Western Digital TV HD Media Player 1080p - €100 delivered [Expansys]

yoshytoshy

Can anyone tell me if the wd tv ,outputs audio to spdif and rca at the same time ,or do you have to select just one ?

Voodu Child

JAMM222 wrote: »

anyone know where the cheapest place is to get the wdtv 2? and when it will be available dont think komplett will have it until :mad:10/10/09

Havent seen any reviews of it yet so I don't think its out anywhere. Im sure Komplett will get it on the launch date same as everywhere else.

yoshytoshy wrote: »

Can anyone tell me if the wd tv ,outputs audio to spdif and rca at the same time ,or do you have to select just one ?

I think so, will double check for you. There is an option in the GUI to select between them, but if I recall i remember noticing that both outputs were active at the same time. Not 100% sure though.

The spdif outputs a passthrough stream if applicable (ie if the source is AC3 or DTS) and it outputs a converted AC3 stereo signal if the audio source is something else (eg 6-ch AAC etc).

corkproducers

basquille wrote: »

TViXiE?

Thats pretty clever!
It basicaly creates a picture with the details and art in it right?
So that it will come up as the cover on the WDTV itself?

Basq

corkproducers wrote: »

Thats pretty clever!
It basicaly creates a picture with the details and art in it right?
So that it will come up as the cover on the WDTV itself?

No.. don't think so.

I haven't installed it on my WDTV yet but I assumed the info is stored in a TXT / XML format for retrieval and the image should be placed in the same folder as the movie with the same filename.

I could be wrong, as like I said I haven't installed it yet... but it's usually how these applications work.

consultech

basquille wrote: »

No.. don't think so.

I haven't installed it on my WDTV yet but I assumed the info is stored in a TXT / XML format for retrieval and the image should be placed in the same folder as the movie with the same filename.

I could be wrong, as like I said I haven't installed it yet... but it's usually how these applications work.

I have the tvix6500 and the app I have downloaded for creating it's wallpaper movie covers does everything on your pc: fetches info, ratings, covers etc online and creates a background inside the movie folder itself. Most likely if the WD does something similar, then you will obviously have to have all your movie in idependant folders.

Jesus Wept

corkproducers wrote: »

I ordered it from dabs.ie along with an exrernal hd,
and the shipping was 12.66 with UPS, not with Anpost?

Its being shipped from England too apparently, i definitely used dabs.ie and not dabs.com.

Probably just an error by me.

looperman1000

Basquille, mate. can you install it and see how you get on? Have been playing with that TVixie app so much with no success. I have tried it in work behind a firewall and at home without firewall. Never seems to bring up a result when imdb is selected as movie info provider, and this is searching for the likes of Batman, even. Putting Batman in its own folder etc
I have checked their forum, and it's not great to be honest.

vectra

looperman1000 wrote: »

Basquille, mate. can you install it and see how you get on? Have been playing with that TVixie app so much with no success. I have tried it in work behind a firewall and at home without firewall. Never seems to bring up a result when imdb is selected as movie info provider, and this is searching for the likes of Batman, even. Putting Batman in its own folder etc
I have checked their forum, and it's not great to be honest.

I gave up on TViXie as well
I stumbled upon this one.> Oversight

Simple to use and works fine for me
Might be worth a try

jamesd

looperman1000 wrote: »

Basquille, mate. can you install it and see how you get on? Have been playing with that TVixie app so much with no success. I have tried it in work behind a firewall and at home without firewall. Never seems to bring up a result when imdb is selected as movie info provider, and this is searching for the likes of Batman, even. Putting Batman in its own folder etc
I have checked their forum, and it's not great to be honest.

I just installed it there and set it to WD device as instructions, I pointed it at all my movies and selected them and went get movie info, it got nearly all 60 movies with posters and movie info.

JDxtra

Has anybody been tempted to get the Netgear digital entertainer live (EVA2000)?

It looks very similar to the upcoming WDTV2 - and it's available now from Elara:

http://www.elara.ie/products/detailsfull.asp?productcode=MME0712032&productID=S6939503
http://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.aspx?sku=498585

consultech

I use tvixie fairly successfully. I cant remember how I got the info fetch going in the end, but I remember it was a bit tricky.

