I’m in some ways sorry for posting but cant seem to find the answer to this question easily.
i have just bought a live hub for the following two reasons-
1- I have 10000 songs that no longer fit on my mac and are therefore stored on a hard drive so thought it would be a good ideas to have all songs, media etc in one place that can be easily viewed on the tv.
In using the live hub to do this I have ran into a few issues. When copying things over if I plug the hard drive into the USB port on front of the bub it flashes as if it is reading but goes on for hours with the screen saying compiling library. Now either this takes hours or something is going wrong. So I then copied the contents of the drive onto the WD drive showing as networked to my Mac and everything seemed fine. However when I then look through my photos and music many photos appear corrupted and the music is loaded in no apparent order! So what do I need to do to make the photos and music reasonably usable before copying over? Set them up into lots of seperate folders under the hard drive subfolder? Also why would the photos corrupt? I have deleted everything off the unit and plan to start again when I get it sorted.
2- I also was under the impression that I could stream media TO the hub and watch it on my TV. So that means I would use my laptop to connect to the internet and bring up a TV show via itunes or iplayer and it would be watchable on the comfort of my TV through my WD TV live hub however I dont know how to do this and I’m starting to think its not possible? Is this true??? I know that I can connect the laptop to the TV with HDMI cable but the whole plan was to make this process easier?? My TV has a USB port so it looks like I can just plug my hard drive straight into it and leave it there to view my media and use an HDMI cable to link the laptop to screen. Therefore what exactly is the point or use in having the unit??
I’m hoping I’m missing something simple!!
Thanks for any help and apologies if my questions have been answered before!
#2 is not possible. Streaming on the Hub is done via the included applets or with media stored on the internal drive or an external drive. You can stream media from a DNLA-capable device connected to your network, but you can’t stream to a laptop and then output that stream via the Hub.
Gosh that is really dissapointing! Almost feel like I have been missold it! Struggling to get the media files to copy to it as well so reckon its an apple TV for me!
Ah but don’t be dismayed! You can stream to the Hub! A program called PlayOn will do it! There are tons of scripts (apps) for it that will serve media from the internet via PlayOn to any PC or Hub or WDTV Live or DLNA device. My wife and I watch movies together while she is in Maryland and I am home in NC. She on her tablet and I on the Hub and TV. All going thru one PC running PlayOn.
It’s a great program has a few minor problems here and there but overall it’s probably the best and most simple one to setup and use.
And… for me at least works best when running on a dedicated PC. I absolutely love Playon, a great product for the lifetime price (considering it helped me cut the cable and save $100 a month), but I ended up buying/building a used computer with a fast enough processor for video decoding to devote to it. It was well worth it though, but playon ended up costing me about $300 for the software and then the hardware to run it on.
-P
JoeySmyth wrote:
@flhthemi
Dont forget to mention that “Playon” is not FREE … it’s a Paid Subscription
Credit Card $4.99 a Month or/ $39.99 Year or/ $89.99 Lifetime
So how does the video stream to the hub? Is it via wifi or is it passing through the network connection?
Since you guys have answered that question can you also answer how I get the hub to read my hard drive when I plug it into the USB slot? Transferring files over the network isnt working very well so I plugged the HD into the USB port of the hub but it doesnt seem to read it!
I may be appearing to be a total technophobe but this thing has me mega confused!
glasmale26, some confusion as to your questions, but here’s a try:
Video streams to the hub however you are connected on your network, either hardwired ethernet or WiFi. I have all my servers and WD boxes hardwired with ethernet cables.
As for your USB drives, you shoul be able to plug them in and be off and running. When you plug in an external drive it should ask you if want to sync the drives, and then you need to decide how you want to be setup. Page 21 in the user manual adresses attaching external drives
-P
glasmale26 wrote:
So how does the video stream to the hub? Is it via wifi or is it passing through the network connection?
Since you guys have answered that question can you also answer how I get the hub to read my hard drive when I plug it into the USB slot? Transferring files over the network isnt working very well so I plugged the HD into the USB port of the hub but it doesnt seem to read it!
I may be appearing to be a total technophobe but this thing has me mega confused!
If syncing is already turned off then it won’t do anything when you connect a drive. To see its contents you have to select it in the menu. Have you spent any time reading the instructions?
ive just stumbled upon another topic that says streaming is not possible on the live hub. It seems to be possible using software according to these posts but that all seems a little cluttered for my liking. I was swithering between buying this hub and going for apple tv which as far as I know streams whatever is on your computer screen to your tv (although that may have its own set of issues!)
