i just recently bought a wd Live Hub but when i was about to transfer my movies my tech guy said it has to be through a network? is this accurate? can’t i transfer my movies from a pc to the wd unit using a usb cable? i use it on the beach where i dont have internet and the places that do have reeeaaallllyyy slow internet. moving a movie takes an hour. 
thats just too much of a hassle. is there a way around this nasty hole??
it has to be through a network? is this accurate?
Not entirely.
You can transfer from a USB DISK to the internal drive, but you cannot connect the hub to a PC through a USB cable.
The Hub’s USB port is a MASTER port, not a SLAVE port.
The Hub’s USB port is a MASTER port, not a SLAVE port.
Too bad there’s not an app for that! 
But now I’m wondering if there is an ADAPTER for that…watch out I’m thinkin’ again!
fernandezwally wrote:
i just recently bought a wd Live Hub but when i was about to transfer my movies my tech guy said it has to be through a network? is this accurate? can’t i transfer my movies from a pc to the wd unit using a usb cable? i use it on the beach where i dont have internet and the places that do have reeeaaallllyyy slow internet. moving a movie takes an hour.
I hope you don’t actually mean on the beach - I don’t think the HUB would stand up too well to the sun, sand and salt
Unless you are going to use the Internet services you don’t need an Internet connection. If you have your movies on a USB drive you can copy or sync the movies to the HUB internal drive through the TV interface. Or you can just leave the movies on the USB drive and play them from there.
If you only have your movies on a PC, then you will need a network connection (not an internet connection) to play or transfer the movies.
my goal is to trasfer 1terra worth of movies to the wd unit so i can just choose from the list of movies. if i use a flash drive i would have about 1-2 HD movies. yes i meant a network connection, sorry for the confusion. so there’s really no easier way of moving 1terra worth of movies straight to the unit so i wont be dependent on a tiny usb drive or my home pc? you think they can update that to a slave port? haha
You have three main options:
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Ethernet (wired); about 10MB/sec
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wi-fi (wireless); about 3MB/sec (varies a lot)
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USB drive; about 25MB/sec (rough guess)
If the files are on an internal drive, it’s best to just do this (both computer and HUB must be on the same network):
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Open Windows Explorer
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Locate the WDTVLIVEHUB (network); use “computer” not “media” devices
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Create folders on the WDTVLIVEHUB
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Copy movies to the folder you created (can still rename files and create folders on the HUB this way)
If you want to use a USB hard drive, then:
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Hook up the USB hard drive and COPY the files into the HUB
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Log onto your computer (as per the above method) to arrange folders, move, rename etc.
Summary:
Learn how to copy files and create folders from your computer across the network.
fernandezwally wrote:
my goal is to trasfer 1terra worth of movies to the wd unit so i can just choose from the list of movies. if i use a flash drive i would have about 1-2 HD movies.
Unfortunately, if you don’t have a large external disk then the network is the only way to transfer a lot of data to the HUB. Unfortunately, network transfers to the HUB are pretty slow, so it will take a long time to transfer 1Tb. If you don’t have access to a router you can use a crossover network cable. You will have to set the IP address on the HUB and PC manually.
The good news is that external disks are getting pretty cheap, so if you are planning to keep updating your movie collection it might be worth buying an external disk or set up a small network at your beach location.
Unfortunately, if you don’t have a large external disk then the network is the only way to transfer a lot of data to the HUB. Unfortunately, network transfers to the HUB are pretty slow, so it will take a long time to transfer 1Tb. If you don’t have access to a router you can use a crossover network cable. You will have to set the IP address on the HUB and PC manually.
The good news is that external disks are getting pretty cheap, so if you are planning to keep updating your movie collection it might be worth buying an external disk or set up a small network at your beach location.
I’m not saying you’re wrong about this but just adding MY experiance at using the Hub on cat5 and my computer. I leave my Hub’s network settings on Automatic ALL the time. I connect my Hub to my computer with a standard piece of cat5. No need for a crossover cable as I think the Hub determines that or maybe my NIC is doing it. At any rate all I do is just pull it from my entertainment center, bring it to the PC, pull the cat5 out of the NIC, insert a short cat5 cable into the NIC and to the Hub and then access it just like when it’s on my network. Transfer speeds, if I recall correctly, are about 8MB.
