What started out as a look at the new Apple TV, ended up here because:
Live Hub supports my old analog equipment
Live Hub is a NAS/media server
There seems to be a lot of development activity
Perhaps a little too much activity, as I peruse the firmware section. So question #1:Do I update firmware immediately upon power up, or do I setup and configure on the firmware that comes with it? I want the least painful initial experience. I’ll stay current over time, I just want to keep it simple to begin with.
I want to be able to load media at home, and then take the Live Hub to my cottage, where there is no Internet access. What kind of problems is this going to present? I’ve heard people talk of a lengthly media library rebuild process. Does the media library rebuild process occur every time the box is turned on? I’m assuming that without Internet access, I should be able to play media in my local network without trouble. Does the NAS and local media work without an Internet connection? I realize I need a router.
Thanks for any help you can provide. I can’t wait till I can tell Comcast their services will no longer be necessary.
I use the latest firmware and don’t have any issues. In my reading it seems the bulk of the issues are with theming and such. So if you’re not worrying about themes then I would update to the latest firmware and set it up from there. There are some great features that have come out since v2.
I use my hub primarily for local content (DVD Iso and Blu-ray M2TS files) and Netflix. For me, it is the perfect solution for this. I filled up the internal 1TB long ago so now I access content of my network via the My Book Live 2TB drive. All of this works very well for me.
Sorry. I guess I didn’t answer you media library question. I haven’t had much experience with using the hub offline. I don’t see why it would have issues. Obviousily it would only play the local content on the 1TB drive and not online content. The media library rebuilds pretty fast for me and I have about 250 movies. Hope this helps.
Some people are having problems in upgrading the firmware but there are also those like me that don’t. I suggest you just upgrade the firmware and see what works for you. You can always rollback the firmware if you experience any problem.
As long as you will not use any online services, you don’t need internet access. A TV is all you need to play media in the hub’s internal drive. If you will be using a NAS, you will need a router.
Everytime you turn on the hub, it wll compile the media library. The duration of compiling will depend on the number of media files contained on the hub. More files you have, the longer time it will compile but it shouldn’t take that long.
Thanks for the quick and confirming answers. Not to belittle other people’s problems, but we sometimes bring the trouble on ourselves. I know I’ve been guilty, more than once.
One last question: Does it matter were I purchase the Live Hub? I mean, it seems that any and all warranty work requires an RMA from the manufacturer. The point of purchase has nothing to do with service. True?
I want to be able to load media at home, and then take the Live Hub to my cottage, where there is no Internet access. What kind of problems is this going to present? I’ve heard people talk of a lengthly media library rebuild process. Does the media library rebuild process occur every time the box is turned on? I’m assuming that without Internet access, I should be able to play media in my local network without trouble. Does the NAS and local media work without an Internet connection? I realize I need a router.
Thanks for any help you can provide. I can’t wait till I can tell Comcast their services will no longer be necessary.
It is possible to connect the Hub via an Ethernet cable to a PC without a router but you need to set both devices manually to use different IP addresses but to use the same subnet. Using a small network hub or router would make things easier though. I would also recommend buying an external USB drive if you don’t already own one. I would keep a backup copy on the external drive and you can also play your media from there.
In the latest firmware you can change when the Media Library checks for changes.
If the Hub comes with one of the version 2 firmwares you can try using that for a while and then try updating to see what the difference is. On the other hand updating straight away before you have put a lot of stuff on the Internal disk may be a good idea. I would definitely have a copy of your stuff on an external hard disk before you do a firmware update though.
I do this all the time. I bring my HUB (which has most of my music on it) as well as an external Drive full of movies. When I am at home the External Drive is not connected to the HUB, but a different machine. I take them on the road with me, attach the external drive and Im off and running. I do not connect it to the Internet when I bring it with me on vacation. Rebuilding the media library does not take very long, and then I have everything with me on while I am away. Great on a rainy day to have all your movies with you.
Should be no issues.
-P
InfoDave wrote:
I want to be able to load media at home, and then take the Live Hub to my cottage, where there is no Internet access. What kind of problems is this going to present? I’ve heard people talk of a lengthly media library rebuild process. Does the media library rebuild process occur every time the box is turned on?
I’ve had very few issues with the firmware upgrades… but then I use only a small subset of the media center’s capabilities.
I bought mine for all the same reasons as you. I, too, intended on using it as a NAS/media server and it will work fine with one exception - it has to rebuild the media library when you power it up. I initially intended on storing all of my music and pictures as well as a small collection of movies and tv shows. Everything works great until it has to power up (either intentionally as will be the case when you go to your cottage, or, unintentionally after it restarts unexpectedly possibly due to some firmware bug). I had over 20,000 files total, most of which were years worth of pictures, 3,000 or so songs and less than 300 total files consisting of movies/tv shows. Turning off the media library still resulted in it building it on power-up. I got tired of waiting 30+ minutes for the media library to build so I moved everything off the internal drive - kind of a waste a drive.
Backing up the internal drive is very slow over the network and doing so via USB seems to have limitations. I found that I could not simply select my ‘photos’ folder and copy it to the external usb drive via the hub’s UI without it crashing and taking 30+ minutes to rebuild the media library.
As far as networking goes… it’ll be able to see everything on the local network and vice versa. The only services that won’t work without internet connectivity are those that require it (services, scraping etc).
If I had it to do again I’d pass on the hub and maybe just get the wdtvlive. I’ll continue to use mine if I cannot sell it or return it but not as a NAS.
Everytime you turn on the hub, it wll compile the media library. The duration of compiling will depend on the number of media files contained on the hub. More files you have, the longer time it will compile but it shouldn’t take that long.
Not true. Everytime you unplug the player or rebuild the library, it compiles it, but not simply turning it off.
I guess I don’t know the proper terminology. I didn’t know there is a difference between compiling and rebuilding, or rescanning and rebuilding. Still don’t understand the difference!
Everytime you turn on the hub, it wll compile the media library. The duration of compiling will depend on the number of media files contained on the hub. More files you have, the longer time it will compile but it shouldn’t take that long.
Not true. Everytime you unplug the player or rebuild the library, it compiles it, but not simply turning it off.
I would like to clarify that when I said “turn on the hub”, I meant was turning it on from totally off not just standby. I used the word compiling because that it the word being used by the hub interface and TonyPh12345 is right in saying that what it actually does is re-scan the media library for changes.
