*Official* WD TV Live Streaming Media Player Thread - Page 49

Will metadata still work using this method?

Will I need to add/remove the share from Media Library

That's a good point.. You can have metadata, but the metadata for movies that are not part of the Media Library behaves differently than those which are part of the media library.

So, it depends on what you want to do with the metadata.

I stream that type of material from my Mac to the SMP. I keep it in a password protected disk image that I mount when I want to watch...

what are the differences?

Only the Media Library is searchable / Sortable by TITLE / Resumable / etc.

If you go to a share that has metadata but isn't in the Media Library, the TITLE and OVERVIEW / etc, are shown in the GALLERY VIEW, but that's about it.

Hmm, that's exactly the functionality that my wife wants so not really an option

I have a noob question so I apologize for my ignorance.
I have tried looking online for an answer but can't quite get definite answer.
Is the WD TV Live Streaming Media Player the same as the WD TV Live Plus (in terms of what it does) but with better hardware (next gen)?

In a nut shell...yeah.

Ah, I was getting confused with the naming and the images of each device.
the Live Streaming is still unhackable right? Would it be a big loss to not be able to hack this device, compared to Live Plus?

Hi everyone, this is a sort of a networking question but I was hoping someone can help me with this problem. I have a WD TV Live hard-wired to my router. I also have a MyBook Live 2TB on the network. And I'm running Windows 7 on my PC.

The WD TV Live can see the MyBook only when I search for it as a Media Server. However, not all the files on the MyBook appear (i.e. a have a bunch of .iso files that do not show up). My understanding is that I need to connect to the MyBook as a Network Share. But when I look for it under Network Share - Windows Shares, I just get a never-ending search and nothing shows up. Can anyone help me with this? I'm sure there are some settings I need to change somewhere but I've fooled with this thing for hours and haven't found a solution. I am not a networking expert but I have a basic competency so I can follow instructions.

Also, one of the main reasons I purchased the TV Live was to get a thumbnail view of my movies. Will I be able to get that once this Network Share issue is resolved? Thanks in advance.

Hardly.

The hardware is different (different chipset and more memory).
The O/S is entirely different. It's the same UI used on the Hub, but vastly improved over the original Live / Live+:
* ... Support for online apps is much larger. There's somewhere near 2-dozen online services.
* ... Supports NFS connectivity.
* ... Supports NAS Media Library compilation.
* ... Themes / Skins / UI Customization are officially supported. (Though not terribly well documented.)
* ... USB Hubs are supported.

etc. etc. etc. .. given the amount of inbuilt support, there's really no point in "hacks..." But that's a religious debate.

There's really no similarities between the 1st Generation & 2nd Generation of WD players other than that they're both WD Media Players...

Make sure the workgroup name of all of your devices is IDENTICAL.

And yes... thumbnails work quite nicely.

WDFan1970,

My PC, WD TV Live, and MyBook all have the workgroup set as "WORKGROUP"

also built in wifi, correct?

I'm in the same boat as you! After several calls to Level 2 and HOURS on the phone, I was sent a replacement. 2 nights ago, I finally had a bit of time to set up the replacement. Rather than going through the set-up screens, I was directed to update the firmware manually (4 separate updates thanks to the outdated firmware the factory sent - a version Level 2 was not even familiar with!). After completing this, I was STILL unable to connect to the media I have stored on my PC. Until, I decided to turn off "Media Library" in the set up
menu (This was after spending almost 3 hours on yet another phone call with Level 2 - and I solved the problem).

Last night, I turned on the unit and it could not locate the "Media Server". I had to RESTART the unit and then it found it. I began playing one of my videos. After about 15 minutes, it ceased playing, saying the last content source has been removed and to select a new content source. I went to my PC to find it asleep. I reset the power settings to NEVER go to sleep or turn off the monitor. I came back down and reconnected to the Media Server (after I had to restart the unit AGAIN!).

