I have about 1 tb of movies ( mixture of mkv and Video_ts rips) spread between 2 hard drives. I would like to use the wd tv as a replacement for my HTPC. First, will it do the job and second, will it be easier to have all the movies on one drive or is it ok to use 2 or more?
Welcome to the forums.
Are you going to attach these drives directly to the Live or use in a network?
If you are going to attach them directly, then you can only use two drives (there are only two slots). If to a network, then you can have as many as you want, either as NAS (with the appropriate NAS enclosure(s)) or to a PC.
Either way I’d recommend you have all your movies on one drive unless there’s a very logical way of breaking them up (say, into children’s movies versus movies for the adults. Or ifyou don’t have kids, maybe all your serious/action movies versus comedies). Unless you use the media server option the Live doesn’t consolidate drives so you’d always have to switch back and forth between them to see things (going out to the menu and then selecting another drive or net share, for example).
The Live should play your files just fine.
Hi doors311 (?),
I’d like to address your first question . . . .
The WD TV Live Plus will do the job admirably, with much less power draw, heat, hassle, and WINXX problems(!). What you will not get is playback of every single media format. You will get all the major codecs; I do not think there are any major ommissions. Check the WDTVL+ specs carefully if you are concerned about this.
Also, you will not get the other capabilities a PC provides: web surfing, applications, and better image flexibility.
To add to the other reply regarding drives . . .
You can use both drives on the WDTVL+, and if you turn on “Media Library”, it will consolidate the media on the drives into a common database (does not move your files around). Media Library will not do this same function if the drives are on an NAS.
