WD TV Live - Early Impressions

[sholling]

I just replaced my family room HTPC with a WD TV Live and wanted to share my early impressions. This is not an in depth review by any means - just early impressions. Price paid $119 at Amazon.com.

First the goal of the project was six fold.

1. Good uncompressed music and stored videos at my finger tips.
2. Convenience - I got tired of getting up to turn on the HTPC and then dragging out a bulky wireless keyboard/trackball combo to sign in and navigate.
3. Ease of navigation - No remote control solution that I found worked well with WinAmp.
4. Matching HT and master bedroom solutions - A large HTPC case just won't fit my limited bedroom rack space.
5. Energy savings - I have no idea how much my old HTPC draws but it has to be many times more than the little WD widget.
6. Easy to keep synchronized with my main library.

My first shock was just how small and light the WD TV Live is. It's tiny. About 5"x1.5"x4" (WxHxD). The included quick start sheet is has plenty of illustrated views for hooking it up several ways. The box also includes proprietary composite and component cables, a CD, a tiny remote and cheap batteries for the remote. Not included are HDMI or toslink cables. You'll probably want both.

There is no hard copy of the instructions but a PDF is included on a CD. Probably the strangest thing about connecting the WD is that HDMI audio is stereo only. If you want multichannel audio it's via toslink only. Don't ask me why, I haven't tested it yet but that's what the instructions claim.

Setup is relatively straight forward with menus for attaching to the network either through an RJ45 jack or a non-proprietary wireless USB dongle. Everything you need is there for setting up wireless security but since I just plugged it into an existing 802.11N wireless bridge I won't get into wireless setup. It's covered well in the manual and you shouldn't have any problems. One thing to note, it needed to be reminded to connect to the network and grab an IP address when turned on in DHCP mode. I've reserved an IP in the router and set the device up to use a fixed IP to hopefully solve that. So far so good. It also helps with syncing and I'll get to that in a minute.

I have a spare 750GB external USB drive, a DLink DNS-321 NAS box (used for backups) and a lossless music share on my main PC. I decided to test with all three. Connection to all was almost automatic. It found the external drive and cataloged the 1/2TB of contents based on ID tags. The cataloging feature can be turned on or off and I forget what the default was but I have it turned on. It also found the music server on the DLink NAS box and connected but this was less successful - however I blame the DNS-321. It didn't matter if I used the DLink's built in music server or just read from the folders playback just stuttered. I blame the DLink because that problem was not evident when I attached to the network share on my PC. While it only sees the share as folders and files playback was flawless. That tells me that the NAS box has a issue and I'd be adding a larger more capable NAS with double the storage soon. I tested one ripped DVD on a PC share by highlighting the folder and hitting play and it found the first VOB and played fine, but I only played about 5 minutes of video looking for dropouts (no issues) and did not test for seamless transition to the next VOB.

So how did it do?

1. 5 Stars - it plays my collection of FLACs seamlessly and with no detectable loss in quality as I expected. Early tests with DVD quality video look good so far as well. But it's still too early to judge the WD TV Live's video capability.
2. 3 Stars - turning it on or off just requires a click of the remote, but two points off for not allowing you to queue up more than one album at a time. On my HTPC I could queue up as many as I wanted. This is a PIA but I can live with it for now.
3. 4 Stars - Navigation is easy even if the remote's controls are a bit quirky. And best of all it took very little to get it working with my Harmony 880. Only the on/off didn't work without a little tweaking. Interestingly the WD TV Live is not in the Harmony menu but as soon as I typed it in manually the Harmony software knew all about the remote. The two changes that I would make are 1) adding a page up/page down button for speeding navigation. 2) Replacing the back button's function with PS3 like back navigation using the left arrow.
4. Undecided - If it weren't for the inability to queue up more than one album I'd consider buying a second as soon as money allows. That assumes no video playback issues. I need to do more testing on the video side and test a ripped BD before deciding for sure.
5. Unknown but my guess is the energy savings is significant. Not only is it smaller and cooler than the Core 2 Duo powered HTPC but no noisy fans are needed. And it spins down the external drive when not in use saving energy.
6. 5 Stars - because I'm using a fixed IP address and the WD TV Live can share its external drive I was able to map it as a network drive on my PC and synchronize the files effortlessly. I use GoodSync to do this automatically. You need to be careful* setting up GoodSync but it's cheap and works well.

