534 of 549 people found the following review helpful:

Works great: Windows 7, NAS, Wired and Wireless, 14 Dec 2009

I’ve read a few reviews where some people have had problems with the WD Live TV device. I have to say I’ve had no issues whatsoever and thought it might be useful to share my setup to give people confidence to try this amazing little box.

Here are the steps I went through to get everything working.

1. WD Live TV device: Firstly I installed firmware version 1.01.11 (There is/was a version 1.01.12 but this has problems so I would stick with 1.01.11 for now). When I first got my device I went to the Western Digital website and downloaded the firmware onto a USB stick. Once I had the device attached to the TV I plugged the USB stick into the device and it immediately popped up on the TV that a new version of firmware had been found and let me install it. I would recommend doing the first firmware update this way, even before hooking up the network connection.

2. The WDTV device is very fast at detecting where media is. I did my first test by copying a few photos, music tracks and a film onto a USB stick and plugging it in to the device. When I went into the Photo menu I could select the USB stick and display the photos, likewise with the film and music. Okay so far so good – time to network.

3. My ultimate plan was to go wireless, but I like to keep things simple to start with so I switched off my WDTV device then plugged a wired network connection (i.e. Cat 5 network cable) into the network port on the back of it, and the other end into one of the network ports on the back of my Internet Router (Netgear WGR614). This might not be practical for some people due to the length of cable that you would need. My WDTV is only about 10 feet from my router, if its not possible you might have to go straight to wireless (outlined below). This is where things get slightly techie. You need to check your WDTV device is getting allocated an IP address by your router. Once you have both ends of the network cable plugged in, switch on your WDTV box and then use the menu to go into Settings and the Network and choose to Check Network. Fingers crossed the device should show you an IP address and Gateway (your routers IP address) and DNS servers. These are all allocated by the router. You need the IP address for accessing local media (i.e. on your computer). The gateway and DNS are required for accessing YouTube and the like over the Internet. If you have all these allocated – great! If not, you need to do a bit of trouble shooting. There can be various reasons but they pretty much all come down to how your router is configured for allocating IP addresses. Checking the DHCP configuration on your router is the first thing, also check anything that would not allow the WDTV device to connect, such as an access list.

4. Okay lets assume you now have a network connection and IP address etc. If you select the Video option you should now be able to select YouTube. See if you can stream a YouTube video. Pretty cool, eh! If its not working double check the network settings are correct especially DNS and the gateway. These should match the ones set in your router.

5. Okay so you can connect to the Internet, but how about all your local media – photos, music etc. Well you need to ensure they are shared. The WDTV box will detect PCs on your network and let you find media on them. I’m running Windows 7 on my home network but Vista and XP should all work fine too. I’m not going to go into all the details of how to do this but you need to make sure the folders on the computer that contains the media are shared. If you right click on a folder containing your media you will see the option to set up Sharing. Make sure you have done this for every folder you want to access from the WDTV device. Tip: Put all you media in folders called Music, Films, Photos etc and place all in a folder called something like Media, then set the Sharing on the Media folder and everything below it will automatically be shared. With Windows 7 there are other options for media streaming which you could explore also.

6. Right, once the sharing is setup on your PC you can go to the WDTV device and it should now be giving the option of Shared Folders under the Photo, Video etc menus. You should now be able to play and listen to your photos, films and music. There are two final steps, both optional, to complete your setup.

7. Going wireless. This took me all of 30 seconds! I used a Buffalo Airstation Nfiniti Wireless-N Ultra Compact USB adapter (The Western Digital website has a list of tested USB wireless adapters). Switch off the WDTV device, unplug the wired connection to the router and pop the Wireless USB adapter into one of the USB ports on the device. When you switch back on, go into Settings, Network and it will ask you if you want wired or wireless. Select wireless and the box will then search for a wireless network. Obviously you need to be able to pick up your wireless network…

