[wmessin]

I have been using a WDTV Live for some time now and it has worked ok. I have recently purchased an external 4TB HDD which appears to be incompatible with the WDTV Live (according to WD support) via direct USB connection. I can utilize it via network share but it is very slow, even via hardwire ethernet connection as compared to the local USB connection I had before with the 2TB drive.

I am now looking for a better upgrade option to replace the WDTV that can accept the 4TB HDD via local USB and stream directly from it. I would like it to be able to handle typical MKV files. The more additional streaming and app options the better. Ethernet connection is a must. I like the idea of the Amazon Fire TV STB due to the Kodi/XBMC capability but I'm not sure if it is compatible with that large of an external HDD or not. If someone can answer that I would appreciate it. Any additional suggestions would be helpful. Thanks.

 

[bri1270]

You could take a look at the KDlinks thread or the Mede8er thread. Or check their websites. They seem to be the more popular players at the moment.

 

[Kelson]

I have been using a WDTV Live for some time now and it has worked ok. I have recently purchased an external 4TB HDD which appears to be incompatible with the WDTV Live (according to WD support) via direct USB connection. I can utilize it via network share but it is very slow, even via hardwire ethernet connection as compared to the local USB connection I had before with the 2TB drive.

I have WDTV Lives and have used 4TB external USB disks. They work fine if properly formatted. Did you reformat the 4TB HDD with a GUID partition or did you use it out of the box.

Standard MFT partitions only go up to 2TB. To use HDD's over 2TB, Win Vista on up format them as GUID partitions. Win-XP does not support GUID partitions so large >2TB external HDD's are usually formatted out of the box with MFT and advanced sector formatting to allow legacy Win-XP users to use them. The WDTV Live supports GUID partitions but not MFT/advanced sectors.

Attach the 4TB HDD to Win-7 and use the Disk Management tool to convert it to a GPT disk (GPT = GUID Partition Table). If that option is gray'd out, you will have to delete the current partition (losing everything on the disk) and let Win-7 re-partition the HDD as GUID. You then format as NTFS and the WDTV Live will be able to use it.

 

[bunts]

Raspberry Pi 2 with OpenElec.