Hub - Multiple TVs?

I just found the Hub and think it would be exactly what I’m looking for!  The “better” TV is in the living room with my WD HD TV (first gen) and attached 1TB WD My Book HD and the hundreds of movies.  I’d love to be able to watch on my bedroom TV when my wife is currently involved with her show on the “better” TV.

I understand the Hub will allow streaming to any TV in the house, but can someone give me the specifics?  I know that a wireless network adapter is needed but where is that to be added?  Here’s my current set up:

Samsung 46 LED HDTV in my living room that is Internet ready and I have the applicable Samsung wireless adapter (so I’m able to do all the Samsung apps - Youtube, Netflix, Yahoo, etc.).  This TV has two USB ports and several HDMI ports.  I have a Samsung 40 LCD HDTV in the bedroom that has two HDMI ports and don’t believe it has any USB ports (this TV is a few years old and the whole multiple HDMI thing hadn’t hit the TV scene at the time).

My question - how do I play movies, music, photos from the Hub in the living room to the TV in the bedroom?  Do I need to purchase something for the TV in the bedroom in order for this to work?

Oh yeah, each TV has a PS3 attached so I don’t know if this helps my particular situation?  Still trying to figure out how to view movies, photos, and music on the PS3!

Also, is it possible to stream movies off my iMac instead of copying everything onto the Hub?  I don’t mind doing that but thought I’d ask.

Sorry for the dumb question, but I’m trying to wrap my head around the multiple TV thing because that’s the most important thing for me about whether or not I purchase the Hub or not.

Thanks in advance for the help!

In order to stream to another TV, the other TV has to have a DLNA RECEIVER, or just a way to access it via a network share or whatever.

Your Gen1 WDTV HD won’t do that, as it has no network (unless you’re using B-Rad or something)

If you have a PS3, I think you CAN stream to IT via DLNA.

Yes, as long as both your iMac and your Hub are on the same network, you can do that.

Ok theres a number of ways you can set this puppy up…

#1- Best Way - My Way

Purchase a My Book Live or My Book World (White Light) 2 TB drive. This will serve as your primary movie location. Connect this to your network.

Next Purchase a WD TV Live Hub for your primary TV. This will serve 2 purposes- #1 it will give you an additional 1TB of storage space, and it will act as a player (as well as giving you access to NetFlix, Blockbuster, etc.).

On the secondary TV, you have a choice. You can use your PS3 (it will be able to see both the NAS drive and the Hub) but its not very good at playing every movie and needs to use the built in media server inside the Hub and the NAS drives… A second choice would be to purchase a WD TV Live/Live Plus or another Hub for the bedroom. If you think your collection is going to be larger than 3 TB than I’d say go with another Hub because it has a great interface and is real simple to use + big remote!

You can also add additional space to the network by adding more Live Hub’s or My Book Live or My Book World drives.

Keep in mind that you also will want to keep a second copy (backup) of your files. So if you get 3TB of network space, you will want to buy at least 3TB of cheap USB storage as well (I use WD Elements drives primarily). - Every few months (at a minimum) make sure to check your backups, and update them as needed.


#2 - The Cheap Way

Using equipment you already haveand simply adding a WD TV Live Hub to the mix will work as well. Simply purchase the live Hub and use it as your primary media location. Any files you store on the internal hard drive will be available on both your PS3 in the other room, as well as on your Mac. Keep in mind however that the NAS functionality on the Hub is a bit slow, so you may want to consider a NAS drive as listed in the first option above.


A few things… the PS3 can’t play certain file types by default (.mkv)… Make sure it can play what you want it to play.

here is what I am doing for my mom (I think, as long as it works).  I bought  the WD Live Hub for the living room (I am going to set the computer up to download the shows she watches using Vuze and some other stuff I set up.  Basically, all of the shows I watch are downloaded, moved to the device, sorted and renamed within about an hour after they air.  I will make sure hers does this too) and a different streaming media player for one of the bedrooms.  (there are all kinds, WD makes a few, I went with some seagate thing that’s cheaper… hope it works well).  I am going to use the HUB for all of the media… I am thinking I will use a second hard drive for the movies and use internal storage for the downloaded tv shows.

One thing though… Any of the HD stuff is going to be a pain over wifi, even N on the 5Ghz band.  I am having them run some cat6 before I get there to avoid any issues with bandwidth.  

My goal for her house is to get rid of cable… it’s too expensive and she really can’t afford it.  

The Hub has twonky media server (it’s a pretty good server) built in which means any DLNA device can connect… It does not mean any DLNA device can play the media, the dlna client has to be capable of playing whatever codec/container the media is in.  The Hub is also capable of playing media from a DLNA server (including playon which is an awesome idea if you want to be able to use Hulu…

As for streaming off of your mac… you definitely can.  There are a few options.  I am pretty certain you can actually just connect to it as a network share and browse the drives.  I haven’t tried this… alternately and probably a little easier is to install some sort of DLNA server on the device (such as Twonky), then it is as easy as choosing the media server as a content source (as I do with playon, unfortunately playon requires a PC or at least a windows in a VM).

Hi,

I have an old WD player (no ethernet port).  If i get the ‘My Book World’ to store my media, can i connect it to my old WD TV via USB like i would connect an external hard drive or memory stick? 

This way i can save my files down to the My Book World though the network, then play them with my WD TV.

 Edit: Dont think i can as i just read the USB is for external storage only… can anyone confirm this? 

I can confirm it - I’d get the newer WD TV Live or a Hub if you wanted to go with a World… otherwise get a USB drive. The pre-network WD TV Lives are pretty limiting however, so your best bet would be to upgrade imo.