I dont expect the WD will work with tvixie, as tvixie creates .tvix files for the unit to find, which WD obviously wont be looking for.

jamesd

Worth a look here for the file's being looked for
http://www.tvixie.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=33&t=513

spillcoe

http://www.ibood.com/ie/en/product_specs/13444/

How would this compare with the WD TV 2? I suppose it's probably a bit expensive considering there's no storage included.

Opinions?

corkproducers

Played only twice with the WDTV so far, but was pleased it was able to do these few things, that i wasnt expecting (going by bad reviews)

- I have my Elements 1tb split into 2 partitions,
the primary being Fat32, and secondary being NTFS,
and it read both perfectly, wasnt expecting it to read the secondary.

- While it was scanning for the files after i booted it,
i was able to still browse the music/video/image files,
by selecting the View Folders option, (although the menu system was slightly laggier than usual).

- I was able to play an .ISO file perfectly.
I think the older firmwares couldnt do this, and i didnt know they had ISO support since then.
(No menu suport though, but you can turn subtitles on/off.


Just a few small things that i expected it not to support.

coldfire1x

corkproducers wrote: »

Played only twice with the WDTV so far, but was pleased it was able to do these few things, that i wasnt expecting (going by bad reviews)

- I have my Elements 1tb split into 2 partitions,
the primary being Fat32, and secondary being NTFS,
and it read both perfectly, wasnt expecting it to read the secondary.

- While it was scanning for the files after i booted it,
i was able to still browse the music/video/image files,
by selecting the View Folders option, (although the menu system was slightly laggier than usual).

- I was able to play an .ISO file perfectly.
I think the older firmwares couldnt do this, and i didnt know they had ISO support since then.
(No menu suport though, but you can turn subtitles on/off.


Just a few small things that i expected it not to support.

Which firmware version you have?

corkproducers

coldfire1x wrote: »

Which firmware version you have?

Running the latest firmware. 1.02.07 that came with it out of the box.
There is a newer official *beta* firmware than this i think.

Ive just spotted now that wdlxtv firmware supports optware,
which means you could get lots of linux apps running,
such as Rtorrent, via the use of a usb ethernet adapter.

Ill have to discuss on the official thread, in the other forum i think.

beanian

http://wdtvforum.com/
wealth of information & applications for your WDTV at the above link

TarfHead

The description of this product (WD TV HD Media Player) on komplett states that it can play XviD & AVI, and a user comment states "Don't buy this if you are going to watch AVI, WMV or DVD movies"

Does this product play DivX/XviD AVIs, or not ?

coldfire1x

TarfHead wrote: »

The description of this product (WD TV HD Media Player) on komplett states that it can play XviD & AVI, and a user comment states "Don't buy this if you are going to watch AVI, WMV or DVD movies"

Does this product play DivX/XviD AVIs, or not ?

It plays all the formats mentioned by you. I have one and never had a problem.

The Sparrow

TarfHead wrote: »

The description of this product (WD TV HD Media Player) on komplett states that it can play XviD & AVI, and a user comment states "Don't buy this if you are going to watch AVI, WMV or DVD movies"

Does this product play DivX/XviD AVIs, or not ?

Yeah it has played every video format I have thrown at it including avi (xvid + divx), mkv, wmv and mp4. Obviously it can't play DVD movies though!

madmoe

Mine won't play music videos in .MKV format with Vorbis audio encoding. Anyone found this also? Bit of a pain but not the B all and end all!!

madmoe

madmoe wrote: »

Mine won't play music videos in .MKV format with Vorbis audio encoding. Anyone found this also? Bit of a pain but not the B all and end all!!

They have the .MKV extension and the audio is encoded with Vorbis according to Video Inspector anyhow.....

Anyone recommend any program to easily change the audio?

Voodu Child

madmoe wrote: »

They have the .MKV extension and the audio is encoded with Vorbis according to Video Inspector anyhow.....

Anyone recommend any program to easily change the audio?

