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*Official* WD TV Live Hub Thread - Page 8

post #211 of 2117
10/26/10 at 12:38am
Quote:
Originally Posted by jakmal View Post

The unofficial source is correct. I just finished photographing the internals of the unit for my 'official' review. Now, got to get back to my review in time for the NDA lifting

so no high def audio here. HDMI 1.3 is making it ready for 3D i guess.
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post #212 of 2117
10/26/10 at 1:22am
Quote:
Originally Posted by pmcd View Post

Things are moving away from physical drives altogether.

philip

No more physical drives? Replaced by spiritual drives?
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post #213 of 2117
10/26/10 at 1:27am
Quote:
Originally Posted by roodkopje View Post

Here is what i read from an unofficial source:
box has same ram, same chipset, and same amount of nand as live/plus. the only differences are:
- 1TB 2.5" WD scorpio blue sata drive
- rtl gigE chip
- HDMI 1.4

So no surprise with the bad ethernet transfer speeds thanks to the old sigma processor.

nand?

Old chip :/ I don't know anything about these chips but I don't like old! I want new! Damn it WD! At least it's not a Realtek, right? I read that Sigmas are the better variety. How's this particular chipset?

Looking at specs for the Sigma 8654, there's no support for HDMI 1.4 so it really can't be the same chipset. How's that possible?
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post #214 of 2117
10/26/10 at 3:17am
Quote:
Originally Posted by mzaur View Post

No more physical drives? Replaced by spiritual drives?

Yes, spiritual drives that are silent and ageless.

philip
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post #215 of 2117
10/26/10 at 3:31am
Quote:
Originally Posted by mzaur View Post

nand?

Old chip :/ I don't know anything about these chips but I don't like old! I want new! Damn it WD! At least it's not a Realtek, right? I read that Sigmas are the better variety. How's this particular chipset?

Looking at specs for the Sigma 8654, there's no support for HDMI 1.4 so it really can't be the same chipset. How's that possible?

Also the current available Sigma 8654/8655/8642/8643 all do not support Gigabit ethernet...unless they're the new 8656/8646s?
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post #216 of 2117
10/26/10 at 4:02am
That is why it might have the Realtek gigE chip. But i guess transfer speeds get limited by the Sigma8655 if i am correct
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post #217 of 2117
10/26/10 at 5:22am
NDA lifting !!!!!
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post #218 of 2117
10/26/10 at 5:29am
Thread Starter 
Review done:

http://www.anandtech.com/show/3990/w...ive-hub-review

Wasted time on the purported NAS capabilities.. Got to get some power consumption and noise figures in.. That will be down the road in the comments section probably
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post #219 of 2117
10/26/10 at 5:40am
Official Presser:

http://wdc.com/en/company/releases/P...e-08ed7dc68099

And its $199 USD:
http://store.westerndigital.com/stor...catid.13742300

I see newegg and amazon, when they get them, might be cheaper.

-Dave
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post #220 of 2117
10/26/10 at 5:41am
great review. thanks!!!
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post #221 of 2117
10/26/10 at 6:48am
For those that care:

The Metadata comes from themoviedb.org
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post #222 of 2117
10/26/10 at 6:59am
Quote:
Originally Posted by jakmal View Post

Review done:

http://www.anandtech.com/show/3990/w...ive-hub-review

Wasted time on the purported NAS capabilities.. Got to get some power consumption and noise figures in.. That will be down the road in the comments section probably

Very nice review! Glad I moved forward with the Dune H1, it's only $39 more and has full HD audio bitstreaming. That was the biggest nightmare I had with the WD TV Live Plus.
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post #223 of 2117
10/26/10 at 7:10am
Quote:
Originally Posted by bigdave914 View Post

Official Presser:

http://wdc.com/en/company/releases/P...e-08ed7dc68099

And its $199 USD:
http://store.westerndigital.com/stor...catid.13742300

I see newegg and amazon, when they get them, might be cheaper.

-Dave

Wd site says in stock ready to ship today!!!!!
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post #224 of 2117
10/26/10 at 7:36am
Quote:
Originally Posted by WDFan1970 View Post

For those that care:

The Metadata comes from themoviedb.org

Will the metadata/movie posters/cover art remain permanently tagged on the file (say a mkv file)? So everytime I turn the WD TV Live Hub On I will see all the cover art from all my mkv files together.
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post #225 of 2117
10/26/10 at 7:50am
Quote:
Originally Posted by mrdavet View Post

Hey wow, look at me...

so a bit more time playing with the thing.
I upgraded the firmware, but my home city no longer comes up in the AccuWeather thing. Also, it no longer displays the temperature with the time in the top right corner. Pity, I liked that.

I noticed no other major changes. Firmware is now 2.02.15.

To answer some questions:
There is no wireless included with this unit.
There is no web browser, just the 'services' listed before.
Netflix: I'm in Canuck-land, Netflix is new here, and apparently CDN-Netflix hasn't been enabled on WD devices.
I haven't found a way to create folders from within the WDTV.

For a bunch of the other stuff, I only have limited MKV files, and nothing with HD-Audio.

When playing files, there is an option button on the remote. For most files, it's just Play mode / Audio / Zoom & Pan / Delete.
There are more options for MKV:


With cover art in the folder, things look pretty good:


-Dave

So it's possible to create a disk as an Iso and It will play menus and everything?
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post #226 of 2117
10/26/10 at 8:03am
Nice review Ganesh. Having owned the original WD TV and the Live, I don't see much else beside the nicer UI and internal hard drive added to the Live Hub. If they had a hard drive-less box at about $100 (all my media is on a WHS), I'd probably buy it for my family room as it looks user-friendly enough for the wife and kids to operate. But, for the same $200, the Boxee Box and Netgear NeoTV 550 look to be far better products.
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post #227 of 2117
10/26/10 at 9:10am
Quote:
Originally Posted by roodkopje View Post

box has same ram, same chipset, and same amount of nand as live/plus. the only differences are:
- 1TB 2.5" WD scorpio blue sata drive
- rtl gigE chip
- HDMI 1.4

With that being the case, could we see WD porting this new interface to the Live Plus? I for one would love it.
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post #228 of 2117
10/26/10 at 9:37am
... doubtful they'd port it.

