What is best set up for TV Live? Can I connect with Live Storage? What about Direct Tv and internet

WD Legacy Products WD TV Live Streaming
1

Excuse and new at this.  the equipment offered looks very nice but now I have to figure out the best way to make it work with what I have using the least $$   I currently have Direct TV connected to my HD TV. I have a wireless router, 3 PC’s used for small business and my whole purpose that started this is that I don’t want to deal with failing DVD’s all the time and want to play media files direct instead

Here are questions I have

  1. Which Live should I buy- the one with no storage or the 1 TB storage

  2. If I decided to get the the My Book Elite external hard drives to use as a central source for all three PC’s would I be able to use this with the Live TV with no storage and not have to worry about buying the Live TV with the 1TB storage?

  3. Are there any ways to interface this with Direct TV’s recording types boxes and would it serve any purpose?

  4. Can I run my internet through this so I can go online through the WD live and use it just like a PC?\

Sorry to have so many questions.  Thanks for looking!  Chuck

2

Well, I don’t think anyone can tell you which to buy because it really depends on what you need.  So I’m not even going to try to bother answering questions 1 & 2, because the SMP and the HUB (one with the HDD) are pretty similar minus the HDD.  Just do your research and make an informed decision on which one is going to best for you and suits your needs.

As for questions 3 & 4, that’s a no.  As far as I know (and I have DirectTV) you can’t even access Direct TV directly from your PC (not without using their apps).

And no you can’t surf the web with either, the SMP & HUB are media players/streamers and do not have a web browsers.  Basically, if you want something that can play your media files and certain online media sources, like Netflix, then this is a good choice.  If you are looking for something that will allow you to do the things a PC will do, then you’ll need to pony up a few more $$.