that I don't need another cable.

As far as the WDTV.. ahh.. its okay.. Yes it can play most stuff, and yes the PQ is pretty good, but that interface is sloooowww.. plus the thumbnails dont' look that good.

I wasn't in the mood to hack it, I don't have the time. So sorry to say, and just an opinion of course, I'm taking it back and sticking with my appletv. The picture quality from what I can tell is about the same, and the GUI is much better. Plus, I already have such a large itunes library.

But thanks for all the info!

Mo

Why do so many of you like the WDTV? What am I missing here?

I got tired of hooking my laptop up to my HT, waiting for the OS to boot, loading a file, and then finding out the wimpy thing stuttered on an HD movie.

I got annoyed that my non-wimpy XBOX 360 couldn't handle certain file types for no justifiable reason.

This <$100 tiny box beats them both for the minor inconvenience of having to put files on USB media. Win.

I got tired of hooking my laptop up to my HT, waiting for the OS to boot, loading a file, and then finding out the wimpy thing stuttered on an HD movie.

I got annoyed that my non-wimpy XBOX 360 couldn't handle certain file types for no justifiable reason.

This <$100 tiny box beats them both for the minor inconvenience of having to put files on USB media. Win.

Exactly-360 is definitely weird. I made a movie in two different formats my PS3 played both, 360 none, weird.

And yes, you have to have a good computer to play hd video WELL, no pentium 4's. I bolded well because I am sure someone will respond that they got their pentium 4 to play HD.

No dvd/blu-ray/hd dvd playback from folders( what?)

I meant the WDTV will not play dvds, blu-rays, hd dvds which are a straight 1:1 rip from the original optical disk, with menu support and everything else.

Considering 1 point for each and 1 point for GbE and optical drive respectively:

WDTV: 0 points
PCH or similar: DVD & 100mbit Ethernet - 1.5 points
HDi player: DVD/Blu-ray/GbE/optical drive - 4 points
htpcs: 5 points

You get what you pay for.

I meant the WDTV will not play dvds, blu-rays, hd dvds which are a straight 1:1 rip from the original optical disk, with menu support and everything else.

Considering 1 point for each and 1 point for GbE and optical drive respectively:

WDTV: 0 points
PCH or similar: DVD & 100mbit Ethernet - 1.5 points
HDi player: DVD/Blu-ray/GbE/optical drive - 4 points
htpcs: 5 points

You get what you pay for.

I really don't understand the point you are trying to make. the WDTV was not designed to play BR images or have GbE so what's the point. It's like saying I got a car but it doesn't fly.

I really don't understand the point you are trying to make. the WDTV was not designed to play BR images or have GbE so what's the point. It's like saying I got a car but it doesn't fly.

lol

WDTV: 0 points
PCH or similar: DVD & 100mbit Ethernet - 1.5 points
HDi player: DVD/Blu-ray/GbE/optical drive - 4 points
htpcs: 5 points

You get what you pay for.

Yes you do.....

WDTV: $120
PCH or similar: $215+
HDi player: DVD/Blu-ray/GbE/optical drive: $545+
htpcs: $750+

For progression by cost, does the WDTV have 1/2 the capabilty of a PCH? I think so.

or 1/5 the capability of a HDi player?

or 1/6 the capability of a htpc?

I wasn't in the mood to hack it, I don't have the time. So sorry to say, and just an opinion of course, I'm taking it back and sticking with my appletv. The picture quality from what I can tell is about the same, and the GUI is much better. Plus, I already have such a large itunes library.

But thanks for all the info!

Mo

maybe a mac mini with plex will interest you considering you own an apple tv, or you could try to hack the apple tv and install Boxee or plex(xbmc) it might be under powered though

a refurbed last gen minis 1.83ghz sell for $429 on apple store if you shop at the right time. Might be more money then what you want to spend IDK

Yes you do.....

WDTV: $120
PCH or similar: $215+
HDi player: DVD/Blu-ray/GbE/optical drive: $545+
htpcs: $750+

For progression by cost, does the WDTV have 1/2 the capabilty of a PCH? I think so.

or 1/5 the capability of a HDi player?

or 1/6 the capability of a htpc?

it provides 100% of the capabilities of an htpc if it just happens that it supports the file types you want and that is all you would ever use a htpc for. so, there are some people that it suits perfectly.

however, IMO it is kind of short sighted on the part of wd to not include full dvd menu support. any $20 walmart dvd player can do that. this device has a lot more capable hardware than a $20 dvd player.

i've successfully got it working on the network and it accessess my NAS.

I am considering the following configuration:

- putting one in every room that has a tv.
- for the kids assigning only kids movies
- for the entire house pictures and music
- every dvd/blue ray that i get i convert and put on the NAS

in the end i have 4 televisions = 4 WDTV's ($99) + LAN Adpater ($8)

how am i doing so far? $428 - not bad

Now, if i could only get netflix to stream into these little babies - it would really sweeten the deal..

