does anyone know if this usb 2.0 manual swich box will work with the WDTV media player ??? check out the link below I’m assuming you can hook this up with a bunch of drives and manualy switch whatever port or drive you want to access through the switch box and not have to keep plugging in and plugging out all your drives…
http://www.usbswitch.com/four-port-x-over-2-4-switch-usb-sharing.html
or this one
While it may appear to work at first, it’s probably not a great idea. Flipping the switch without dismounting the drive from the WDTV can lead to data corruption.
I’ve also found that doing a hot (WDTV is already powered up) unlpug/plug of external drives can confuse the WDTV.
If you have all of your data from your external drives backed up somewhere else and safe, go for it, but be aware it will most likely not be supported by WD.
hold on a sec “Rider” I get what your saying and that is correct about not unplugging and plugging in the WD media player, but I would actualy be plugging and unplugging just the output usb cable of the usb switch box not every single drive the usb switch box is connected to. So isn’t that the same as plugging and unplugging a drive directly to the Western digital box??? The point im trying to make is I think it’s a lot more convenient for someone who has 4 or 5 external drives and connecting those drives together with only one output usb cable that can be unplugged/plugged or power cycling the media box when ever you want. Know what I mean??? for someone to plug and unplug for ever drive they have is kind of a messy set up for people. Like you said dismounting the drives from the Western digital box is the best way without loosing data corruption but using this way your dismounting all of your drives with a usb output cable. What do you think??? Hey I’m just brainstorming here I thank you for your advise and open for more from you or anyone… links below
http://www.usbswitch.com/four-port-x-over-2-4-switch-usb-sharing.html
or
dirk_diggler wrote:
… Like you said dismounting the drives from the Western digital box is the best way without loosing data corruption but using this way your dismounting all of your drives with a usb output cable.
You are not dismounting the drives. You are just severing the USB connection between the the WDTV and the drive. Same as pulling the USB plug out of the WDTV. Hence high potential for file system corruption. The dismount of a drive can only occur from the WDTV end.
I’m not sure If I’m explaining this properly so let me try one more time… I know the western digital media player is sensitive in the way by not ejecting 1 specific drive at a time properly from the wd Media box you will have potential risk of data corruption I agree.
I’m going to ask this question in more detail here. If you have 4 external hard drives and you hook them all up to this usb 2.0 “manual switch” Hub device in below link and you switch the “on” button for 1 drive only at a time, connect it to the WD media player with the usb switch box output cable and you eject it properly and turn the switch(drive) “off” . And you specifically do that ritual for each drive connected to the media box your going to have potential risk of data corruption??? that is hard for me to believe Im sorry because your not changing anything in that parallel circuit set up your just “switching” on/off in a simple parallel circuit and ejecting 1 port(drive) at a time properly like you would do normally without the hub. Remember I’m only talking about a “Manual” switch usb 2.0 hub not an Automatic switching hub where all the drives are presently active at the same time where there is 1 switch to activate all ports(drives) at once. That is where I can see major risk of data corruption by ejecting 1 drive where all the other ports(drives) are active. do you agree ??? I don’t see how that is any different by ejecting each drive at a time like you would do normally without a hub. In the future serious WDTV media player users are most like going to have this same problem as me where there is going to be too many drives with a messy setup so I’m Just trying to make my set up less messy with all my drives, but also bring the concern to users that eventually with all there storage devices over time. They will have the same problem as me and it needs to be addressed. I was told that you can set up a network share that can hold more storage but I prefer a hard wire connection. I would love if WD could send me a copy of the schematic drawings of this specific device??? I hope “roofingguy” or Tony can respond to me those guys so far gave me good technical explanations… thanks guys
http://www.alibaba.com/product-gs/413378624/4_Port_USB_HUB_2_0/showimage.html
I don’t think anyone can give you a guarantee that it will work or it won’t work, short of going out and buying one and trying it.
The players tend to be finicky about switches… some folks have no issues with HDMI switches, and some folks find they don’t work at all.
Even with the third-party WDLXTV firmware, not all USB hubs work and not all USB drives work when connected to Hubs.
Having said that, if you “eject” that USB port before clicking a button to swap drives, I don’t see a physical or logical reason why the WDTV wouldn’t see the new drive. (Well, even if you don’t “eject” the drive, I don’t see a reason, but that’s where the corruption warnings come in… you can just yank drives out of the WDTV without "eject"ing them and then hook another one up, but they tend to get corrupted.)
Electrically, I don’t see a difference between "eject"ing a USB drive and then re-attaching the same drive, or a different drive, which is known to work, and "eject"ing a USB drive connected to such a physical switch and then manually switching to a different drive.
It seems like it would work. And, as long as you always “eject”, there shouldn’t be any corruption issues.