It played for another 15 minutes and stopped AGAIN saying the content source was not there. AGAIN! I double checked my PC and it was still up and running, so that was not the issue. I had previously downloaded the User Manual and went through EACH PAGE AGAIN to make sure my computer was properly configured. It is.

Now, the Media Server finds my Network:computer, but it will not display any folders. It says there is no content. Interesting that it would say that when only hours before it displayed EVERY FOLDER I had shared. The work group is the same on all connected devices.

The first unit I had worked liked a champ (using Network Share > Windows Share) until I updated to the most recent firmware. And now, NEITHER unit works. I am at my wit's end. It seems that no one can help. I am a technical trainer of advanced computer systems and applications. I am not your average user and can trouble shoot most issues on my own. This has wasted HOURS of my time and exhausted just about all of my patience.

If this issue cannot be resolved in the next 2 day, I will be returning BOTH units. I hope someone here can help!

Voted

Thanks for all the details.

I've been a WDTV Live owner for just over two years. I have utilized WDLXTV firmware from the beginning because it offered significantly more features (that I actually use) when compared with the stock firmware. I like and use these features from the custom firmware (that are not present in the stock WD firmware):

Vastly improved stability
Customizable moviesheets
DVD and BD full menu and ISO support
Fixes to WD's broken autores
Subtitle position & size changes
NFS & network shares fixes
USB optical drive support
Vastly greater filetype support
USB hub support (powered and passive)
Wireless keyboard support
Android Remote
nzbget
Webserver for remote access & manipulation
Additional file/folder view options
RuTorrent
FTP server
SSH
IRC (eggdrop and cached dircproxy-like functionality)
Youtube HD (though rarely, mostly only for 1080p movie trailers...)
Drive encryption (with additional work done by the user)
Customizable themes and widgets/apps (through app.bin, WDTVext, and others)
Vastly improved (and much more stable) NAS streaming & content scraping support
Full power-down option (not just standby)
Ability to stream from one WDLXTV device to another!
Lower memory usage than stock, making the menu functions more responsive
Etc.

The point is, I utilized a ton of the functionality of the WDLXTV software. I even donated $25 to the cause. However, I am not at all married to it. If I could get better functionality with another product or firmware, I'd do it. I really don't do a lot of internet meme chasing or streaming. But I have a lot of local content that I want to be able to access off the main device's multiple usb hub-connected WD 2TB Green drives.

Anyway, I was looking to upgrade to a MLB.TV capable device, and saw a decent deal for a new Live Streaming for $80 after tax a couple of weeks ago. I thought, hrm, with all the new built-in functionality, no need for an external wireless USB device, perhaps I won't miss the fact that the entire firmware (not just paid content's routines) is encrypted. Well, I received the device and have been playing with it, and I'm sorry to say it's not at all right for me.

The first thing I did was update the firmware to 1.07.15 or whatever the latest is. That was a fairly seamless process, and took about 20 minutes from start to finish.

While updating the firmware, I tried to reprogram my Harmony remote to the WDTV Live Streaming's new remote. Much to my chagrin, the Live Streaming is not in the Harmony database, and the 6 months of Harmony & WD community forum posts asking for support have gone unanswered. There's enough difference in the Live and Live Streaming devices' remotes that it's not something you want to be without. This becomes especially important when searching for content, as the new device's remote has a number pad keyboard. Trying to program this into the Harmony remote (even though it has the same keyboard, everything has to be remapped to match the Live Streaming remote's frequencies) was terrible, and I finally gave up after 45 minutes.

After resigning myself to using the WDTV's remote, I moved on to playback of some content. The WDTV Live Streaming couldn't understand that I already had XML files, folder.jpg, and moviesheets setup on the locally-attached USB HDDs. It took 114 minutes to scrape my drives for video content (almost exclusively movies, and not that many of them) the first time I tried to access the "Video" tab. The device couldn't be used during that time, as it claimed there was no media content in that folder, or some such. I could live with that, though, as I had other stuff to do.