Can you tell us what hack you used to do that? Also, can you view coverart by accessing your NAS?

Lastly, does anyone know how to add chapter markers to an MKV? I'm sick of ffw 16x through the whole movie

Thanks
Mo

Lastly, does anyone know how to add chapter markers to an MKV? I'm sick of ffw 16x through the whole movie

Thanks
Mo

mkvmerge GUI, Chaptor Editor tab.
hit FF once for 2x then use Skip to jump in 10 minute increments.

-Mod

Ohh.. thanks for the tip!

Gotta, tell you, I am pretty impressed by this device. It has played pretty much all movies I have perfectly.. with the exception of a 1080p movie, but that didn't bother me.

I just wish it had a better interface, metadata, and NAS support, but I understand some of that can be done with hacking.

Will try to do that here in the future. Was thinking of returning this, but its simplicty of use, and amazing playback of any file I have thrown at it is making me change my mind.

Mo

Yes, it works great. I have it streaming from my three HTPCs. One has Vista Media Center HD recordings (dvr-ms) another has DVB-S HD recordings (.ts files with h264 video and AC3 audio) and the third has my movie library made up of mostly mkv files with h264 encoded video @720 and 1080p. All stream without any problems. I did have to setup NFS streaming for the 1080p movies otherwise CIFS did not provide enough bandwidth.


Zagor,
Which hacked Firmware are you using? Also what USB to Ethernet dongle are you using?
yaz

man I love my WDTV. Also, iPits for iphone.. Hilarious!!

it provides 100% of the capabilities of an htpc if it just happens that it supports the file types you want and that is all you would ever use a htpc for. so, there are some people that it suits perfectly.

Quoted for Truth.

why pay $215+ (PCH or similiar), $545+ (HDi player: DVD/Blu-ray/GbE/optical drive) or $750+ (htpcs) if the WDTV does what you need for $120 (or less, I got mine for under $100).

Obviously, if you want/need the features that those other systems have that the WDTV doesn't it would make sense to go with one of those instead, but if you don't then you're just wasting money.

it provides 100% of the capabilities of an htpc

Are you mad :eek:? (do not mean this in a bad way)
In my case if you remove the last two zeros you'll be closer to the truth. My htpc does a million things (scratch that, a billion things) a wdtv wouldn't even dream of. I won't go into listing them as it appears we are on a different page. To put it simply there is NOTHING an htpc cannot do and my idea of an htpc is not a celeron machine with 512mb ram.
WDTV is a nice idea but extremely limited, the only reason people buy it, it is because it is cheap. A proper htpc costs 10 times that, I don't think people would buy the WDTV if it cost 2 times what it costs let alone 10 times. For gods sake WDTV cannot even play dvds which is something a 20 or 30 dollar (don't know what they cost now) player does.

For gods sake WDTV cannot even play dvds which is something a 20 or 30 dollar (don't know what they cost now) player does.

Excuse me, but are you demented or something!? Does it say on the box that it is a DVD player?!?

Yes, I do have a HTPC...and I've had enough of it, waiting for it to boot, not being able to use subtitles in overlay mode thus experiencing picture tearing, always having to switch between filters because mkvs wouldn't run on hardware acclereration as opposed to BD m2ts which would only run in HA because of the high bitrate, endless problems with VC-1 playback, looking like a troll leaning over a keyboard and a mouse browsing folders to try to make a file run...I have yet to see grandmas, grandpas or mums use a HTPC and being happy about it...they are human too...

and yes, HTPC is 10x more expensive if you want it to do a trillion things...so I'm currently using it as a Personal Computer, which it is!!!

Are you mad :eek:? (do not mean this in a bad way)

Way to miss his point by snipping his response mid-sentence.


In my case if you remove the last two zeros you'll be closer to the truth. My htpc does a million things (scratch that, a billion things) a wdtv wouldn't even dream of.

And that's fine for you, noone is saying the WDTV is for everyone. However many other people don't need or want to do any of those "billion things". In which case your solution would be a waste of money for them. Why would they want to pay more just to get features that they have no need of and will not be using?


I won't go into listing them as it appears we are on a different page.

Clearly. Perhaps if you read further instead of stopping midsentence, you would understand what page he was on.


WDTV is a nice idea but extremely limited, the only reason people buy it, it is because it is cheap.

If you'd read past the first half of the first sentence of people's replies, you'd see that many people have given numerous reasons. Price being but one of them.


A proper htpc costs 10 times that, I don't think people would buy the WDTV if it cost 2 times what it costs let alone 10 times.

Maybe maybe not. depends on what 2x the cost would get them and whether or not the additional features would be worth the additional money to them.


