34 replies to this topic

[MrGadget]

Hi, I don't own any media players but am seriously considering a WDTV Live now that is is very good value. Just a question can you copy media over the network from a PC to a USB HDD that's attched to the WDTV box rather than plugging the USB drive to the PC to do the copying?

[whitenoise]

MrGadget, on Dec 23 2010, 03:54 PM, said:

Hi, I don't own any media players but am seriously considering a WDTV Live now that is is very good value. Just a question can you copy media over the network from a PC to a USB HDD that's attched to the WDTV box rather than plugging the USB drive to the PC to do the copying?

Yes you can, essentially the WDTV appears like a hub and you can move the files onto it.

[MrGadget]

Cool, I think i'll grab one of these instead of the Live Hub.  Very well priced now.

[Topdog]

Comes with bundled software called WD Discovery which makes connection to PC very simple..

[AndyM]

Does the WDTV Live have a wireless connection or do you have to use a wireless adapter or cable?  

Online price for this is $99 at jb, will have to check in store to see if the same $.  Seems like great value.

Edited by AndyM, 04 January 2011 - 10:35 AM.

[myrantz]

AndyM, on Jan 4 2011, 08:34 AM, said:

Does the WDTV Live have a wireless connection or do you have to use a wireless adapter or cable?

Two choices - wireless adaptor (USB), or wired cable.

AndyM, on Jan 4 2011, 08:34 AM, said:

Online price for this is $99 at jb, will have to check in store to see if the same $.  Seems like great value.

I think it's $99 in store at JB also... Not bad for a $99, the remote is kind of bare, but otherwise a pretty decent product. Has support for youtube, facebook, mediafly, etc... For music the stereo output is not that bad either (tested with a Pioneer A9 integrated with pioneer pure malts)

[AndyM]

treblid, on Jan 4 2011, 11:19 AM, said:

Two choices - wireless adaptor (USB), or wired cable.


I think it's $99 in store at JB also... Not bad for a $99, the remote is kind of bare, but otherwise a pretty decent product. Has support for youtube, facebook, mediafly, etc... For music the stereo output is not that bad either (tested with a Pioneer A9 integrated with pioneer pure malts)

Thanks for that    Good to know regarding stereo output too.  i was thinking of starting the process of backing up my cd collection to FLAC or similar.  Having them on the wd means I would probably actually listen to them, instead of them just gathering dust in a cupboard.

Do wireless adaptors (USB) still go for ~$50 these days (I havn't checked price in over a year).  Are there any that are recommended?  Same regarding hard drives, what recommended in the 1TB range?

Thanks,
Andy

[myrantz]

AndyM, on Jan 4 2011, 09:39 AM, said:

Thanks for that    Good to know regarding stereo output too.  i was thinking of starting the process of backing up my cd collection to FLAC or similar.  Having them on the wd means I would probably actually listen to them, instead of them just gathering dust in a cupboard.

the WD Live has no build it HDD, so it's either network play, or via USB...

AndyM, on Jan 4 2011, 09:39 AM, said:

Do wireless adaptors (USB) still go for ~$50 these days (I havn't checked price in over a year).  Are there any that are recommended?

Can't help you on that as I"m using wired. But do check the manuals and forums as not all USB dongles will be supported. And to confirm it actually does do wireless USB as I could have remembered it wrong ...

AndyM, on Jan 4 2011, 09:39 AM, said:

Same regarding hard drives, what recommended in the 1TB range?

Anything under $100? Check staticice for prices... They're so cheap now.. BTW, 1TB may not be enough to store all your music, I don't have a lot of CDs myself but already they have crossed the 1TB mark. 2TB for <$150 may be a better buy..

Note that 3TB USB don't work on the WD with the latest firmware.

For $99 and it can do ~85% what a HTPC can do, media players have really come a long way....

[AndyM]

OMG $125 for 2tb at MSY.  Did not know they were that cheap now   .

Can anyone confirm if WDTV live works with wireless adaptor (USB), n or g?