When it did become usable, I went straight to Scubasteve's demo discs, from which I've taken the m2ts files. I tried playing the Pearl Harbor demo, and the device promptly froze. After waiting five minutes, I had to pull the power plug from the back to get it to shutdown - the remote's "long power press" did nothing. After waiting a full 30 seconds, I plugged it back in. Once powered back on, I went back to the Videos tab and, strangely, the device no longer recognized my USB drives. It claimed there was no content on "local storage" and actually removed that from the list of content options... So, I power cycled the device with the remote, and chose the Videos tab again. Still no local drives.

I navigated to the Music tab, and it started scraping the local drives that it claimed it couldn't see for Video content... I waited another 67 minutes for the device to find all of the content. Again, it didn't seem to understand my folder.jpg or cover.jpg in each album's folder. Here, though, was a worse problem - the display options for browsing music content does not allow me to go through folder hierarchies. In my music collection, I have one folder full of singles, and I have another folder with entire albums, each in their own folder. Plus, I have various other folders for test tones and other things. Anyway, instead of allowing me to navigate these folders as in a typical OS environment, the WDTV Live Streaming media scraper dumped ALL of the music into "one easy-to-view menu," and no manipulation of the system options or the view options allowed me to navigate like you would on a typical Linux filesystem.

Whatever, I'm sure I could get used to this...maybe. I went to play some DTS 5.1 Wav files, and the player once again locked up. I had to go through the same routine as before with the m2ts file lockup. Once I got back to the WDTV menu, the device again had forgotten my USB-connected drives in the Music content options, but had found it again in the Video tab... At this point I was pretty frustrated.

I went on, over the course of the next several days, to try the DVD and BD menu and iso support. The player locked up several times, again on filetypes that the WDTV Live Gen 1 device could handle just fine, and was unable to change the position of subtitles, and intermittently unable to change the audio track, from the menus of direct-ripped DVDs and BDs. Further, there are multiple filetypes it simply won't play. RMVB videos (an extremely common filetype for non-copyrighted anime) are one example.

I tried some of the streaming options but really found that I simply don't use most of the stuff that wasn't already capable with the WDLXTV firmware, and I'm not going to pay to access that content which is new. I just generally don't do a whole lot of streaming external content, although I do stream from one WDTV Live to another...which I couldn't do with the WDTV Live Streaming and a separate WDTV Live (with WDLXTV). Also, the Live Streaming does not do Youtube HD...

The last straw for me, however, was the limitation of the WDTV Live Streaming to Samba network transfers. WD uses a very old version of Samba that is exceedingly slow. Compared to FTP transfers on the WDTV Live, the Streaming Samba transfers of the same files are 6-7 times slower across my Wireless N network. We're talking about a maximum of 1MB/s via Samba, as compared with 6-7MB/s transfers via FTP in WDLXTV. When considering 25GB+ BD isos, this is a dealbreaker.

I did speak with the WD technical support about these issues on four separate occasions, with no resolution. They do not think it is an issue with my player alone - most of these problems they verified are firmware-specific and unresolved. Many of these issues are things that have been requested of WD to fix for going on four years, since the first WDTV player was released. One of these issues is passing DTS-MA to the receiver. Though not a deal-breaker, the WDTV family cannot do it, while other (cheaper) devices based on the same Sigma chipset can - thus, we know it's not a licensing issue as WD claims.

All things considered, the new WDTV Live Streaming is buggy, slow, and uncustomizable enough to prevent me from keeping it. It is a significant downgrade compared to the WDTV Live and Live+ with WDLXTV, unless you have to have Hulu and other streaming services support. Those streaming options don't do anything for me, aside from the MLB.TV support. The myriad of additional features of the WDLXTV-capable WDTV Live and Live+ are things I came to rely upon, and I just can't see living without them. Why WD didn't keep the non-subscription portions of the Live Streaming firmware unencrypted, allowing modding, is unknown to me. The fact that six months after release and there's no Harmony database support for the remote is very troubling, too.

