10TB (5 x 2TB External My Book Studio) and WD TV Live Hub

#1

Hi Guys,

I’m planning to get WD TV Live Hub next week, from what I heard and read in this forum, there has been a lot of issues with obtaining files from an external drive, some people even lost their data/ movie files.

Here are my questions:

  1. If I connect all 10TB (5 x 2TB External My Book Studio) full of movies, via a USB Hub, straight to a ‘single’ USB Slot at th rear or front of WD TV Live Hub, will it work?

  2. If I want to search for a particular movie, do I have to search all 5 Drives one-by-one or it will give me a full list of the files from 5 different external drives (since I connect all 5 External drives into 1 USB slot with a USB Hub)?

  3. I’m so affraid of losing my 10TB worth of movies, any tips or other suggestion guys? My friend told me if the USB fails, use the network and view your movies from WD TV Live Hub ‘WIRELESSLY’, that means I have to get a USB Wireless Adapter for the WD TV Live Hub, and connect all of my 5 external drives to a computer. Is this possible? But I’ll bet viewing the film will take some time (Slow).

Thanks a lot for all your help guys, really appreciate it… .

#2
  1. No.  As of the latest firmware release, USB hubs are not supported.  Hopefully that will be added in teh future, but no one knows.

I have three USB drives, connected to a PC.  These can be viewed from the Hub over the network.  I presently view the media one drive at a tme, due to the fact that I am not overly happy with the UI of trying to view all the media, since I have TV shows that do not show very well with the UI and are mixed in with the movies.

#3

As I understand it, the max that you can have attached to the HUB at one point (ie: using a USB HUB) is 1 2TB HDD and a WiFi adapter, see HERE.

However, no one who has tried it has mentioned whether they were using a power or unpowered USB HUB.  I would imagine that if it were to work, you would at least need a powered USB HUB and you would want your drives to have their own power source too.

But, as has been said, if you can’t get it to work, then you can access them via the network.  But if your movies are BD or HD movies, I would think of going wired rather than wireless if you can.

#4

You are correct - I should have clarified that.  You can have the HD and WiFi adapter on a hub, but not two hard drives.  As well, I have tested using UN-POWERED hubs, not powered, with the hard drives (Western Digital drives BTW) being powered.

It would be interesting to know if anyone has a powered hub that can be tested…however, there have been numerous mentions of an older version of firmware for the WDTV LIVE  that supported most USB hubs, but not in the latest iterations.

Being able to hang multiple hard drives from the WDTV Live Hub via a USB hub would be nice and possibly sell some drives for WD.

All that aside, a NAS on a wired network would be the better solution.

#5

I have been wondering about using a powered USB HUB too.  I don’t have one to test with, but I know that with my other media player (a Seagate Freeagent Theater+), using a powered hub made it possible use multiple drives.  I doubt the WDTVLH supplies enough current on the 5VDC to supply more than one HDD, even if its power, since it’s power is mostly used for turning the drive motor not for the USB. 

That may be why you can have a HDD & adapter on the USB hub, because the power demand isn’t as great as it would be for multiple HDD’s.  But that’s just a theory.

#6

So what you guys are saying is…

I can attatch a USB Hub to the REAR USB port on the WDTVLIVE HUB,(thus creating 2 USB ports on the rear of the WDTV) and attach my 2TB External and WiFi adapter… leaving an open USB port on the front in which i could attach another 2TB hard drive? or no?

#7

Unknown!!!

Just a possibility, since no one has come forward to say if they have tried a POWERED USB hub.  If everyone who has posted who couldn’t get more than 1 HDD to work with a USB hub was using a non-powered hub then it won’t be known until someone uses a powered one.

The only thing I know to do is to get a powered hub and try it.  If it works, then you’ve freed up a port and added more possibilities, and if it doesn’t…well, you’ve got a powered hub.

#8

Pulazki wrote:

So what you guys are saying is…

I can attatch a USB Hub to the REAR USB port on the WDTVLIVE HUB,(thus creating 2 USB ports on the rear of the WDTV) and attach my 2TB External and WiFi adapter… leaving an open USB port on the front in which i could attach another 2TB hard drive? or no?

 

 

From what other users have reported that should work, the USB hub can have only one disc but could also have a WiFi adaptor and usb keyboard etc.

#9

So it wouldn’t be possible to have 2 hard drives attached ?

The only thing that ‘MIGHT’ be possible would be to use a hub on the rear port for an external hard drive, and WiFI adapter, and then use the port on the front for a USB keyboard? but definitely wouldn’t be able to use the port on the front for another hard drive?

What if i wasn’t using a WiFi adapter?-- if i had my WDTVLIVEHUB connected directly to an ethernet hard wired connection, that would leave both USB Ports open, would i then be able to use them both for hard drives?

#10

That means that the Hub can see mulitiple devices attached to it using a USB Hub, & it probably a power issue.  A HDD will draw more power on the USBs 5V than a adapter & keyboard combined and if that is the case, then a powered USB hub will get you around that issue.

#11

Pulazki wrote:

So it wouldn’t be possible to have 2 hard drives attached ?

 

The only thing that ‘MIGHT’ be possible would be to use a hub on the rear port for an external hard drive, and WiFI adapter, and then use the port on the front for a USB keyboard? but definitely wouldn’t be able to use the port on the front for another hard drive?

 

What if i wasn’t using a WiFi adapter?-- if i had my WDTVLIVEHUB connected directly to an ethernet hard wired connection, that would leave both USB Ports open, would i then be able to use them both for hard drives?

Yes, you could have another drive on the front port, since the rear & front ports really have nothing to do with one another (which is not completely correct, but without having to get to technical, they don’t).  The real problem is the power draw on ONE port, just like with a PC, you can only hookup so many devices using an unpowered hub on one port before things stop working because the PC’s USB port can only supply but so much power.  It is the same on the HUB, however you can’t connect as much as you would on a PC because it isn’t designed to supply that much power.

The way around this, maybe, & I have to stress MAYBE, is to use a powered USB which supplies it’s own power to the devices & does not rely on the HUB to supply that power.

#12

Pulazki wrote:

So it wouldn’t be possible to have 2 hard drives attached ?

 

The only thing that ‘MIGHT’ be possible would be to use a hub on the rear port for an external hard drive, and WiFI adapter, and then use the port on the front for a USB keyboard? but definitely wouldn’t be able to use the port on the front for another hard drive?

 

What if i wasn’t using a WiFi adapter?-- if i had my WDTVLIVEHUB connected directly to an ethernet hard wired connection, that would leave both USB Ports open, would i then be able to use them both for hard drives?

What I meant was that users have found that they can connect a USB drive to the front and another to the back via a USB hub however on that attached USB hub you can only connect one USB drive and maybe a WiFi adpator together with a USB keyboard (wired or Wireless). You cannot connect two drives or more via an attached USB hub to a USB port.

In short an attached USB hub can only have one drive attached however it can have certain other USB devices plugged in. That means that you cannot have more than two drives attached to the WD Hub, one at the front and one at the back.

#13

I remember a friend of mine came over one time with an External USB Drive, and the USB cord that he had actually had a single USB input on one end, and then it split into 2 inputs on the other. so you could plug the usb cord into the port, and then connect 2 devices to it on the other end.

It wasn’t a hub, just a cord… would this be different and/or possible? could i possibly purchase such a cord that plugs into the rear and then splits allowing two USB devices to be plugged into the single cord?

#14

I think is the same, just different presentation between a cord and a hub… the logic is the same, the cord helps you reach devices that are far away from reach.

#15

That is still a hub, it’s just on cords instead of having the ports in one physical unit.