I have a WD TV live box on each TV in my house and so so other family members. I have been seeing more and more issues lately of issues with freezing while playig various files, getting worse and worse.
Is WD planning on releasing any kind of firmware update soon or a new model at least? Seems like it has been years since a new model has come out.
Best Buy doesn’t even carry the WD TV Live anymore (WDBHG70000NBK)…guessing because of poor sales? I use it for streaming movies from my computer, never had much luck with the Apps on there, too slow. I tried using MLB.TV on a few TVs and had nothing for issues, audio worked only half the time. To get audio to come back you had to reboot several times. Reading in the forums it had to deal with some firmware issue and that app.
i’m guessing, because WD don’t manufacture them anymore
(replaced by the non-Netflix 2014 WDTV)
WD don’t reveal planned development of hardware / firmware / software to the public
This is a “user” forum … no-one here can answer your question ‘yes, no, maybe’
Any type of search on Best Bu with WDTV, or any variation comes up with nothing. I found that part number doing a Google Search for “WD TV Best Buy”. Lack or firmware and hardware updates, sad to say, but I’m looking elsewhere for somewthing more up to date that will play my movies.
A new WDTV is non-existent for the recent past and present. If they have a new one coming, there has been no announcement for a long time.
If you installed the last firmware, that is fraught with errors and the best firmware for the SMP is the one that precedes it, Version 2.01.86
So if you don’t have this version on all your devices, you need to re-install it. Find the info for roll-back the firmware to this version in the support section of WD.
Be sure you have the actual Streaming media player (SMP) and it’s model number before you proceed.
Here is a “prediction” of what a new WDTV might be: It could be a WD box with the Raspberry Pi inside. I suggest this, because WD has already aligned itself with the product and has designed a HD specifically for it. Today (Pi Day,3-14), they announced a new updated drive for the newest Pi 3 model, so it’s a good sign WD is still interested in the Pi product:
Interesting theory, Mike, but I doubt the HD division and the group responsible for the old entertainment products share the same roadmaps. It would be cool if you end up being right though.
Yep, total conjecture on my part. It would be nice if WD ever decides to make another WDTV. Meanwhile, I will get a Raspberry Pi 3 and the drive and make my own new media player.
I just got one of them today. Spent an hour putting the board in a case, loading the OS, and then loading Kodi. Watched a movie and have been listening to music for the last couple hours. Seems to work well so far. Also have the WD Pi Drive ordered but they say it won’t ship for 2-3 weeks because it’s out of stock Plan to set this up at my fathers house; he’d never be able to get it going by himself so I’m getting the bugs out (if there are any) before I drive the 8 hours to deliver it.
My WDTV Live is getting pretty long in the tooth & it doesn’t look like they have anything waiting in the wings. I like it, this is the third one I’ve bought but it’s at least 4 years old now and I didn’t want to be without a replacement when it finally dies on me.
Bought an Android TV box a while ago for $29 that seems to be OK…plays 4K, H.265 and pretty much everything I’ve thrown at it so far. Only problem with that is that it took 5 weeks to get here from China. Now I know where the ‘slow boat from China’ saying comes from! Also doesn’t really have any kind of instructions included so I needed to spend a bit of time figuring out how to use the remote and navigating around. It’s got Internet, wireless, any play store app can be loaded (1 Gig memory, 10 Gig storage). Kodi is pre-installed but you need to set it up to work with your system. Don’t know how long it’ll last though.
I seldom post and this is getting to be long winded…try the PI, I think you’ll like it!
It should only take about 5~10min to Setup ? (unless it was a lego case, i guess)
that’s how long it take me … then again, i have had a bit of practice after buying a Pi1 , Pi2 and Pi3 … got the Pi Drive as well
Got a 4K / H.265 Octo-Core Android Box as well … works ok, but not so well with Kodi eg. Adjust refresh rate, Opitical Passthrough, Intermitant 2sec stutter etc issues
Raspberry Pi however, is perfect and has none of those issues.
No, I wrote that it took an hour from the time I started putting it together. That included putting it in a case, loading the OS, accessing wifi, loading Kodi, updating loaded software, and setting up everything. Only took a couple minutes to get things together so I could actually turn the unit on, the rest of the time was software/setup fiddling. It’s actually pretty straightforward.
For the Android box try XPMC…it’s a Kodi fork that seems to work better on the box I have. New version just came out a couple days ago.
i’m saying, the “Initial Setup” shouldn’t take an hour
Library media scans for Movies and TV Shows falls under “Adding Content” which admittedly can take a while
I think you mean SPMC, still doesn’t fix Kodi issues on my Android Box
(works fine on my Android Tablet though, when i installed it a couple of years ago)
Guess I’m just not good at time management then. I do know it took well over 15 minutes just to load Raspian. I did all this hooked up to the TV using the NOOBs installer.
Yep, SPMC…fat fingers typing in the dark leads to mistakes sometimes. It works great on mine so far, no issues I can see. Kodi was pixelated and the audio/video sync wasn’t good.
ah, that would explain it … i’m just installing OpenELEC (Kodi) on the Pi
Raspbian is about 1.4Gb and OpenELEC is only just over 100Mb
Apologies, i must have missed “loading the OS” … which isn’t necessary if you’re just planning on just using Kodi
You did’nt mention the NOOBS installer originally either … i have never used that, but i have been testing Berryboot with the WD Pi Drive (on my other Raspberry Pi) … but the other Pi is only OpenELEC (Kodi) and nothing else … boots in about 5 seconds and i’m reading to watch a movie
Marty, thanks for the input; from a guy who says he hardly ever comments. Makes me feel “special”. I appreciate you comments. I may tap you once I am ready to buy and run my shopping list by you. Where did you buy your Pi, etc. from?
Plan to set this up at my fathers house; he’d never be able to get it going by himself so I’m getting the bugs out (if there are any) before I drive the 8 hours to deliver it.
I appreciate you comments. I may tap you once I am ready to buy and run my shopping list by you. Where did you buy your Pi, etc. from?