I would use MKVextractGUI to pull the audio out of the container. Then MeGUI to convert the audio to a different format (maybe AAC). Then MKVmergeGUI to mux the AAC audio back in to the mkv container as a second audio track, keeping the Vorbis track intact because thats your source (highest quality).

Not sure if i'd class all that as 'easy' though :pac:

Etnies

Gots to get me one of these for downstairs! Already have my pc running straight to my tv via HDMI in my bedroom, So will run an ethernet cable from the WD box to the pc, sorted!

corkproducers

TarfHead wrote: »

The description of this product (WD TV HD Media Player) on komplett states that it can play XviD & AVI, and a user comment states "Don't buy this if you are going to watch AVI, WMV or DVD movies"

Does this product play DivX/XviD AVIs, or not ?

Some users are just idiots, its as simple as that!

The only common(ish) format it doesnt play is RMVB,

but the WD TV Mini player plays it,
i think its one of the main reasons this other model came out, as well as being cheaper.

Lenny

yea its mad easy to convert the music
but here lads one thing I am noticing. when I download 1080 movies(anything from 10-20gig) and the coding is dts, and I use the above programs to convert the sound over
it does it grand up until about 50mins of the film and then it would all just be blank..
this has happened a few films and its annoying, always seems to be on the same kinda time
any ideas?

coldfire1x

Now only £69.87 on Amazon with free Super Saver delivery.

dubmick

updated WDTV is now available in the States

madmoe

Komplette seem to have them now - http://www.komplett.ie/k/search.aspx?q=WD+HD+TV+Live

Anyone bought one?

Cheers,
M

Basq

Wahey.. sat down tonight and finally got wireless working on my WDTV.

Takes plenty of trial and error.

If you bought the D-Link DWL-G122 (Rev C) I linked to earlier on EBay, I can help you get it sorted if needs be but bear it mind, it does only work using WEP 64 / WEP 128.

IgsTer

Noticed some people saying that it doesnt play movies that have DTS and others say it does due to it not being able to decode the signal?

Looking on picking one of these up and just want to make sure itll play the sound, I have a seperate audio receiver which has coaxial/optical ports and it has the DTS logo on it so im guessing it decodes the DTS. Will I be ok?

Voodu Child

IgsTer wrote: »

Noticed some people saying that it doesnt play movies that have DTS and others say it does due to it not being able to decode the signal?

Looking on picking one of these up and just want to make sure itll play the sound, I have a seperate audio receiver which has coaxial/optical ports and it has the DTS logo on it so im guessing it decodes the DTS. Will I be ok?

Yep. The WD TV doesnt decode DTS, but it supports DTS passthrough via the optical socket. So it'll send the DTS stream straight to your decoder, and if your decoder supports it, you should be fine. Ive played lots of movies with DTS that way, just using a normal surround system. Pretty much any good surround system should support DTS and have an optical input.

The newer WD TV-Live does support DTS decoding.

IgsTer

Voodu Child wrote: »

Yep. The WD TV doesnt decode DTS, but it supports DTS passthrough via the optical socket. So it'll send the DTS stream straight to your decoder, and if your decoder supports it, you should be fine. Ive played lots of movies with DTS that way, just using a normal surround system. Pretty much any good surround system should support DTS and have an optical input.

The newer WD TV-Live does support DTS decoding.

Thanks for the info, yeah ive just checked and it can decode DTS so hopefully im good to go and wont have any issues.

Just looking at the newer live model and for 50 euro extra I dont think it would be worth it, I dont need the networking ability or DTS decoding now either seemingly, only other differences I can see is that it has 1.3 hdmi whereas this one only has 1.2 hdmi and the site states quicker bootup times and other load times, wierd since its the same hardware.

465

Just another question regarding DTS playback.
My receiver has HDMI ports, so do I simply attach the WD TV to the receiver
via HDMI cable, or do I also need optical cable?
Thanks

datk

I've been road testing one of these and have had a few problems. I had a mix of avi and mp4 files - I watched one avi file - a home movie off a digital camera and went to watch the next one (ie same camera, shot same day etc so the same format) and it said it didn't support the format and refer to manual. I went back to the one I had just watched and was told it couldn't be played also - even though it just had. Same with mp4 and avi programs.