I'll be returning this Live Streaming device and paying $30 less for a refurbished (which is always like-new, in my experience) Live+. I can continue to watch MLB.TV on my portable devices, most of which I can connect to the TV through HDMI anyway if I want to watch them on the big screen!

Wow! 1MBs is slow. When I transfer a file to my WDTV SMP via wireless N I get an average of 10MBs. So I guess you have a setup problem maybe as the player can easily manage more than just 1MBs?

Regards,

Lt. Dang

Maybe, but it's been verified as an issue time and time again by the WDLXTV maintainers on previous generations of the WDTV, so I'm . Comparisons with others' results isn't valid, no offense. If the SMP were capable of it, perhaps you'd get 40MB/s via FTP? But, you can't know, because it's not possible on the SMP.

There have long been complaints of the wireless performance of each iteration in the WDTV family. One of the big tests you can do is, across the wireless network, play a BD with peak bitrates over 40mbps (not transcoded or anything else, but the raw BD disc itself) and see if you can sustain the playback without any stuttering of any kind. I'm not aware of many that can do this, even though it's only around 5-6 megabytes per second required to do so. You can check the bitrates of various files with an app called MediaInfo.

Only comparisons between protocols on the same box in the same environment are valid because they limit the intervening variables. And, in my case, there is almost an order of magnitude difference for me when performing that test between the FTP protocol and Samba on WDTV Live. The same speeds are seen via Samba transfers with my WDTV Live SMP. For reference, I'm using a Linksys Wireless N router with DD-WRT firmware. No other devices, Windows or otherwise, on my network have this issue, either. Nor does the USB wireless N dongle I use on the WDTV Live when placed in other portable devices, so I'm loathe to conclude it's a network issue.

Edit: and, really, that was only an exercise to show one of the main drawbacks of not having custom firmware for this device. It is that, along with the multitude of other shortcomings I listed (and those I omitted), that make this device a real disappointment for me. It's just not NEARLY as flexible, stable, or full of utility as previous generations when they had custom firmware installed. In fact, I dare say those custom firmwares are the only reason those devices were so head and shoulders above the pack at this price point.

Like I said, a religious debate. But to bring fact to religion, I'll state that 75% of what's described above is misleading or just false.

If you'd have spent half as much time reading the manual as you did writing that post, you'd probably have much better experience...


These are supported in the WDTV SMP & Hub:
* Customizable moviesheets -- Supported via themes
* Subtitle position & size changes
* NFS & Samba shares
* USB hub support (powered and passive)
* Wireless keyboard support
* Android Remote
* Webserver for remote access & manipulation (depends on what you're describing)
* Additional file/folder view options (through Themes)
* Customizable themes and widgets/apps
* NAS streaming & content scraping support
* Full power-down option (not just standby)
* Ability to stream from one device to another
* Lower memory usage than stock. (The WDTV has double the memory of the Live / Live+.)
* DVD menu and ISO support
** All WDTV Lives have supported DVD menus and ISOs.

WDLXTV supports BD menus? Since when? I can't find anything about that on the wdlxtv website...

>>> I tried to reprogram my Harmony remote to the WDTV Live Streaming's new remote. Much to my chagrin, the Live Streaming is not in the Harmony database

Sure it is. It's the same one as the Hub, and it's been there for well over a year... well, at least since I bought my Hub back in very late 2010...

>>> everything has to be remapped to match the Live Streaming remote's frequencies) was terrible, and I finally gave up after 45 minutes.

... That'd be a conviction of the Harmony, though, right? That's not WD's fault (but, of course, the remote IS in the database.)

>>> The device couldn't be used during that time, as it claimed there was no media content in that folder, or some such.

Sure it can. I've done this countless times. You can't access the Media Library while it's compiling, but there's no issue at all accessing the content using any of the other methods while it's compiling...

>>> ... was unable to change the position of subtitles, and intermittently unable to change the audio track, from the menus of direct-ripped DVDs and BDs.

Not a surprise. You shouldn't be able to. DVD and BD subtitles are image bitmaps with their own palettes. They are positionally anchored to the movie image. The DVD and BD specifications do not allow for adjustment. Only text-based subs are adjustable, and they can be adjusted for size, position, color, and timing.

