Did my research, WD has the best media player (live plus version) on the market (the less than $500 market) right now. I LOVE this TV Live Plus unit and was determined to make it work wirelessly, even if WD phone tech support told me to “return it” if I wasn’t happy with their complicated/confused support for wireless USB stick devices (come on WD…try harder). (why didn’t they suggest a wireless bridge or Netgear’s awesome device below?) Wired is always better/faster, but if you prefer wireless, STOP trying all of the USB adapter sticks. WD can’t control so many different types of sticks, firmware revisions, and you never know exactly what revision you’ll get at the store or on Amazon/Ebay. I tried three USB adapters from the list, one didn’t work at all, one worked great, but would loose the connection often, and one worked great, but had no where near the “N” speeds it promised(studdered on Netflix). Note to WD: PLEASE include an internal antenna in the device. If people are paying $150, they’ll pay $170 for the option to have builtin wireless. I would…OR devlop your own WD brand of usb adapter
If you’re confused like I was about creating a “wireless bridge” (with those extra wireless routers you have lying around, ha) Go buy THIS and be done: (its a new product)
Netgear’s UNIVERSAL WIFI INTERNET ADAPTER (WNCE2001) (LINK) ($60, cheaper than many USB adapters)
Works GREAT!!! Its really small and suports “N” speeds with my “N” Netgear router and Comcast 12mb/d, 4mb/u. Flawless perforance and speed. Easy one-button setup and it NEVER looses the connection, unlike the TrendNet “gaming adapter” TEW-647GA I tried which lost its connection every 10 minutes and was stuttery w/ streaming (not “N” speed as promised). I now have perfect wireless streaming from my shared folders on the upstairs computer wireless network. Even the bigger 1080p movies stream without studder!! Many on this forum say wireless just can’t be done well for this unit, I disagree. The Netflix on demand is really really addicting…awesome streaming quality on most movies. We are not $200/month cable people and don’t watch a ton of TV. This device is PERFECT with its HDMI output into our new 48" LCD. Maybe I can save someone else FIVE TRIPS to the computer store…
Um, as this product isn’t shipping for several months how exactly do you know it works?
If/when it does ship it sounds promising, but I’d certainly wait at least until it’s out before I’d get too excited about it (or maybe they sold some early units and are now just back-ordered that far – it’s hard to tell from the sites that do carry it what the story is).
Uhm, mkelley, if you’re talking about the NetGear thing above, it’s shipping now. Amazon appears way back-ordered, but Buy.Com has them “Ships in 1 to 2 days.”
Netgear wifi adapter still kicking butt. Super fast, no connection drops in 30 days…Note: I turn off my WD unit when I’m done with it at night. (some report leaving it on constantly) The Netgear adapter always keeps its connection as the WD unit boots up…
I think I have an even better solution. I bought a “D-Link DAP-1522 Xtreme N Duo Wireless Bridge/Access Point” from Newegg.com for $65. It connected to my wireless network with no problems and provides four ethernet connections for my home theater stuff. I have used it with my A/V receiver, Blu-ray player and WD TV Live+ and still have a port left for an X-box, etc. I have done a lot with Netflix and YouTube and haven’t had any problems with my connection.
Well I just bought the WD TV Plus and the Universal WiFi Adapter recommended by original poster and we shall see how easy setup is, it arrives Friday and I’ll have all weekend to fiddle with it.
Well… my order arrived and I just got off work and setup was a breeze!
I literally spent maybe 10 minutes total unwrapping everything, syncing the wireless adapter to my network and plugging in everything (luckily I already had shares setup from before).
Thanks so much Scott-O!
I was a bit hesitant to try out this media player due to all the threads about having issues with wireless adapters, but it makes sense that the one you suggested would work… as it picks up the wireless and then the rest is carried over via a lan line cable, no driver support needed.
For those of you who saw my other thread in general (basically asking about the wireless streaming quality from a pc/laptop, as I just bought and returned a blu ray player that had horrible quality while streaming), this unit is flawless. Not only is the quality just as good wireless (the same couldn’t be said for blu ray player), but it has yet to stutter which the blu ray player did every few minutes.
I subscribed ti this forum mostly for this purpose.
I have been, as well as many other users on this forum, it seems, trying to stream 1080p files wirelessly (I’m talking 20G+ at most).
I had tried wired, which works well, but is not possible given my objective (no wires can go through on the floor and across floors). CPL 200 Mb/s was not able to perform well enough, excepted for 720p, and even then, I still had stutters.
I tried one of the un/official USB dongles for WiFi n with an even worse result.
That’s when I hoped as I read through this post.
I had to buy a wireless router, that would be able to “theoretically” output 100Mb (maximum input capacity for WD TV Live LAN). I opted for the Netgear WRN3500L.
I bought as well the WNCE2001 adapter.
Result : after having the WD TV Live playback for 10hrs+ some 1080p movies, I can tell you it just works.
Conclusion : find yourself a good WiFi n router and this adapter and you’re good to go.
Note : I have “just” 5 meters (15ft?) between source signal (router) and wireless receiver/adapter, though it’s made of armed concrete (meaning : electromagnetic waves do not like these at all :))
48-hr update : after having watched 3 movies (and not let them play without me watching, which I did for the first test) ranging from 6 to 15GB in size (1080p MKV files with x264 encoded video stream), I did encounter some stutters, still.
Seems the bandwidth is still not high / stable enough for this.
How disappointed I am. I thought we finally had a usable wireless device for Full HD streaming.
My config : WD TV Live 1.02.21 + Netgear WNCE2001 + Netgear WRN3500L + “Playback” acting as media server from my Mac mini (10.6.4).
I’m still very happy with my Netgear hardware and no, I didn’t get any money from them to tell that :).
Thank you SO much! I have many other problems relating to this device but you were right about the adapter. Thank you again for saving me a lot of trips to the store because the guys at Best Buy don’t have a clue!
