I was looking to upgrade my WDTV HD for quite some time now, so when I came across the WDTV Live on special – I simply couldn’t resist and ended up going home with one.
I wrote quite an extensive post on the HD version of the WDTV, so I won’t go too much into every little detail with this post as I figured most know what the WDTV is capable of. Instead, I thought I’d just post my thoughts and findings on this unit and provide a little feedback to those who may be looking at upgrading. For reference, my setup consists of a Pioneer VSX-520 AV Receiver and Sony SA-VS350H 5.1 surround sound speakers.
The Unit Itself, Hardware
Western Digital have moved away from the all black, glossy finish of the HD to a black matte finish with silver trim on the Live. I quite welcome the change as it makes the unit look a bit more sleek, plus you won’t have finger smudges all over the remote. The hardware is quite similar in terms of the backpanel with the RCA connectors simplified and turned into was is essentially a 3.5mm jack. The other difference being the USB port on the back of the unit is now positioned horizontally, not vertically like on the HD.
User Interface
The UI in the WDTV Live hasn’t changed all too much in comparison to the WDTV HD. The style is very similar, the only two real differences are the positioning and speed. The HD navigation started from the left and menus expanded to the right, the Live starts in the centre and menus expand vertically. One advantage the Live has over the HD is speed, it is much faster overall. Apart from these two things, I don’t think there is much else to discuss in terms of the UI.
Streaming Video & Network Capability
With the Live HD gaining networking capabilities, one is now able to stream video from a media server or a share on a computer. While I don’t have any media servers to stream from, I do stream content from my iMac to the Live handles things just fine. I’ve found streaming large .mkv movies issue free, with no lag or hang ups. Fast forwarding and rewinding is also fine. I have noticed large MPEG based files do seem to lag or even freeze briefly whilst fast forwarding at 8x, at 4x they’re fine.
I don’t know if it’s firmware based, but quite frequently the WDTV will have troubles connecting to my SAMBA network share, other times it’s fine. Infrequently, browsing some folders the unit will just freeze up whilst in thumbnail mode, my guess is processing power. Another annoyance is browsing network shares in thumbnail mode; both the thumbnail and movie are listed. Apparently there is a fix for it which involves removing the .jpg extension, but I’ve had no luck with that.
One more annoying thing is that if you have networked your WDTV, it’ll go online by itself to check for firmware updates. This feature is actually pretty neat, the only annoying thing is the fact that there is no built in setting to turn this off – especially if you use an older firmware.
I don’t have any comments or feedback to provide on the internet media functions of the WDTV Live as I don’t use them. One thing I will note with the earlier versions of the firmware, these internet media options were present in the video menu, which I found annoying. With 1.04.xx they are no longer present.
File Management
A nice, new little feature of the WDTV Live is file management and the ability to move, copy or delete files of both locally connected and networked drives. No real issues to report with this feature at present.
Video & Audio Playback
Video: 99% of mkv videos playback fine. I have noticed that BluRay and HD-DVD rips can stutter depending on the Firmware used. 1.03/1.04 caused playback issues, whereas 1.02 plays things smoothly.
Audio: DTS-ES is passed through, DTS-HD/MA is downmixed to DTS Core 5.1. Dolby Digital+ and Dolby TrueHD are passed through. Dolby TrueHD only seems to be passed through from .mkv files on 1.04 firmware, not sure why as nothing is noted in the changelogs. Multichannel AAC from .mkv files does not play over digital (and from what I’ve read, never will), I did manage to get it working via Stereo though, but what a pain in the ass.
Subtitles
The Live has had some improvements with subtitles support and settings. There are a few more added sizes for subtitle display and positioning (which is set by the up and down arrows on the remote). Unfortunately, there still isn’t any support for styled softsubs which is a bit of a downer, but I kind of don’t mind. The Live also has issues playing PGS subtitles from mkv’s.
Movie Thumbnails (+ network fix)
In Firmware version 1.02.xx, thumbnail colours will show up saturated and do not cache properly, this issue is corrected in 1.03.xx firmware versions. Now, one very annoying bug which WD refuse to fix and call a feature is the display of movie thumbnails on networked drives. That is, the .jpg and and movie both show up. WD answer me this; Just what on earth made you guys think we want to see JPEG images when we’re browsing movies? /facepalm.
This bug annoys myself and many, many other WDTV Live users across the globe. The hardest part was sifting through the useless suggestions people were posting on how to fix this.
I tried everything from removing the .jpg extension to ThumbGen’s fix – all of which didn’t work. The ONLY solution I’ve found to get thumbnails to display on networked drives without them showing up along side the movie is to install the WDLXTV custom firmware. It takes a bit of tinkering to set it all up, but it works.
The process is quite simple, within the WDLXTV configuration you setup your network drive to automatically mount upon start up using xmount. This makes the WDTV think the drive is connected as a normal HDD via USB and thumbnail problem solved!
I am not to be credited for this solution, I actually found it posted by someone else on a WDTV based forum.
Network Shares with Mac OS X 10.7 (WDLXTV specific fix)
So.. You’ve upgraded to Mac OS X 10.7 like I did and realised you can no longer access SMB Shares, WTF!!! I hear you say.. The reasoning behind this is due to SAMBA licensing, thus resulting in Apple writing their own implementation of SAMBA called SMBX. Anyway, after some Googling I found a solution. Read on..
Notes: You’ll need some knowledge of directory structures and paths in order to set this up. You’ll also need at least one USB device attached at all times for automount to work.
Open Terminal.app (found in Applications/Utilities).
Step 1) Type the following command: sudo nfsd enable to enable the NFS daemon.
Step 2) Type the following command: sudo nano /etc/exports to create the paths to your shares.
Step 3) A blank file will open up, in this you want to type the full path to the folders/volumes you want to share. For example, I’m sharing my Public folder, so I have added /Users/Rad/Public to mine. After you have added the full path of the folders/volumes, press control + O to save the file and press enter, then press control + X to exit the nano editor.
Step 4) Type the following command: showmount -e and you should get listing, such as:
Exports list on localhost:
/Users/Rad/Public 192.168.1.0
Step 5) In this step you’ll need to add an automount entry to your WDLXTV config file. I’ve added xmount “192.168.1.83:Users/Rad/Public” “Public” nfs to my config file; which specifies my Mac’s IP address, the path to the share, the share name (as it’ll appear on your WDTV menu) and the share type. Then reboot your WDTV, powering it off and on won’t work. After it boots navigate to your locally connected USB drive and the NFS share should appear in there! If it doesn’t, navigate back one step and try again. This process has worked for me.
Notes on Firmware versions
1.01.xx Nothing to report with this version as I upgraded pretty much instantly when I got the unit.
1.02.xx After some testing with a friend, I’ve concluded that this is the best firmware version. It is the fastest in terms of navigation and most functional by the looks of things.
1.03.xx Similar to 1.02 in terms of speed and functionality, with improved thumbnail caching. BluRay/HD-DVD rips will more than likely stutter, TrueHD pass-through lost.
1.04.xx I wouldn’t upgrade to any 1.04.xx version, no benefits to be had unless you want/need TrueHD pass-through.
1.05.xx I’m currently using this firmware, but the B-RAD version (1.05.04_V.WDLXTV_LIVE-0.5.1.1) which is running flawlessly. Has 3TB HDD support and TrueHD pass-through.
Tip: To remove the dreaded New Firmware Found message whilst using older firmware versions, you’ll need to setup a URL blocking filter from within your Router/Modem configuration interface. In the URL blocking filter section of your Router/Modem, add support.wdc.com to the banned/disallowed list and you won’t have it pop up anymore.
Filed in TV