For gods sake WDTV cannot even play dvds which is something a 20 or 30 dollar (don't know what they cost now) player does.

And many people who buy the WDTV are not buying them to play DVDs, they already have $20 or $30 players for that.

Are you mad :eek:? (do not mean this in a bad way)
In my case if you remove the last two zeros you'll be closer to the truth. My htpc does a million things (scratch that, a billion things) a wdtv wouldn't even dream of. I won't go into listing them as it appears we are on a different page. To put it simply there is NOTHING an htpc cannot do and my idea of an htpc is not a celeron machine with 512mb ram.
WDTV is a nice idea but extremely limited, the only reason people buy it, it is because it is cheap. A proper htpc costs 10 times that, I don't think people would buy the WDTV if it cost 2 times what it costs let alone 10 times. For gods sake WDTV cannot even play dvds which is something a 20 or 30 dollar (don't know what they cost now) player does.

you deleted 80% of what i said and called it mad. :rolleyes:

wd isn't remotely close to what i do with my htpc (i think i might have > $2500 in the htpc). but wd would work fine for my parents. .... needs full dvd menu support though because without that it cannot actually play any kind of full backup from a video archive. for my parents, an htpc is just too complicated.

Zagor,
Which hacked Firmware are you using? Also what USB to Ethernet dongle are you using?
yaz

I am using WDLXTV firmware created by b-rad and I use this adapter http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000PCY5SQ

Have not had any issues.

mkvmerge GUI, Chaptor Editor tab.
hit FF once for 2x then use Skip to jump in 10 minute increments.

-Mod

NICE! :)

that's going to be really helpful coz i'm tired of waiting to FF. :D

Is there some sort of a browser that can be used with this device when the USB-LAN dongle is connected to internet?

Thanks.

i didn't try to push the limits. just wanted to see what happens with min effort. it will stream some things. not sure what it won't.

here are some links for useful reading on hacks...

http://b-rad.cc/

http://wiki.wdtv.org/doku.php

http://wiki.wdtv.org/doku.php?id=supported_usb_devices

What the big deal is?

It's small, it's black, it's powerful.

It plays most HD material without a hitch, the main appeal of this little box, and it does this at a fraction of the price of the competition. At a $100 price point, there simply is no better media player available, especially for HD material. And thanks to the continued firmware updates, which include suggestions and requests by the community here and elsewhere, it's going to be even better in future.

For only $100 more you can get the SageTV HD Theater HD200 which plays all the same media including 1080p Blueray now with the beta firmware, and it offers Ethernet network support, and still has USB. AND it is very small so you can still bring it to your friend's house and watch movies off your USB stick. They also have been very good about firmware updates too. I really like mine. Although I have been tempted to get a WDTV box just to try out for kicks, I still just can't get over the whole no-network thing. This seems like a necessity for them to not include in the feature-set. If my time was worth $50/hour, then if it took me 2 hours to hack the WDTV to have network support (w/ a USB stick hanging off the side), then it is now not worth my time to go to that trouble to get network support. I think if I wanted to get second media streamer for another room in my house, I'd just pick up another HD Theater HD200.

What the big deal is?

It's small, it's black, it's powerful.

It plays most HD material without a hitch, the main appeal of this little box, and it does this at a fraction of the price of the competition. At a $100 price point, there simply is no better media player available, especially for HD material. And thanks to the continued firmware updates, which include suggestions and requests by the community here and elsewhere, it's going to be even better in future.

As someone who has an HTPC as well, I find the WDTV a great second unit to utilize in the other rooms and at family/friends homes. I simply convert the main movies to m2ts files, watching out for the DTS problem. Presto, I can play back in glorious HD. As an HD DVD person with over 70 disks as well as 10 Blu disks, it sure is nice to be able to back up to a good usb drive and take them anywhere. Went on a trip to Florida and most hotels had hd tvs with hdmi connections.

So, what is the big deal? It certainly has network capabilities (check out other forums) and, for the money, is a neat piece of technology.

Oh, did I say that with the SageTV HD200 you can watch YouTube, Google Video, and several other online content sites right from the unit itself with the built-in firmware, and if you connect this over your LAN to your UPnP server loaded with 'playon' software you can stream off of Netflix, and Hulu for free? Not to mention, if your server has SageTV loaded on it, you can connect to it in extender mode and view live TV from your server on the client, and view your program guide and tell the server what shows for it to record all from the client? Just an extra paycheck and you could afford 4 times more of the feature-set of the WD device that can't even connect to the Internet in 2009 w/o hacking anything. And don't forget, that after your hack (if you didn't brick it), then when they come out with the new firmware, you now have to transfer your hack over to the new firmware so you don't lose connectivity after updating everything. Yeah, maybe I had time for all this when I was in college, but these days I couldn't squeeze it in.