But, short of actually trying it, I don’t think there’s a guaranteed “yes, it will work” answer.
thank you for your response “roofing guy” I just found soo may threads on this topic where I didn’t even think of looking I apologize for the so called cross thread. I didn’t know WD hasn’t made a new firmware upgrade to support hubs in almost a year . One major question has been brought up already in those threads but hasn’t been answered. This is the major question… If the WD media player already had previous support for hubs in earlier firware upgrades and in B-Rad firmware why did they take that feature out??? And if they had a good reason fine what is it??? … Now have that said are they going to add hub support in the near future ??? sooooo many people are requesting this… This really [Deleted] because I like the WDTV plus media player but I might have to buy another media player that specificaly supports hubs without potential risk of data corruption.
P.S. I might just buy the manual switching hub anyway and yes I have all my 4 drives backed up with a family member
Well, if you want guesses and intuition, as opposed to facts, I suppose I can answer… :smileyvery-happy:
I don’t think any WD devices actually “supported” a USB hub… but I seem to recall that some hubs would work with some of the earliest devices.
But a USB port only has to supply 500mA of 5V power… each Passport drive requires up to 1000mA of USB power. Even attached to a PC or laptop, people often find their USB port simply can’t drive their external hard drive, and their drive gets corrupted from the underpowering.
You can see the problem if folks start attaching multiple drives to an unpowered USB hub… people end up either ruining their hard drives, or burning out the USB port on the WDTV (or both).
Since you can’t put brains where there aren’t any, I think WD felt compelled to protect its users by actively blocking more than one volume on any one port… then people can’t fry their HD and can’t fry their WDTV. People still try anyways.
And it seems to mostly be the folks with powered hubs and/or powered drives that are saying “but I’m not gonna fry my stuff! can we pleeeez have it??”
So, WD could hope for the best and add hub support, and still end up with folks killing their equipment, or could play it safe. So far, it’s looked like they only want to play it safe.
B-Rad doesn’t have as much on the line… if his WDLXTV firmware supports some hubs, and you try to overdrive the port, he can just shrug and tell you you should have known better. 
The other issue is that there isn’t any particular standard for hubs, so even if WD were to allow enumeration of more than one volume, it will mostly be the same boat as the USB wi-fi adaptors… “why can’t you support mine?? why can I only pick from these few hard-to-find ones?? etc…” WD won’t be able to support every USB hub. That simply will never happen.
As far as I know, it’s only additional drives that are currently blocked… users have reported success with some powered hubs, if they connect one hard drive, one wi-fi dongle and one USB keyboard… so, in a way USB hubs are “supported”… just not for additional drives.
As to why WD is only apparently contemplating adding multiple drive enumeration for the Live Hub, but not for the Live or the Live Plus, we can only guess that it’s as a marketing gimmick… they don’t want people shying away from buying their flagship, the Live Hub, and are less concerned with current owners who’ve already given their money to WD. That, in itself, is a whole other rant.
But, the last I’d seen, over in “Ideas”, is that it’s planned for the future for the Live Hub (whether it will make the light of day is a whole other question), but it’s unplanned for the Live and Live Plus. So, I wouldn’t hold my breath on ever seeing multi-volume enumeration on a Live.
Roofing Guy, everything you said was spot on. However, I have to point out that he wants to use a switch, not a hub. Big difference.
Like I said earlier, it might work, it might not. IF… you take care to dismount the drive via the WDTV menu, the data on the drive should be OK. It’s the switching to another drive that could be an issue. Flipping the switch could cause a spike on the data and power pins which may cause failure of either the drive or the WDTV. Yeah, I know, USB ports and devices are suppossed to be hot swappable, and it shouldn’t be an issue, but I’m an eternal pessimist. If it can fail, it will. :smileyvery-happy: And as I said earlier also, I’ve found the WDTV gets confused sometimes when plugging (or in this case, switching) a new drive in after the WDTV was already powered up and running.
In the end, no one can really say yes or no, it will or will not work without causing problems. It’s just something you’d have to try and hope for the best. If something fails, well… fair warning.
Experience: 30 years as a Computer Systems Analyst and Designer.
thanks “rider” and “Roofing” guy for your time in replying back to my questions and concerns. I will buy this usb switch in the near future when I need to buy 2 more external hard drives that way I’ll need some type of switch. Just to refresh what I was saying where I don’t think there will be a concern if you do it properly. The only time you would think of switching to another port(drive 1) is you must first go to WD menu and eject the usb switch output port than once the cable is out of the WD media player then you can hit another switch for another port(drive 2) and then connect it back to the WD media box and so on…Remember The switching should only take place when the WD media player is NOT connected to the USB switching box. Anyway I’ll stop rambling on about this your right I’m just going to have to try it first with discretion so I will get back to you when I know how this set up will behave. I do have all my drives backed up anyway with a family member. I also respect “riders” experience thank you…
Experience : 7 years Electronic Engineering Technology
I had a thought about this… those USB switches are designed for multiple hosts (computer) to one printer (or drive). The wiring is “backwards” for your application, it’s not designed for multiple drives to one host. Check the “A” vs “B” connectors…
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