Wdtv live plus hd - Page 3

They have an extra security chip for Netflix. That's the only extra hardware, everything else is the same.

Could someone confirm / verify...

1. Does it play ISOs (it's not listed under the specs on the official page)?
2. Does it stream HD Netflix?

If the answer is yes to both, I'm done waiting for Boxee and Pop Box.

Thanks.

The WDTV Live played ISO AND the latest firmware for WDTV Live just added DVD navigation and is listed that the WDTV Live Plus supports DVD navigation and it is listed under the comparison specs.

And as far as HD Netflix...I can't see why not, but we'll have to wait for confirmation on that first.

I just got one tonight from Best Buy but have not activated Netflix on it yet so I can't tell you about that. It does support DVD Menus and video_ts folders, but in a slightly funky way. You select the folder and then select any VOB file in the folder and it then starts playing; from what little I have had a chance to try so far it always picks the right file, and the menus work as usual. You can also select OPTION on the remote and get to the menu direct from within a movie. It has played some James Bond rips that I have that no other media player so far has played correctly (although my iMac's DVD Player has no problems with them). I have not played with it a lot yet and I can't figure out media aggregation (library) mode or how to create thumbnails for video_ts folders.

YOU GOT ME WITH WDTV and WDTV LIVE , FIRMWARE NEEDS FIXING ON BOTH THOSE>>>>> NEVER AGAIN>>>>

I would not take one if you gave it to me..........

WDTV Live beta firmware with DVD menu navigation:
http://www.wdc.com/wdtvlive_prerelease/

To be clear, you got a WD TV Live Plus? I ask because I thought it was just announced and not available in physical stores yet (i.e. I don't see it on Best Buy's site).

If so, I would appreciate your thoughts on it. I haven't messed with any of the past models and been wanting an ISO and Netflix HD player (non-PC).

Yes it is definitely a WDTV Live Plus. It is not on the Best Buy site, but others here have said they have seen them there3, so I asked a salesman who said they did not have any and could not even find any of the regular Live (v2). Anyway I wandered around the store over by the hard drives and lo and behold there was one (1) sitting all by itself on the shelf! I grabbed it quick and checked out ($139). I could have gotten it cheaper from buy.com but I didn't want to wait.

I am still playing with it and am impressed that it played some video_ts folders that no other media player has been able to play (all of them James Bond movies). I am less impressed by the menu structure and the need to navigate drive folders, but this is probably just like previous versions of the wdtv; this may be because i have several folders on my disk, with movies duplicated in video_ts and mp4 formats in different folders. Also, the folder icons that I found on another thread (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=1144749) only show as small thumbnails and not the entire preview window; is this because they need resizing? What size is the preview window?I assume that I would do the same for video_ts folders, but is there any way to set movie info (actors, synopsis, genre, etc) for a video_ts? Thanks.

So what's the difference between this "new" version of the WDHDTV live and the one I already have? I don't see pass through of hd audio nor do I see full support of dvd and bluray iso's. Netflix? I don't give a rat's ass about that since I use my Live for playing content off of a usb harddrive only.

Looks like the differences between the 'WDHD TV LiVE' & 'WDHD TV LiVE +' are:

-NETFLiX supported
-DVD iSO with Menu supported

So i guess that DTS-HD MA passthrough is not on WD's mind....
What a shame...
I think we may have to wait for the 'WDHD TV LiVE ++' for DTS-HD MA
which should come in a near futur...
More players to buy = more $$$ for WD

hahaha

I find the information at these links contradicting...

Wrong! The original WDTV Live always supported ISO files, Now with the beta firmware available now, the WDTV Live supports DVD navigation.

The only difference is Netflix on the WDTV Live Plus.

So, it appears safe to say it supports ISOs.

All I need is Netflix HD confirmation and I'm sold.

Assuming it has the same interface as the previous models, I'm not impressed by the videos I've seen. But considering I won't be staring at menus for hours, they're the least of my concern.

I activated Netflix and unfortunately it does not show the quality bars as my blu-ray player does (LG BD370). Several of the movies that I have queued up show as HD format in the synopsis, but there is no indication while loading or playing that I can see if it is really HD. The tv resolution is 1080p regardless, so I don't know the answer to your question.

What is your source, can you post a link?

