Adding Larger Hard Drive in WD TV Live Hub 500GB Media Center

I am new, I hope  this is sthe correct place.

I have a  WD TV Live Hub with a 500GB drive.  I also have a WD 2TB SATA drive that I no longer need for my computer.  Can I replace the HD in the Live Hub with the SATA  2TB dirive

You do know that the drive in the Hub is  a 2.5 inch model, don’t you?  Your drive may not fit. 

My suggestion is to buy a separate 1TB or larger drive in either form size in it’s own enclosure and connect it to the Hub.  Suggest you get a drive that idles down/goes into sleep mode after a few minutes.  No need for a drive connected to a media player to be spinning all the time; better to be spinning only when in use.  Look into WD or Seagate drives.  Just about any drive in it’s own enclosure has this feature – even if not noted in the specs (e.g. a Toshiba TOURO 1TB portable drive I recently bought goes to sleep in 10 minutes, but nowhere in the specs did it say it had this feature.)

You could also buy a drive enclosure for your 2TB drive, but then drives in enclosures like these will not idle down if connected to the Hub.  It takes special software on the drive to accomplish this, and why I suggested one in it’s own enclosure w/ the sleep feature.  You can use the 2TB for backup of data.

You suggested  “My suggestion is to buy a separate 1TB or larger drive in either form size in it’s own enclosure and connect it to the Hub”.  If I do this,

What is the advantave of the Live Hub over the TV Play?

The Hub (like the Live SMP) is a full-fledged media player, and can basically play “anything” you throw at it, AND they can play media via network shares.  The Play cannot do these things.  It is built for a (low) price point, and as such, one gets what they pay for, and many feel some real essential functions are missing – me included.  If you do not yet have a WD media player, just don’t buy a Play – you will join many others who wish they hadn’t (because of the missing functions.)

A more appropriate comparison would be between the Hub and the WD Live SMP.  The main difference is the Hubs have a hard drive inside, the SMP does not.-- you attach exterior drives to it.  I prefer this approach, but others like the Hub approach. 

another difference …

The WDTV Live Hub has a built-in DLNA Media Server (Twonky) the WDTV Live SMP does not.

Thanks Joey.  Since I don’t have a Hub:   What is the main function of the DLNA server in the Hub?  Is it to serve media from Hub to other networked TVs, etc that don’t have a WD player attached to them?

Yes (it will serve contents of the internal hdd and attached external usb drives to other devices. Tested it with my Panasonic Smart TV, PS3,Raspberry Pi & Tablet)

Hmmm, I wonder why that feature was not put into the SMP for drives connected to it.  That could be handy.  Only way I can get home-based media to my iPad is with apps that access drives;  the WD, Pogoplug, computer drives and other network drives.  I can serve media to my iPad via the Twonky Beam app (only from my PC  and Pogoplug).  Works fine, though.

Quote: Hmmm, I wonder why that feature was not put into the SMP for drives connected to it.

 

Probably, to keep the cost down

mike27oct wrote:

The Hub (like the Live SMP) is a full-fledged media player, and can basically play “anything” you throw at it, AND they can play media via network shares.  The Play cannot do these things.  It is built for a (low) price point, and as such, one gets what they pay for, and many feel some real essential functions are missing – me included.  If you do not yet have a WD media player, just don’t buy a Play – you will join many others who wish they hadn’t (because of the missing functions.)

A more appropriate comparison would be between the Hub and the WD Live SMP.  The main difference is the Hubs have a hard drive inside, the SMP does not.-- you attach exterior drives to it.  I prefer this approach, but others like the Hub approach. 

As I wrote in the initial posting, I have the Live Hub, but I am thinking about returing it since I have only had it a few days.

I have a verly large collection of movies on my computer’s hard drive – maybe as much as 1.5TB.  I do have a WiFi “network” because it came with my ATT U-verse, but only connect to the network with my laptop to check email etc.  I have  not  moved up to the smart phone or other mobil devices to connect to the internet.  My computer is only turned on about 2 hours a day.

My objectives with the WD is to

      1.   Watch my collection of movies that I currently have.

      2.   Watch a few movies from Netflix.

I do not think I need all the features of a Live Hub ???  I got it because I wanted the movies stored on the WD and not on a seperate external hard drive.  (I did not read the specifications carefuly about the unit only haveing 500GB). 

Now I am faced with the choose to

  1.    return the 500GB unit and upgrade to a 2TB unit $$$$.  Or
  2.    Add  extra external storage to the 500GB unit OR
  3.    Replace the Live Hub with WD Play and external storage.

Your suggestions are welcome.  I do NOT want to make a second mistake.

