About a year ago, I bought a Seagate Free Agent Theatre+ and a WDTV Live. I had two TV’s that I wanted to view my shared media on. At the time, I wasn’t sure which company was going to stand behind their product with frequent firmware updates so I hedged my bets and got a media streaming box from Seagate and WD.
I’m happy to see that WD has been VERY good about releasing frequent updates to their older hardware (and hope they continue this trend) because the ONLY reason I bought the new WD TV Live box released a few days ago was because WD didn’t turn their back on people like me who bought one of their early boxes. Seagate has pretty much given up on FAT+ as they went on to their Flex series…which I’m sure they’ll abandon in the near future (if they haven’t already).
So far, I’m loving the new WD TV Live (Live 2?) box! Nice GUI and it’s playing everything I’m throwing at it.
In closing, PLEASE WD, do not go down the Seagate path of no longer releasing firmware updates for your older media streaming hardware. You build customer loyalty from people like me (whose friends often turn to for recommendations on buying computer hardware, and media streaming boxes) by showing that you will continue to update older hardware. In return, I will give your hardware (and frequent firmware updates) a glowing review to anyone that asks my opinion!