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]]> http://gemation.com/uk-bargain-western-digital-tv-live-hd-media-player-best-price.html#comment-370 M. Beddow "Michael Beddow" Wed, 22 Feb 2012 10:26:09 +0000 http://gemation.com/uk-bargain-western-digital-tv-live-hd-media-player-best-price.html#comment-370 <div style="margin-left:0.5em;"> <div style="margin-bottom:0.5em;"> 101 of 102 people found the following review helpful: </div> <div style="margin-bottom:0.5em;"> <span style="margin-left: -5px;"><img src="http://g-ecx.images-amazon.com/images/G/02/x-locale/common/customer-reviews/stars-5-0._V192197110_.gif" width="64" alt="5.0 out of 5 stars" title="5.0 out of 5 stars" height="12" border="0"/></span> <b>A few nerdish notes</b>, <nobr>25 Aug 2010</nobr></div> <div style="margin-bottom:0.5em;"> <div><div style="float:left;">By </div><div style="float:left;"><a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/pdp/profile/AHT9I11J0AVWX?ie=UTF8&tag=ukkw016-21&linkCode=xm2" target="_top"><span style="font-weight: bold;">M. Beddow "Michael Beddow"</span></a> (Leeds, United Kingdom) - <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/cdp/member-reviews/AHT9I11J0AVWX?ie=UTF8&tag=ukkw016-21&linkCode=xm2&sort_by=MostRecentReview" target="_top"></a><br/><img src="http://g-ecx.images-amazon.com/images/G/02/x-locale/communities/reputation/c7y_badge_rn_1._V167143935_.gif" width="58" align="absmiddle" alt="(REAL NAME)" height="15" border="0"/>    </div></div><div style="clear:both;"/> </div> <div class="tiny" style="margin-bottom:0.5em;"> <b><span class="h3color tiny">This review is from: </span>Western Digital TV Live HD Media Player (Personal Computers)</b> </div> There are plenty of reviews here already to assure people that this is an excellent little device that does what it claims to do very well. So I'm writing this to raise a few points that will probably only be of interest to people who want to know what the limits of this device are, rather than how it performs for current mainstream consumers. So this is a review aimed at the nerdishly inclined.<br/><br/>My firmware is the latest currently (August 2010) available. I am feeding the box over 100 Mb/s cat 5e ethernet from a mix of servers including Linux boxes running Samba and NFS devices from WD and Buffalo, as well as playing files from a Seagate 500Gb portable hard disk attached to the USB port. I have also tried linking it to my home LAN via a Devolo 200AV mains-borne link, with results I'll say more about in a moment.<br/><br/>1) The only thing that may impact on mainstream users is that it can be a bit picky about mp3s. I haven't kept an exact count, but I reckon it has refused to play around 2% of my collection with the message that the file is of an "unsupported type". This is easily enough fixed by decoding and recoding the file: all the problem ones have been made playable this way. The odd thing is, I can't find any common feature in the files it rejected. They were from a big variety of sources, produced by different encoders at several different bitrates, and they all checked out fine using the standard mp3 checking utilities.<br/><br/>2) On video files, it performs faultlessly on divX, Xvid and H264-encoded files at 720p and below as well as on DVD material, both from USB attached media and over the Devolo (nominally 200Mb/s but in reality much slower) mains-borne ethernet link. However, it can't magically force more bandwidth across a network that is actually available, which means that, as expected, 1080i mpeg-2 recordings of raw (Korean) HDTV transport streams will not play smoothly over the mains-wiring LAN. I haven't tried with a WiFi adapter, but I would expect the same results as with the Devolo with such bandwidth-hungry material. However, across a properly wired 100Mb/s ethernet link, even these demanding mpeg-2 videos play flawlessly.<br/><br/>This means that anyone hoping to play such HDTV transport-stream files, or even more demanding ones from blu-ray sources, across a LAN that doesn't have conventional wiring, will need to move them first to a directly-attached storage device on one of the USB ports. Since the WD box client lets you pull files across the network to attached storage, or indeed push them there from a PC anywhere on your LAN, this is easy enough to do as and when needed, though it can of course take twenty minutes or more to move the huge files across in this way before they can be played But this is a limitation of the LAN infrastructure, not the device itself.<br/><br/>3) The network client in the WD box will not follow remote shortcuts (or Linux symlinks packaged as Windows-type shortcuts by Samba) Any shortcuts on a remote share are listed, but attempts to descend into them and access files result in a "No video/audio files in this folder" message, showing that the client does not know what to do with a shortcut. This is unlikely to be a problem for most people. I only hit it because I like to organize my material in a fairly deep hierarchy of folders, then make subcollections accessible via shortcuts/symlinks in a top-level directory. That approach simply won't work with the WD box. You have to navigate to your content using the native paths. Presumably WD could fix this with a firmware upgrade if they chose to.<br/><br/>4) The player's network client is also fussy about connecting to password-protected Samba shares, such as nearly all NAS devices use. It behaves as Vista and Windows 7 do out of the box, meaning that password protected shares on XP-era devices like older Buffalo NAS drives can't be accessed. So if you have an NAS device that would't allow secured access from Vista or Windows 7 until you applied a fix (actually a registry tweak) from the supplier of the NAS so that your Windows behaves like XP or earlier when authenticating to Samba, then the WD box will not be able to access any password-secured shares on that device. Whereas a user can easily modify their OS to make such connections, only WD could fix this issue via a firmware update. If you have such a device, you will need to take the password protection off the shares it contains and make them available to the guest user without password before the WD device will access them.<br/><br/>5) As others have commented, a major boost to this device (and one that would find it a place in a lot more British households) would be to incorporate a client for the BBC Iplayer and similar services from other UK broadcasters. But I guess WD thinks the UK market is too insignificant to bother doing that.<br/><br/>6) Of the existing built-in clients for Internet services, the only one I've... <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/customer-reviews/B002LZUHMI#R3KVXRXSW482RA" target="_top">Read more</a> <div style="padding-top: 10px; clear: both; width: 100%;"> <div style="float:left; padding-right:15px; border-right:1px solid #CCCCCC"><div style="padding-bottom:5px;"><b class="tiny" style="color:#666666;white-space:nowrap;">Help other customers find the most helpful reviews</b> </div><div style="width:300px;"> <a name="R3KVXRXSW482RA.2115.Helpful.Reviews" style="font-size:1px;"> </a><span><span class="votingPrompt">Was this review helpful to you? </span><a rel="nofollow" class="votingButtonReviews" href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/voting/cast/Reviews/2115/R3KVXRXSW482RA/Helpful/1?ie=UTF8&token=A115240D3589219F60261FB7BCCBC7A1A93C89BE&target=aHR0cDovL3d3dy5hbWF6b24uY28udWsvcHJvZHVjdC1yZXZpZXdzL0IwMDJMWlVITUk_X2VuY29kaW5nPVVURjgmc3VtbWFyeT0wJmFsaW5rQ29kZT14bTImdGFnPXVra3cwMTYtMjEmdj0yJmxpbmtDb2RlPXhtMiZhc2luPUIwMDJMWlVITUkmdHJ1bmNhdGU9NTAwMCZha2lkPUFLSUFKQlNRNVpIV1ZUU0dJQlVBJnNpZz04NUtVaU84U2ZMOFRzV29TN0VrNnVqbjhXQnB0Q2JJMEVlbHlXQjh4UXo4JTNEJmV4cD0yMDEyLTAyLTIzVDEwJTNBMjIlM0ExNFomYXRhZz11a2t3MDE2LTIx&voteAnchorName=R3KVXRXSW482RA.2115.Helpful.Reviews&voteSessionID=000-0000000-0000000"><img src="http://g-ecx.images-amazon.com/images/G/02/x-locale/communities/reviews/btn-yes-sec-md._V192192904_.gif" width="35" alt="Yes" style="vertical-align:middle;" height="18" border="0"/></a> <a rel="nofollow" class="votingButtonReviews" href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/voting/cast/Reviews/2115/R3KVXRXSW482RA/Helpful/-1?ie=UTF8&token=EC97B2732D1074216FF7E4FA9697065A716EAD17&target=aHR0cDovL3d3dy5hbWF6b24uY28udWsvcHJvZHVjdC1yZXZpZXdzL0IwMDJMWlVITUk_X2VuY29kaW5nPVVURjgmc3VtbWFyeT0wJmFsaW5rQ29kZT14bTImdGFnPXVra3cwMTYtMjEmdj0yJmxpbmtDb2RlPXhtMiZhc2luPUIwMDJMWlVITUkmdHJ1bmNhdGU9NTAwMCZha2lkPUFLSUFKQlNRNVpIV1ZUU0dJQlVBJnNpZz04NUtVaU84U2ZMOFRzV29TN0VrNnVqbjhXQnB0Q2JJMEVlbHlXQjh4UXo4JTNEJmV4cD0yMDEyLTAyLTIzVDEwJTNBMjIlM0ExNFomYXRhZz11a2t3MDE2LTIx&voteAnchorName=R3KVXRXSW482RA.2115.Helpful.Reviews&voteSessionID=000-0000000-0000000"><img src="http://g-ecx.images-amazon.com/images/G/02/x-locale/communities/reviews/btn-no-sec-md._V192192932_.gif" width="35" alt="No" style="vertical-align:middle;" height="18" border="0"/></a> <span class="votingMessage"/></span> </div></div><div style="float:left;"><div style="padding-left:15px;"><div style="white-space:nowrap;"><span class="tiny"> <a name="R3KVXRXSW482RA.2115.Inappropriate.Reviews" style="font-size:1px;"> </a><span class="reportingButton"><nobr><a rel="nofollow" class="reportingButton" href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/voting/cast/Reviews/2115/R3KVXRXSW482RA/Inappropriate/1?ie=UTF8&token=87F741DCA7580B2CD83FE9D4841EA2768EF01502&target=aHR0cDovL3d3dy5hbWF6b24uY28udWsvcHJvZHVjdC1yZXZpZXdzL0IwMDJMWlVITUk_X2VuY29kaW5nPVVURjgmc3VtbWFyeT0wJmFsaW5rQ29kZT14bTImdGFnPXVra3cwMTYtMjEmdj0yJmxpbmtDb2RlPXhtMiZhc2luPUIwMDJMWlVITUkmdHJ1bmNhdGU9NTAwMCZha2lkPUFLSUFKQlNRNVpIV1ZUU0dJQlVBJnNpZz04NUtVaU84U2ZMOFRzV29TN0VrNnVqbjhXQnB0Q2JJMEVlbHlXQjh4UXo4JTNEJmV4cD0yMDEyLTAyLTIzVDEwJTNBMjIlM0ExNFomYXRhZz11a2t3MDE2LTIx&voteAnchorName=R3KVXRXSW482RA.2115.Inappropriate.Reviews&voteSessionID=000-0000000-0000000"></a></nobr></span> </span> <span style="color:#CCCCCC;">|</span> <span class="tiny"><a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/review/R3KVXRXSW482RA" target="_top"></a></span></div><div style="white-space:nowrap;padding-left:-5px;padding-top:5px;"><a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/review/R3KVXRXSW482RA" target="_top"><img src="http://g-ecx.images-amazon.com/images/G/02/x-locale/communities/discussion_boards/comment-sm._V192198744_.gif" width="16" alt="Comment" hspace="3" align="absmiddle" height="16" border="0"/></a> <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/review/R3KVXRXSW482RA" target="_top">Comments (6)</a></div></div></div><div style="clear:both;"/> </div> <br/></div>

101 of 102 people found the following review helpful:

A few nerdish notes, 25 Aug 2010

By 

M. Beddow “Michael Beddow” (Leeds, United Kingdom) –

  

This review is from: Western Digital TV Live HD Media Player (Personal Computers)

There are plenty of reviews here already to assure people that this is an excellent little device that does what it claims to do very well. So I’m writing this to raise a few points that will probably only be of interest to people who want to know what the limits of this device are, rather than how it performs for current mainstream consumers. So this is a review aimed at the nerdishly inclined.