[AndyM]

AndyM, on Jan 4 2011, 12:56 PM, said:

Can anyone confirm if WDTV live works with wireless adaptor (USB), n or g?

Have done some more research and it looks like it does work with an adapter, however not all work or are compatible.  If anyone out there has had success with a wireless adapter could you please list what you are using.

TIA  

Edited by AndyM, 04 January 2011 - 04:09 PM.

['ct']

AndyM, on Jan 4 2011, 05:08 PM, said:

Have done some more research and it looks like it does work with an adapter, however not all work or are compatible.  If anyone out there has had success with a wireless adapter could you please list what you are using.

TIA  

Wireless is hopeless for video streaming directly connected to any sort of media player, avoid wireless where possible.

Either you go wired or run a local wired connection to a NAS device which has a wireless connection.

[AndyM]

'ct', on Jan 4 2011, 11:34 PM, said:

Wireless is hopeless for video streaming directly connected to any sort of media player, avoid wireless where possible.

Either you go wired or run a local wired connection to a NAS device which has a wireless connection.

Understood.  I wasn't really thinking of video streaming, more of just data transfer to an attached hard disk.  

I only have wireless g ATM but will probably upgrade to n later this year when I upgrade the laptop.  Going wired is a real problem with raked ceilings so I'm trying to aviod this.

[Stilted]

Off topic but amusing

A friend had a faulty WDTV live and returned it to Officeworks for warranty - was told that the price had dropped to $99 and since she paid $199 11 months ago was refunded $100 plus given a new WDTV as exchange.

I assume this isnt standard warranty procedure?

[thomfam]

AndyM, on Jan 5 2011, 08:53 AM, said:

Understood.  I wasn't really thinking of video streaming, more of just data transfer to an attached hard disk.  

I only have wireless g ATM but will probably upgrade to n later this year when I upgrade the laptop.  Going wired is a real problem with raked ceilings so I'm trying to aviod this.

I bought a D-Link DWA-125 Wireless N 150 USB Adapter recently from JB for $42.  (I see they are less than that on the JB website shop now).  It works fine for me, easy enough to setup and streams my ordinary .avi files or 4.2 GB DTS mkv files without any problems.  It runs perfectly via my BiPAC 7401 VGP modem/router.

I am very impressed actually!

[franga]

as for a wireless USB adapter check out the thread on whirlpool....there is a bit of list there....just pick the one the suits your needs!
Wireless adapter for WDTV Live

[franga]

as for a wireless USB adapter check out the thread on whirlpool....there is a bit of list there....just pick the one the suits your needs!
Wireless adapter for WDTV Live

[AndyM]

Stilted, on Jan 6 2011, 07:25 AM, said:

A friend had a faulty WDTV live and returned it to Officeworks for warranty - was told that the price had dropped to $99 and since she paid $199 11 months ago was refunded $100 plus given a new WDTV as exchange.

I assume this isnt standard warranty procedure?

Thats pretty incredible, what a great unexpected bonus!  I just bought mine from there last night for $99, their last one!

thomfam, on Jan 6 2011, 12:27 PM, said:

I bought a D-Link DWA-125 Wireless N 150 USB Adapter recently from JB for $42.  (I see they are less than that on the JB website shop now).  It works fine for me, easy enough to setup and streams my ordinary .avi files or 4.2 GB DTS mkv files without any problems.  It runs perfectly via my BiPAC 7401 VGP modem/router.

I am very impressed actually!

franga, on Jan 7 2011, 08:14 AM, said:

as for a wireless USB adapter check out the thread on whirlpool....there is a bit of list there....just pick the one the suits your needs!
Wireless adapter for WDTV Live

Thanks for the info guys.  A bit more reading to do before I head into msy to stock up on supplies.

Need to also get an external HD but want to stay away from a powered one if possible for a decent price.  I want to avoid having another power cord in the mix.

[AndyM]

thomfam, on Jan 6 2011, 12:27 PM, said:

I bought a D-Link DWA-125 Wireless N 150 USB Adapter recently from JB for $42.