There's too many dependencies on the local storage (the entire UI, for one thing, is on the hard drive.)

The media library is also stored on local storage.

To get these things to work with EXTERNAL storage would likely require a significant re-write....
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post #229 of 2117
10/26/10 at 10:22am
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Ferdie View Post

Will the metadata/movie posters/cover art remain permanently tagged on the file (say a mkv file)? So everytime I turn the WD TV Live Hub On I will see all the cover art from all my mkv files together.

I don't think they are tagged on the file, but they are stored separately. So, everyime you turn on, the cover art would remain. You can rescan / delete the tagged info any time you want.
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post #230 of 2117
10/26/10 at 10:27am
Does the WDTV hub can act as a Webserver to host a home website?
Just Plain HTML content, no need for CGI etc...
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post #231 of 2117
10/26/10 at 10:28am
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by keenan9 View Post

Very nice review! Glad I moved forward with the Dune H1, it's only $39 more and has full HD audio bitstreaming. That was the biggest nightmare I had with the WD TV Live Plus.

Wouldn't the upcoming NTV 550 be a better bet? The Dune H1 also doesn't have 1 TB storage, but that probably doesn't influence your decision
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post #232 of 2117
10/26/10 at 10:29am
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Scarpad View Post

So it's possible to create a disk as an Iso and It will play menus and everything?

Yes, DVD ISOs play with menus and 'everything'
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post #233 of 2117
10/26/10 at 10:33am
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Brajesh View Post

Nice review Ganesh. Having owned the original WD TV and the Live, I don't see much else beside the nicer UI and internal hard drive added to the Live Hub. If they had a hard drive-less box at about $100 (all my media is on a WHS), I'd probably buy it for my family room as it looks user-friendly enough for the wife and kids to operate. But, for the same $200, the Boxee Box and Netgear NeoTV 550 look to be far better products.

As I indicated in my review, this is probably not the choice for the tech savvy AVS Forum member. More as a gift you would give to your parents who have no need for bitstreaming etc., but just need a player with all their memories (photos / videos etc.) loaded internally, and with a little room to grow.

Personally, I feel that the upcoming holiday season for the geek crowd will basically be a tussle between the NTV 550 and the Boxee Box. However, we actually form a minor part of the consumer base (compared to our 'marketshare', say, 5 years back), so no wonder that lot of devices are getting introduced now which don't cater to our whims and fancies
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post #234 of 2117
10/26/10 at 10:34am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Brajesh View Post

Nice review Ganesh. Having owned the original WD TV and the Live, I don't see much else beside the nicer UI and internal hard drive added to the Live Hub. If they had a hard drive-less box at about $100 (all my media is on a WHS), I'd probably buy it for my family room as it looks user-friendly enough for the wife and kids to operate. But, for the same $200, the Boxee Box and Netgear NeoTV 550 look to be far better products.

Brajesh, in you opinion what is better about the 550 or Boxee than the Live Hub. Thinking about getting the Live Hub (since it looks like it plays .iso files) but trying to explore all my options.

Thanks,

J
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post #235 of 2117
10/26/10 at 10:36am
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by WDFan1970 View Post

... doubtful they'd port it.

There's too many dependencies on the local storage (the entire UI, for one thing, is on the hard drive.)

The media library is also stored on local storage.

To get these things to work with EXTERNAL storage would likely require a significant re-write....

I am quite sure that the UI code is on the NAND flash. I 'formatted' the internal hard disk many times with no loss of functionality. Also, the media library is stored along with the media file (so it won't work if the USB device with the movie in it is write protected). If WD wants, I feel that they should be able to transfer across the UI with minimal fuss (but that is not what they have had a history of doing)
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post #236 of 2117
10/26/10 at 10:37am
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by crenninger View Post

Does the WDTV hub can act as a Webserver to host a home website?
Just Plain HTML content, no need for CGI etc...

It has a web server, and it can do what you want it to. However, it would involve messing around with the NAND flash. B-rad is your best bet here. I think that you are one amongst the very few who would want to do this, though
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post #237 of 2117
10/26/10 at 10:50am
The MOCHI UI is in flash (which there is a LOT of flash on this box compared to the Live)

The Downloadable ones are on the HD, and can be modified to your heart's content.

I've done it already; it's pretty sweet.
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post #238 of 2117
10/26/10 at 10:52am
>>>> Also, the media library is stored along with the media file

How are you determining that? All of my Movies are on Read-Only NAS, and the media library works fine.

For me, it's all stored on the local HD in the .wd_tv folder in a metadata.xml file.
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post #239 of 2117
10/26/10 at 10:55am
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by WDFan1970 View Post

>>>> Also, the media library is stored along with the media file

How are you determining that? All of my Movies are on Read-Only NAS, and the media library works fine.

For me, it's all stored on the local HD in the .wd_tv folder in a metadata.xml file.

I inferred it from the fact that the user guide claims that a 'read-only USB drive' will not work for metadata. It is possible that contents on a NAS are 'media libraried' on the internal HD, but it is definitely not the case for a connected USB drive.
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post #240 of 2117
10/26/10 at 11:03am
Ah. Ok, fair enough. I've yet to need to use the USB for anything.
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