Oh, did I say that with the SageTV HD200 you can watch YouTube, Google Video, and several other online content sites right from the unit itself with the built-in firmware, and if you connect this over your LAN to your UPnP server loaded with 'playon' software you can stream off of Netflix, and Hulu for free? Not to mention, if your server has SageTV loaded on it, you can connect to it in extender mode and view live TV from your server on the client, and view your program guide and tell the server what shows for it to record all from the client? Just an extra paycheck and you could afford 4 times more of the feature-set of the WD device that can't even connect to the Internet in 2009 w/o hacking anything. And don't forget, that after your hack (if you didn't brick it), then when they come out with the new firmware, you now have to transfer your hack over to the new firmware so you don't lose connectivity after updating everything. Yeah, maybe I had time for all this when I was in college, but these days I couldn't squeeze it in.

WD TV is for people that doesn't need anything you just said!

For net and stuff i have my pc... to see movies i have my WD TV... simple isn't it? And just for 99$!!!

But let me tell you... if I needed streaming, youtube, etc, i would buy a Popcorn Hour... not that sage thing... but no, I just want to see some movies...

For only $100 more you can get the SageTV HD Theater HD200 which plays all the same media including 1080p Blueray now with the beta firmware, and it offers Ethernet network support, and still has USB. AND it is very small so you can still bring it to your friend's house and watch movies off your USB stick. They also have been very good about firmware updates too. I really like mine. Although I have been tempted to get a WDTV box just to try out for kicks, I still just can't get over the whole no-network thing. This seems like a necessity for them to not include in the feature-set. If my time was worth $50/hour, then if it took me 2 hours to hack the WDTV to have network support (w/ a USB stick hanging off the side), then it is now not worth my time to go to that trouble to get network support. I think if I wanted to get second media streamer for another room in my house, I'd just pick up another HD Theater HD200.

And for only $1000000 more I can buy an flying car with built-in cinema!!!

man I love my WDTV. Also, iPits for iphone.. Hilarious!!

i thought you were going to return your WDTV and stick to your AppleTV? :D

WD TV is for people that doesn't need anything you just said!

For net and stuff i have my pc... to see movies i have my WD TV... simple isn't it? And just for 99$!!!

But let me tell you... if I needed streaming, youtube, etc, i would buy a Popcorn Hour... not that sage thing... but no, I just want to see some movies...

i totally agree with you. i really dont get why some people are complaining about WDTV. if they dont like it then they should just keep their opinions to themselves. for starters, it's not called WD Network TV and they are pretty obvious on their website about the objective of this product. PCH is a Network Media Tank and WDTV is a HD Media Player!

And for only $1000000 more I can buy an flying car with built-in cinema!!!

LOL! :D

Alright, well, I knew I would take some heat for my remarks, but I was just expressing my opinion.

Go on now, and buy your little WDTV for $99 bucks then..

I'm sure it's probably fun

Alright, well, I knew I would take some heat for my remarks, but I was just expressing my opinion.


Well of course you would. You are making the same mistake that the poster 720p was making. Just because they are features *YOU* want and would be willing to pay $100 more for, doesn't mean they are features that *everyone else* wants or considers $100 more worth spending on. and then to top off your first mistake you follow it up with condisention such as

Go on now, and buy your little WDTV for $99 bucks then..

I'm sure it's probably fun


And you wonder why you'd take some heat? Sheesh!

For only $100 more you can get the SageTV HD Theater HD200 which plays all the same media including 1080p Blueray now with the beta firmware, and it offers Ethernet network support, and still has USB. AND it is very small so you can still bring it to your friend's house and watch movies off your USB stick. They also have been very good about firmware updates too. I really like mine. Although I have been tempted to get a WDTV box just to try out for kicks, I still just can't get over the whole no-network thing. This seems like a necessity for them to not include in the feature-set. If my time was worth $50/hour, then if it took me 2 hours to hack the WDTV to have network support (w/ a USB stick hanging off the side), then it is now not worth my time to go to that trouble to get network support. I think if I wanted to get second media streamer for another room in my house, I'd just pick up another HD Theater HD200.

For 'just' $100 more', you have paid more than twice as much for your 'SageTV HD'. That basically says it all.

Ever thought that people may not need networking? That they may not want to watch crappy Youtube videos on their HDTVs? Networking of the current NMT generation, and besides, the WD TV-HD is no NMT (Networked Media Tank) is simply too slow for my requirements. I personally know quite a few people who still use the USB port of their NMTs (usually Popcornhour) to fill them with media, simply because LAN takes too much time. Even streaming can become an issue, depending on the bitrate of the media - Blu-ray at the highest bitrates comes close to the maximum real world throughput of these devices, not even mentioning wireless.