My firmware is the latest currently (August 2010) available. I am feeding the box over 100 Mb/s cat 5e ethernet from a mix of servers including Linux boxes running Samba and NFS devices from WD and Buffalo, as well as playing files from a Seagate 500Gb portable hard disk attached to the USB port. I have also tried linking it to my home LAN via a Devolo 200AV mains-borne link, with results I’ll say more about in a moment.

1) The only thing that may impact on mainstream users is that it can be a bit picky about mp3s. I haven’t kept an exact count, but I reckon it has refused to play around 2% of my collection with the message that the file is of an “unsupported type”. This is easily enough fixed by decoding and recoding the file: all the problem ones have been made playable this way. The odd thing is, I can’t find any common feature in the files it rejected. They were from a big variety of sources, produced by different encoders at several different bitrates, and they all checked out fine using the standard mp3 checking utilities.

2) On video files, it performs faultlessly on divX, Xvid and H264-encoded files at 720p and below as well as on DVD material, both from USB attached media and over the Devolo (nominally 200Mb/s but in reality much slower) mains-borne ethernet link. However, it can’t magically force more bandwidth across a network that is actually available, which means that, as expected, 1080i mpeg-2 recordings of raw (Korean) HDTV transport streams will not play smoothly over the mains-wiring LAN. I haven’t tried with a WiFi adapter, but I would expect the same results as with the Devolo with such bandwidth-hungry material. However, across a properly wired 100Mb/s ethernet link, even these demanding mpeg-2 videos play flawlessly.

This means that anyone hoping to play such HDTV transport-stream files, or even more demanding ones from blu-ray sources, across a LAN that doesn’t have conventional wiring, will need to move them first to a directly-attached storage device on one of the USB ports. Since the WD box client lets you pull files across the network to attached storage, or indeed push them there from a PC anywhere on your LAN, this is easy enough to do as and when needed, though it can of course take twenty minutes or more to move the huge files across in this way before they can be played But this is a limitation of the LAN infrastructure, not the device itself.

3) The network client in the WD box will not follow remote shortcuts (or Linux symlinks packaged as Windows-type shortcuts by Samba) Any shortcuts on a remote share are listed, but attempts to descend into them and access files result in a “No video/audio files in this folder” message, showing that the client does not know what to do with a shortcut. This is unlikely to be a problem for most people. I only hit it because I like to organize my material in a fairly deep hierarchy of folders, then make subcollections accessible via shortcuts/symlinks in a top-level directory. That approach simply won’t work with the WD box. You have to navigate to your content using the native paths. Presumably WD could fix this with a firmware upgrade if they chose to.

4) The player’s network client is also fussy about connecting to password-protected Samba shares, such as nearly all NAS devices use. It behaves as Vista and Windows 7 do out of the box, meaning that password protected shares on XP-era devices like older Buffalo NAS drives can’t be accessed. So if you have an NAS device that would’t allow secured access from Vista or Windows 7 until you applied a fix (actually a registry tweak) from the supplier of the NAS so that your Windows behaves like XP or earlier when authenticating to Samba, then the WD box will not be able to access any password-secured shares on that device. Whereas a user can easily modify their OS to make such connections, only WD could fix this issue via a firmware update. If you have such a device, you will need to take the password protection off the shares it contains and make them available to the guest user without password before the WD device will access them.

5) As others have commented, a major boost to this device (and one that would find it a place in a lot more British households) would be to incorporate a client for the BBC Iplayer and similar services from other UK broadcasters. But I guess WD thinks the UK market is too insignificant to bother doing that.

