Why I dislike the WDTV Live HUB

WD Legacy Products WD TV Live Hub Discussions
1

  1. There are no UK film streaming services. This is just bollocks. I have to watch Netflix via the low-res Wii.

  2. The built in gui for browsing and playing music is awful. Why can’t I sync it to iTunes and have an iTunes style gui with my iTunes playlists etc? Life would be much simpler …

  3. The built-in gui for browsing and playing films is okay but not as good as xbmc which can’t be used on the WDTV Live Hub. The film database access is unreliable, often calling in information from a totally different film.

  4. Despite dialogue with WDTV help over the past few weeks and months … WDPhotos just doesnt work. Even with latest firmware when it reboots it deletes all the photos off the server. I give up with it.

Bottom line - I feel thoroughly ripped off with it. It’s basically little more than a basic NAS to me. Might as well buy a media streaming pc and run decent applications on it - and stream Netflix.

2

  1. Don’t blame WD, blame the fact that your country doesn’t do enough to curb piracy to where the licensees will allow access via the Live Hub,

  2. Yes, the interface is awful, but blame Apple for the lack of iTunes connectivity, not WD. Apple doesn’t like to open itself up to other competitor’s products.

3 & 4) Probably legitimate gripes, but when you look at competing products, the Live Hub is still the best thing out there for what it does.

3

  1. dont make me laugh. Its a WD hardware limitation. Can stream on wii or pc in uk.

  2. xbmc writes a decent gui. Why cant WD?

3 and 4) in UK not as good as a media pc running xbmc connectex.to a nas.

4

Dakeb, I completely respect your view and you have every right to be unsatisfied with the product if you don’t like it or is doesn’t so what you want it to. There are plenty of things I think could certainly be improved on the HUB

That being said, I think it’s a great product. They way I see it, I paid less than $200, of which around half was for the drive inside. So for around $85 for the actual product, I got a device that plays my music and movies in multiple formats, both from the local drive as well as various places on my network, and provides me with a few online services that I use. Sure, everyone’s financial situation is different, but as a tech junkie myself, I just can’t see getting a much better product for that price. $85 to have moved my entire library of CDs, DVDs, Home Video, Home Photos able to play through my TV and Stereo is an unbelievable deal. Even with all the issues people here complain about (validly I might add), I easily got my money’s worth. We’re talking about less than one night out on the town at a decent restaurant. No complaints on value to me.

Secondly, why did you buy the product if you didn’t like the interface and it didn’t give you the online service (netflix) that you wanted? I did a bunch of research before my purchase, had a list of things I needed the box to do, read a lot of reviews, watched a bunch of youtube vids on the interface, and then, decided it was the right product for me. I needed it to play flac which is the format all my music is in. Had it not played flac, I wouldn’t own it. You had requirements that the box didn’t meet, why not just not buy it and or build something that did what you wanted? There are plenty of devices that will run netfix in the UK, it would seem that would have been a better purchase for you.

I in no way want to convince anyone that this is the product for them. You either like it cause it does what you want or it doesn’t. But you gotta question why buy something that isn’t what you want and doesn’t meet your needs?

Again, no dissrespect and feel free to complain or be unhappy, but since you have an internet connection, you can research any product you want before you buy it. Research is your friend in the new connected world. Find what you want, buy it and be happy. It makes life a lot better.

-P

5

Dakeb wrote:

  1. dont make me laugh. Its a WD hardware limitation. Can stream on wii or pc in uk.
  1. xbmc writes a decent gui. Why cant WD?

3 and 4) in UK not as good as a media pc running xbmc connectex.to a nas.

It is not a hardware limitation as obviously we can stream Netflix in the US and Canada. It is a licensing limitation.

Why did you buy it if you know another device can perform better? Sounds like sour grapes from someone who didn’t do his research before buying. Boo hoo.

6

I do not buy  that its a country problem with piracy   I cannot get the RSS feeds to work with the CBC and that is  in my own country -Canada .

WD is stuck in the United States that it does not value its customs in other countries . The RSS part of the unit needs a big improvement  and  the YouTube options  need to be addressed as well . But WD seems to not to care

7

Miami_Son wrote:

  1. Don’t blame WD, blame the fact that your country doesn’t do enough to curb piracy to where the licensees will allow access via the Live Hub,

 

 

Really and where did you pick up this little gem. Are you saying that there is more piracy going on in the UK then in other parts of the world. Of course you may be correct and it could be that we are technically more adept at circumventing protection then other countries. :wink:

8

Miami_Son and others: -

It IS a hardware limitation. WD cannot provide streaming services in the UK because WDTV Live Hubs bought in the UK were not fitted with a DRM chip. We will never get it on this box. They sold us an inferior product to what you get in the USA. So Boo Hoo to you too.

Regarding why I bought it … well you don’t get to take it home and play with it for two months to find out all the problems do you? I stupidly assumed a WD product would be useable. The gui is awful. Period. I’ve been waiting for a firmware upgrade to improve it. I wan’t hold my breath.

Netflix? It wasnt yet available in the UK when I bought it, but I and many others assumed when streaming services came online the hardware would be capable of supporting it, like it does in the USA. How wrong we were.

NAS? yes it’s a decent NAS. That is what I am using it for now. Forget the front-end software. I will buy a mini pc running Linux and use xbmcas the front end in the near future.

9

Oh, and we have to pay nearer to $300 for them in UK.

Inferior product for 1.5x the price you lot in USA pay.

Feeling well and truly ripped off by WD.