I will purchase a NMT (or low-energy HTPC rather) once network performance improves dramatically. This will likely be the case with a Nvidia ION platform based device, which offers gigabit ethernet and relatively high CPU (& GPU) performance (so you can actually expect good throughput, not a 'gimmick' of a gigabit port as some of the NMTs on the market currently have), hardware acceleration of HD video, while requiring very low energy. And all this at a price that will be marginally higher than the current NMT generation, street price likely will be the same even. Add the well known, excellent XBMC interface that is going to be ported to this platform, and there really is no reason for me to purchase a NMT now.

For 'just' $100 more', you have paid more than twice as much for your 'SageTV HD'. That basically says it all.

Ever thought that people may not need networking? That they may not want to watch crappy Youtube videos on their HDTVs? Networking of the current NMT generation, and besides, the WD TV-HD is no NMT (Networked Media Tank) is simply too slow for my requirements. I personally know quite a few people who still use the USB port of their NMTs (usually Popcornhour) to fill them with media, simply because LAN takes too much time. Even streaming can become an issue, depending on the bitrate of the media - Blu-ray at the highest bitrates comes close to the maximum real world throughput of these devices, not even mentioning wireless.

I will purchase a NMT (or low-energy HTPC rather) once network performance improves dramatically. This will likely be the case with a Nvidia ION platform based device, which offers gigabit ethernet and relatively high CPU (& GPU) performance (so you can actually expect good throughput, not a 'gimmick' of a gigabit port as some of the NMTs on the market currently have), hardware acceleration of HD video, while requiring very low energy. And all this at a price that will be marginally higher than the current NMT generation, street price likely will be the same even. Add the well known, excellent XBMC interface that is going to be ported to this platform, and there really is no reason for me to purchase a NMT now.

Can you confirm that all the videos can be acelerated by the graphic card? Or only videos with DVXA support?

AFAIK, it's not necessary. The GeForce 9400M GPU of the ION platform supports hardware acceleration of all three codecs used for Blu-Rays: Mpeg2, H.264 and VC-1. Especially if teamed with a dual core Atom CPU, it will handle Blu-rays even at the highest bitrates just fine.

Some previews of the (pre-release) Nvidia ION reference design:

http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=3509

http://techreport.com/articles.x/16340/3

http://hothardware.com/Articles/NVIDIA-Ion-Reference-PC-Platform-Performance-Deep-Dive-/?page=3


Live presentation of the Dark Knight Blu-Ray (VC-1 encoded, 20 Mbps) on the Acer Aspire Revo (ION platform):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aiokCcW_2vo


Same platform, 40Mbps H.264 Blu-ray:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zj9wS-j2MaA

AFAIK, it's not necessary. The GeForce 9400M GPU of the ION platform supports hardware acceleration of all three codecs used for Blu-Rays: Mpeg2, H.264 and VC-1. Especially if teamed with a dual core Atom CPU, it will handle Blu-rays even at the highest bitrates just fine.

Some previews of the (pre-release) Nvidia ION reference design:

http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=3509

http://techreport.com/articles.x/16340/3

http://hothardware.com/Articles/NVIDIA-Ion-Reference-PC-Platform-Performance-Deep-Dive-/?page=3


Live presentation of the Dark Knight Blu-Ray (VC-1 encoded, 20 Mbps) on the Acer Aspire Revo (ION platform):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aiokCcW_2vo


Same platform, 40Mbps H.264 Blu-ray:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zj9wS-j2MaA

Your right! I've seen that videos... :) .But does it work with x.264 videos? I ask this because i don't see Nvidia very interested in decoding that... i see them more interested in blueray playback... but not x.264!

Don't get me wrong... i liked a lot that plataform, but the x264 playback is a downer...

See this from GURU3D:

Example: enormously popular these days for example is x.264 (not to confuse with h.264 itself). It is also known under Matroska MKV and this is the kind of movie playback where you'd run intro restrictions as they are not supported (accelerated) over the graphics processor. It's really no different for high bitrate high-definition XVID and DIVX content either. Atom would not be able to handle it in 1080P or often even 720P, so immediately you'd run into restrictions if the media-file is not DXVA or bit-stream GPU accelerated. On an Atom platform this is your biggest problem.

From that perspective we feel that NVIDIA has a challenge it needs to address. The GPU can certainly deal with x.264 file formats. But NVIDIA places its focus in supporting file formats like DVD, WMV (HD) and Blu-Ray (VC1/h.264) only.

x.264 is H.264 (AVC) -> it's just the name of an open source (=free) H.264 (AVC) encoder. That Guru3D guy simply doesn't know what he is talking about.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/X264

x.264 is H.264 (AVC) -> it's just the name of an open source (=free) H.264 (AVC) encoder. That Guru3D guy simply doesn't know what he is talking about.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/X264

Hmmm.. ok! But read this http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=972503

I see too many restrictions to make a x264 dxva compatible... if the file is not dxva compatible, the atom is not powerfull enough to handle a 720p or 1080p...