6) Of the existing built-in clients for Internet services, the only one I’ve…

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]]> http://gemation.com/uk-discount-wd-tv-live-hub-media-center-1tb-in-stock.html#comment-369 mikek Tue, 21 Feb 2012 23:34:48 +0000 http://gemation.com/uk-discount-wd-tv-live-hub-media-center-1tb-in-stock.html#comment-369 <div style="margin-left:0.5em;"> <div style="margin-bottom:0.5em;"> 9 of 9 people found the following review helpful: </div> <div style="margin-bottom:0.5em;"> <span style="margin-left: -5px;"><img src="http://g-ecx.images-amazon.com/images/G/02/x-locale/common/customer-reviews/stars-4-0._V192197091_.gif" width="64" alt="4.0 out of 5 stars" title="4.0 out of 5 stars" height="12" border="0"/></span> <b>WD TV Live Hub Media Center 1TB</b>, <nobr>13 May 2011</nobr></div> <div style="margin-bottom:0.5em;"> <div><div style="float:left;">By </div><div style="float:left;"><a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/pdp/profile/A1D3RLA972LQJI?ie=UTF8&tag=ukkw016-21&linkCode=xm2" target="_top"><span style="font-weight: bold;">mikek</span></a> - <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/cdp/member-reviews/A1D3RLA972LQJI?ie=UTF8&tag=ukkw016-21&linkCode=xm2&sort_by=MostRecentReview" target="_top"></a></div></div><div style="clear:both;"/> </div> <div class="tiny" style="margin-bottom:0.5em;"> <b><span class="h3color tiny">This review is from: </span>WD TV Live Hub Media Center 1TB (Electronics)</b> </div> I think the previous reviews have said it all about the WD Hub. It was easy to setup and easy to access from my PC. So i no longer need to stream video from my PC - so i thought. I have been using Wild Media Server to stream Photo/Video/Music to my Sony EX503 TV and BDV-E370 Home cinema system. Nothing WMS cant stream !. A lot of my old video comes from mini DV tapes that i have spent many hours capturing to AVI DV format files. So i thought it would be great to move this off the PC and onto the WD Hub. BUT although AVI DV is a very popular format even though its being replaced by newer formats it will NOT play on the WD Hub. It turns out very few if any media streamer devices like this will play AVI DV. I still like the WD Hub as i have a lot of video that does play. But i will need to convert all my AVI DV files to a another format. So really if anything this review is just a warning to others - if you have a lot of these mini DV tapes and you want to cature and stream from the WD Hub you CANNOT unless you convert to another format. <div style="padding-top: 10px; clear: both; width: 100%;"> <div style="float:left; padding-right:15px; border-right:1px solid #CCCCCC"><div style="padding-bottom:5px;"><b class="tiny" style="color:#666666;white-space:nowrap;">Help other customers find the most helpful reviews</b> </div><div style="width:300px;"> <a name="RM1FEEZD34LMW.2115.Helpful.Reviews" style="font-size:1px;"> </a><span><span class="votingPrompt">Was this review helpful to you? </span><a rel="nofollow" class="votingButtonReviews" href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/voting/cast/Reviews/2115/RM1FEEZD34LMW/Helpful/1?ie=UTF8&token=AA6EB54331EF39EE015E1AECB22DCFFB45789ABC&target=aHR0cDovL3d3dy5hbWF6b24uY28udWsvcHJvZHVjdC1yZXZpZXdzL0IwMDQ2NklFWEU_X2VuY29kaW5nPVVURjgmc3VtbWFyeT0wJmFsaW5rQ29kZT14bTImdGFnPXVra3cwMTYtMjEmdj0yJmxpbmtDb2RlPXhtMiZhc2luPUIwMDQ2NklFWEUmdHJ1bmNhdGU9NTAwMCZha2lkPUFLSUFKQlNRNVpIV1ZUU0dJQlVBJnNpZz1hbCUyRnUwNUs4ck5FM3Bza2hFajcyWWpKZG9CeDAybzBSMmk4M0lLUFNwRG8lM0QmZXhwPTIwMTItMDItMjJUMjElM0EyMyUzQTI5WiZhdGFnPXVra3cwMTYtMjE&voteAnchorName=RM1FEEZD34LMW.2115.Helpful.Reviews&voteSessionID=000-0000000-0000000"><img src="http://g-ecx.images-amazon.com/images/G/02/x-locale/communities/reviews/btn-yes-sec-md._V192192904_.gif" width="35" alt="Yes" style="vertical-align:middle;" height="18" border="0"/></a> <a rel="nofollow" class="votingButtonReviews" href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/voting/cast/Reviews/2115/RM1FEEZD34LMW/Helpful/-1?ie=UTF8&token=158658659223DAD10B2F83A8C06AEE448E9A8D2D&target=aHR0cDovL3d3dy5hbWF6b24uY28udWsvcHJvZHVjdC1yZXZpZXdzL0IwMDQ2NklFWEU_X2VuY29kaW5nPVVURjgmc3VtbWFyeT0wJmFsaW5rQ29kZT14bTImdGFnPXVra3cwMTYtMjEmdj0yJmxpbmtDb2RlPXhtMiZhc2luPUIwMDQ2NklFWEUmdHJ1bmNhdGU9NTAwMCZha2lkPUFLSUFKQlNRNVpIV1ZUU0dJQlVBJnNpZz1hbCUyRnUwNUs4ck5FM3Bza2hFajcyWWpKZG9CeDAybzBSMmk4M0lLUFNwRG8lM0QmZXhwPTIwMTItMDItMjJUMjElM0EyMyUzQTI5WiZhdGFnPXVra3cwMTYtMjE&voteAnchorName=RM1FEEZD34LMW.2115.Helpful.Reviews&voteSessionID=000-0000000-0000000"><img src="http://g-ecx.images-amazon.com/images/G/02/x-locale/communities/reviews/btn-no-sec-md._V192192932_.gif" width="35" alt="No" style="vertical-align:middle;" height="18" border="0"/></a> <span class="votingMessage"/></span> </div></div><div style="float:left;"><div style="padding-left:15px;"><div style="white-space:nowrap;"><span class="tiny"> <a name="RM1FEEZD34LMW.2115.Inappropriate.Reviews" style="font-size:1px;"> </a><span class="reportingButton"><nobr><a rel="nofollow" class="reportingButton" href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/voting/cast/Reviews/2115/RM1FEEZD34LMW/Inappropriate/1?ie=UTF8&token=76F28DF33F5B0C863CE9A06AA5077ED6BB40471A&target=aHR0cDovL3d3dy5hbWF6b24uY28udWsvcHJvZHVjdC1yZXZpZXdzL0IwMDQ2NklFWEU_X2VuY29kaW5nPVVURjgmc3VtbWFyeT0wJmFsaW5rQ29kZT14bTImdGFnPXVra3cwMTYtMjEmdj0yJmxpbmtDb2RlPXhtMiZhc2luPUIwMDQ2NklFWEUmdHJ1bmNhdGU9NTAwMCZha2lkPUFLSUFKQlNRNVpIV1ZUU0dJQlVBJnNpZz1hbCUyRnUwNUs4ck5FM3Bza2hFajcyWWpKZG9CeDAybzBSMmk4M0lLUFNwRG8lM0QmZXhwPTIwMTItMDItMjJUMjElM0EyMyUzQTI5WiZhdGFnPXVra3cwMTYtMjE&voteAnchorName=RM1FEEZD34LMW.2115.Inappropriate.Reviews&voteSessionID=000-0000000-0000000"></a></nobr></span> </span> <span style="color:#CCCCCC;">|</span> <span class="tiny"><a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/review/RM1FEEZD34LMW" target="_top"></a></span></div><div style="white-space:nowrap;padding-left:-5px;padding-top:5px;"><a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/review/RM1FEEZD34LMW" target="_top"><img src="http://g-ecx.images-amazon.com/images/G/02/x-locale/communities/discussion_boards/comment-sm._V192198744_.gif" width="16" alt="Comment" hspace="3" align="absmiddle" height="16" border="0"/></a> <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/review/RM1FEEZD34LMW" target="_top">Comment</a></div></div></div><div style="clear:both;"/> </div> <br/></div>

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

WD TV Live Hub Media Center 1TB, 13 May 2011

By 

mikek –

This review is from: WD TV Live Hub Media Center 1TB (Electronics)

I think the previous reviews have said it all about the WD Hub. It was easy to setup and easy to access from my PC. So i no longer need to stream video from my PC – so i thought. I have been using Wild Media Server to stream Photo/Video/Music to my Sony EX503 TV and BDV-E370 Home cinema system. Nothing WMS cant stream !. A lot of my old video comes from mini DV tapes that i have spent many hours capturing to AVI DV format files. So i thought it would be great to move this off the PC and onto the WD Hub. BUT although AVI DV is a very popular format even though its being replaced by newer formats it will NOT play on the WD Hub. It turns out very few if any media streamer devices like this will play AVI DV. I still like the WD Hub as i have a lot of video that does play. But i will need to convert all my AVI DV files to a another format. So really if anything this review is just a warning to others – if you have a lot of these mini DV tapes and you want to cature and stream from the WD Hub you CANNOT unless you convert to another format.