Overall I'd give it good marks for the price considering how new and rough the technology and competition are. Call it a "B" so far with an upgrade to an "A" once (if) they fix the inability to queue up hours of music and assuming long term tests prove it plays video seamlessly.

* By default GoodSync synchronizes full folders with empty folders by deleting files. You have to be careful the first time you run it that you do a one-way to the empty drive. After that it will do fine.

 

[Zaluss]

I DO believe you just sold me on this. I was thinking about building an HTPC because the 360 is too noisy but...this looks like the ticket. The fact you can hook up an external HD directly to it is an epic win.

 

[sholling]

The technology is still young and I'd just suggest reading the file format compatibility list to make sure it meets your needs. And make sure it's from a source that allows returns if you don't like it. The inability to queue up hours of music is a disappointment. And as I said I haven't fully tested video playback yet. But for me so far it's a keeper. I'm hoping they add queuing future firmware upgrades.

From reviews it seems like the WD TV Live and the Asus O Play are leading the pack and both have their fans and detractors. Both play FLACs and that's what I'd been waiting for.

 

[BoredSysAdmin]

To rephrase Verizon tv ad:
In the world of "stand alone hardware media player" can'ts "Boxee" Can !
My 2c:
Read this first: Until Boxee will start selling their own hardware "Boxee Box", you if want something to work right of the box, stop reading right here.

Boxee does:
Works great out the box with MCE remote
Plays tons of audio formats including both APE and FLAC
Great looking, slick and fast navigation menus
Upgradable
Can be installd in very small mini-itx case - See Acer AspireRevo 3610
Power consumption never above 45W on ION.
Automatic Database Scanning and Organizing
Video Features:
well x264 and MKV support aren't novelties anymore, but about about straight playback from ISO and IMG disk images , with DVD Menu support?
Bicubic image resize plus tons of zooming/stretching options.
Subtitles support for foreign movies/hearing issues.

There is no hard copy of the instructions but a PDF is included on a CD. Probably the strangest thing about connecting the WD is that HDMI audio is stereo only. If you want multichannel audio it's via toslink only. Don't ask me why, I haven't tested it yet but that's what the instructions claim.

This is probably limitation of ION platform, but I had the same problem.

Automatic retrieval of cover art for movies plus most have streaming trailers.

Since I'm running both my main pc and boxee on win 7, setting up shared files b'ween then was a breeze and HD (1080p w/DTS) playback over 100Mbis network works really smooth and issues free

 

[sholling]

Do you have one to review for us? I'd like to hear if it does anything better - especially queuing. Right now Gizmoto is rating the WD and a Asus as the ones to beat but I'd really like to hear more from someone that's used the Boxee. The technology is advancing every day.

Old faceoff

 

[adwilk]

Good review.. I find the device pretty solid overall. The pause, rewind and ff functions are a little sloppy when streaming over a network, but overall the device is just as advertised and is very easy to use.

To queue up music, just create playlists.

If anybody can help me with a networking question, I'd greatly appreciate it. I have a lot of media on our office server, but our showroom is in another building. Can I get this little device to talk to a remote server somehow... do I need to map a router or something... Help if you can...

 

[BoredSysAdmin]

Do you have one to review for us? I'd like to hear if it does anything better - especially queuing. Right now Gizmoto is rating the WD and a Asus as the ones to beat but I'd really like to hear more from someone that's used the Boxee. The technology is advancing every day.

Old faceoff

Unfortunately I don't have Boxee Box, but I did built Boxee/Ion/Windows 7 Box in mini-itx case. I wrote small write-off here:
http://forums.audioholics.com/forums/showthread.php?t=61545
I guess I should write something more extensive, but the original article didn't really had a lots of attention.

p.s: Yes, Boxee does queuing, I'm not fan of it, but it works.