Sorry but i'm not an expert in this matter but i see lots of buzz in the internet because of dxva compatible movie files...

Not Atom decodes the H.264 stream, but the GeForce 9400M GPU, at least the lion's share of it. That's why you need a ION platform for Blu-Ray playback, and not the already existing Atom platforms (e.g. netbooks).

ION will accelerate H.264 media, and x.264 encoded files are H.264 media, and it can even handle commercial Blu-rays (are commercial Blu-rays DXVA compatible?) at the highest bitrates.

Hmmm.. ok! But read this http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=972503

I see too many restrictions to make a x264 dxva compatible... if the file is not dxva compatible, the atom is not powerfull enough to handle a 720p or 1080p...

Sorry but i'm not an expert in this matter but i see lots of buzz in the internet because of dxva compatible movie files...

that is the potentially scary part about ion. it basically uses the same ha as my htpc. but, my htpc has a 3GHz q9650. when i had to disable ha (because of a bug) or because some app doesn't support it, my htpc has overkill on horsepower to still get the job done using the CPU. the ion will be DOA under the same circumstances. they need to prove to me it will work with ha alone before i will get one. they are running (at least trying) vista on this little guy. :eek:

Not Atom decodes the H.264 stream, but the GeForce 9400M GPU, at least the lion's share of it. That's why you need a ION platform for Blu-Ray playback, and not the already existing Atom platforms (e.g. netbooks).

ION will accelerate H.264 media, and x.264 encoded files are H.264 media, and it can even handle commercial Blu-rays (are commercial Blu-rays DXVA compatible?) at the highest bitrates.

h.264 covers a lot of different variations. as i understand it, in some cases, the ha in ion can't decode and it has to be handled by cpu. for example, this might not affect bd but might affect some other encodes.

h.264 covers a lot of different variations. as i understand it, in some cases, the ha in ion can't decode and it has to be handled by cpu. for example, this might not affect bd but might affect some other encodes.

That was what i was trying to say... thats the real problem... the x264 that cant be sent to the graphic card...

h.264 covers a lot of different variations. as i understand it, in some cases, the ha in ion can't decode and it has to be handled by cpu. for example, this might not affect bd but might affect some other encodes.

I know what you and Afrsa are trying to say, and as long as I don't have such a device myself, I can't confirm or disprove it. I just fail to see how it should not be able to decode H.264 material in its common variations, if it can handle commercial Blu-rays at the highest bitrates. If anything, this would be a software problem (decoder limitation), not a hardware limitation. Software can be improved / tuned, if necessary that is.

I know what you and Afrsa are trying to say, and as long as I don't have such a device myself, I can't confirm or disprove it. I just fail to see how it should not be able to decode H.264 material in its common variations, if it can handle commercial Blu-rays at the highest bitrates. If anything, this would be a software problem (decoder limitation), not a hardware limitation. Software can be improved / tuned, if necessary that is.

I too don't have such a device myself, so have to rely on information I found on the net, but according to the guru3d guy that you said "didn't know what he was talking about"
http://www.guru3d.com/article/accelerate-x264-1080p-movies-over-the-gpu-guide

is basically they're saying that you need software written to do so (which seems to m eto be the same thing you are saying with "this would be a software problem "), like the Media Player classic, rather than it supporting it natively as it does Blu-Ray (or as the guru3d guy put it "We just feel that something so standard and common as x.264 should be natively supported").

"But here's the thing, while both formats [UVD and Purevideo ] are really good, they do not support anything that is not officially supported by 3rd party vendor software like PowerDVD and WinDVD. As a result your hands are tied and you are extremely limited in utilizing UVD and Purevideo only for DVDs, WMV(HD) and Blu-ray disks. And we feel that poses an issue, as the other 80% of the content out there thus can not take advantage of these HD processing video engines."

"However, when when it comes to handling x.264 and similar file/container formats over the GPU, nothing comes even remotely close to Media Player Classic Home Cinema",

Perhaps reading the full guru3D article rather than just Afrsa or my paraphrasing/selcetive quoting of what they're saying before declaring whether or not they know what they're talking about.

I too don't have such a device myself, so have to rely on information I found on the net, but according to the guru3d guy that you said "didn't know what he was talking about"
http://www.guru3d.com/article/accelerate-x264-1080p-movies-over-the-gpu-guide

is basically they're saying that you need software written to do so (which seems to m eto be the same thing you are saying with "this would be a software problem "), like the Media Player classic, rather than it supporting it natively as it does Blu-Ray (or as the guru3d guy put it "We just feel that something so standard and common as x.264 should be natively supported").