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]]> http://gemation.com/uk-discount-wd-tv-live-hub-media-center-1tb-in-stock.html#comment-368 Jim Monty Tue, 21 Feb 2012 22:57:58 +0000 http://gemation.com/uk-discount-wd-tv-live-hub-media-center-1tb-in-stock.html#comment-368 <div style="margin-left:0.5em;"> <div style="margin-bottom:0.5em;"> 21 of 21 people found the following review helpful: </div> <div style="margin-bottom:0.5em;"> <span style="margin-left: -5px;"><img src="http://g-ecx.images-amazon.com/images/G/02/x-locale/common/customer-reviews/stars-5-0._V192197110_.gif" width="64" alt="5.0 out of 5 stars" title="5.0 out of 5 stars" height="12" border="0"/></span> <b>A great little media centre</b>, <nobr>9 Dec 2010</nobr></div> <div style="margin-bottom:0.5em;"> <div><div style="float:left;">By </div><div style="float:left;"><a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/pdp/profile/A1QT01Q0O5PQRU?ie=UTF8&tag=ukkw016-21&linkCode=xm2" target="_top"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Jim Monty</span></a> - <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/cdp/member-reviews/A1QT01Q0O5PQRU?ie=UTF8&tag=ukkw016-21&linkCode=xm2&sort_by=MostRecentReview" target="_top"></a></div></div><div style="clear:both;"/> </div> <div class="tiny" style="margin-bottom:0.5em;"> <b><span class="h3color tiny">This review is from: </span>WD TV Live Hub Media Center 1TB (Electronics)</b> </div> Having researched the various media centres I went for this one based on techie reviews online.<br/><br/>When the product arrived I unboxed it, plugged it into my TV and connected to my wired network. I opened my network on Windows 7 PC and up popped the WDLiveHub on the network. Transferring files is as easy as copy and paste into the network share. The raw data throughput was about 10.5MBytes which equates to the speed of my home network 100Mbps Wired LAN. If only my home network supported Gigabit throughput then I could test the Gig Ethernet adaptor on the device fully.<br/><br/>The product can double up as network storage with DNLA and ITunes server that runs in the background even when the product is turned off. You can access the share whether you are using it or not and handles playing content while streaming to another device perfectly.<br/><br/>I have had this just under a week now however it has handled every file format I have thrown at this so far. The on-line content could be much better however a lot of this is due to UK v US licensing laws. Hopefully when these restrictions are lifted the on-line content will get much better.<br/><br/>The lack of wireless may concern many people as it requires you to have an Ethernet cable to the device. I have looked at a lot of similar products and not many support wireless. There are wireless adaptors that can be bought, however have no experience so can't comment on support or throughput. Making the device wired is well worth the effort though as it will increase data transfer speeds and allows the streaming of full 1080p video.<br/><br/>There are a few little things which I would like improved. I am surprised at some of the negative feedback it has received so far. As media centres and network storage combined goes it is as good as I hoped it would be and am very pleased it. <div style="padding-top: 10px; clear: both; width: 100%;"> <div style="float:left; padding-right:15px; border-right:1px solid #CCCCCC"><div style="padding-bottom:5px;"><b class="tiny" style="color:#666666;white-space:nowrap;">Help other customers find the most helpful reviews</b> </div><div style="width:300px;"> <a name="RCLUO5ZHWIBDC.2115.Helpful.Reviews" style="font-size:1px;"> </a><span><span class="votingPrompt">Was this review helpful to you? </span><a rel="nofollow" class="votingButtonReviews" href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/voting/cast/Reviews/2115/RCLUO5ZHWIBDC/Helpful/1?ie=UTF8&token=B8B8AFEA3F04B09CE70ED85FDE2CFCA9035A9CB0&target=aHR0cDovL3d3dy5hbWF6b24uY28udWsvcHJvZHVjdC1yZXZpZXdzL0IwMDQ2NklFWEU_X2VuY29kaW5nPVVURjgmc3VtbWFyeT0wJmFsaW5rQ29kZT14bTImdGFnPXVra3cwMTYtMjEmdj0yJmxpbmtDb2RlPXhtMiZhc2luPUIwMDQ2NklFWEUmdHJ1bmNhdGU9NTAwMCZha2lkPUFLSUFKQlNRNVpIV1ZUU0dJQlVBJnNpZz1hbCUyRnUwNUs4ck5FM3Bza2hFajcyWWpKZG9CeDAybzBSMmk4M0lLUFNwRG8lM0QmZXhwPTIwMTItMDItMjJUMjElM0EyMyUzQTI5WiZhdGFnPXVra3cwMTYtMjE&voteAnchorName=RCLUO5ZHWIBDC.2115.Helpful.Reviews&voteSessionID=000-0000000-0000000"><img src="http://g-ecx.images-amazon.com/images/G/02/x-locale/communities/reviews/btn-yes-sec-md._V192192904_.gif" width="35" alt="Yes" style="vertical-align:middle;" height="18" border="0"/></a> <a rel="nofollow" class="votingButtonReviews" href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/voting/cast/Reviews/2115/RCLUO5ZHWIBDC/Helpful/-1?ie=UTF8&token=A761C63D8DBE93A549668854884052538508A324&target=aHR0cDovL3d3dy5hbWF6b24uY28udWsvcHJvZHVjdC1yZXZpZXdzL0IwMDQ2NklFWEU_X2VuY29kaW5nPVVURjgmc3VtbWFyeT0wJmFsaW5rQ29kZT14bTImdGFnPXVra3cwMTYtMjEmdj0yJmxpbmtDb2RlPXhtMiZhc2luPUIwMDQ2NklFWEUmdHJ1bmNhdGU9NTAwMCZha2lkPUFLSUFKQlNRNVpIV1ZUU0dJQlVBJnNpZz1hbCUyRnUwNUs4ck5FM3Bza2hFajcyWWpKZG9CeDAybzBSMmk4M0lLUFNwRG8lM0QmZXhwPTIwMTItMDItMjJUMjElM0EyMyUzQTI5WiZhdGFnPXVra3cwMTYtMjE&voteAnchorName=RCLUO5ZHWIBDC.2115.Helpful.Reviews&voteSessionID=000-0000000-0000000"><img src="http://g-ecx.images-amazon.com/images/G/02/x-locale/communities/reviews/btn-no-sec-md._V192192932_.gif" width="35" alt="No" style="vertical-align:middle;" height="18" border="0"/></a> <span class="votingMessage"/></span> </div></div><div style="float:left;"><div style="padding-left:15px;"><div style="white-space:nowrap;"><span class="tiny"> <a name="RCLUO5ZHWIBDC.2115.Inappropriate.Reviews" style="font-size:1px;"> </a><span class="reportingButton"><nobr><a rel="nofollow" class="reportingButton" href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/voting/cast/Reviews/2115/RCLUO5ZHWIBDC/Inappropriate/1?ie=UTF8&token=49429F558685863CACE850C31746C083479726E7&target=aHR0cDovL3d3dy5hbWF6b24uY28udWsvcHJvZHVjdC1yZXZpZXdzL0IwMDQ2NklFWEU_X2VuY29kaW5nPVVURjgmc3VtbWFyeT0wJmFsaW5rQ29kZT14bTImdGFnPXVra3cwMTYtMjEmdj0yJmxpbmtDb2RlPXhtMiZhc2luPUIwMDQ2NklFWEUmdHJ1bmNhdGU9NTAwMCZha2lkPUFLSUFKQlNRNVpIV1ZUU0dJQlVBJnNpZz1hbCUyRnUwNUs4ck5FM3Bza2hFajcyWWpKZG9CeDAybzBSMmk4M0lLUFNwRG8lM0QmZXhwPTIwMTItMDItMjJUMjElM0EyMyUzQTI5WiZhdGFnPXVra3cwMTYtMjE&voteAnchorName=RCLUO5ZHWIBDC.2115.Inappropriate.Reviews&voteSessionID=000-0000000-0000000"></a></nobr></span> </span> <span style="color:#CCCCCC;">|</span> <span class="tiny"><a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/review/RCLUO5ZHWIBDC" target="_top"></a></span></div><div style="white-space:nowrap;padding-left:-5px;padding-top:5px;"><a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/review/RCLUO5ZHWIBDC" target="_top"><img src="http://g-ecx.images-amazon.com/images/G/02/x-locale/communities/discussion_boards/comment-sm._V192198744_.gif" width="16" alt="Comment" hspace="3" align="absmiddle" height="16" border="0"/></a> <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/review/RCLUO5ZHWIBDC" target="_top">Comment</a></div></div></div><div style="clear:both;"/> </div> <br/></div>

21 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

A great little media centre, 9 Dec 2010

By 

Jim Monty –

This review is from: WD TV Live Hub Media Center 1TB (Electronics)

Having researched the various media centres I went for this one based on techie reviews online.

When the product arrived I unboxed it, plugged it into my TV and connected to my wired network. I opened my network on Windows 7 PC and up popped the WDLiveHub on the network. Transferring files is as easy as copy and paste into the network share. The raw data throughput was about 10.5MBytes which equates to the speed of my home network 100Mbps Wired LAN. If only my home network supported Gigabit throughput then I could test the Gig Ethernet adaptor on the device fully.

The product can double up as network storage with DNLA and ITunes server that runs in the background even when the product is turned off. You can access the share whether you are using it or not and handles playing content while streaming to another device perfectly.

I have had this just under a week now however it has handled every file format I have thrown at this so far. The on-line content could be much better however a lot of this is due to UK v US licensing laws. Hopefully when these restrictions are lifted the on-line content will get much better.

The lack of wireless may concern many people as it requires you to have an Ethernet cable to the device. I have looked at a lot of similar products and not many support wireless. There are wireless adaptors that can be bought, however have no experience so can’t comment on support or throughput. Making the device wired is well worth the effort though as it will increase data transfer speeds and allows the streaming of full 1080p video.

There are a few little things which I would like improved. I am surprised at some of the negative feedback it has received so far. As media centres and network storage combined goes it is as good as I hoped it would be and am very pleased it.