>>> WD uses a very old version of Samba that is exceedingly slow.

WD, the last time I checked, was using Samba 3.5.8, which is a relatively recent build... And 1MB/sec indicates a serious problem on your network... I average around 8-9 MB/sec.

Since b-rad doesn't post GPL packages for his builds (at least that I can find), I can't compare what version he's using...

>>> [WRT DTS-MA streaming] ... while other (cheaper) devices based on the same Sigma chipset can - thus, we know it's not a licensing issue as WD claims.

That's a misdirection. It *IS* a licensing issue. It has nothing to do with hardware. Your statement is self-contradicting.

While I agree that WD's answer is nonsensical, it has nothing to do with the hardware. There's only one of two possibilities:
- Other companies are in violation of DTS's licensing.
- A license is not required to bitstream, only to decode.

There's no way anyone here, except a lawyer with access to DTS's licensing documents, can say definitively.

>>> the display options for browsing music content does not allow me to go through folder hierarchies...and no manipulation of the system options or the view options allowed me to navigate like you would on a typical Linux filesystem.

Also untrue. All you have to do is set the VIEW filter to FOLDER mode.

Sorry I'm not sure what you mean. One or two of your sentences don't seem to complete? If my results are not valid then wouldn't that equally apply to your results also? I think you will find a lot of people reporting a better performance than 1 MB/s? Does that mean all of their results are not valid? If the WDTV SMP is not for you then that's fine. But 1 MB/s is definitely not solely down to the player (unless it's faulty and needs to be replaced?) other factors in your setup or environment must be involved?

Regards,

Lt. Dang

A whole lot of what you said is seemingly denigrating and rude, but I'll reply, and not in kind.


This personal attack was entirely unnecessary.


All of those were very clearly comparing the custom firmware to stock on capable machines. The WDTV Live SMP is not a capable machine.


Absolutely untrue. If this were true, why would there be so many requests for this feature in the WD community "Ideas" database across the first two generations of the product? Reference this link: http://community.wdc.com/t5/WD-TV-Li...disc/idi-p/200


For at least a year. The WDLXTV website has not been updated in quite awhile, but the github reflects this functionality, and it works in practice. In fact, it is only BD audio discs with full menus that have ever been able to pass DTS-MA, although this functionality was later stripped AIUI.


How was I supposed to know that, and why does it not appear when you type "WD TV Live" or "WDTV Live" into the online Harmony database checker, or the Harmony application? I see no mention of this in any of the first two pages of results when I did a Google search for "Logitech Harmony WDTV Live Streaming" or similar without the quotations. Sure, there are results that list the Live Hub, but none specifically mention using the Live Hub result from the Harmony database besides this one, which notes that you can't get full functionality from the Live Hub in the database:

To me, this says it doesn't work properly, so it's not the same remote. And, I even tried what it suggested...and thus, that's what I wrote about taking frustratingly long.


Sure, but it's disingenuous to imply that failing to officially place the WDTV Live SMP's remote information explicitly in the Harmony database is not their fault. It's a very simple matter to do so.


But you ignore what I'm saying. The device could not be used for the purpose that I wanted to use it - playing videos or music during that time. That content was unavailable while it was scraping - I had no access to the attached USB drives.


Yet the contrast is clear - these useful functionalities are part of the custom firmware.


I already addressed this problem in the post above yours. Why did you ignore it?


If there is any doubt these other devices have been given the blessings of DTS, go check for IP infringement lawsuits pushed by DTS against major content streaming devices in the last two years. These types of cases are not sealed from the public, yet there's no reporting of such cases. Sadly, those devices do not offer the additional functionality that I can achieve with the WDLXTV firmware, but the point stands.


This did not work in the way it does on typical file systems. Instead, the WDTV Live SMP aggregated all subfolders together. I'm sorry if you don't believe me, but I spent a lot of time trying to get this to work, and it simply and frustratingly...didn't.

