My experience with SMP

WD Legacy Products WD TV Live Streaming
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Bought this to replace my large and loud HTPC. I use it for streaming from my Windows Home Server and Netflix, Hulu, Spotify, and VUDU.  I am about ready to give up on this ■■■■■■ and get a Roku or go back to my HTPC.  After reading through this forum and others though, it appears as though there is a strong homebrew user base who loves this thing so I have to wonder if my experiences are normal or an anomaly.  My issues, briefly:

  1. SLLLLOOOOWWWW menu navigation.  Home screen menu is responsive, but getting into and out of menus adds a 1-2 second delay from button press.  In apps (netflix, file browser, VUDU, Spotfiy, Hulu+) there is a 2-5 second delay every 5-6 button presses. Play and pause during a video has a 3-10 second delay.  Sometimes I press the button twice in frustration further exacerbating my issue.  Used Roku and experienced nothing like this.

  2. Unexplained hangs and restarts (most often in netflix and vudu)

  3. Media library setup with my WHS server is not attainable.  I can add the network share and browse and play files but when trying to add them to the media library the compiling never stops and further slows the machine.  No meta data.  I have read several posters with this same issue and have yet to find a solution on these forums.

I write this not to whine, but to honestly ask the question, is this normal?  Should I expect a different experience with this box?  Done a few device resets and another just last night.  Thinking about turning off media library.  Themes look amazing and from reading these forums, the user base is as well.  Don’t see how that could be with this poor of a product, hence my ?s.

Thanks!

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1.  Yes…GUI is pretty slow and lame.

2.  Never hangs for me unless one of my kids is killing the network.  I am pretty impressed with this device’s wifi, I routinely stream Netflix at HD and Bluray all over wifi.  Make sure you are getting true N connectivity per the users manual if you are using wifi.

3.  I use WHS 2011 and experienced the same and promptly turned off media library.  I have never returned to it to see if I could get it working.

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Thanks for the reply.

Ill have to read the user manual on the wireless to make sure I am getting true N.  Didnt realize you have to fiddle with settings to get this?  I don’t usually have issues with netflix but streaming blu-ray rips is out of the question for me so maybe that will fix.