Now I am faced with the choose to

  1. return the 500GB unit and upgrade to a 2TB unit $$$$.  Or
     That’s an option if you have a lot of media that you want all in one unit (which would be nice)

  2. Add  extra external storage to the 500GB unit OR
    That’s another option … add hdds using the 2 usb ports or a hub. example: i’ve got plenty of storage :smiley:

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  1. Replace the Live Hub with WD Play and external storage.

Personally, i would’nt do that

A. No MPEG-2 Support (which includes no DVD Rip ISO / Video_TS Support)

B. No Network Shares (only DLNA shares are supported on the Play)

C. No Media Info Scraper

D. No DTS support (unless your have a DTS capable reciever for Passthrough)

Personally, I own a 1TB WDTV Live Hub … have done for nearly 2 years … very happy

(the newer 2TB would be nice … but i just plug in external usb drives when needed)

>>>   Your suggestions are welcome.  I do NOT want to make a second mistake.

Then, you need to do some more research; and not just in this forum.

For the person with an extensive movie collection, steer clear of the Play, as many of the movies you have will not be playable to it, or on it.  It is a low-cost, low-featured unit – more for streaming internet media, and some home-based stuff.  For a very recent conversation regarding the Play, see this link:  http://community.wd.com/t5/WD-TV-Play/Purchase-Advice/m-p/582878#M790 

Explore the WD product site for comparisons of the units.  You need either a Hub or a Live/SMP.

As for the 500 GB Hub, WD quit selling them on their website after they came out with the 1TB and 2TB models.  What 500GB Hubs there are in stores, etc are basically close-out items, it seems.  That doesn’t make them “bad”;  just don’t have the larger HD inside, but the price might be right.  I suggest you stick with the Hub you have unless you want to shell out more for the larger Hubs, or say the Live/SMP and external HD.

You can always add an HD to the Hub later.  Do somemore homework.

Mike - the 500GB and 2TB are the latest models, the original was 1TB.

Thanks for the correction, Rich.  Late at night posting, once again  = brain freeze.  Adding to my confusion:  WD product site seems to list the 1TB and 2TB models, and not the 500GB.

So, has WD discontinued making the original 1TB, or am I totally confused?

On this / here  “Official Western Digital Products”  link

model numbers and drive storage capacity are listed … (click “Specifications”)

http://www.wdc.com/en/products/products.aspx?id=570

Right, but not here:

http://store.westerndigital.com/store/wdus/en_US/DisplayProductDetailsPage/categoryID.52400100/parid.13092400/catid.13742300

On the page you ref’d it also shows the Live Plus offered for sale!  Duh.  Seems the product pages need some major updating.

Notice the different URLs in those links? WD just got the wd.com not too long ago. I would think the link with that in the URL would be most current.

i.e.

http://wd.com/en/products/homeentertainment/mediaplayers/

and

http://wd.com/en/products/products.aspx?id=570

Both these links have a “Buy it now” link, and both are the same.  The 500GB unit is missing in action at this link., and that was my point.

If Bill sees this, perhaps he will get it fixed.  Let’s move on. 

Hi,

IMHO, the size of the drive that is internal to the WD hub may not matter…

For those of us that have large, fast growing collections, .5-2tb is just a starting point.  If you already have about 1.5tb, you are on the right track, that 500gb is not enough.  The problem is after you were to change the 500 out to a 2tb (not best idea) you would most likely fill that up too.  Like a empty shelf.lol  I would recommend an external dock, as a cheap way to be flexible on size.  As said earlier, the sleep mode is a good thing.  Also transferring files can be light years faster, by connecting the dock via esata or USB 3.0 to your computer.  I have 4 of these and they work well with up to 4tb Seagate drives, they have both USB 3.0 & esata connections, a nice fan with a speed control that can be turned off if you so choose.  The only downsides I see are 1: a little pricey  2: they have a fine screen filter you need to clean 3: you can only use one connection at a time.  All this is a great trade off to me.  Watch for sales…  $50 is a good price

Startech Dock

Backup:

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=7750174&CatId=2785

It is possible to buy a cable that you could plug into your WD after removing it’s internal drive.  This takes some trimming of the cables connector and only would only get you the data connection to hook up to an external drive.  You would then need an external power supply to power the external drive.  I would not use the power from your WD, as it is rated for a 2.5  lower power needed drive.  Only brought this up, as a possible way to go, but it is a real can of worms compared to the dock I linked to above.

Also, you will find a lot of cheaper docks & enclosures out here and I have quite a few myself.  Having your drive run cool and able to sleep when not in use is well worth the added cost.  Imagine, you get your drive filled up and then fails!  It happens…   The longer you can make them last, the better.  Note: you do pay a small delay time when a drive has to wake/spin back up.

Sorry for the long winded yarn.  Hope this helps, Dan

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817707260