Potential new user

Hi people,

I have been looking at getting one of these units for a long time. I have an Xbox 360 at the moment that I play my AVI files on but not music.

I have a Western Digital My Book World which presents its network shares as \mybookworld\public\music etc. I dont need to play MKVs, blu-ray rips, advanced audio formats etc, just plain old MP3s and AVI files. i will be wired and not wireless.

The more I read these forums, the more problems I find about networking, drives not showing up, audio problems, firmware updates making the boxes freeze etc.

Should I be waiting for more development on this box before buying or look elsewhere, has anyone had a totally glitch free experience ?

many thanks, Phil

That’s going to be up to you.   We can’t tell you whether you should jump in or wait.

But I would say, since you’re asking the question, you should avoid it.  Nothing technical is Glitch Free.

I agree that no tech is glitch free. I work as second line support for an AV vendor so experience support issues all day long. I was really asking that in most people experience, are the issues that encounter generally resolved with patches and firmware updates or are there a lot of unhappy users that are switching products ?

See, the problem with asking that here is like going into a hospital and asking all the patients if they are healthy.  You aren’t going to get answers that tell you anything.

If people have no issues they don’t come here.  Some of us had minor issues which were then resolved, and we’ve stayed around to help others, but by and large you just aren’t going to find out anything here about whether people are happy overall as the sample is vastly skewed in the other direction.

If you understand THE LIMITATIONS of the Live, then it works supremely well.  Anyone (almost without exception) can have a terrific experience with the Live if they are willing to do that.  But a lot of folks don’t want to hear that.  They want the Live to do all things for all people and it just ain’t gonna happen.

The Live, like every other media box out there, has some files it plays very well, and others it can’t play at all.  If your files fall into the first category (or you are willing to do what it takes to change your files into that categroy) then you’re halfway home.  The Live plays files over the network or locally attached drives IF the network is setup to follow certain, standard rules.  But it can’t handle every disc on the market, and it can’t handle every network setup out there – so you need to be willing to be flexible.

I like it so much I bought another one (and am in the market for a third) but does that tell you anything?

Go for it, whats the worst that could happen? If you cant get it to work, you return it for a refund. Try reading some reviews online. They’re pretty much all favourable. Thats what swayed me. Yes i had a couple of glitches (IP conflicts) but that was my fault not the Live’s. I ripped all my DVDs to MKV which are streamed over ethernet from my NAS using Twonky Media server (though the LIve will find the network drive fine by itself). It plays all kinds of avi’s, MPEgs, VOBs without a problem so far. I dont use it for music  (i have a squeezebox for that) so cant comment on MP3s.

You sound like you’re pretty comfortable with ‘tech’ so you shouldnt have any probs setting it up.

Do it :smiley:

Thanks for the reply :slight_smile: Yeah, the reviews are all pretty positive I have to agree. I really want to get one for convenience more than anything. I can shove tunes on my iPhone and play over 3.5mm jack, or AVIs on USB key on the 360, but it would be nice to just fire up a dedicated box. Think I will look for a good price online and dive in.

Need to find a new NAS maybe as well, with some back up features. We had a WD My Book World here at work and it went pop and we lost all the data !!!

cheers for your thoughts, Phil

I know some users have had issues with MP3s but I use a seperate dedicated audio streamer on my hifi for music but I really cant fault it for playing video.

I have a QNAP TS110 NAS and I love it. The firmware is so feature rich I keep discovering new things it can do. It serves my music to the squeezbox and video to the WD Live and will do both at the same time with no problems.

Cool. As if not to tempt fate in my last post above, I tried to log onto my MyBook World last night and it came up with “Windows cannot access drive, not in a format that can be read” or something like that. Its got all my familiy pictures on etc :frowning: Thankfully after leaving it off for a while, it started working. Phew

And then you took the chance to promptly back up the whole thing at least once, right?

It’s a 1TB drive which has 300mb free. My other external drives at 3 x 250 lacie drives and only one of those is empty. I need a NAS type solution with at least 2 GB of storage, with RAID. I am going to back up my personal photos etc later.

Mivecboy,

I have a WD Mybook World - 1st version, the one with blue light. 1T with Raid 1 = ~490M.

And it’s almost full of pictures.

I also have WD Live.

Mybook is connected via ethernet cable. WD Live - wireless, 802.11g.

Ok, I cannot play 1080p from Mybook to Live. Not enought speed on 802.11g. With 802.11n it works, I saw it, but I don’t want to change my router now.

