Can I hook up a USB hub to my TV Live?

I have the best success running everything off of USB2 HHDs. Can I hook up a 4 port USB2 hub to one USB port and then expand my ability to attach external drives. I currently have a 1tb and 2tb drive attached, have another 1tb full and need more room.

That’s actually a good question. I can’t see why it couldn’t, but then again maybe the user interface won’t be able to show the third, fourth, and so on connected drives. Anybody tried this?

Bumping up. Nobody has tried this? I would like to but don’t have a hub handy. Don’t really want to buy one if it won’t work. Anyone want to give it a shot?

Direct Quote from The WD TV Live  overview page

“Collect without limits - There’s no limit to the size of your media collection; just add more USB drives for more space.”

But I’m not sure how this would actually work without a hub

it was suggested here in the Ideas Lab

http://community.wdc.com/t5/ideas/ideapage/blog-id/idea/article-id/361

NO

WD clearly states at the bottom of one of the WD LIVE user manual pages that WD Live USB ports do not support hubs.

WD should know, it is their product.

Works great… chained hubs with any combo of drives (thumb/disk etc) work too.

Personal I am in to cutting the cord. Go wiireless with a G or N router and adapter. Then steam them from a desktop via network share. Save energy and enjoy your media. A win win!!!

I just tried using a hub, and it does not work…   it only sees USB1 and USB2, the two ports on the box, and if I plug two drives into a hub, it sees one of them as USB1 or USB2 depending which port I plug the hub into…

extrememc wrote:

Personal I am in to cutting the cord. Go wiireless with a G or N router and adapter. Then steam them from a desktop via network share. Save energy and enjoy your media. A win win!!!

i like my cord.  $5 for a 50-60’ cat5 cable or whatever it was and it goes under the floorboard in the basement, up the wall, thru the ceiling and down to my pc.  can’t see it, it’s reliable and cheap.

For the record, I still have my WDTV, and the 7TB of drives referred to in the link above, but unplugging/plugging them is a pain an sharing from a server ■■■■■ via USB…  USB Hubs used to work before updates on the old version…

It could be a magnificent piece of technology if it weren’t so limited.

Waiting.

http://community.wdc.com/t5/WD-TV-Live-Ideas/USB-Hubs/idi-p/2538

Add support for USB Hubs so we can connect more than 2 external hard drives.

Status:  Acknowledged
This is on the to-do list. Thanks for your patience.


I know this was said to be acknowledged and on the to do list, but I think they forgot about it. I recently emailed Western Digital about this problem as I really need this support as well. This is what I said:

“Hi and thanks for a great product. I do have one concern. I cannot get my WDTV Live media player to recognize both drives in my BlacX Duet docking station which I bought specifically to use with the media player. It will only randomly see one drive or the other, but not both. And I know I am not the only person using the Duet with your product, it is becoming increasingly popular. However the only solution I can find online is to use a hacked firmware which has drivers that support this device. I do not want to use a hacked firmware. I hope that you can work with Thermaltake to resolve this issue.”

And this was their response. 

“I apologize for your inconvenience. At the moment, WD only provides support when the drive’s are physically plugged into your unit without the aid of any devices.”

B-Rad’s WDLXTV enhanced firmware has drivers that make it work. I don’t see why WD can’t add this. It seems as though it would be pretty simple. However, they did also tell me in the email that they review these forums too see what features are requested the most, so does anyone else out there want to see USB hub support?

[Smack] me for not reading the details of the message and making a presumptive remark!  (Ignore this post, I’d delete it if I could.  :)

willyarnold wrote:

I know this was said to be acknowledged and on the to do list, but I think they forgot about it. I recently emailed Western Digital about this problem as I really need this support as well. This is what I said:

Replied to the latter half of your post in the other thread.  ;)

As for WD tech support not having anything positive to say about hub support, there is a distinct lack of communication between the firmware team and front-line customer service.  They are simply not aware of current developments nor of the firmware team’s schedule for new additions and fixes.

Does anyone know if the pre-release takes care of this issue (ie. adding more devices via usb hub)?

I need this so badly.  I was so sad the find that I cannot daisy chain my two external WESTERN DIGITAL hd’s to this product. What’s the deal there? I may return it and get something else, it’s rediculous.