First of all can I apologise if this is the wrong section!
I have the WD TV Live Hub 1TB and I have recently figured out that if I am to have 10GB MKV’s on there I will be running out of space swiftly! My first thought was to get another Hub, but my concerns were whether or not a remote would interact with both hubs at the same time (presuming I was to stack them one on top of the other for storages sake), however after reading on this forum I have heard that there might be some networking issues.
This is what led me to the WD My Book Live Network Hard Drive. I have read the individual specifications but for the life of me I can’t quite figure out exactly how this device would interact and be used in conjunction with my WD TV Live Hub? Would I be able to play files from this, through the WD TV Live Hub? And if this is the case would I still be able to stream large files (10+GB’s) without any lagging or freezing?
Currently I have my WD TV Live Hub hooked up directly to my HDTV via HDMI and I’m primarily using the ethernet from my PC to the WD TV Live Hub as a means of transferring files over but not to actually stream over the network to other computers.
Would someone be able to clear up these issues for me? I would be very grateful for the assistance!
So is it not possible to connect the WD TV Live Hub directly to the My Book Live using the ethernet cable to increase streaming speeds? I’m just worried that through USB it may not be quick enough to handle the file sizes and might affect the quality.
Has anyone else got a setup which uses an external device connected through USB to the WD TV Live Hub which then plays LARGE mkv files through an HDTV? And if possible could you share your experiences!
Would the read speeds of USB 2.0 be enough to keep up with such large file sizes though? I had just assumed there would be lots of lagging or drops in quality.
Also I cannot seem to set up a folder on the network to store more files in which I can then just stream right through the PC to the Hub and then the TV. I have read the manual but I think I must be doing something wrong. (I would only be using ths method as a short term solution because I wont always have my PC and TV in the same room and would rather avoid having to turn on the PC just to access files. [seems like a non-issue but just for ease of being able to sit down and watch something without running around turning everything on would be preferable.])
If I can stream a full Bluray M2TS from a USB 2 drive to a PC down a cat5 cable into the Unit, a connected hard drive has no issues. And I dont have a premium setup to do this.
Would the read speeds of USB 2.0 be enough to keep up with such large file sizes though?
Of course. USB 2.0 easily handles the highest bit rate files the WD supports. USB 2.0 in theory does 480 Megabits per second. The highest bitrate file you’re likely to encounter is 40 megabits per second.
That’s great news thanks guys. I was wondering if you would be able to suggest an external that was 2-3TB and possibly within the WD family which is reliable? I’m not totally incapable of choosing these sorts of things just would be good to know what serves the WD Community well!
Any WD ones really, in fact any type of hard drives are fine, that is the way I work…
The max I have is 1.5 Gb, but Elements or the My Book ones, whatevers in your budget really. I have samsungs as well, but I use about 5 WD ones and they are a mix of Elements and WD My books…
Agreed that the extrenal USBs work fine. I dont even attach any of mine to the HUB. I as well have a mix of WD drives, 2TB MyBooks, 2TB Elements as well as some 3TB HPs (made by WD though) and I keep all my media on them, connected to PCs on my net, and two of them attached to a WDLivePlus in another room. Streaming media from those to the HUB across the network works fine, and leaves me the USB ports on the HUB for other stuff ( wireless keyboard etc)
Playing music and video files, as well as video stream from my Playon Server across my home network to the HUB seems to work fine, but I do keep all of those severs hardwired, not using WiFi. Pick up a couple of External 2-3TB drives and your off and runing with the extra space you need.
I think I was reading around on here that there might be some issues with encryptions for the external WD Devices which are password protected… does this only become an issue in the unlikely event the external fails on me? I *may* be at more risk of losing all the data on the drive? Or should I not even let this factor into my decision?
Thanks so much everyone who is helping me with this!
EDIT: I have had a read about and from what I gather the WD Elements is simply the same hardware as the WD Essential just without the encryption and password protection features. Making this a barebones unit and very much plug and play which is exactly what I need! Provided there are no issues using external devices bigger than 2TB I think my issue has been solved! Thank you everyone who helped me with this I really appreciate it!
No one has suggested that you buy a drive that has a sleep mode, so that the drive spins down after a few minutes of non-use, so I will. I have two Hitachi 2TB USB 2, 7200 rpm drives connected to my Live Plus. They have a sleep mode and they work great. Any drive you buy to hook into the hub will be faster than the one in the hub because the hub has a lower speed WD drive in it (I think it is a 5200 rpm laptop model).
I recently bought some portable Seagate GoFlex drives that are USB 3 to use on a USB 3 Pogoplug device and they sleep, too. I’m sure WD has comparable drives, but got the Seagates “on sale” and had to do it.
Bottom line for me – any drives I buy now or in future that are not to be in constant use must have a sleep mode.
I just checked now on the website and it mentions:
Designed to save power - turns on and off with your computer, and enters idle mode when not in use
Presumably this will work the same when connected to the WD TV Live Hub? Thank you for your help though!
I’m excited to see the 15GB versions of Star Wars streaming from the External to the TV. Had no more room on the internal hard drive in the hub to watch them yet!