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]]> http://gemation.com/uk-discount-wd-tv-live-hub-media-center-1tb-in-stock.html#comment-367 Sanjay Tue, 21 Feb 2012 21:58:55 +0000 http://gemation.com/uk-discount-wd-tv-live-hub-media-center-1tb-in-stock.html#comment-367 <div style="margin-left:0.5em;"> <div style="margin-bottom:0.5em;"> 32 of 32 people found the following review helpful: </div> <div style="margin-bottom:0.5em;"> <span style="margin-left: -5px;"><img src="http://g-ecx.images-amazon.com/images/G/02/x-locale/common/customer-reviews/stars-4-0._V192197091_.gif" width="64" alt="4.0 out of 5 stars" title="4.0 out of 5 stars" height="12" border="0"/></span> <b>Nifty little box</b>, <nobr>6 Jun 2011</nobr></div> <div style="margin-bottom:0.5em;"> <div><div style="float:left;">By </div><div style="float:left;"><a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/pdp/profile/A3KR9K89FZCIRI?ie=UTF8&tag=ukkw016-21&linkCode=xm2" target="_top"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Sanjay</span></a> (UK) - <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/cdp/member-reviews/A3KR9K89FZCIRI?ie=UTF8&tag=ukkw016-21&linkCode=xm2&sort_by=MostRecentReview" target="_top"></a></div></div><div style="clear:both;"/> </div> <div class="tiny" style="margin-bottom:0.5em;"> <b><span class="h3color tiny">This review is from: </span>WD TV Live Hub Media Center 1TB (Electronics)</b> </div> First of all, let me try and resolve the confusion regarding this product. I read the comments here as well as on forums prior to purchase and people seem to be complaining about features of the product which it does not claim to address. If you read the technical details of the product as well as the box contents, you will notice it does NOT:<br/><br/>include HDMI cable<br/>include USB cable<br/>include Network cable<br/>have built in wireless capability (you can attach a USB wireless dongle for wireless if you wish)<br/><br/>You can NOT attach your PC to one of the USB ports of the box to transfer files to/from the box. You have to use your network for file transfer (or do so via USB keys). Hopefully, this should clarify as to what you are getting or not getting for your hard earned cash.<br/><br/>I would recommend before you do anything else, upgrade the firmware to the latest revision. A new version was released last month. You will need to read the documentation as to how to do that. Initially, I would use the USB method (download the firmware via your computer, unzip the files and put them on a USB stick) to do so as you will not need to setup the network (even though it is pretty simple to set it up).<br/><br/>Right, lets come to the real functionality of this product. I have mentioned absence of built in wireless capability so lets start with the built in wired 1Gb Ethernet port. Lets face it, it is not a 1Gb port. If it is meant to be, then it does not perform according to specification. I tried to transfer roughly 25GB worth of files to this box via the network connection. Unfortunately, my router is only 100Mb so I attached my laptop (with 1Gb port) directly to the box via a network cable and it said 1Gb network detected. Based on the maximum possible speed and some simple mathematics, it equates to roughly 4 minutes transfer time. It is theoretical maximum so I had expected an actual transfer time of about 5 - 6 minutes. When it took almost an hour, well I was not pleased. This is the speed you would get on a 100Mb connection. After reading some more forums and reviews, it seems others had experienced the same issue and WDC answer was less than convincing (something about it not being a "real" NAS device. Hmm, so why claim it has 1Gb port?). All I can say is, if you have 100+ GB of data, then I would transfer them in batches.<br/><br/>The interface is very simple to use. But then, it needs to be as the documentation is not all that great. There is only a quick setup guide included with the product and you will need to download the full guide from WD website. You just need to "play" with the interface and you will get a hang of most of the features. For not so easy features, you can try the downloaded documentation and/or forums for the answers.<br/><br/>I had read somewhere this Media Player (MP) is capable of playing ISO files. So as a test, I used my DVD burner software to save a couple of my bought DVDs into ISO images. Yes, it played the ISO images but the bottom quarter of the screen was very dark. The next day, I tried to play the same ISOs and it refused to play them (something about the ISOs files not being recognised). By complete fluke, when I was transferring some more files to this directory I noticed it created some BMK files for my ISOs which were not there before. I deleted those files and it played them ok again with the dark patches still in place. I have not yet had the time to find out why those BMK files were there. Since then, I converted the same DVDs into MP4 files and these play almost perfectly. I say almost because during some fast movements, I have noticed some jagged edges on the images. But that is not the MP's fault as other files seem to play ok so I guess it is the fault of my encoding software that converted the DVDs to MP4.<br/><br/>If none of the above is important to you, then I can not fault this device. It has managed to play every file I have thrown at it. Some people had complained about its Media Library not being able to detect newly added files but I have not been seen this problem. Maybe the firmware had fixed the issue. However everytime I have transferred files, the MP was in standby mode. I have not tried to copy any files across when it is "fully" on. If it does not detect the newly added files, you just need to tell it to clear the Media Library and it will rebuild it for you. I have tried this and it does do it.<br/><br/>I have a Sony TV which is DLNA compliant. So rather than connecting this MP to the TV via the HDMI cable, I connected both to my router. This MP acts as a Media Server as well and is therefore capable of streaming media to DLNA compliant devices. I am happy to say it does exactly what it says on the tin. My only initial concern was, the TV was not receiving the full list of files/directories from the MP. But after I left it a for a few seconds, the list was slowly appearing. I did copy a huge number of files... <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/customer-reviews/B00466IEXE#R338OUO7V3ILTW" target="_top">Read more</a> <div style="padding-top: 10px; clear: both; width: 100%;"> <div style="float:left; padding-right:15px; border-right:1px solid #CCCCCC"><div style="padding-bottom:5px;"><b class="tiny" style="color:#666666;white-space:nowrap;">Help other customers find the most helpful reviews</b> </div><div style="width:300px;"> <a name="R338OUO7V3ILTW.2115.Helpful.Reviews" style="font-size:1px;"> </a><span><span class="votingPrompt">Was this review helpful to you? </span><a rel="nofollow" class="votingButtonReviews" href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/voting/cast/Reviews/2115/R338OUO7V3ILTW/Helpful/1?ie=UTF8&token=C2213A2A00D53A380337217B6984DE7C2699C2BE&target=aHR0cDovL3d3dy5hbWF6b24uY28udWsvcHJvZHVjdC1yZXZpZXdzL0IwMDQ2NklFWEU_X2VuY29kaW5nPVVURjgmc3VtbWFyeT0wJmFsaW5rQ29kZT14bTImdGFnPXVra3cwMTYtMjEmdj0yJmxpbmtDb2RlPXhtMiZhc2luPUIwMDQ2NklFWEUmdHJ1bmNhdGU9NTAwMCZha2lkPUFLSUFKQlNRNVpIV1ZUU0dJQlVBJnNpZz1hbCUyRnUwNUs4ck5FM3Bza2hFajcyWWpKZG9CeDAybzBSMmk4M0lLUFNwRG8lM0QmZXhwPTIwMTItMDItMjJUMjElM0EyMyUzQTI5WiZhdGFnPXVra3cwMTYtMjE&voteAnchorName=R338OUO7V3ILTW.2115.Helpful.Reviews&voteSessionID=000-0000000-0000000"><img src="http://g-ecx.images-amazon.com/images/G/02/x-locale/communities/reviews/btn-yes-sec-md._V192192904_.gif" width="35" alt="Yes" style="vertical-align:middle;" height="18" border="0"/></a> <a rel="nofollow" class="votingButtonReviews" href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/voting/cast/Reviews/2115/R338OUO7V3ILTW/Helpful/-1?ie=UTF8&token=099132A3B71E7F0E326D39BE2D48FAF6F371B9E7&target=aHR0cDovL3d3dy5hbWF6b24uY28udWsvcHJvZHVjdC1yZXZpZXdzL0IwMDQ2NklFWEU_X2VuY29kaW5nPVVURjgmc3VtbWFyeT0wJmFsaW5rQ29kZT14bTImdGFnPXVra3cwMTYtMjEmdj0yJmxpbmtDb2RlPXhtMiZhc2luPUIwMDQ2NklFWEUmdHJ1bmNhdGU9NTAwMCZha2lkPUFLSUFKQlNRNVpIV1ZUU0dJQlVBJnNpZz1hbCUyRnUwNUs4ck5FM3Bza2hFajcyWWpKZG9CeDAybzBSMmk4M0lLUFNwRG8lM0QmZXhwPTIwMTItMDItMjJUMjElM0EyMyUzQTI5WiZhdGFnPXVra3cwMTYtMjE&voteAnchorName=R338OUO7V3ILTW.2115.Helpful.Reviews&voteSessionID=000-0000000-0000000"><img src="http://g-ecx.images-amazon.com/images/G/02/x-locale/communities/reviews/btn-no-sec-md._V192192932_.gif" width="35" alt="No" style="vertical-align:middle;" height="18" border="0"/></a> <span class="votingMessage"/></span> </div></div><div style="float:left;"><div style="padding-left:15px;"><div style="white-space:nowrap;"><span class="tiny"> <a name="R338OUO7V3ILTW.2115.Inappropriate.Reviews" style="font-size:1px;"> </a><span class="reportingButton"><nobr><a rel="nofollow" class="reportingButton" href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/voting/cast/Reviews/2115/R338OUO7V3ILTW/Inappropriate/1?ie=UTF8&token=75802605B24F390CFF2A61FA39ABB6532B4693FE&target=aHR0cDovL3d3dy5hbWF6b24uY28udWsvcHJvZHVjdC1yZXZpZXdzL0IwMDQ2NklFWEU_X2VuY29kaW5nPVVURjgmc3VtbWFyeT0wJmFsaW5rQ29kZT14bTImdGFnPXVra3cwMTYtMjEmdj0yJmxpbmtDb2RlPXhtMiZhc2luPUIwMDQ2NklFWEUmdHJ1bmNhdGU9NTAwMCZha2lkPUFLSUFKQlNRNVpIV1ZUU0dJQlVBJnNpZz1hbCUyRnUwNUs4ck5FM3Bza2hFajcyWWpKZG9CeDAybzBSMmk4M0lLUFNwRG8lM0QmZXhwPTIwMTItMDItMjJUMjElM0EyMyUzQTI5WiZhdGFnPXVra3cwMTYtMjE&voteAnchorName=R338OUO7V3ILTW.2115.Inappropriate.Reviews&voteSessionID=000-0000000-0000000"></a></nobr></span> </span> <span style="color:#CCCCCC;">|</span> <span class="tiny"><a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/review/R338OUO7V3ILTW" target="_top"></a></span></div><div style="white-space:nowrap;padding-left:-5px;padding-top:5px;"><a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/review/R338OUO7V3ILTW" target="_top"><img src="http://g-ecx.images-amazon.com/images/G/02/x-locale/communities/discussion_boards/comment-sm._V192198744_.gif" width="16" alt="Comment" hspace="3" align="absmiddle" height="16" border="0"/></a> <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/review/R338OUO7V3ILTW" target="_top">Comments (4)</a></div></div></div><div style="clear:both;"/> </div> <br/></div>

