i love the hub, works perfectly for me so far, but a question is their something better, that has a hd built in… curious
Don’t know about something better, but the internal hard drive is just a starting point for many of us, as it can fill up quite quickly, whether it be a 500gb, 1tb or 2tb. So, I would not let the drive part be a big factor. There are many other good reasons to like your WDTVLiveHub. If you are shopping, try not to give those up for something less.
Good luck, Dan
The hub is excelent and I love it, but I also own an pivos aios, and it is a pretty good media player as well especially with semiofficial firmware. The nice thing about the aios is you can add an internal hard drive 3.5 in up to 4 tbs. Downside of the aois is that it is bigger and I have found the odd full bitrate bluray may pixilate but this is rare. It also does not scrape media info, and the gui is spartan compared to the hub. It is the only other media player I can think of that allows this option out side the hub and of course the somewhat dated patriot box office that allows a laptop drive to be added up to 1 tb as far as I know. The box office has lots of third party firmware support and is alos a decent player. but stick with your hub if you don’t like tinkering beyond themes.
Samsung introduced a media player which is now available in the Chicago AT&T store.
Update: It turns out you can get a Samsung HomeSync in the US… if you live in the greater Chicago area. AT&T is selling the devices at its flagship store on Michigan Avenue, and only at this store. We called up the location for information about pricing and availability, here’s what we were told: the HomeSync is $299 (no contracts or anything), is currently in stock at that location, and you do not have to be an AT&T customer to purchase one.
samsung android media player, sounds interesting, i wonder what the interface is like
Hi again,
While shopping for NAS ideas, I came across this up and coming possible high end toy…
The Price:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822107109
A good review:
http://www.legionhardware.com/articles_pages/qnap_ts_469l,1.html
Enjoy, but don’t drool…
thanks for the headsup, but the hub is working perfectly at the moment, just thinking if support for the hub goes sidewasy
i will be looking elswhere
Just one follow-up thought about the Samsung Homesync compared to the WDTV Live Hub …
The WD hub allows you to upload photos from a cellphone (and even allows it to happen automatically if you choose to). This is very nice if you like to share all your photos with friends and family because cellphones can browse the folder from any internet connection, even when the hub is turned off (in its normal “sleep mode”). Nice use of port 80 I guess. But it doesn’t allow any file types except photos (so it is quite restricted).
The Samsung, however, has promised to be your “personal cloud” which I assume means I can access anything from anywhere (just like my windows home server can). I’m not sure this assumption is true and for the $299 price tag it is way over-priced compared to the hub, etc.
I’m still going to buy one and compare them, however, so I will post some comments here for you soon.
looks good, let us know (personally i’m gonna wait till Next Gen Media Players arrive with H.265 (HEVC) support … yeah i know, i’ll be waiting a while 
)
Sounds good Joey,
But why is that worth waiting for? Does it do something my HDMI connection to my TV doesn’t do? Or are you transcoding for HD or the link?
Mike
In reference to the Samsung HomeSync Media Player (model GT-B9150) I have decided NOT to purchase one for the following reasons …
1.) At $299.00 it is way too expensive for what you get.
2.) Samsung is only making it available thru the cellular carrier stores (Only in Chicago last time I checked). This means they see it ONLY as something you can put all your cellphone photos on, as well as a way to sell more phones.
3.) I tried for days, but could never speak with anyone in the Chicago AT&T store so all I have to go by is the manual.
4.) From every detail I have been able to gather it is just a Roku player with 1Tb storage – Hardly worth $299.00.
5.) The WD user community has added so much functionality to the WD Hub, allowing me to display full movie info on my TV from my WHS server. And for $129.00 in the 500Gig version it is head and shoulders above all the newest competitors.
Enjoy,
Mike
Thanks for the post. I figured this thing would either be cool, or a bust, and it sounds like it’s the latter. I think WD can make something 10 times better, so get going WD!
A Pogoplug w/drive and used at home w/Twonky Beam on a mobile device along with WD or Roku can likely run rings around this overpriced “Roku w/HD”. Heck, many newer routers allow connecting an HD to it for local and remote access. So many other ways to do the tricks the Samsung can. Actually, I already have a few ways to access the drives on the WD remotely through the Internet and can stream from them and other drives based at home.
I think the next iteration of WD Hubs and such can (they better) have a remote access function. Hey, why not!