10

Dakeb, what do you think DRM stands for? Digital Rights Management. Yes, piracy is more rampant in the UK and elsewhere outside the US, but the main problem for US companies is that they have little to no recourse in other countries court systems by which to go after such pirates. Therefore, they simply do not grant rights to companies to access their content outside the US where they are better protected. Hence, no DRM chip. WD did not sell you a defective device, they sold you one that is limited by the people who provide the content. Again, don’t blame WD, blame yourself for not doing your homework and for expecting to get the same access as we here in the US enjoy. That simply is not going to happen anytime soon.

11

Miami_Son wrote:

Dakeb, what do you think DRM stands for? Digital Rights Management. Yes, piracy is more rampant in the UK and elsewhere outside the US, but the main problem for US companies is that they have little to no recourse in other countries court systems by which to go after such pirates. Therefore, they simply do not grant rights to companies to access their content outside the US where they are better protected. Hence, no DRM chip. WD did not sell you a defective device, they sold you one that is limited by the people who provide the content. Again, don’t blame WD, blame yourself for not doing your homework and for expecting to get the same access as we here in the US enjoy. That simply is not going to happen anytime soon.

You really do not read the News do you. The US can extradite UK citizens with ease. Personally I would take this reply with a pinch of salt. How are they better protected within the US and how would they be unprotected outside of the US. I assume that you have exactly the same equipment as us to hack into systems. The law is the law and it is applied in the UK just as it is in the US. In fact we can be denied access to the internet if we are caught stealing films. We are not really allowed to rip music and certainly ripping DVD’s is not allowed even if you have own the physical copy. The film companies are multinational and we have organizations in the the UK dedicated to copyright theft. They are probably reading this forum.   http://www.fact-uk.org.uk

The reason why one country has something that another does not is mostly down to licensing or marketing and not piracy.

 Anyway we do now have Netflix and we do have other streaming services within the UK such as Lovefilm and indeed the BBC iPlayer so its got nothing to do with piracy or the legal process. The new Live Streaming Player is proof that WD can sell a player which enables Netflix in the UK however the hub cannot take advantage of it because even with the US version it is deemed ‘too old’.

12

There’s a headline I’ve never seen: Foreign media pirate extradited to US to stand charges. Regardless, there are many content producers that will not license 3rd parties to access their content outside the US because of piracy concerns. As for the OP, he bought a device without doing his homework, plain and simple. Now he’s in here belly-aching because it doesn’t do what he wants it to. Forget that it never said it would do those things, he bought and now he feels cheated. How is that WD’s fault?

13

Miami_Son wrote:

There’s a headline I’ve never seen: Foreign media pirate extradited to US to stand charges.

See it here:

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/thr-esq/tvshack-richard-odwyer-copyright-pirate-281455

14

richUK wrote:

Miami_Son wrote:

There’s a headline I’ve never seen: Foreign media pirate extradited to US to stand charges.

See it here:

 

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/thr-esq/tvshack-richard-odwyer-copyright-pirate-281455

If you notice, my headline is in the past tense. Post a link when it actually happens.:smileyvery-happy:

15

I can see that you, guys, got off track talking about piracy.  The thread got pulled more to protect everyone, but this may be a really valid discussion, so I restored the thread.  Try to keep the discussion positive and legally valid.  We do not promote piracy on any level.  However, the legalities of it are definitely changing and far more reaching than many think.

Bill_S

16

Miami_Son wrote:

richUK wrote:

Miami_Son wrote:

There’s a headline I’ve never seen: Foreign media pirate extradited to US to stand charges.

See it here:

 

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/thr-esq/tvshack-richard-odwyer-copyright-pirate-281455

If you notice, my headline is in the past tense. Post a link when it actually happens.:smileyvery-happy:

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/mother-hits-out-as-government-sends-british-student-richard-odwyer-to-us-for-trial-7565452.html

A Home Office spokesman said: “On March 9 the Home Secretary, having carefully considered all relevant matters, signed an order for Richard O’Dwyer’s extradition to the US. Richard O’Dwyer is wanted in the US for offences related to copyright infringement connected to the TVShack.net website.”

17

richUK wrote:

 

A Home Office spokesman said: “On March 9 the Home Secretary, having carefully considered all relevant matters, signed an order for Richard O’Dwyer’s extradition to the US. Richard O’Dwyer is wanted in the US for offences related to copyright infringement connected to the TVShack.net website.”

 

And yet he’s still there. :wink:

18

Miami_Son wrote:

richUK wrote:

 

A Home Office spokesman said: “On March 9 the Home Secretary, having carefully considered all relevant matters, signed an order for Richard O’Dwyer’s extradition to the US. Richard O’Dwyer is wanted in the US for offences related to copyright infringement connected to the TVShack.net website.”

 

And yet he’s still there. :wink:

Nothing to do with piracy but this person has been extradited

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-17266000

and these three

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/5182068.stm

So it does work. Obviously the person has rights of appeal against being extradited and that is why some people are still in this country

Anyway as has been mentioned this is now bit off of topic and its also getting boring and pointless. I believe I have more than made my point that UK citizens are accountable for their actions anywhere in the world and particularly in the USA.

Hopefully I have made you more aware of international events even you don’t like to admit to it.

19

With all the negativity floating around, I just want to say something positive, that the WDTV Hub design makes it almost DUST Proof! 

20

And the small black case makes it very stealthy. I sometimes lose it without knowing it. **bleep** you, WD!!!