Just sayin’…that’s how I get er’ done!
flhthemi wrote:
Unfortunately, if you don’t have a large external disk then the network is the only way to transfer a lot of data to the HUB. Unfortunately, network transfers to the HUB are pretty slow, so it will take a long time to transfer 1Tb. If you don’t have access to a router you can use a crossover network cable. You will have to set the IP address on the HUB and PC manually.
The good news is that external disks are getting pretty cheap, so if you are planning to keep updating your movie collection it might be worth buying an external disk or set up a small network at your beach location.
I’m not saying you’re wrong about this but just adding MY experiance at using the Hub on cat5 and my computer. I leave my Hub’s network settings on Automatic ALL the time. I connect my Hub to my computer with a standard piece of cat5. No need for a crossover cable as I think the Hub determines that or maybe my NIC is doing it. At any rate all I do is just pull it from my entertainment center, bring it to the PC, pull the cat5 out of the NIC, insert a short cat5 cable into the NIC and to the Hub and then access it just like when it’s on my network. Transfer speeds, if I recall correctly, are about 8MB.
Just sayin’…that’s how I get er’ done!
This is interesting, I must admit I’ve never tried to connect NIC to NIC with a normal cable. Maybe newer hardware is clever enough to do it, but in the good ol days you needed a crossover cable. I have a crossover cable so that’s what I tried. When you say you leave your HUB network settings on AUTOMATIC do you mean the LIVE HUB IP settings?
Hey,
When your guy said that you have to use a network and not USB, he didn’t mean the INTERNET. You have to use the NETWORK. It doesn’t matter how slow your internet is. Your network is the local networked speed inside your house or wherever your might be. Say you’ve got a computer plugged into the network (wired is preferred for this step, but wireless will work but much slower), you can plug the Hub into the same network, as long as it’s eventually connected to the same router or switch, and then transfer your files directly from your computer with the media straight onto the storage of the Hub. You’re not going through the internet, so your data isn’t being sent out of the house and to a data node from the ISP and getting processed and then coming all the way back. It is pretty much like using the USB cable, except it’s just an ethernet cable. On a network with an ethernet cable, you don’t need to plug the computer directly into the Hub like you would with USB. Just make sure they’re on the same switch or router (box with 4 or more ethernet plugs), and then you can send and receive files over the local network. If for some reason you absolutely can’t plug in the computer with ethernet, then you can use wireless WIFI but that will be a lot slower because wired ethernet has a much higher bandwidth than conventional WIFI.
I hope that you know what I’m talking about with switches and routers and ethernet. If you dont’ understand or have questions/need more help, just shout back here.
badmem wrote:
This is interesting, I must admit I’ve never tried to connect NIC to NIC with a normal cable. Maybe newer hardware is clever enough to do it, but in the good ol days you needed a crossover cable. I have a crossover cable so that’s what I tried. When you say you leave your HUB network settings on AUTOMATIC do you mean the LIVE HUB IP settings?
Yeah buddy! the IP settings are on automatic ALL the time. I read a post around here somewhere that if you set them to manual while you have it plugged into the ROUTER/Switch/Network files will copy a little faster. I tried and didn’t see any difference. So I just leave it on Auto and move the Hub to the PC when I need to copy a lot of files. If I’m just moving one or two I just go on and move them over the network and go do something else, like cut the grass or wash the car. I guess since either the Hub or the NIC is auto switching, it makes no difference if its a crossover cable or not. Just some good stuff to know incase you can’t find that cross over cable one day. 
flhthemi wrote:
badmem wrote:
This is interesting, I must admit I’ve never tried to connect NIC to NIC with a normal cable. Maybe newer hardware is clever enough to do it, but in the good ol days you needed a crossover cable. I have a crossover cable so that’s what I tried. When you say you leave your HUB network settings on AUTOMATIC do you mean the LIVE HUB IP settings?
Yeah buddy! the IP settings are on automatic ALL the time. I read a post around here somewhere that if you set them to manual while you have it plugged into the ROUTER/Switch/Network files will copy a little faster. I tried and didn’t see any difference. So I just leave it on Auto and move the Hub to the PC when I need to copy a lot of files. If I’m just moving one or two I just go on and move them over the network and go do something else, like cut the grass or wash the car.
Do you get a faster transfer speed connecting directly PC to HUB, rather than going through your network? In my limited testing I didn’t notice any difference in speed between using a crossover direct or going through my network. Maximum speed I could get with either method was 10 MB / second. This is with Windows 7, and Gb Ethernet all the way from my PC to the HUB.
