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

Legacy Products WD TV
1

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.

2

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.

3

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.

4

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