I have had every box made by WD, which also includes teh currentl model. This is very frustrating, and is definantly a side effect of being an earlier adopter. I orginally purchased a WD Tv, without DTS. But then I upgraded to the WD TV with DTS because I needed the DTS capability for protability purposes for TVs that did not have surround sound capabilities.
I then upgraded to the WDTV Live, and used it in conjunction with the Playon software whic for the most part worked very well. Now that the WDTV Live plus with Netflix came out I then upgraded to that box because of the more robust Netflx functionality.
I now understand that the WD Live Plus will not be exported, because of the netflix functions, but it would seem to me that WD could have one platform for US and export rather than two different product lines. This practice does not seem to be very efficient. Since my first purchase of the WDTV early on there have been 4 different versions from WD. That is a lot of versions for less then 1.5 years, IMO.
On a separate note are the WD Live and WD Live Plus based upon the same hardware and just have different product names/firmware revisons?
Dfferent chips - Sigma 8655 on Live and Sigma 8654 on Live plus. The difference is that the plus is Macrovision-enabled.
Actually, there’s a whole set of security methods inside the 8654 that are not inside the 8655. For example the 8654 can decyrpt the Netflix stream on chip.
Anyway, I think it would be the logical step for WD to just sell 1 version, the ‘plus’ and flash it with different FW, to disable NetfFlix menu for non-US customers. In general it’s cheaper for a company to have just one product line instead of two.
Anyway, I don’t really care, I’m not from the US so Netflix won’t work for me anyway.
Dfferent chips - Sigma 8655 on Live and Sigma 8654 on Live plus. The difference is that the plus is Macrovision-enabled.
Actually, there’s a whole set of security methods inside the 8654 that are not inside the 8655. For example the 8654 can decyrpt the Netflix stream on chip.
Anyway, I think it would be the logical step for WD to just sell 1 version, the ‘plus’ and flash it with different FW, to disable NetfFlix menu for non-US customers. In general it’s cheaper for a company to have just one product line instead of two.
Anyway, I don’t really care, I’m not from the US so Netflix won’t work for me anyway.
It makes no difference if Netflix is there or not as you cannot use it outside the US. Pandora is on the Live and you cannot use that either.
Dfferent chips - Sigma 8655 on Live and Sigma 8654 on Live plus. The difference is that the plus is Macrovision-enabled.
Actually, there’s a whole set of security methods inside the 8654 that are not inside the 8655. For example the 8654 can decyrpt the Netflix stream on chip.
Anyway, I think it would be the logical step for WD to just sell 1 version, the ‘plus’ and flash it with different FW, to disable NetfFlix menu for non-US customers. In general it’s cheaper for a company to have just one product line instead of two.
Anyway, I don’t really care, I’m not from the US so Netflix won’t work for me anyway.
It makes no difference if Netflix is there or not as you cannot use it outside the US. Pandora is on the Live and you cannot use that either.
All of the above makes me concerned that the Plus platform will end up being the more stable and better-supported one, while the non-Plussed model we all bought will be left behind. That’s why I would like WD to let us upgrade to the Plus with some help, like a rebate for returning our non-Plus units. If you agree, give Kudos to my idea in the Idea Lab at the link below my name.
(PS: at least one WD staffer thinks a rebate is a pretty good idea, too… :manvery-happy:
The gen2 does not have a ethernet port and therefore it would be a bit difficult for it to become a real network unit.
I’m not sure what you mean by this. Why couldn’t it be a ‘real network unit’ if they would just add the code for wireless dongles like they do for the Live? And for that matter, they could have added support for wired dongles as well, probably more easily than they could come out with a whole new box and then *try?* to support more boxes like they are now. Granted, these things only have 2 usb ports so that gets iffy, but I think it could have easily been done if they had wanted to.
The gen2 does not have a ethernet port and therefore it would be a bit difficult for it to become a real network unit.
I’m not sure what you mean by this. Why couldn’t it be a ‘real network unit’ if they would just add the code for wireless dongles like they do for the Live? And for that matter, they could have added support for wired dongles as well, probably more easily than they could come out with a whole new box and then *try?* to support more boxes like they are now. Granted, these things only have 2 usb ports so that gets iffy, but I think it could have easily been done if they had wanted to.
What I mean is that the live has a Ethernet port which a number of people use. However I understand that they could have added wireless dongle drivers but thats up to WD and I certainly don’t want to get into a pointless discussion about how WD make their decisions.
