Let's have gigabit and USB 3.0 on next gen player

WD Legacy Products WD TV Live Streaming
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I want a gigabit WD player with USB 3.0 ports, and I want it now.  :dizzy_face:

It appears from my scanning the specs and manual and this forum that the latest streaming model is not a gigabit piece of hardware.  Com’on WD, you make USB 3.0 hard drives and gigabit routers – so where is the matching media player!

I have a piece of equipment in the house that can stream media (like the WD player) that’s to be viewed on a wireless iPad, it’s gigabit speed and has USB 3 ports, and it wins the race with my WD Live Plus – it’s called a Pogoplug. 

Not here to “plug” the Pogoplug, but to say it’s higher speed combinations of internal speed and USB 3 ports/drives, coupled through the gigabit router and using the 5GHz band, can stream a 1080p home mp4 video perfectly, and the same video from the Live Plus w/USB 2.0, 7200rpm drive attached has “issues”  and stalls and stutters because the WD and it’s drive cannot pump out the video stream fast enough to the router like the Pogoplug can. 

You can see this “graphically” on the iPad, because the iPad shows a gray line at top that moves right, indicating the data coming in, and a white line atop that line that shows the progress of the playing video.  One can see the gray line get way ahead of the whilte line when playing from the Pogoplug.   When played from the Live Plus, the two lines track almost together and when they catch up, (which is soon) the stalling and stuttering of the video begins.

I am not asking anyone here what it wrong with my system – there is nothing wrong – it basically works perfectly; all videos streamed to the TV are great.  I just wanted folks to know what I have observed streaming these hi-def videos to the iPad.  Speed matters.  So much so, that when I switch from using the faster 5G band to the slower 2.4G band, even the Pogoplug-streamed video exhibits some slight stutter until it gets going well.

I am still waiting for the  NEW gigabit/USB 3.0  WD media player to appear (in time for Xmas?)  :wink:

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I agree, a USB 3.0 WDTV would be nice, the live streaming and the live hub do have a gigabit port, but the processor is not that good to handle gigabit speeds

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I’m pretty sure the SMP has no Gigabit but like you said it won’t matter anyway.

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The processor isn’t fast enough for USB 2.0, let alone 3.0… 

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Are either of them really needed for streaming?

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Andyross wrote:

Are either of them really needed for streaming?

If by “them” you mean gigabit and USB 3, no they are not needed for run-of the-mill streaming of ISO movies, music, etc.  I do that all the time w/no problems, but for the really speed-intensive streaming I referred to in my original post, I would say it is needed.  I think my Pogoplug streaming exercise proved that.

To my other friends here who commented, well, yea, I think we all know the current WD media player state of the art product does NOT have the engine or the hi-octane fuel to do gigabit, and that’s why my cry went out to give us a product that can do it.  (My guess is that they will.)

I also might add (as I forgot to mention before) that along with gigabit and USB 3 capability, it would be nice if the wireless in the next gen player is dual-band (2.4G and 5G)  Why not?  The best current routers (incl. ones by WD) are dual-band.