"But here's the thing, while both formats [UVD and Purevideo ] are really good, they do not support anything that is not officially supported by 3rd party vendor software like PowerDVD and WinDVD. As a result your hands are tied and you are extremely limited in utilizing UVD and Purevideo only for DVDs, WMV(HD) and Blu-ray disks. And we feel that poses an issue, as the other 80% of the content out there thus can not take advantage of these HD processing video engines."

"However, when when it comes to handling x.264 and similar file/container formats over the GPU, nothing comes even remotely close to Media Player Classic Home Cinema",

Perhaps reading the full guru3D article rather than just Afrsa or my paraphrasing/selcetive quoting of what they're saying before declaring whether or not they know what they're talking about.

I was aiming at the "x.264 not to be confused with H.264" remark, which is plain nonsense indeed, as explained earlier (-> in the sense that it suggests that it is a different codec). I openly admit that I didn't read the full article, but replied to the (relevant?) bits quoted / written by Afrsa.

Man the WD TV sucks, for $2,000 more you can get a computer hooked to a 105 inch lcd that plays ALL FILES IN DA WORLDZ! 5,000 by 5,000 rez! omgz it even has blu-ray/HD-DVD/dvd support even LaZerZ DisKZ. F33R my huge desktop!


There you go... now compare that to a box the size of your palm that can be plugged to a 90 dollar 1 terabyte(1,000 gygabyte) HDD, or more if you want( HDD come down in price fast). Has 1080p and plays "almost" everything. Did I mention it cost around 95 bucks? And constant firmware updates that add features?

I guess that explains everything?


Edit: x.264/h.264 same thing ..... x.264 is just the open source code, h.264 the industry's($$$)

leny, you ok man? i'm worried about you. sounds like you had a coffee overdose. LOL

i have my wd connected to a 2tb wd drive. the drive cost 3x what the player cost. makes a nice portable player.

too bad the cute little devil won't play dvd menus. then it would play 99% of my files instead of 50%.

my htpc only cost about $2500 and is connected to a 120" CinemaScope screen and 10 tb storage.

Plays my DVD's fine, yeah I had a coffee overdose I always do O_O considering I take my coffee at 3 pm and i wrote that at 3:03 :D

Yeah I know a 2 tb hdd cost x3, thats why I buy 1 tb hdd's which cost 90 thus 2 cost 180 instead of 300 :D Hence for the price of 1 2TB I can have 3 TB :) when more capacity HDD come to market and at lower prices, i'll just put it all in one and leave the old ones as backup. It's a b175h to loose several terabytes of data :eek:

Btw my HTPC costs 47k... atom in my 2008 bmw 5 sedan :P

Plays my DVD's fine, yeah I had a coffee overdose I always do O_O considering I take my coffee at 3 pm and i wrote that at 3:03 :D

Yeah I know a 2 tb hdd cost x3, thats why I buy 1 tb hdd's which cost 90 thus 2 cost 180 instead of 300 :D Hence for the price of 1 2TB I can have 3 TB :) when more capacity HDD come to market and at lower prices, i'll just put it all in one and leave the old ones as backup. It's a b175h to loose several terabytes of data :eek:

Btw my HTPC costs 47k... atom in my 2008 bmw 5 sedan :P

i usually use 1 tb.

actually, you have to pay for the drive enclosure also. the more drives you have the more you pay for enclosure space. about $30-40 per drive using external enclosure. so $270+$30 equals $300 for my 2tb. to use 2 1 tb is $180 + $60 for 240 total. three 1tb would be $360 including enclosure space.

i have one of these full....

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16816111051

for portable application with wdtv, 2 1tb drives takes 2x the physical space. i paid extra for the bigger drive in to make things more compact. it is the only 2tb i have. otherwise, i use 1tb.

if you use something fancy (like a drobo) you pay $100 per slot for the enclosure. for 2tb drive it costs $370 (1 bay) using 1tb (2 bays) it is $380.

you only have 1 bmw?

I am not sure why there is so much confusion about h.264 and x264. It is very simple really. H.264 is a standard (it is not a piece of software at all). It is a set of rules and specs that you must follow if you are going to create a codec that will fall under this standard. X264 is an implemantation of the H.264 standard. An open source encoder and as such it is free to be used by anyone and there are no licenses or royalties fees that need to be paid.

I am not sure why there is so much confusion about h.264 and x264. It is very simple really. H.264 is a standard (it is not a piece of software at all). It is a set of rules and specs that you must follow if you are going to create a codec that will fall under this standard. X264 is an implemantation of the H.264 standard. An open source encoder and as such it is free to be used by anyone and there are no licenses or royalties fees that need to be paid.

confusion comes because x.264 implements the whole standard. but, to claim that you support h.264 you don't have to support the whole standard.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H.264#Profiles

somebody referenced an article where the author was flinging terminology around loosely. if you read the whole article, you can understand what the author meant. however, if you take particular sentence fragments out by themselves, the statements are obviously incorrect.

