Navigation issues... What am I missing?

WD Legacy Products WD TV Live & Live Plus
1

WD TV Live is so close to replacing my HTPC its not even funny. But so far, its been extremely frustrating.

For the life of me, I can’t seem to figure out a way to fix the navigation on this [Deleted] thing! 

it needs to be simple, like my folder structure.

ie: I have been using WMC with a HTPC at every TV for about 5 years. My file structure is simple, 

(Videos Button)—>Movies → Select movie folder---->>> start video

                                   TV Series–> Series Name---->>> start video

With WDTV I have to navigate like mad to get anywhere!

On both Videos and Music, using DLNA on my NAS drive, I get three options, Videos/Music/Photos

To watch a simple video I have to select:

(Videos Button)–> Videos -->All Videos–> selection dumps all files with no organization, thumbails, etc. 

                                                      Folder–>all–>selection dumps all files with no organization, thumbails, etc.

                                                                       Media–>Movies–>Select movie folder (FINALLY) - Start movie

                                                                                      

                                

Its really quite annoying. It basically has you navigating past  a poor UI, and then to a folder structure that has a lot of curve balls. 

I need this to be SIMPLE for my Kids and Wife!

I have almost 4 Terrabytes of Movies and TV shows on a NAS running Raid. Transferring all of that data to a SINGLE USB HDD to plug directly into the WD device is not an option. not to mention i would then have to duplicate the effort for every TV.

Maybe this just isnt the device for me, or maybe I am looking at this entirely wrong but it seems as if I have to hack the **bleep** thing just to simplify the navigation. If thats the case I would rather not bother and I will just return it and investigate other options.

I have searched the forums and do not see many people complaining about this which leads me to believe that I must be missing something, or people like browsing their entire file structure just to play one video…

What am I missing??

2

Crickets. 

3

You’re running into the limitations of DLNA.   Your DLNA server is responsible for categorizing and organizing the display, not the WDTV.

4

Actually thats true. the DLNA issues make the all three folders appear regardless of what icon is selected. Unfortunately that only addresses one layer of the nav issues. I still have to do 4-6 click throughs to get anywhere. The navigation has proven to be tedious.

But thats ok. As it turns out the real issue is this is not the device for me. I need something simple, that plays multiple file formats, is not a hassle to set up or maintain, and organizes my movies/tv shows without much effort. 

A device that will scan my already organized movie drive and automatically populate the thumbnails/movie info - and allows me to access with less than two clicks. There is a competitors box that does all of these things. I had it set up in under 30 mins and am amazed at how easy and effortless this has been. 

I will be returning my WD box tomorrow. 

Its too bad. I feel i wasted a weekend on a product that is good, but has too many issues with one of the most important aspects. The navigation. 

Good Luck Everyone!

5

stamm321 wrote:
There is a competitors box that does all of these things.

And which might that be?

stamm321 wrote:
I had it set up in under 30 mins and am amazed at how easy and effortless this has been.

 Same here with the WDTV.

6

stamm321 wrote:

There is a competitors box that does all of these things. 

Well, the newer WDTV Live boxes (the Live SMP and Live Hub) do all of that, too.   It just doesn’t do it with DLNA.   I’ve not seen *any* box that does it via “standard” DLNA.   Plex does a really good job, but it requires Plex Server and Plex Client to achieve all of those things.

I’m curious, too… to which box are you referring?

7

I am using a Boxee. 

Let me clarify something though, the WD was setup under 30 mins as well, but like I said, it was not the box for me due to the navigation issues. 

I needed to either map to my NAS using DLNA or have the ability to map specific folders (ie movies) to the movies section. without being able to do that, you end up surfning the entire root. 

After mapping the TV shows, I have complete organization of all the shows on the drive with thumbnails, season info etc. and it takes one click to get there.

Same with Movies. And I can sort by genre, newest, etc.

I do think the quality of the WD codecs is better, but I am dissapointed with the interface. 

Perhaps if I had a harddrive attached directly to the unit my experience would have been better, but to me its all about centralizing and networking. one USB HD is not enough space and you lose it all when it fails. NAS is the only way to go and the WD nav has proven tedious when used in that fashion. 

8

Of course will the interface be better on a Boxee, XBMC rules after all. Still, the Boxee’s fan is utterly annyoing and when you turn media library to ON and add your network shares, you should get what you want with the WDTV too.

9

It actually makes me wonder why WD doesnt use XBMC - even as a secondary option. 

I liked the box overall , it was solid. But the nav killed it for me. 

As far as the fan on the boxee, i actually have not heard it yet - but that could be my 2yr old drowning it out. 

10

WD doesn’t use it becuase the Sigma chip does not support it. Sigma has released a beta version of a chip that does support XBMC, hopefully WD will use this in their next generation LIVE.

11

ahhh. now that makes perfect sense!

Thank you for the info -