I have a macbook pro running snow leopard with attached external harddrives that i want to stream movies from to the new 2011 WD TV Live. the movies im streaming are video_ts files. I dont want to connect them directly into the unit itself via the usb ports because i need them by my computer, not by my tv.
it would actually be helpful if someone could tell me exactly how to set it up out of the box. I did exactly as the knowledge base setup for mac said but it seems to be incomplete. I by chance guessed and turned on the smb sharing function in my sys prefs and that at least allowed me to see my computer on there but it doesnt seem to be working properly, as it keeps forgetting my username and pass (which makes me have to retype it all in with the awful remote) , and sometimes it just doesnt show up at all. Im using wired ethernet btw.
Im so annoyed with this thing already simply because i cant find any info on it. all help vids i find on youtube are for the old one. i have found reviews where they clearly say that it does exactly what i want, but the 3 different wd techs i talked to for the last 2hrs provided zero help. the last tech i talked to said it was my fault it wasnt working because i was trying to stream HD content.
im not married to this thing, if it doesnt do what i want it to i will just return it, i just want to know if im doing something wrong or if it just isnt possible.
I’m having the same problem. I have a Mac Pro and am trying to stream Video_ts from it to the WD-TV live box. In setup on the WD-TV it sees my TIme Capsule Router and a computer called “macintosh,” although my mac’s network name is different. I plan on spending some time with tech support on the phone tomorrow and after reading your post not looking forward to it! I wonder if there are any other products like this out there?
I’ve got the exact same problem. sometimes the box will see my mac, and will allow me to connect, when searching down through the folders it will get to the teir before the individual files (ie tvseries\ ), but it will not allow me to connect past there and invariably comes back with ‘the last content source has been removed’. funny that, but my mac is sitting across the room waiting patiently for connection. more often than not, however, it will come up with the media removed error as i enter the ‘video’ tab, and will not connect to the machine full stop, although it can see the MAC address on the network. WD better come up with an explanation, or this thing’s going back. Most frustrating media experience, ever!
I’m afraid I’m not going to be much help on the Mac side of things, but for a PC there are a couple of things you have to set up before the WD will access files on your computer/external drives. First, you have to allow sharing over your network, then turn sharing on for the folders you want to share. Also, you’ll need to add a password to your PC profile or for some reason network sharing doesn’t work.
After this bit of pre-work, when you select “Video” you must change the content source (red button) to Network Share, then select your PC, type in the username and password, and voila.
I recently bought the WD TV live streaming device and am trying to play content from my computer (PC running XP Media Center Edition 2004, SP-3 and current with critical updates).
Have turned on sharing for my network, and sharing for several folders on that drive that contain media content.
When I look at “My Network Places” in explorer, I can see WDTV Live, I can invoke it and log in to the device, so it appears to be communicating, but I can’t get the WDTV device to access the hard drives on my computer.
I can play content from USB drives directly connected to the WD TV, and can get content from the internet, but can’t seem to get the WD TV to access my computer that is on the same internet connection (router).
Since this is at home, I don’t have a password setup for my profile, in fact I don’t even get the Windows log-on screen any longer at boot-up…the reason I didn’t setup security for convenience
Are you saying that in order for the WD TV to access the shared folders on my PC connected to the same hardwired network, I will need to setup a profile and password?
Please advise when you can…I’m getting very frustrated with the device working great on some things, but not at all on others…
Yes. Sadly, for me to access the network share feature I had to add a password to my PC. When selecting network share as a content source, then selecting your PC, you’ll be asked for a username and password. There is no way i know of to bypass this step.
Thanks for the advice. Disappointing that I need to setup password access, but if that’s required, I can do it.
You noted in your reply:
“Yes. Sadly, for me to access the network share feature I had to add a password to my PC. When selecting network share as a content source, then selecting your PC, you’ll be asked for a username and password. There is no way i know of to bypass this step.”
I’m not sure if I’ m having the same problem…even though I can see the WDTV in “My Network Places” on my computer, when I search for media sources on the WDTV, neither my network router or any of my computers connected to the same router as the WDTV show up as a source, so I’m not sure even if I added a password that I’d get far enough in the process to enter it.
I am running ZoneAlarm Pro firewall on my computers, so I’m going to see if I can get the address of the WDTV device and add that to my allowed exceptions, or I may pull the internet cable out and try shutting down my firewalls and see if it gets thru then. Several options I might try before giving up and calling Tech Support to walk me thru it, but thanks for the help because once I gain access to the PC, sounds like I’m going to need to set up a password anyway.
Yeah, sorry, I misunderstood your problem completely
For what’s actually happening to you, I have no experience. What little help I can offer is to find your WD’s ip address, select Settings, Network Setup, Network Settings.