You guys are really getting off topic LOL.

The big deal about WDTV is that it is great for the AVERAGE USER. This is someone who just wants to play some media files on their new plasma. It is not for most hardcore users on AVS unless they want it for their RV, guest room etc. I have a WDTV and a NMT. The WDTV is much easier to set up and plays 99% of my HD files. I can hook a usb HD to it and go. It is easy. When I want to stream files and such I use the NMT. If you want to know TONS more about the WDTV then look here http://www.wdtvforum.com/main/

:)

You guys are really getting off topic LOL.

The big deal about WDTV is that it is great for the AVERAGE USER. This is someone who just wants to play some media files on their new plasma. It is not for most hardcore users on AVS unless they want it for their RV, guest room etc.

QFT. That is the one thing some people forget (or seem to be unable to comprehend). This is a resonably priced solution for people that don't need or want to mess around with network streaming or other "advanced" features. The target market are people who just want a cheap, simple solution for playing their media files on thier TV. and IMHO it does that very well resulting in very good bang for the buck.

QFT. That is the one thing some people forget (or seem to be unable to comprehend). This is a resonably priced solution for people that don't need or want to mess around with network streaming or other "advanced" features. The target market are people who just want a cheap, simple solution for playing their media files on thier TV. and IMHO it does that very well resulting in very good bang for the buck.

i agree with you 100%. to make the device even more simple, it needs full dvd menu support. that way newbies and technically challenged can just rip the whole disc and play the backup exactly the way it was on disc... no extra steps to reauthor rips or deal with oddball quirky vob/folder behavior. from the non-techie perspective, having to deal with all the bs of crippled dvd rips IS an advanced requirement.. just as bad as too many buttons on a remote and a zillion network options that will never be used.

IMO some people here cannot comprehend that ripping "just the movie" is an advanced optimization and re authoring step that cripples ease of use for people that would otherwise love the simplicity of this device to playback their content archive.

re authoring for "just the movie" is easy for me but imo sometimes a waste of time that results in an inferior ui to what was already on the dics. we are investing a lot of time to end up with something worse than the first easy rip step.

wdtv player hardware and basic ui is almost prefect for simplicity and low cost.

i agree with you 100%. to make the device even more simple, it needs full dvd menu support. that way newbies and technically challenged can just rip the whole disc and play the backup exactly the way it was on disc... no extra steps to reauthor rips or deal with oddball quirky vob/folder behavior. from the non-techie perspective, having to deal with all the bs of crippled dvd rips IS an advanced requirement.. just as bad as too many buttons on a remote and a zillion network options that will never be used.

IMO some people here cannot comprehend that ripping "just the movie" is an advanced optimization and re authoring step that cripples ease of use for people that would otherwise love the simplicity of this device to playback their content archive.

re authoring for "just the movie" is easy for me but imo sometimes a waste of time that results in an inferior ui to what was already on the dics. we are investing a lot of time to end up with something worse than the first easy rip step.

wdtv player hardware and basic ui is almost prefect for simplicity and low cost.

Am I missing something? I rip the whole DVD(no reauthoring of any sort) and it plays just fine on my WD player. I don't have a menu with WD player but when I click on the video folder it just plays the movie. What is so hard?

I tried one out and was pretty disappointed, so my biggest issue is the number of WDTV threads. I wish they'd make a subforum so we wouldn't have to wade through it.

.... What is so hard?

ask a non-techie.

i don't even understand why it is so hard for some people to set a clock. there was a building inspector in my area that used to stop by every spring and fall to have me set his watch for daylight savings time.

some people cannot do simple algebra. but they have incredible artistic ability and aren't stupid.

some people are just old.

i am trying to help out some other people and relyaing their needs here.

i tried pch but they hate the interface/complexity. i tried wdtv and they like it except it cannot play menus for family authored dvds and tv series and they don't see the point in putting movies on it. they would think you are strange for thinking it is better/easier to go through the trouble of ripping a dvd and then not having any menus....easier to just play the dvd right?

The WD TV greatest strength lies in the fact that it is one of the few "brand name" producers that have realized that specifically supporting non official video format it what consumers are asking for. We do not care if it support h.264 or divx, we want the open source x.264 and Xvid. Big Consumer electronics producers swear to old school consortia developed formats. See my point? in the new acer AspireRevo,(only H.264 Blueray support)the Toshiba Netplayer (onyl intel/yahoo widgets and MS) and the Seagate theater (only dvix not xvid support), all these devices were doomed from the time they hit the shelves and the producers have no idea what they did wrong. Same thing happened to Sony and their ACC format versus the mp3 format and Rio diamond.