32 of 32 people found the following review helpful:

Nifty little box, 6 Jun 2011

By 

Sanjay (UK) –

This review is from: WD TV Live Hub Media Center 1TB (Electronics)

First of all, let me try and resolve the confusion regarding this product. I read the comments here as well as on forums prior to purchase and people seem to be complaining about features of the product which it does not claim to address. If you read the technical details of the product as well as the box contents, you will notice it does NOT:

include HDMI cable
include USB cable
include Network cable
have built in wireless capability (you can attach a USB wireless dongle for wireless if you wish)

You can NOT attach your PC to one of the USB ports of the box to transfer files to/from the box. You have to use your network for file transfer (or do so via USB keys). Hopefully, this should clarify as to what you are getting or not getting for your hard earned cash.

I would recommend before you do anything else, upgrade the firmware to the latest revision. A new version was released last month. You will need to read the documentation as to how to do that. Initially, I would use the USB method (download the firmware via your computer, unzip the files and put them on a USB stick) to do so as you will not need to setup the network (even though it is pretty simple to set it up).

Right, lets come to the real functionality of this product. I have mentioned absence of built in wireless capability so lets start with the built in wired 1Gb Ethernet port. Lets face it, it is not a 1Gb port. If it is meant to be, then it does not perform according to specification. I tried to transfer roughly 25GB worth of files to this box via the network connection. Unfortunately, my router is only 100Mb so I attached my laptop (with 1Gb port) directly to the box via a network cable and it said 1Gb network detected. Based on the maximum possible speed and some simple mathematics, it equates to roughly 4 minutes transfer time. It is theoretical maximum so I had expected an actual transfer time of about 5 – 6 minutes. When it took almost an hour, well I was not pleased. This is the speed you would get on a 100Mb connection. After reading some more forums and reviews, it seems others had experienced the same issue and WDC answer was less than convincing (something about it not being a “real” NAS device. Hmm, so why claim it has 1Gb port?). All I can say is, if you have 100+ GB of data, then I would transfer them in batches.

The interface is very simple to use. But then, it needs to be as the documentation is not all that great. There is only a quick setup guide included with the product and you will need to download the full guide from WD website. You just need to “play” with the interface and you will get a hang of most of the features. For not so easy features, you can try the downloaded documentation and/or forums for the answers.

I had read somewhere this Media Player (MP) is capable of playing ISO files. So as a test, I used my DVD burner software to save a couple of my bought DVDs into ISO images. Yes, it played the ISO images but the bottom quarter of the screen was very dark. The next day, I tried to play the same ISOs and it refused to play them (something about the ISOs files not being recognised). By complete fluke, when I was transferring some more files to this directory I noticed it created some BMK files for my ISOs which were not there before. I deleted those files and it played them ok again with the dark patches still in place. I have not yet had the time to find out why those BMK files were there. Since then, I converted the same DVDs into MP4 files and these play almost perfectly. I say almost because during some fast movements, I have noticed some jagged edges on the images. But that is not the MP’s fault as other files seem to play ok so I guess it is the fault of my encoding software that converted the DVDs to MP4.

If none of the above is important to you, then I can not fault this device. It has managed to play every file I have thrown at it. Some people had complained about its Media Library not being able to detect newly added files but I have not been seen this problem. Maybe the firmware had fixed the issue. However everytime I have transferred files, the MP was in standby mode. I have not tried to copy any files across when it is “fully” on. If it does not detect the newly added files, you just need to tell it to clear the Media Library and it will rebuild it for you. I have tried this and it does do it.