I assumed it was maybe using the 8652 chip:

http://www.sigmadesigns.com/solution...splay=products

This 8652 does state "The Secure Media Processor architecture offers advanced content protection, supporting a wide variety of Digital Rights Management (DRM) and Conditional Access (CA) solutions."

But maybe the 8652 does not support some advanced HD features that WD Live needed and perhaps they worked with SIGMA to design an architecture around the 8655 that had the secure media processor separated from main chip.

If I am not mistaken I read that it does support HD Audio but only as bitstream passthru and the container for media has to be an m2ts container. Thus your A/V receiver must support decoding of HD Audio over HDMI. Most new A/V receivers now do that, but if you have one 3 yrs old, maybe not.

Maybe someone can confirm as I have not tried it yet

I stream .wtv files to the WDTV Live in my son's room everyday. The biggest improvment for me was when they added play to. Now if I'm busy getting dinner together or something and they are complaining about wanting to watch something else, a couple clicks from one of the various pc's throughout the house and they are watching something new.

Scrolling through thumbnails of shows on the PC is about 100x faster then navigating with the ancient UI on the box itself.

Yes, this is indeed running the exact same Sigma 8655 chip found in the original WDTV Live. Very miniscule extra chip added to the PCB and curiously a CR2032 battery at the end of a short wire as well. Strange that it would need that. No other WDTV product has ever needed a battery inside it. Must have something to do with the Netflix settings or DRM being stored in some small ram of it's own and not in the WDTV Live Plus' flash ram like everything else. Seems like WD really kluged Netflix into working on an existing design like this.

Oh, they finally added dvd navigation. Unfortunately, this only applies to the new box. Does anyone know if the same functionality will be added to WDTV 1st gen., or could be added by a hack?

I love Western Digital. Always dropping surprises.

I presume the chip is the 8654. That's the Macrovision version of the 8655 in the Live. It's also the chip used in the soon to be launched, and startlingly similar in spec to the Live Plus, Viewsonic VMP75.

Source?

You 're right, it's 8654, B-rad confirms!

I'm not 'out of the conversation', I'll post as I damn well please.
You people cried forever that wdtv didn't have dvd menu support, so it gets dvd menu support and now you're all crying that theres a new unit with netflix.

Theres no pleasing any of you. You're getting a HELL of a lot out of a little box that cost barely more than $100.

For those needing netflix and dvd menu support go buy the Seagate FreeTheater+....please stop giving $$$ to Western Digital as this is just encouragement to continue dicking its customers around...

You obviously work for WD, so we cant take anything you say seriously....

How are they any better/different...they just released a new player themselves. AND, they locked the firmware down in the FAT+ from the modding community in the 1.55 update without even warning them so they could add netflix. NOW they can't roll their firmware back because seagate locked it down...Trust me...they're no different.

I would say the main difference would be that Seagate relased Netflix on their current player via a firmware update and not a whole new hardware model would be a difference. It only make them a "little" better though, lesser of two weevils maybe...

Geez...I may have to start agreeing with Scorpio Blue (aka Bluestinger). Over the years, I've never had a WD hard drive fail, however I've had plenty of failures from Seagate. I've also had the WDTV boxes since the first version, and for a unit that never turns off, I've never had one fail. They are updating the existing firmware for menu support, the new box is because it requires a hardware update for Netflix. How are they dicking their customers around?

I'm sure there are others who have had the opposite experience...WD drives fail, WDTV fail, don't like the menu, etc....if that's the case, buy the Seagate or any other unit you like.

I am having an issue with the new Live Plus that I don't see any direct fixes for. I have been adding thumbnails to my video_ts folders as directed elsewhere (add a graphic to be used as the folder icon called folder.jpg). As I add them to the folders they automatically show up in the thumbnail UI, which is great (and easy). However, when I turned the unit off and then back on, it rebuilt its database of thumbnails and most of them were now missing (although if I look in the folders they are still there). I re-downloaded the images and overwrote the existing thumbnail files and again they were immediately added to the UI; I expect if I had used "touch" to update the date and time on the existing thumbnails they would have also shown up again. Is this an issue that anyone here has seen before? Is there a solution?

I love the calm, rational responses that this company elicits from the users around here. Seriously, what did WD do to you? Poison your dog? Cut off your mother's pension? What?