WD Live Hub - transferring files

WD Legacy Products WD TV Live & Live Plus
1

I originally had the WD Live Hub with 1 TB internal hard drive, but traded it in for a WD Live Plus (which saved me $100). 

WD is well known for their external hard drives.  With WD external hard drives, you simply plug your external hard drive into your computer via USB and transfer any files from one device to the other.  Before I purchased the WD Live Hub, I figured that it would work in much the same way as an external hard drive, considering that the WD Live Hub has a built-in 1 TB hard drive.  But the only way to transfer files to my WD Live Hub, as far as I could tell, was through a ridiculously cumbersome process:

Step 1 - Use an ethernet cable to connect your WD Live Hub to the home network (wifi is not built in, which in itself is ridiculous)

Step 2 - Connect your home computer to the internet.

Step 3 - Download some software onto you computer so that your computer can “talk to” or “see” your WD Live Hub through the home network.

Step 4 - Once you can see the WD Live Hub through your computer via the home network, you can copy files over to the WD Live Hub internal hard drive.  This means that you are transferring files through the network, not through a direct, physical connection (such as a USB).  The transfer rate is ridiculously slow!

Step 5 - Return your WD Live Hub to the store, because the process is too **bleep** ridiculous! 

Step 6 - Go with one of the many, many other home media centers out there which cost $100 (as opposed to the $200 for the WD Live Hub).  You can even get the WD Live Plus for $100, which is what I did.  With the $100 that you saved, you could buy a 2 TB external hard drive, which is easier to work with that the internal 1 TB hard drive found within the WD Live Hub.

Has anyone else found this to be the case?  I mean, isn’t it possible to simply connect the WD Live Hub to your computer (as you’d do with a WD external hard drive) and then transfer the files directly over?

1 Like
2

Hi there!!

Just connect the HUB to your router and get the IP address, then map it. You will see it as a network share to copy files into it at will.

Hope it helps!!!

1 Like
3

Mapping manually isnt the issue here, the issue is why would WD make their HUB so difficult to use as an external HD. Mapping manually will not resolve the hideously slow copy/download speed. Im also looking for a smilar solution. Imagine buying the hub and not having a router OMG!!!

1 Like
4

So… Let me see if I understand… You expect a product advertised for its networking features to work without a router? o.o

5

The issue here is the transfer of files, either using a wired, wireless external storage connected via usb, its very slow, 30 to 40gb took me 5 hours to copy.

1 Like
6

wired, wireless OR external storage device connected via usb

7

I got the Live Hub today and I’m really really disappointed about the writing speed! Its veryyyyyyyyyyyyy slow, even the worst flash disks got more writing speed!!! Why!!

Which is the faster interface, The Nic or the USB? By digging the net I found the Nic won’t reach the 1 Gb/s due to the sigma CPU limitation :frowning: but still I want to know from where I should get the faster input…

WD I’m very disappointed :frowning:

1 Like
8

As far as I know WD Hub is designed to be a network media server and a media player. It is not designed to be a portable storage device. The intended setup is to have the hub as the central media tank connected to one TV and have multiple WD TV Live units connected to other TVs (all off them connected to a network). So you would put all your media into the hub and you could watch it on multiple TVs. The hub also needs the network to access the internet for various functions. So if you don’t have a network don’t get the hub. WD Elements Play, on the other hand, is a media player and a portable storage device that can be directly connected to a PC using a USB cable. File transfer through the network is the preferred method for the hub. Although WD Hub has a gigabit port it cannot reach gigabit speeds due to the above mentioned chip limitation. Reported speeds were 12-15 MB/sec. But still 40 GB won’t take 5 hours shoud be more like one hour over the network. If you don’t have a router you should be able to use switch or even a cross-over ethernet cable to connect the hub to your PC’s ethernet port. But setting up the network that way will require some advanced knowledge. I agree with you though, the hub was not correctly implemented (I guess there is going to be a 2nd generation). If you have a gigabit network WD Mybook Live + WD TV Live is a much better setup.

9

Thank you for the clarifications. I tested yesterday the data transfer from the nic, average write speed 9 MB/s . I copied 50 GBs and took about an hour. I dont have 1 Gb eth switch to see how much will I get for the data transfer…

Regards,

10

Hi,

For added clarification.

I was using wireless (bufallo mini attached to the hub) when copying the 40GB. 

The slowness could be caused by my wireless network.

I connected my portable hd to the hub and copied around 200GB of movies and it took me more than 3 hours.

Since then I prefered copying via attached portrable drive rather than via netwok, just dont copy while its compiling as it will take longer, happened to me at first.

I am happy now with the speed of copying using an attached drive.  It may be slow but atleast its bearable.

Thats one off my list.

11

Well my first attempt was from an external storage drive, I’m really now confused! Your saying you copied 200 gbs and took you more than 3 hours. I copied 1 video file 15 gbs and took 45 minutes. My external storage is trenscend 500 gb (WD blue) the internal harddrive, weird…

12

My experience:

1.  40 gb transfer took around 5 hours

  - Hub using wireless usb adapter (bufallo mini)

  - Wireless laptop

  - Linksys Wireless G router

All using my home wireless network (no lan cables involved)

2.  200 gb transfer took more than 3 hours (probably 3 to 6 hours, i slept over it)

  - Hub no network

  - WD elements SE

No network involved.  Only the hub connected to my Portable WD elements SE on USB1

1 Like
13

Sorry - worried newbie - mine arrives Wednesday and I have a full terabyte to transfer. Do I understand right, I can connect my external drive directly to the hub by USB and move the files across?

14

Should add my external drive is Mac formatted.

15

Yes, you should be able to connect your Mac formatted drive to the WD TV Live Hub and transfer your data to the internal drive.

It will take some time, but you do not need to worry, it is a easy process.

The link below is the user manual, Page 13 and 21 might help you:

http://www.wdc.com/wdproducts/library/UM/ENG/4779-705046.pdf

16

This is the reality that WD TV LIVE Hub is super slow in file transfer… I’ve tried copying files to different folder on the same drive (1TB internal), but still very slow. Therefore, even if you upgrade your network to Gibabit still you will get the super slow file transfer speed of the WD TV Live hub… Maybe, the solution to this problem is to return the WD TV Live hub and purchase other brand of media player…