Anybody upgrade from a Plus?

WD Legacy Products WD TV Live Hub Discussions
1

I’m looking for a good media streamer, mainly for local file playing and Netflix. I need something simple that works well. 

Trying to decide between this and the Plus. For those of you guys who have experience with both, is the extra $100 worthwhile for the 1TB storage, pretty UI, and better remote? 

2

I would get the Plus.

My Hub has a lot of issues my Plus does not.  While the UI is pretty, it’s not nearly as functional as the Plus.  And remember, all hard drives fail eventually.  Since it’s not user replacable that means you end up with a very very large Plus box that you’ll have to also hook an external drive to.  Buy yourself a much larger external drive and you’ll be good to go.

3

Will some of Mike’s points are correct, also keep in mind the “Street Record” of WD.   It won’t be long before they stop adding functionality to the Live / Live+.   The Hub, being their new Flagship, has some time to continue to grow in its feature set.

I would recommend you go download the user manual of both units and read about them.   There are features on the Hub that the Live just doesn’t have.   While the Live/Live+'s classic UI is perhaps more “efficient,” it’s locked down.   The Hub’s UI is fairly customizable.

4

Also bear in mind that you will not be able to use 3rd party firmware on the hub without losing some functions for ever.

http://support.wdc.com/product/download.asp?groupid=1010&sid=134&lang=en

http://forum.wdlxtv.com/viewtopic.php?f=24&t=2215&start=10

5

Tony reminded me of one more thing – given the street record of WD, not only will they stop adding things to the Live/Plus, they will surely make another, better Hub most likely in the next six months or so.  At that time they will have learned from ALL their mistakes with this one (and they made many).

If you are dead set on something right now the Plus is your best bet.  If you like the idea of a Hub but don’t need something right away, you’re far better off waiting for Hub II (when they’ll get it right, perhaps).

6

I ended up getting the Hub. I really dig it. I think what won me over was the UI, the nice remote, and the storage. I’ve also heard from several that the Hub has better picture quality than the Plus. I can’t compare, but it really does look great. The ability to keep my media stored internally is just a great feature.

About the HD failing, yeah that could happen, but I figure that since this is a hard drive company I would hope that the drive is decent, haha.  The drive that is inside actually has great reviews on Newegg  http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136545&cm_re=wd_scorpio-_-22-136-545-_-Product

I think if it fails after the 1 year warranty, it probably would be possible to just replace it with another Scorpio Blue. 

7

Glad you like your Hub (it does NOT have a better picture, but the picture is very good).

But one thing you said worries me and let me nag at you just in case – ALL hard drives fail, it’s not a question of IF but WHEN (just like tires on a car).  So whatever you do, make sure you backup your data with that understanding (unless you don’t care about losing what’s on it).

8

Thanks :slight_smile:

9

He’s not kidding… I deal with hundreds of different drives at any given time, and most fail after about 4-5 years. Some fail earlier (anywhere from 1 month after purchase going upwards) and some fail later (I still have a drive thats over 15 years old that I fire up occasionally and worked the last time I turned it on). This time period does not get extended if the drive is not running. Many drives fail from simple wear and tear.

I only buy WDs now because they have the best quality, if not always the best price. But even with a WD drive, I always keep multiple backups because hard drive failures can happen at any time.

10

I guess I just have good luck. Never had a hard drive fail on me, and I’ve had plenty of internals and externals.

So the Hub only has a 1 year warranty right? IF you buy the Scorpio Blue 1TB drive separately, it has a 3 year warranty. I’m guessing the drive inside the Hub only has a 1 year warranty.

So what would happen if this drive fails after 1 year? Would WD really do nothing? Is it that possible to replace the drive yourself?

11

Yes, it is possible…