WD TV Live Plus - anyone?

[tvmaster2]

I had one of these WD TV Live Plus units lying around, can't remember why. So I pulled it out, updated the firmware a couple of times, and presto: pretty good access to my Sage server.
Anyone using one of these? Thoughts?
Of course it's just a dumb play-back device (as well as streaming services), but so far the latest update has made it a little smoother, and I have full access to all my Sage recordings. And it's pretty inexpensive

[AlphaCrew]

Originally Posted by tvmaster2

I had one of these WD TV Live Plus units lying around, can't remember why. So I pulled it out, updated the firmware a couple of times, and presto: pretty good access to my Sage server.
Anyone using one of these? Thoughts?
Of course it's just a dumb play-back device (as well as streaming services), but so far the latest update has made it a little smoother, and I have full access to all my Sage recordings. And it's pretty inexpensive

Yepper, I'm using one. Its "OK" for simple streaming of basic SD & HD material. However IMHO, money is much better spent on a PCH C200. (unless service streaming is your thing)....

[tvmaster2]

Originally Posted by AlphaCrew

Yepper, I'm using one. Its "OK" for simple streaming of basic SD & HD material. However IMHO, money is much better spent on a PCH C200. (unless service streaming is your thing)....

cool box. but for $300, it's more than I need. streaming is useful sometimes

[KryptoNyte]

Yes, I use the WDTV Plus HD on all TV's in the house instead of an extender. I rarely watch live television, so it's pretty much a perfect solution. Not to mention the simple fact that it has played (almost) every single file I've thrown at it, and it's "pulls" the video to it's own processor, so no load on the computer storing the videos.

Heck, if that doesn't do it for you, keep in mind that it has (2) USB ports, so if wanted, it would also serve as a NAS to provide access to (2) external hard drives 24/7. Or you can plug in a wireless network device, or wireless keyboard ... it pretty does it all, and for a hundred bucks to boot.

[tvmaster2]

Originally Posted by KryptoNyte

Yes, I use the WDTV Plus HD on all TV's in the house instead of an extender. I rarely watch live television, so it's pretty much a perfect solution. Not to mention the simple fact that it has played (almost) every single file I've thrown at it, and it's "pulls" the video to it's own processor, so no load on the computer storing the videos.

Heck, if that doesn't do it for you, keep in mind that it has (2) USB ports, so if wanted, it would also serve as a NAS to provide access to (2) external hard drives 24/7. Or you can plug in a wireless network device, or wireless keyboard ... it pretty does it all, and for a hundred bucks to boot.

yeah...I'm getting to like this little box. Although you can't schedule recordings in Sage, that's about the only thing I can't do. I hope they expand and refine it a little, but for now, it's a great deal, and for $35-60 on ebay, no worries

[KryptoNyte]

Yeah, and it can be a challenge trying to watch live TV also. It lets you watch files as they're being saved, but fast-forwarding to the end of file (or rather, almost live TV) is virtually impossible.

[tvmaster2]

Originally Posted by KryptoNyte

Yeah, and it can be a challenge trying to watch live TV also. It lets you watch files as they're being saved, but fast-forwarding to the end of file (or rather, almost live TV) is virtually impossible.

that would be a good refinement....a jump forward/back ability...even if it was in five minute intervals

[KryptoNyte]

I think you can skip forward 10 mins at a shot. Hit the FF button, then when it's FF'd at 2x, I believe hittin the NEXT button will move you forward in 10 min spurts.

The problem is when you get to End Of File, as I recall, with a live file, you hit EOF and it just starts over. The only method I've found to watch a (nearly) live TV recording is to be watching the directory when the recording begins and start it immediately, then don't touch anything. Obviously, not so good with Live TV.

It's been nearly perfect with everything else, though, and I really like that it has all the video file format processing capability on-board, so there's pretty much no processor usage on the machine with Sage running.

[KryptoNyte]

If only someone with more savy than I could hack this device's firmware with some kind of Sage-like interface ... Oh my ...

[tvmaster2]

Originally Posted by KryptoNyte

Yeah, and it can be a challenge trying to watch live TV also. It lets you watch files as they're being saved, but fast-forwarding to the end of file (or rather, almost live TV) is virtually impossible.

I didn't realize you could watch live tv. what's the secret?

[KryptoNyte]

Hey, TVm, there isn't really any secret. I have my SageTV save directory shared across the network, so I just aim the WDTV to the file, as it's saving, and watch it.

To actually watch live TV is a trick. You have to sync watches, and wait for the file to appear immediately as the program starts to record, and start watching on the WDTV.

Definitely not a solid solution for Live TV.

On the other hand, if you don't mind if it's not perfectly live TV, you can start watching any program as it's still recording in SageTV. The only problem that you'll have is fast-forwarding the WDTV on the file that's recording. Once it hits EOF, the WDTV kicks you back to the start of the file as I recall.