I recently purchased a Live Plus box and started poking around on the net looking for some computer software to go with it. Does the factory firmware really not have a useful web interface? Is telnet/ssh not allowed? It doesn’t respond to ping? These seem to be very simplistic and standard items that, if the hardware is capable, should definately be included. Can anyone verify that these really aren’t included in the standard firmware and I’m just not somehow missing them?
I’m a bit leary of installing some of the homebrew firmware packages because this thing is still all bright and shiney new out of the box and does what it does (play media off my network shares) very well. I also haven’t seen any instructions on how to back up the current firmware and replace it if the homebrew somehow bricks it.
The WD Live Plus does not have a web browser. I don’t think that the cpu is powerful enough to have a useful web browser, and the main purpose of the device is for streaming media over your network. It is not meant to be a web browser.
I have no trouble getting my Live Plus to respond to a ping command. It should work.
The most popular 3rd party software is made by b-rad with his WDLXTV-Plus firmware. There are instructions on his site on how to roll back the firmware to the factory supplied firmware. I have never tried the b-rad firmware so I cannot comment on it, however, I am pretty sure that the b-rad firmware does not have a web browser in it either.
If it’s really and truly “bricked”, then there’s little chance of unbricking it… just like with the stock WD firmware.
With any firmware, the device needs to be working enough for it to (re-)install a working version… if it can never get to that point, then there’s no easy way to fix it that I know of.
As Scandy points out, re-installing the stock WD firmware is simple – it’s the same process as rolling back WD firmwares… you just need to change the .ver file of whatever firmware you wish to install (or grab one with the .ver file already changed). I’ve gone back and forth dozens, if not hundreds, of times, both with various WD versions and various 3rd-party versions.
I’m not looking for a web browser, I’m looking for a web interface, i.e., I can open the web browser on my laptop, enter the address of my WD Live Plus and a screen comes up with more choices than just changing the name of the box.
As I said, it streams media well and I don’t want to do anything to comprimise that capability. The biggest drawback I see with the whole unit so far is the fact that the remote is absolutely tiny and with small hands around could disappear in my house. I would be much happier if I could control the functions from my laptop or even cell phone.
To that end, it appears that the answer to my question is “no, you didn’t miss it - that capability just isn’t available with the factory firmware”. Thank you for your response.
One other thing - It appears that WDLXTV_LIVE-0.4.2.2 is the most recent version and I found warnings from b-rad himself that this is not intended to be used on a WD TV Live Plus (the PLUS part being the deal breaker). I’m glad I saw that before I went pushing it onto my box. So, if anyone else out there has a brand new WD TV Live PLUS, b-rad isn’t done writing firmware for it…and the older version appears to brick the newer models.
There is an app for the iPhone called ‘WD TV Live Remote’. I have never used it, but if I remember right, it is advertised to do what you are asking…so that capability is available with the factory firmware…at least for the iPhone.
As I said, I have never used the b-rad firmware…I have no use for it, but I wanted to tell you about it since a lot of folks are using it and are happy with its extra capabilities. The last time I looked at the b-rad site, he had a version of firmware for the Live Plus that was based on factory release 1.03.49. A lot of people were using that version without problems. Again, I am not familiar with the b-rad firmware, and I have not looked at the b-rad web site in a long time.,just letting you know that it is out there.
Ok, I don’t have an iPhone but I decided to do some research anyhow and see how the iPhone app worked. The short answer is…it doesn’t. The app is designed to interface with a uPnP media server and stream to the WD TV Live. It doesn’t talk directly to the WD TV Live at all.
