WD TV (2014) or WD TV Live Streaming Gen3, + Drive?

Ecaroh · December 26, 2020, 11:20pm

Thinking of finally replacing my very old WD TV Live (2009, WDBAAP000NBK) with either WD TV Media Player (2014, WDBYMN0000NBK) or WD TV Live Streaming (Gen3), 2011 – WDBHG70000NBK. I use it entirely for audio – FLAC and some MP3 – no video. Any reason to prefer the Live Streaming machine? Hardware and functionality hardly seem to vary at all.

Also, any reason to expect trouble accessing something like a WD My Passport 1-TB drive, HFS+ format? Can the WD generate enough USB current to power the drive? Many thanks.

JoeySmyth · December 27, 2020, 4:03am

If you want a bit perfect audio player that doesn’t downsample your audio … look elsewhere

Also, WDTV media players never got gapless audio support which almost every other player on the market today can do.

should be ok … i’ve used 4TB USB portable drives on my 2014 WDTV and WDTV Live Hub before i sold them.

Ecaroh · December 27, 2020, 7:51pm

Thanks a million, Joey. Very very helpful. Hadn’t seen that blog post. My application (standard Redbook-spec audio outputting to a DAC via optical cable) doesn’t come off all that badly there – I don’t think it gets downsampled. You’re definitely right that lack of gapless is a great irritation. So I may not continue with these WDs. But if I do – no reason to favor the final WD TV over the Live Streaming (Gen 3) or vice versa? The firmwares seem to vary but the hardware and interface don’t, evidently? Despite several years between them… Again thanks.

JoeySmyth · December 27, 2020, 11:31pm

Yes, Firmware version numbers vary … but the hardware, comparing the WDTV 2014 and the Live Streaming, are Identical.

Biggest difference with the 2014 model … they removed Netflix

Spec Comparison on the WDTV Wiki