I own 2 WD TV Lives and a Live Streaming. After 3 years with the devices, here’s my synopsis of this love-it yet hate-it device.
Their firmware is terrible. Issues don’t get resolved in subsequent releases, network connection (especially wireless) is flakey, and the UI is spartan (I’m being kind). Reboots are a way of life to resolve connection issues.
However, it plays just about anything. Connect a USB thumb drive or harddrive to it, and off you go. The price is right, and the form factor & minimal energy draw is great.
If you want a fancy UI (which I do for at least one of my TVs) then don’t waste your time with a WD Live device. The Media Library is flakey at best and doesn’t hold a candle to the usability and flexibility of XBMC or Plex. I’ve spent hours trying to get a decent Media Library experience but as the forums here clearly indicate, it’s wrought with issues and limitations that just aren’t worth the effort for the potential experience that awaits you.
The hardware is great, but please PLEASE Western Digital can you make your software open source so that many more capable programmers can evolve the platform, perhaps even port XBMC or Plex to it? You have the potential to be an “iPhone” - instead you’re quickly becoming a “Blackberry”. And we all know how that’s working out.