I have a Sony TV which is DLNA compliant. So rather than connecting this MP to the TV via the HDMI cable, I connected both to my router. This MP acts as a Media Server as well and is therefore capable of streaming media to DLNA compliant devices. I am happy to say it does exactly what it says on the tin. My only initial concern was, the TV was not receiving the full list of files/directories from the MP. But after I left it a for a few seconds, the list was slowly appearing. I did copy a huge number of files…

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]]> http://gemation.com/uk-bargain-toshiba-40rv753b-40-inch-widescreen-full-hd-1080p-digital-lcd-tv-with-freeview-hd-deal.html#comment-366 tmam Tue, 21 Feb 2012 09:54:53 +0000 http://gemation.com/uk-bargain-toshiba-40rv753b-40-inch-widescreen-full-hd-1080p-digital-lcd-tv-with-freeview-hd-deal.html#comment-366 <div style="margin-left:0.5em;"> <div style="margin-bottom:0.5em;"> 10 of 10 people found the following review helpful: </div> <div style="margin-bottom:0.5em;"> <span style="margin-left: -5px;"><img src="http://g-ecx.images-amazon.com/images/G/02/x-locale/common/customer-reviews/stars-5-0._V192197110_.gif" width="64" alt="5.0 out of 5 stars" title="5.0 out of 5 stars" height="12" border="0"/></span> <b>tmaham</b>, <nobr>12 Oct 2010</nobr></div> <div style="margin-bottom:0.5em;"> <div><div style="float:left;">By </div><div style="float:left;"><a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/pdp/profile/ARL2L7ZHSAQ7M?ie=UTF8&tag=ukkw016-21&linkCode=xm2" target="_top"><span style="font-weight: bold;">tmam</span></a> - <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/cdp/member-reviews/ARL2L7ZHSAQ7M?ie=UTF8&tag=ukkw016-21&linkCode=xm2&sort_by=MostRecentReview" target="_top"></a></div></div><div style="clear:both;"/> </div> <div class="tiny" style="margin-bottom:0.5em;"> <b><span class="h3color tiny">This review is from: </span>Toshiba 40RV753B 40-inch Widescreen Full HD 1080p Digital LCD TV with Freeview HD (Electronics)</b> </div> it is good value for money. I absolutely love it. it was the cheapest one I could find with the quality going with it.I did look at lot of internet sites and been to shops to find out which one to buy and what price I pay. I must say this one was the best. <div style="padding-top: 10px; clear: both; width: 100%;"> <div style="float:left; padding-right:15px; border-right:1px solid #CCCCCC"><div style="padding-bottom:5px;"><b class="tiny" style="color:#666666;white-space:nowrap;">Help other customers find the most helpful reviews</b> </div><div style="width:300px;"> <a name="R6GLDRNQIVZJZ.2115.Helpful.Reviews" style="font-size:1px;"> </a><span><span class="votingPrompt">Was this review helpful to you? </span><a rel="nofollow" class="votingButtonReviews" href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/voting/cast/Reviews/2115/R6GLDRNQIVZJZ/Helpful/1?ie=UTF8&token=67367643D58A2B197E1001B39AEC31DF763E3D73&target=aHR0cDovL3d3dy5hbWF6b24uY28udWsvcHJvZHVjdC1yZXZpZXdzL0IwMDNGVkFJRkk_X2VuY29kaW5nPVVURjgmc3VtbWFyeT0wJmFsaW5rQ29kZT14bTImdGFnPXVra3cwMTYtMjEmdj0yJmxpbmtDb2RlPXhtMiZhc2luPUIwMDNGVkFJRkkmdHJ1bmNhdGU9NTAwMCZha2lkPUFLSUFKQlNRNVpIV1ZUU0dJQlVBJnNpZz1TM1huJTJGTWJSc0VVaURhMnE5JTJGOXNmRVhzOU9FWTAzOGowcW1kJTJCakFTcEU0JTNEJmV4cD0yMDEyLTAyLTIyVDA4JTNBMjQlM0EzNVomYXRhZz11a2t3MDE2LTIx&voteAnchorName=R6GLDRNQIVZJZ.2115.Helpful.Reviews&voteSessionID=000-0000000-0000000"><img src="http://g-ecx.images-amazon.com/images/G/02/x-locale/communities/reviews/btn-yes-sec-md._V192192904_.gif" width="35" alt="Yes" style="vertical-align:middle;" height="18" border="0"/></a> <a rel="nofollow" class="votingButtonReviews" href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/voting/cast/Reviews/2115/R6GLDRNQIVZJZ/Helpful/-1?ie=UTF8&token=95EAF50592820AA7A569D7F0ED9E89239765B0A8&target=aHR0cDovL3d3dy5hbWF6b24uY28udWsvcHJvZHVjdC1yZXZpZXdzL0IwMDNGVkFJRkk_X2VuY29kaW5nPVVURjgmc3VtbWFyeT0wJmFsaW5rQ29kZT14bTImdGFnPXVra3cwMTYtMjEmdj0yJmxpbmtDb2RlPXhtMiZhc2luPUIwMDNGVkFJRkkmdHJ1bmNhdGU9NTAwMCZha2lkPUFLSUFKQlNRNVpIV1ZUU0dJQlVBJnNpZz1TM1huJTJGTWJSc0VVaURhMnE5JTJGOXNmRVhzOU9FWTAzOGowcW1kJTJCakFTcEU0JTNEJmV4cD0yMDEyLTAyLTIyVDA4JTNBMjQlM0EzNVomYXRhZz11a2t3MDE2LTIx&voteAnchorName=R6GLDRNQIVZJZ.2115.Helpful.Reviews&voteSessionID=000-0000000-0000000"><img src="http://g-ecx.images-amazon.com/images/G/02/x-locale/communities/reviews/btn-no-sec-md._V192192932_.gif" width="35" alt="No" style="vertical-align:middle;" height="18" border="0"/></a> <span class="votingMessage"/></span> </div></div><div style="float:left;"><div style="padding-left:15px;"><div style="white-space:nowrap;"><span class="tiny"> <a name="R6GLDRNQIVZJZ.2115.Inappropriate.Reviews" style="font-size:1px;"> </a><span class="reportingButton"><nobr><a rel="nofollow" class="reportingButton" href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/voting/cast/Reviews/2115/R6GLDRNQIVZJZ/Inappropriate/1?ie=UTF8&token=E9E96C62899E9DADD58E852D25651CF0313FCD0A&target=aHR0cDovL3d3dy5hbWF6b24uY28udWsvcHJvZHVjdC1yZXZpZXdzL0IwMDNGVkFJRkk_X2VuY29kaW5nPVVURjgmc3VtbWFyeT0wJmFsaW5rQ29kZT14bTImdGFnPXVra3cwMTYtMjEmdj0yJmxpbmtDb2RlPXhtMiZhc2luPUIwMDNGVkFJRkkmdHJ1bmNhdGU9NTAwMCZha2lkPUFLSUFKQlNRNVpIV1ZUU0dJQlVBJnNpZz1TM1huJTJGTWJSc0VVaURhMnE5JTJGOXNmRVhzOU9FWTAzOGowcW1kJTJCakFTcEU0JTNEJmV4cD0yMDEyLTAyLTIyVDA4JTNBMjQlM0EzNVomYXRhZz11a2t3MDE2LTIx&voteAnchorName=R6GLDRNQIVZJZ.2115.Inappropriate.Reviews&voteSessionID=000-0000000-0000000"></a></nobr></span> </span> <span style="color:#CCCCCC;">|</span> <span class="tiny"><a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/review/R6GLDRNQIVZJZ" target="_top"></a></span></div><div style="white-space:nowrap;padding-left:-5px;padding-top:5px;"><a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/review/R6GLDRNQIVZJZ" target="_top"><img src="http://g-ecx.images-amazon.com/images/G/02/x-locale/communities/discussion_boards/comment-sm._V192198744_.gif" width="16" alt="Comment" hspace="3" align="absmiddle" height="16" border="0"/></a> <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/review/R6GLDRNQIVZJZ" target="_top">Comment</a></div></div></div><div style="clear:both;"/> </div> <br/></div>

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

tmaham, 12 Oct 2010

By 

tmam –

This review is from: Toshiba 40RV753B 40-inch Widescreen Full HD 1080p Digital LCD TV with Freeview HD (Electronics)

it is good value for money. I absolutely love it. it was the cheapest one I could find with the quality going with it.I did look at lot of internet sites and been to shops to find out which one to buy and what price I pay. I must say this one was the best.

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