Can anyone recommend a NAS that plays nicely with the WD TV Live / other media players?
Currently miffed at my Vista workstation failing to provide reliable network share access to the Live and wondering if a dedicated storage box would do a better job (plus bolster my ever decreasing storage!).
So far I’m looking at the following:
WD My Book World Edition II 2TB
Looks nice on paper but have read some worrying reviews regarding it dropping off the network (sound familiar?) and tbh my experience with the Live hasn’t given me a positive impression of WD’s support.
Netgear ReadyNAS Duo 1TB
Great features, seemingly great reviews (did great in a real-world test of drive failure). DLNA, BT, remote access. Only 1 drive to start with but I can save up and add another at a later date. Like the look of this one a lot but have NO idea if it works well with the Live, plus it’s the most expensive and I need to buy the mirror drive…
Seagate BlackArmor NAS 220 2TB
Seems to have good features (DLNA, no BT but has remote access and a good backup system), not seen many reviews on it yet. Price is cheaper than the ReadyNAS and similar to the My Book World.
There are a bunch of other NAS drives out there but my budget is under $300 (ReadyNAS has a rebate taking it down from $344 to $244).
A friend suggested just getting some cheap external drives and setting up a remote backup system. The end cost for a couple of 1TB USB enclosures isn’t really that much cheaper than a NAS though.
Would be great to hear some NAS stories and recommendations from other WD TV Live users. :)
-edit-
Hmm, this should probably have been posted in Networking, oops. Where’s a blush smiley when you need one…
I have the 4TB World Edition II, and I have no problems with it, and it works well with the WDTV Live. I’ve never had the network drop issues that people have said in their reviews, and I’ve been running it for over a month.
Obviously I’m hoping WD fixes the .mp4 audio sync issue soon, as that’s my only complaint about my WDTV Live.
I used My Book World edition 2TB. I did not like it much due to network drop and terrible slow while using in Raid mode. Only mirror Raid 1 possible. I switched over to WD Sharespace 4TB and using Raid 5 mode. No Complaints.
The ZyXEL NSA-210 looks like it might be just what I need. Comes well within budget, has a good feature set and seems well-regarded (not many reviews but what few there are being positive at least!). Seems to cost around $112, plus the cost of a HDD.
A nice feature is that you can schedule backups from your workstations to the NSA-210, then schedule the NAS to back itself up to a connected USB drive. So you don’t get the performance hit of a mirrored array but do get the security.
The other suggestions were interesting but most fell well outside of my budget; a Synology DS209 is around $300 diskless, a WD ShareSpace 4TB is about $550! :dizzy_face:
They look like fantastic pieces of hardware but I can’t justify that kind of outlay right now. I will bear them in mind for future purchases though.
Will report back when I make a purchase. Thanks again, cjeman!
You can also get a external USB drive, connect it to the WDTV LIve and access it over the network. Has the benefit of being able to turn off everything on the network if you like and still play files.
You can get a good external enclosure for about $30 and put any desktop drive inside. Power usage is also much lower this way. USB drive uses about 12 watts and the WDLive uses about 14 watts so 26 watts total .
I have the 4TB World Edition II, and I have no problems with it, and it works well with the WDTV Live. I’ve never had the network drop issues that people have said in their reviews, and I’ve been running it for over a month.
Obviously I’m hoping WD fixes the .mp4 audio sync issue soon, as that’s my only complaint about my WDTV Live.
It loses sync even when using a local usb drive and MP4. Not sure what the issue it.
I use an older WD Netcenter drive & it works great over the network. Both the drive & the WDTV Live are connected to the network via ethernet. The WDTV Live always finds this drive & I have successfully been able to stream 1080p from the NAS to the WDTV Live without any problems. Keeping within the WD family may be best if you’re looking for compatibility with this unit.
I have the WD Black Armor. It was very easy to set up, runs super quiet, and is pretty full featured for the money. Heck, you can barely buy 2 1TB drives for the cost of the unit. With a 3 year warranty, SMART email notification, and running RAID 1, it works fine. I like it just as much as I like my QNAP 8 TB NAS, and it was a fraction of the price.
Does DLNA just fine. I’m fighting to find a format that will work for both my PS3 and WD Live TV, but that’s not the NAS fault.
I have the DS210j. It works with network shares and DLNA. I’m actually having better success with network shares on large BD-ripped MKV files (no stutter).
It may be something in my setup, but then why does network shares work?
Modem—>Linksys WRT54G Router—>Buffalo WLI-TX-AG300N ethernet converter —>DS210j and WDTV Live
So, I am about to do the same thing. Does the WD TV Live recognize the NetCenter, or can you install the EasyLink on the WD Live? Sorry to bother, but I want to make sure I can do this. I know that some items can be connected via the USB ports on the back, so I just wanted to see if I could pick your brain a bit before I start planning my attack.
As I did a LOT of searching for the perfect NAS for my home and was based on cost (though my price range is up to $2000 as I wanted 12TB) I found this web site very useful:
It lists virtually every NAS you could want, their relative speeds in which modes, functions, abilities and every bell and whistle they have it’s a very handy web site.
I ended up setting up my friend with the Promise Smartstor NS4600 with 4x1TB drives in a RAID 5 configuration (total cost of $800) it’s interface to the WD was a little wonky, can’t access it as a network share, but it has a media center built in (as well as an Itunes integration, and almost anything else you could think of, and if it doesn’t have it, you can download modules to do it that integrate with the unit) and after a couple minutes surfing through how it’s all set up it’s virtually native on how to select what you want. Good unit, fairly speedy and not even a studder when streaming even full 1080p movies (1Gb network backbone at home)
If you had the cash and more importantly the need for that much space, I’d recommend it, now if you needed more space they sell a 6 bay model with more RAM that’s faster for a little more money, but again, if you don’t need it, I wouldn’t bother.