The fact that I called you out on incorrect info is not a personal attack... That statement stands. Half of what you complained about is clearly documented in the manual.

>>> All of those were very clearly comparing the custom firmware to stock on capable machines. The WDTV Live SMP is not a capable machine.

I don't know what that means. Your statement is completely out of context with the quoted remark...

Are you attempting to say that, because (in your opinion) the SMP is "not capable," that your comparisons are proof of something? If the WDTV isn't capable, then what is? A WDTV running custom firmware? If that's the case, then your logic is circular and thus completely irrelevant.

What I'm saying is that all of those above-listed items ARE supported on the SMP with STOCK FIRMWARE .. yet you are apparently insisting that those are bonuses that only custom firmware adds.

But if, instead, your intent is to compare to the 2009/2010 models, well, fine. There's a different forum for those.

>>> Absolutely untrue. If this were true, why would there be so many requests for this feature in the WD community "Ideas" database across the first two generations of the product? Reference this link: http://community.wdc.com/t5/WD-TV-Li...disc/idi-p/200

I am sorry, but you clearly have no idea what you're talking about...

Take a look at the DATES of those posts. They STOP after JUNE of 2010!

Why?? Because The WDTV Live and Live+ have supported DVD menus since June of 2010... Your clear lack of knowledge in this area nullifies the validity of the rest of your assessment... You demonstrate repeatedly, by standing on invalid reference, that you do not understand what you're talking about.

As to the "unplanned" status of that IDEA, if you look at the status posting, it's in reference to BD menus. All you need to do is read the last few posts to see that DVD navigation *WAS* added. I can give you firmware revisions if you still have no clue...

But again, this forum is for the Live SMP which has had DVD nav from day one.

>>> To me, this says it doesn't work properly, so it's not the same remote. And, I even tried what it suggested...and thus, that's what I wrote about taking frustratingly long.

Your description of the operation is correct, but your conclusion is wrong. The WDTV Hub and Live SMP remotes are identical. Proof: Look at the part# on the Accessories listing of the WD Store. They're both WDTV003RNN.

The Harmony does the same thing WRT to power states to both the Hub and SMP... It shuts them off. Logitech made this change to their DB some time ago, for some unknown reason, and it's being discussed all over the place... in both the Harmony forums and this very thread, and with a simple switch in the Harmony definition, it's easily changed.

>>> .... playing videos or music during that time. That content was unavailable while it was scraping - I had no access to the attached USB drives.

You're wrong, dude... I don't know how to be any more clear... I can play may media all day long whether the device is compiling content or not... whether that media be on my NASes or on USB. You just didn't know how to get to it because you didn't read the onscreen prompts that told you how to do it!

>>> I already addressed this problem in the post above yours. Why did you ignore it?

Other than the fact that you submitted your post just as I started typing my reply? ... no, you didn't address it. You attempted to wave it off. Your post is incomplete with fragmented sentences that don't make any sense, such as: "...the WDLXTV maintainers on previous generations of the WDTV, so I'm . Comparisons with others' results isn't valid"

That makes no sense at all. Who cares about comparisons to older generations of WDTV's? We're talking about the SMP here. Not older stuff. Yet right after you make that statement, you say that comparisons with other folks' results aren't valid. They're valid when you make them, though? Nonsense.

>>> This did not work in the way it does on typical file systems. Instead, the WDTV Live SMP aggregated all subfolders together. I'm sorry if you don't believe me,

When I view my content, it's by server, then by folder (and subfolder trees) then by file. It's not a matter of belief. I think, instead, you just have no idea what you were doing...

>>> I see no mention of this in any of the first two pages of results when I did a Google search for "Logitech Harmony WDTV Live Streaming"

Now you're telling us you don't know how to use Google effectively. It's the very first hit when you search for "harmony remote" "wd tv live streaming" Freakin' DUH.

Sheesh. Enough of this BS.

Lol!! Ditto! Nube is not going to listen. I have better things to do with my time. I am not contributing anything else to this conversation.

