I have been looking at the western digital live with network support fo a couple of weeks now but I needed to get some inpartial input. Currently I have most of my cd collection ripped to my hard drive in .wav format to keep them the way they where. I have tried to use my Roku to stream the music but I am having a hard time with it.
So my question is, is buying the wd live tv networked a good choice to take over from my ps3 and Roku to stream my dvd’s and music to my home theater? and will I get good sound quality for my cd’s?
The WD TV Live isn’t particularly focused on music, so some features you might take for granted are simply not there. Actual audio quality is fine IMO (connected via optical cable).
How are you planning on backing up your DVDs (or have you done so already)?
If as Video_TS folders or ISO files, again, the WD TV Live is missing some features you might expect or want (no DVD menus, clumsy VOB support).
If you rip your DVDs and encode to MKV (my preference for better AC3 / chapter support) or MP4, it’s not a bad media player.
But the firmware still isn’t what many would call ‘complete’. There are bugs and annoyances plus missing features (DVD Menus is a big one). WD are working hard to fix them and (IMO) each firmware improves the situation but you have to be prepared for a few surprises.
If I were in the market now, I’d likely choose to wait a little and pay more for a Boxee Box.
Agreed, and if you are interested in using cusom skins and media library features like plot, actors, etc, you might want to look at the popcorn hour a-200 or c-200.
The HDTV Live could, indeed should, make a great audio player, which is why I bought mine. However, there are just far too many bugs in the current firmware to recommend it.
WD really need to make a supreme effort to fixing the numerous “bread and butter” issues that plague this device. It is incredibly frustrating that the HDTV Live is so far from properly realising its full potential.
As things currently stand, I honestly believe that I have wasted my money on false promises.