Just picked up one of these from msy for $28.  Also picked up an Iomega 1 tb usb HD for $68, needs power though.  I'll probably pick up a portable HD soon and just use the powered one for backups.

Thanks all for the help, now the fun starts over the weekend putting it all together  

[thomfam]

AndyM, on Jan 7 2011, 02:31 PM, said:

Just picked up one of these from msy for $28.  Also picked up an Iomega 1 tb usb HD for $68, needs power though.  I'll probably pick up a portable HD soon and just use the powered one for backups.

Thanks all for the help, now the fun starts over the weekend putting it all together  

And Umart have them for $29 too.  I bought mine from JB because they accepted my JB $50 card I got for Christmas!

Whatever it works quite well.  I just discovered the WD TV Live discovery software and installed that too.  Now I can transfer files from PC to WD rather than use the clumsy software in the Media player

AndyM, hope you got it up and running OK!

Enjoy.

Edited by thomfam, 08 January 2011 - 01:45 PM.

[AndyM]

thomfam, on Jan 8 2011, 02:13 PM, said:

AndyM, hope you got it up and running OK!

Yep  

I was able to wirelessly stream avi files over my network without any stutter.  I will try with HD rips later but Im not expecting that to work well.

My main hold up in the set up was to figure out that I had to allow sharing of a folder on my computer in order to see the files on the WDTV.  I couldnt understand it at first. The network was connected, I could transfer files from PC to WDTV but couldnt see PC from WDTV.  It was 1 am before I worked it out    

[CHRIS08]

Sorry to open a old thread.


I recently updated the firmware WDTV Live Media Player & some files that were on my external WD Elements arent there. The Folders with the files are there however the files are 0 bytes, not all are 0 bytes tho. Does anyone know what might have happened?? The external was working good, now the update some files arent showing. Can i recover them???

[drubie]

CHRIS08, on Aug 23 2011, 01:50 PM, said:

Sorry to open a old thread.


I recently updated the firmware WDTV Live Media Player & some files that were on my external WD Elements arent there. The Folders with the files are there however the files are 0 bytes, not all are 0 bytes tho. Does anyone know what might have happened?? The external was working good, now the update some files arent showing. Can i recover them???

What sort of file system?  Are we talking FAT32 or NTFS?  I have seen the odd file disappear on NTFS file systems being used with some older versions of the Fuse  NTFS driver on Linux (which is what the WD is probably using - given that it's linux based).

Did you put the WDLXTV firmware on your player?

[CHRIS08]

drubie, on Aug 23 2011, 07:40 PM, said:

What sort of file system?  Are we talking FAT32 or NTFS?  I have seen the odd file disappear on NTFS file systems being used with some older versions of the Fuse  NTFS driver on Linux (which is what the WD is probably using - given that it's linux based).

Did you put the WDLXTV firmware on your player?

The files are ts files, ones that i had recorded on my dvr, then transferred to the external. The external is NTFS. Yeah i updated the firmware to its latest & then i had these problems.

[drubie]

CHRIS08, on Aug 23 2011, 08:53 PM, said:

The files are ts files, ones that i had recorded on my dvr, then transferred to the external. The external is NTFS. Yeah i updated the firmware to its latest & then i had these problems.

I would try unplugging it from the WD and trying one of the Windows based NTFS file recovery tools - they might show up again.

I have moved away from using NTFS on external drives for this reason - it's just a little too fragile and the Fuse file system improvements just haven't been implemented on enough older equipment to risk it.  It's Ext3 / Ext4 or FAT32 for me.

[CHRIS08]

drubie, on Aug 23 2011, 08:34 PM, said:

I would try unplugging it from the WD and trying one of the Windows based NTFS file recovery tools - they might show up again.

I have moved away from using NTFS on external drives for this reason - it's just a little too fragile and the Fuse file system improvements just haven't been implemented on enough older equipment to risk it.  It's Ext3 / Ext4 or FAT32 for me.

any NTFS recovery tools you recommend???

Cheers.