I currently have the WD TV Live Streamer and had it since they were first introduced. I had 3 other WD models before this one. This current model seems the least stable to me but I manage to put up with it’s bugs and I continue to use it everyday. I was watching some YouTube video reviews for the latest generation of Android TV boxes found for sale on Amazon. I decided to try one out and see if it would be a nice replacement for the WD TV Live Streamer. The model I bought is called Tronfy MXIV. Here’s a link to it on Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00W1H85KM
I read every review (5 at the time) and they were all 5-star. After watching a YouTube video on this product here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tn_2ef3xxdY I decided to order it. I have Amazon Prime and received it yesterday (Sunday). I spent 5 hours setting it up and testing it thorougly. It came with KODI 14.2 pre-installed. It buffered and froze playing my video, movies and music files. Every time it froze, it required a re-boot. After a dozen reboots I decided to repack it and send it back. I reconnected my old WD TV LIve Streamer and I was up and running again. I have a wired gigabit network and every device in my home streams flawlessly, even on 40gb blu-ray rips.
Tronfy’s version of KODI is a crippled version that does not support HD audio (DTS-HD MA, Dolby TrueHD). I don’t know if the unit I received was defective or just not compatible with my network but it sure gave me a sour taste in my mouth for these new Android TV boxes.
I sent an email to WD Support last week asking if a new model was in the works and they answered by saying they had no immediate plans for another model.