I’ll add my two cents to that. Sometimes, tech support agents are the last to know when a new product comes out. So, no one lied to you. They just didn’t know.
Picked up the WDTV Live Plus… it works nice… but…
hopefully, there will be an upcoming firmware update to address a couple of annoyances…
the boot time could be a little faster and smoother.
the user interface is a bit slow and seems to lock up on occasion.
other than that, the little box seems to do what it says it will do
Welcome to the forums.
Boot time will not improve – it was a tradeoff they made due to power issues.
They are aware of some other minor glitches and lockups and are working on those.
I understand the Live is based on the SIgma 8655 and the Live+ is based on the 8654 which is the Macrovision version of the 8655. There’s been one report in the AVS forums that the Live+ played audio from a MKV file moticebaly better than a Live:
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=18831916#post18831916
Can anyone comment on why this might be the case, if true?
Could it be due either to firmware differences, or perhaps hardware differences not related to the media processors (e.g. perhaps some larger buffers on the PCB, etc)?
I’d like to purchase a WDTV and am trying to determine if the Live+ is worth the extra $20. Netflix doesn’t matter to me but improved media playback would. Otherwise, the Live is a bargain now at $94 via Bing.
Based on that thread it looks like the user was trying to play files downloaded from the internet which could be of VERY dubious quality (not to mention origin as in “not legal”).
The Live plays proper files just fine, with no issues at all (I have two of them and one Plus and I’ve played literally hundreds of such high quality HD files through the Live with no issues). The Plus has its own issues right now with audio (like not passing through TrueHD) so as with everything in life you pays your money and takes your chances. If Netflix is not (and never will be) important to you, I’d just get the Live.
Thanks for your feedback Mike. You’re right on that AVS post. I’ll go with the Live.
Before I stray dangerously OT, is the beta firmware for the Live fairly stable or would it be safer to go with the last production version? It would be nice to have DVD menu navigation.
I would go with the beta as all the versions to date have their own “niggles” and having DVD is nice despite the issues described to date.
Thanks. I’m new here and can understand if people are a little reluctant to recommend a firmware version, especially if they’re sensitive to a particular issue that may or may not be working.
But at least it sounds like the beta won’t cause my WDTV to spontaneously combust and that’s the kind of warning I was looking for. I’ll give the beta a try tonite with some of my DVD iso’s.
mkelley wrote:
Based on that thread it looks like the user was trying to play files downloaded from the internet which could be of VERY dubious quality (not to mention origin as in “not legal”).
The Live plays proper files just fine, with no issues at all (I have two of them and one Plus and I’ve played literally hundreds of such high quality HD files through the Live with no issues). The Plus has its own issues right now with audio (like not passing through TrueHD) so as with everything in life you pays your money and takes your chances. If Netflix is not (and never will be) important to you, I’d just get the Live.
- *> Mike, I have to disagree with you on the Live - I have multiple ripped files from my own DVD collection that have horrible audio sync issues.> These files were ripped using varying methods, varied settings, and audio sync continues to be a major problem.> > just my 2 cents.
It all depends on how you define “proper”.
If you create MKV files properly you will have no audio issues. If you have MP4 files with audio problems you can easily convert them with mkvmerge and you will have no issues. The Live won’t play everything, and no media play can. But you do have to know what you are doing.
It looks like Netflix is coming to Canada this fall. I haven`t seen any Plus version in stores yet but they will be coming at the same time. Since there is no price difference with both versions, the regular Live is a dead horse now, I guess. So future improvement for the later may be unknowned.
Btw we all noticed that competition is heating up in media players. We`re going to get better prices and more features from manufs by Christmas. I see those kind of device going for $50 next year since there is basically not much in it. Now, the real milestone will be full Web browsing capability.
Good news for our friends to the north.
There’s currently about a $20 street price premium for the Plus in the US now.
I’m wondering how similar the Live vs. Live Plus source code for the firmware is if you ignore the Netflix function? The ideal case would be a core for the Live, to which a modular section of code could be appended for the Live Plus. That would make conditional compiling easier.
But if there is no common core, possibly due to neglect or too many differences at the hardware level, then that’s too bad.
armaggedon51 wrote:
It looks like Netflix is coming to Canada this fall. I haven`t seen any Plus version in stores yet but they will be coming at the same time. Since there is no price difference with both versions, the regular Live is a dead horse now, I guess. So future improvement for the later may be unknowned.
Btw we all noticed that competition is heating up in media players. We`re going to get better prices and more features from manufs by Christmas. I see those kind of device going for $50 next year since there is basically not much in it. Now, the real milestone will be full Web browsing capability.
I know that this may surprise most North Americans but there is the rest of the world who do not get Netflix.
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richUK wrote:
armaggedon51 wrote:
It looks like Netflix is coming to Canada this fall. I haven`t seen any Plus version in stores yet but they will be coming at the same time. Since there is no price difference with both versions, the regular Live is a dead horse now, I guess. So future improvement for the later may be unknowned.
Btw we all noticed that competition is heating up in media players. We`re going to get better prices and more features from manufs by Christmas. I see those kind of device going for $50 next year since there is basically not much in it. Now, the real milestone will be full Web browsing capability.
I know that this may surprise most North Americans but there is the rest of the world who do not get Netflix.
Yes I know what I am saying is that if the cost of producing both is the same, might as well produce only the Plus. For those poor countries which are not bless by Netflix, just ignore the feature and it become a regular Live. I am not a fan of movie streaminig anyway since like most of us, use medias from, hum, “grey” sources. Btw poor Canadians are also barred from Pandora, sniff sniff.
I’m going to wager that soon, BOTH the Live and Live+ will have the same firmware images.
The reason I say this, is that if you look inside the LIve Beta firmwares, there’s references to NetFlix.
So, there’s quite a bit of code in common. We’ll see as this plays out!
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Hey Propeller Head–I’ve wanted to say that for a while now (nothing derogatory, of course)! 
I think you’re right. It makes no sense to have two different firmwares for boxes that are virtually the same in functionality except for NetFlix support. Like you said, we’ll see how it plays out.
I’m going to wager that soon, BOTH the Live and Live+ will have the same firmware images.
The reason I say this, is that if you look inside the LIve Beta firmwares, there’s references to NetFlix.
So, there’s quite a bit of code in common. We’ll see as this plays out!
======================
That’s interesting.
In the event both firmware images were exactly the same, that implies a few possibilities for telling the firmware whether Netflix functions are enabled (its fun to guess):
(1) The Sigma 8655 and 8654 are physically the same IC but there is a pin wired differently (either inside or outside the chip’s package, probably inside for security). This is not uncommon because its sometimes cheaper to produce a single version of an IC if the added functions don’t use up that much more chip area.
(2) Same as above but there is a bit read from somewhere which enables Netflix. Could be a small flashable EEPROM or secure flash onboard the chip. Could also be in the firmware itself (but then there wouldn’t be identical frmware images in Live and Live+).
(3) The 8655 and 8654 are physically not the same IC. Difference could be existance of the security functions (Macrovision, etc) or simply a register with one bit flipped differently. But this would cost Sigma more fixed up-front costs due to costs for an additional set of mfg masks.
Looking at the 8655/8654 datasheets would provide more insight.
But why purposely market two “different” devices. There is no reason (other than some inane licensing issue) that netflix cannot appear as an option, much like 365live. When selected a simple “you are not in the geographic area” message can appear. If you know you can’t get it then yoyu don’t click on it.
Perhaps to prevent exploitation by IP spoofers?