I will have a good read through the instructions and see if I can get my hard drive to sync with the unit. Copying the files via the network is certainly not working.
I read something online about the drive having to be reformatted into FAT32 or something? Is that the case or should the hub just pick it up?
1)As far as your external USB drives. I would first go to Setup> System> System> Disk Manager. You can than see what drives are attached to the HUB and find out at least if the HUB is recognizing you drive. If it is you can either copy the files to the main internal drive manualy, or turn on syncing and have it done automaticaly. ( Setup> System> Operation> Sync from USB Storage)
You should be able to copy your files over your network to the HUB. You need to connect to the HUB from your computer. You can use the WD Link software to help with this if you are unclear how to do that.
As far as streaming to the HUB, just make sure you are using the right terminology so we understand what you are trying to do. If you are simply trying to play files that are on another computer, you can connect to the computer from the HUB using a network Share. If you are actualy trying to stream from a computer to the HUB, you need the computer to be running DLNA media server to do so, and then connect to it as a media server.
I agree with the above, you need to do a bit of reading through the manual to make sure you are setup correctly and that the HUB actually does all the things you are trying to do.
Make sure your HUB is online and can see your network and the Internet. Then make sure you can connect to other computers on your network. Then once you know those things all work, you can begin moving files or streaming media to the HUB itself. Not the easiest device to use, but also not super complicated if you read through the material and setup correctly.
it shows in finder on my mac as it is connected by ethernet to the router so not a problem there. When I then drag and drop my files into the hub it starts to copy them and then stops. When I then turn on the machine a few albums and a few photos had been copied but the photos were corrupted. I then moved onto connecting the drive via USB but will make sure I have it set to sync when I get back home tonight!
For the streaming aspect. All I want to do it to log into netflix or bbc iplayer on my computer and bring up a show or a film and watch that show or film on my TV. Essentially that is what I bought the hub for. I think what you are saying is I need the computer to have this DLNA media server thing running but I’m afraid i dont know what that means? I have a white macbook from about 2008 so it may not have this technology???
In simple terms Im looking for a unit that can display internet content on my TV screen without having to plug in the HDMI cable each time.
For the streaming aspect. All I want to do it to log into netflix or bbc iplayer on my computer and bring up a show or a film and watch that show or film on my TV. Essentially that is what I bought the hub for. x
If this is what you want, then the Hub is not right for you. The Hub can stream content via the licensed providers associated with it in the Services menu. It was not designed to stream providers like Netflix or BBC from outside its own interface. DLNA will allow you to stream recorded content from almost anywhere, but because of so many issues with content protection it does have limits. For the most part, if the file format is supported you can stream anything located on your network via DLNA through the Hub. From the internet, not so much. I fear that like many in here you had an incorrect idea as to what the Hub is supposed to do.
BTW, for what the Hub CAN do, it still blows everything else away.
Ok, I have plugged in my external drive, unit is flashing and the usb drive is flashing but nothing happening. Turned on autosync and have gone into disc manager but that is only showing the WD live hub drive.
Would I be right in surmising its not reading the drive for some reason?
After that I plugged my ipod in and again it flashes and the ipod says do not disconnect. But nothing has loaded or copied and again under disc manager nothing shows up.
If you cannot see the extermnal drive in the disc manager in setup, that’s cetainly a problem. I would try the other USB port to make sure there is not a problem with the one you are connected to. You may also want to try another USB drive, even a small thumb drive to check out if there is a weird compatability issue with the one you are currently using.
I cannot comment on connecting to a mac and copying files as the only apple device I have is an IPhone. I am sure there are plenty of other people on this board that have macs and can give you better advice than I. Shoud be able to copy from the mac to the HUB no problem though. I move files and read them directly from various PCs around my house pretty flawlessly. It’s not fast, but it does work.
Why stream NetFlix from your computer to you HUB? The HUB has a native NetFlix app under “services” that should work fine for you. Just go to Sevices>NetFlix and login. You should be able to watch your NetFlix video on demand stuff right from there without having to use you mac at all.
The HUb is an awesome piece of equipment once you get it all down. Im sure it seems like a pain at them moment but it will be worth all the effort you are now putting in to get it set up.