I had in tests a high-end storage, a Synology DS409+. Amazing, but it’s too expensive for me as I will use only about 20% of it’s speed.

And I decide to go for a much cheaper WD Mybood white light 4T version, in Raid 1 it is around 1800G of storage(actualy is cheaper than the cage of a Synology DS2010+ that needs also 2x2T hard drives). Enough speed to look for high-res pictures and to see my personal DVD rips.

Disclaimer: I’m not on WD payroll. Not at all. Ok, sometimes I wish for more than they offer, but, at least, they have some cheap products, with excellent warranty, and acceptable performances.

mivecboy wrote:

It’s a 1TB drive which has 300mb free. My other external drives at 3 x 250 lacie drives and only one of those is empty. I need a NAS type solution with at least 2 GB of storage, with RAID. I am going to back up my personal photos etc later.

Well, as long as you realize that you WILL lose any data you don’t back up – it’s that simple.  It’s like the story of the dentist who, when asked if someone needed to floss ALL their teeth said, “No, only the ones you want to keep.”  You only have to back up the data you want to keep.

All drives fail.  ALL of them.  Just like tires on a car, it’s only a matter of when, not IF.  So when you don’t have your data backed up you are playing a very dangerous game that will find no symphathy among experienced users when (as you will) you lose.

mike,

whats with all the negative posts ? i wouldnt come on here looking for sympathy if my drives have failed, i didnt even hint that, hence asking users to suggest NAS devices for me. and why start your first reply to me with “See, the problem with asking that here is like going into a hospital and asking all the patients if they are healthy.” Thats pretty confrontational to reply to a new forum user on their first post isnt it ?

To follow the analogy, I WOULD go into a hospital and ask the patients if they are being well treated, if the doctors are kind and looking after them, its not far off asking end users if WD are quick to respond to issues ?

I’m not a newbie, I have been in IT for 15 years as a programmer, IT manager and now second line support for software. I am a forum moderator and admin and try to be kind and polite to my users, not try and make them feel small by suggesting they are asking stupid questions and not offering any postive advice.

i would like to thank the other users for their general chit chat about the NAS boxes and setups they have, its been useful. i am sure that your high post count means you have a lot of valuable knowledge and advice to newcomers, but mate, please don’t try and make me feel small.

phil

Sorry for the rant, just need a bit of advice, not criticism

Well, you acted as if it were a major issue if the drive had failed on you – so I was just reminding you (and, perhaps most importantly, anyone following the thread) of the importance of having your data backed up.

I don’t think it can be stated too strongly – particularly nowadays when the drives are so large that backing it up to removable media becomes more and more difficult, it’s easy for almost anyone to get carried away.  I don’t even like RAID as a backup solution – the array gets fried (like with a power strike) and you’re out of luck.  If you *must* use hard drives for backup, at least have them separate and not attached to the same power source.

So I’ll take the hit for suggesting backups if nothing more than it might enlighten folks who think these large drives are bulletproof (and, truth be told, I’ve never ONCE seen anyone come to any forum at all and say something along the lines of "hey, while my drive just failed it’s not a big deal since I have all the data backed up… ".  It’s *always* “you have to help me!!! My drive failed and it has all my pricelss, irreplaceable pictures/videos/data on it!!!”).  A little preventative medicine can go a LONG ways.

I have to recall my last message. Since then I was able to test a Synology DS210j. Very very very quite. Fast enough, at least 3 times faster on both read/write than MyBook White edition.

Had to return MB White and get a 210j with 2x2T EARS WD hard-drives. For ~80E more I got a lot of speed and a very silent box. Drawback was that I had to tweak WD EARS drives to fix LCC problem.

That’s it. WD has lost this game. I cannot use Media Server from 210j to WD Live, but I don’t care as long as I can access it using Samba shares :slight_smile:

Can I ask why you cannot use Media Server from -210j to WD Live.  I have the same setup and use Samba shares and Media Server.

All mighty message: “There’s no media on current folder” . But I think it’s like this only while Synology is indexing media. Since I finish files transfer I was able to use it. It may not be a problem all and, however, it doesn’t appear when I use Samba.

If you’re getting the “There’s no media on current folder” message then it could be the Live’s db is corrupt.  Delete the hidden .wd_tv folder on the media and the Live will once again read the drive and create the db.

If your getting by at the moment then I would recommend that you wait. Google TV will probably be released before WD fixes the new bugs they will introduce in their next firmware release.