Does streaming work from an external hard drive?

#1

Hi,

I bought the WD Live Hub tonight and connected it. The network is setup correctly.

The WD Hub is connected to an Apple Express in the bedroom. I have a USB hard drive connected to my Apple Extreme in another room. The USB hard drive contains  all my movies. I used to be able to stream my movies from the USB hard drive using the Apple TV (original), but it seems I can’t do this with the WD Hub without it first compiling the media library.

Is it possible to stream my movie’s from the external hard drive without WD compiling?

Thanks!

#2

Well, yes, you can turn the media library OFF…

#3

Hi Tony,

Thank you for your reply.

Quick question. What’s it compiling? I didn’t see a difference before and after.

Thanks!

#4

It’s compiling all the metadata into a database you can then search.   There’s other things that need the Media Library, too, but if you can’t tell a difference, then you’re probably not needing those other things. :slight_smile:

#5

What’s odd is that I turned the unit off by holding the Power button for 3 seconds and now it’s compiling again… Weird!

Thanks!

#6

You can not turn off the compiling thing with the power button. Go to set up > Operation and switch it off from there. You should also choose the correct drive. Otherwise the Hub keeps looking on it’s own hard drive. In fact it is my believe you must be even able to choose the correct drive with the Media Library ‘on’… But tray that after you are able to see the right drive.

I believe you can change the drive by pressing the green or yellow buttons. Just play around with them a bit.