There is a massive gap in these media boxes right now. Seems nothing has native local network support. Love my WDTV’s but there is a lot they aren’t able to do now. Is there a new version of this once great device on WD’s roadmap?
From what I’ve seen on here, not only do we not know of any new WDTV units planned, the last model is no longer available for purchase, new. It became unavailable a couple of months ago. However, some here also felt that a likely result of this might mean no further offers of firmware upgrades and yet we had one this week!
Also, knowledgeable amateurs here on the subject of Western Digital, felt that if new models are launched, they arrive unannounced.
Common sense though (and here I agree with you), seems to suggest, that a “massive gap in media boxes” (meaning there’s money to be made by bringing out a new model) itself indicates further models!
Sorry I can’t be more specific, klutch - let’s see if anyone else can!
I agree. I really liked the WD TV for local media playback, and lots of current devices are focused on streaming content.
My current solution is Amazon’s Fire TV (not the stick) with the KODI app sideloaded. Kodi has a bit of a learning curve, but it works great with local content. The Fire TV also has Netflix, Hulu, and of course Amazon Prime for streaming content.
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This is basically a non-issue at this point. Enough of these messages here already, and more of them is not going to make one appear. If it happens, everyone here will make the announcement!
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Yes. And local content is WDTV’s forte - no one here has found anything that plays more formats, or has the same quality as WDTV for sharp sound and image playback. In the same vein as your comment now; we know big time that WDTV has lost the support of several app suppliers (I bet the greedy SOB’s are demanding more money, MUCH more money), so c’mon, WDTV isn’t expensive (most of us like that), and anyway, all these apps are readily available via other methods. Just cough up more dough for 'em! I feel if a new unit were to arrive with everything everyone wants, it would have to cost double - or more - than its incredibly cheap seventy-odd quid price tag! (I hope WD don’t read that bit!)
I threw out my WDTV Live more than a year ago. Sure it was great for local content playback, though it did have some troubles with .wav files. The apps for the WDTV were terrible. I had even setup the Hauppage broadcast TV device with it - junk.
I switched to a Amazon FireTV Stick sideloaded with Kodi. I have a WD MyBookLive NAS where i store my local content. On the NAS I run Twonky 8 media server. Kodi, as most know, is awesome for apps. Kodi is also fantastic for local content, either from the media server or NFS or Samba, etc. The nice thing about the Amazon FireTV solution versus an Android Kodi box is that it has Netflix and AmazonPrime (if you use them).
If you don’t have NAS, but have local content stored on external hardrives, you might consider a NAS or at the very least a router which allows you to create the effect of a NAS by attaching the external hardrives to the router via USB. The Asus RT-N66U is a good solution for this - and it has media server software on it.
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I, too, have an Asus RT-N66U, and have a 1TB portable drive with media, attached. The app for it, AiCoud works well, and when adding it, I found that the setup of the drive and turning on SAMBA of router made the router be a permanent Master Browser; something the WDTV sorely needs. All those master browser issues I had with WDTV are long gone. I also have a higher end MY Cloud DL2100 NAS, and that is my main server today for my gigabit network…
But, as I told you in another thread, I also have an Amazon Fire Stick installed with Kodi on it,. Kodi is nice, but since the Fire Stick has a puny CPU, etc. in no way does it match the quality of media delivery that my WDTV has. I would NEVER toss out my WDTV for the Fire Stick/Kodi combo. The WDTV wins by a mile.
So, I try and think why you like this better than the WDTV, is that your videos are not of the quality of mine which I carefully make in the best quality I can. No bootleg videos from torrents. Any video with a high bitrate chokes the Fire TV to the point that I find it unusable. But average quality ones do OK on any equipment.
So, If I showed you some videos I have that play perfectly on tablets, computers, WDTV, and also show them to you on the Fire TV/Kodi combo, you would tell me, that’s terrible quality with jitter, stalling, etc… Turn if off. My Fire Stick is gen1 ; maybe gen2 would do better, but I sort of doubt it.
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