 

[sholling]

To rephrase Verizon tv ad:
In the world of "stand alone hardware media player" can'ts "Boxee" Can !
My 2c:
Read this first: Until Boxee will start selling their own hardware "Boxee Box", you if want something to work right of the box, stop reading right here.

Boxee does:
Works great out the box with MCE remote
Plays tons of audio formats including both APE and FLAC
Great looking, slick and fast navigation menus
Upgradable
Can be installd in very small mini-itx case - See Acer AspireRevo 3610
Power consumption never above 45W on ION.
Automatic Database Scanning and Organizing
Video Features:
well x264 and MKV support aren't novelties anymore, but about about straight playback from ISO and IMG disk images , with DVD Menu support?
Bicubic image resize plus tons of zooming/stretching options.
Subtitles support for foreign movies/hearing issues.


This is probably limitation of ION platform, but I had the same problem.

Automatic retrieval of cover art for movies plus most have streaming trailers.

Since I'm running both my main pc and boxee on win 7, setting up shared files b'ween then was a breeze and HD (1080p w/DTS) playback over 100Mbis network works really smooth and issues free

Good review.. I find the device pretty solid overall. The pause, rewind and ff functions are a little sloppy when streaming over a network, but overall the device is just as advertised and is very easy to use.

To queue up music, just create playlists.

If anybody can help me with a networking question, I'd greatly appreciate it. I have a lot of media on our office server, but our showroom is in another building. Can I get this little device to talk to a remote server somehow... do I need to map a router or something... Help if you can...

I wish I could help but routers have never been my forte.

 

[sholling]

Sorry I can't help with the routing issue. I'm sure there is a way to do it but none as cheap and easy as buying an external drive.

I do have a minor update. First the fast forward and reverse keys act as page up and page down when scrolling through lists. Second it would not play Blu-ray across my 902.11N wireless network without fits and starts - but it turned out to be a network issue. I copied the file to an external drive formatted in NTFS and it played fine. Now it wasn't a fancy BD but it did play the audio as DTS. I still have more testing to do and I'll update as I learn more.

I'll be running Cat5 when i switch from Directtv to FIOS-TV late this year and I suspect that will improve performance.

 

[sholling]

Just another update: I finally got a chance to test Blu-Ray using an ISO file on a USB drive. It read and played played the file fine. Between now and Next Christmas I plan to run Cat5e or Cat6 and install a larger/faster NAS which should take care of any network bottlenecks and make all playback seamless.

 

[Zaluss]

I picked one up at Best Buy last night @ $119 (Price match from their own website).

Its a gorgeous little unit. Works out of the box with Playon, my media servers, everything!

Only problem so far is its a bit sluggish with Playon and crashes constantly with Netflix so I'll stay with my Xbox for Netflix streaming since its a lot more refined and polished.

If in 30 days this doesn't work for me I'll be returning it and building a Boxee unit.

 

[adwilk]

How do you use it with Netflix?

 

[highfigh]

Can the WD TV play from playlists in iTunes, Windows Media Player or another server, to eliminate the issue of not being able to queue albums?

 

[sholling]

Can the WD TV play from playlists in iTunes, Windows Media Player or another server, to eliminate the issue of not being able to queue albums?

What I just did to test this is I jumped across the network and linked to the USB drive and created a playlist there (using winamp) with three albums on that drive, saved it to a _playlist folder on the drive and then ran in the other room and tested. It worked.

What I have not been able to do yet is play from a playlist on a network share. It's a file path issue. But I've only just begun playing exploring that and there may be a solution that I just haven't figured out yet.

 

[Zaluss]

Returned my WD Live TV. Installed Boxee.

I'm in love.

 

[Nemo128]

One thing to remember, WD has a lot more financial means than the most popular NMT brands.

As for Boxee, I think that's not the solution sought but rather an incomparable alternative. Yes, it's great, but it's not comparable.

 

[sholling]

I have to agree. Two different approaches to different requirements. The WDTV Live is for those looking for a good quality $120 solution that's as easy to use as a DVD player - complete with a remote control. I've been-there-done-that-have-the-tshirt with a HTPC. I don't want to deal with a keyboard again or get up to turn it off and on. Now if someone can show me a good way to do that with a Boxee I'll look at it.