Regards,

Lt. Dang

As Tony pointed out the modders quickly figured out how to run HUB code on the OLD WDTV Live... basically that would make it a WDTV Live SMP (without WiFi) thus stripping WD of revenue for upgrades. So it's revenue protection.


Like nube pointed out that's incorrect. If you have capable firmware coders you can also adjust graphic subtitles, IIRC even the original Xtreamer has this feature.


Exactly. Prebeta 1.03.22 was the first stock firmware to support DVD menus and it was released on June 10th, 2010.

I'm growing increasingly frustrated with constantly tweaking my HTPC for best picture quality. Between software players, video/pc levels, filters, codecs, refresh rates, the dreaded Windows mixer (ugh!), video card settings, and Windows settings, the hassle of configuring playback is starting to outweigh the convenience of an all-in-one solution.

I like to rip DVDs and BDs with absolutely no quality loss. I prefer simple native folders (VIDEO_TS for DVD and BDMV for BDs). I can easily convert these to ISOs and (I think) to MKVs if needed. I like to rip just the main movie, highest quality audio track, English subs, and forced subs. It's not a true one-to-one rip, but I save HDD space by stripping just what I want, not compressing. If I ever really want to watch an extra, the discs are in my basement.

My goal has always been to play the full quality of the disc without actually using the disc. I'm basically looking for the quality and simplicity of a stand-alone player, but to play files from my network instead. I really just want to access my media files, but take my PC completely out of the equation. Unfortunately, my HTPC simply can't match the picture quality of even a $100 stand-alone BD player (IMO, of course, this isn't meant to be a dig on HTPCs -- I love mine).

That said, if you're still with me, I have a few questions about the WD TV Live SMP:

1) I know the WD TV Live SMP can output 1080P. When it plays a file over the network, does it simply locate and play the file exactly? No transcoding on the fly? No conversions of any kind? Would it be the equivalent of burning the file to a disc and playing it in a stand-alone BD player?

2) Does the WD TV Live SMP upscale content? If I set the output to 1080P, does all content that is not 1080P automatically get upscaled to 1080P? If so, does it do a good job? Can it be set to simply "pass through" if desired?

3) How does the WD TV Live SMP deal with different refresh rates? Does it automatically switch depending on the media being played? If my TV can't display true 24P, does the WD TV Live SMP perform 3:2 pulldown? If so, does it do a good job? Can I set the WD TV Live SMP to send 60Hz and let my display perform the 3:2 pulldown?

4) How does the WD TV Live SMP handle video vs. PC levels? I assume the unit is video level and expects a display calibrated to video levels. Is this the case? How does this affect viewing photos over the network through the WD TV Live SMP?

5) Audio is a little bit simpler for the most part. Can the WD TV Live SMP bitstream all codecs (including Dolby TrueHD and DTS Master Audio) to my receiver? I don't necessarily need the WD TV Live SMP to decode it, just to bitstream it.

Sorry for the novel! Thanks in advance!!!

1) When it plays a network file locally on /tmp. No processing/transcoding necessary.
2) Yes, all will output all @ 1080p.
3) It will play your videos fine.
4) Your TV should be calibrated at VIDEO levels. This will affect pictures because well... movies and pictures are difference formats and should be treated accordingly. No average user will notice the difference between PC and VIDEO levels.
5) Audio will be outputted the same way it is on the media. Will your receiver be able to process newer codecs? The WDTV will not be able to trick your receiver into processing newer codecs if that's the question.

The WDTV will fit all of your technical needs in terms of quality. No tinkering necessary.
Buy on Amazon, return within 30 days if your not happy. Done!

One quick question: Where is the "zoom out" feature ??

With my previous WD TV, I used to zoom out "poor" quality videos to make them watchable on my 100" projector screen.

Now with my newer model - I can't do that?? There's only a "zoom in" function...

Or I just don't know how to ??

It's the same function. First, it zooms in, then after a certain point, I think it's 8X or 16X, it returns to 1X and then zooms out.