Anyone had similar problems. I've tried out two different USB keys and my iPod Classic. What am I doing wrong?

coldfire1x

^^ Never had any such problem.

bucks73

465 wrote: »

Just another question regarding DTS playback.
My receiver has HDMI ports, so do I simply attach the WD TV to the receiver
via HDMI cable, or do I also need optical cable?
Thanks

The HDMI should work fine. Make sure digital is selected in the audio output on media player.

bucks73

datk wrote: »

I've been road testing one of these and have had a few problems. I had a mix of avi and mp4 files - I watched one avi file - a home movie off a digital camera and went to watch the next one (ie same camera, shot same day etc so the same format) and it said it didn't support the format and refer to manual. I went back to the one I had just watched and was told it couldn't be played also - even though it just had. Same with mp4 and avi programs.

Anyone had similar problems. I've tried out two different USB keys and my iPod Classic. What am I doing wrong?

Never had a problem either. Have you updated the firmware?

Luckycharms_74

They have it from Amazon for about €75 including free delivery

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Western-Digital-1080P-Media-Player/dp/B001ILFDCK

Lenny

lads regarding the DTS output..
I have a samsung le46a686 tv,
it has the optical conenction in the back of the tv,
can I connect the the opitcal connection to the wdhd and the tv and then they sound will be decoded through the tv, I don't have an amp and hate having to convert them over from dts

Soarer

I don't know that tv specifically Lenny, but I'd imagine that that's an optical out.

Could be wrong, but there's a 50:50 chance I'm right!

madmoe

Hi all,
I am gonna buy the new Live WD HD TV unit but I have a question. If I connect this via HDMI to my Sony 32 inch TV and my TV is connected to a Sony DAV-DZ260 via HDMI will I get the surround sound without having to use the optical out on the WD HD TV Live? With the original WD ND TV that I had the only way I could get the surround sound was to connect the optical out of the WD HD TV to the optical in on my amplifier as it did no do the decoding itself.

I have a PS3 and would like to have the optical in on the DAV-DZ260 free to use it with the PS3.

Cheers,
M

Edit: Did I ask the same question as 465 did above??

465

bucks73 wrote: »

The HDMI should work fine. Make sure digital is selected in the audio output on media player.

Execellant thanks,I assume this will also work for the 5.1 surround sound?

banchang

basquille wrote: »

Wahey.. sat down tonight and finally got wireless working on my WDTV.

Takes plenty of trial and error.

If you bought the D-Link DWL-G122 (Rev C) I linked to earlier on EBay, I can help you get it sorted if needs be but bear it mind, it does only work using WEP 64 / WEP 128.

Yes I did & its lying idle ever since - would appreciate your help basq.

Can you pls describe ?

Tks

bucks73

465 wrote: »

Execellant thanks,I assume this will also work for the 5.1 surround sound?

Yep, the receiver will decode the audio signal.

Basq

banchang wrote: »

Yes I did & its lying idle ever since - would appreciate your help basq.

Can you pls describe ?

Tks

I've uploaded my working firmware here: http://www.basquille.net/WDTV_Firmware.zip (18 MB)

I'm using the latest WDLXTV firmware.

The only things you need to change is in the net.config file. I've indicated that you need to input your wireless SSID and WEP key.

ifconfig rausb0 up
iwconfig rausb0 essid <SSID> key "<long WEP Key>"

Ensure your SSID is not in quotes, and your WEP key is.

Bear in mind, it does seem to only work on WEP64 / WEP128.. couldn't get it work on WPA or WPA2. Never tried open. It should work with DHCP although I have static parameters defined in my net.config file.

Let me know how you get on, and best of luck.

The Sparrow

basquille wrote: »

Wahey.. sat down tonight and finally got wireless working on my WDTV.

What exactly does this achieve? Can you stream video files from a server or computer over your network and if so what is the quality like? Can you stream large .mkv HD files?

Valentia

Does this play x264 files?Sorry if it has been asked already.

Basq

The Sparrow wrote: »

Can you stream video files from a server or computer over your network and if so what is the quality like?

Yep, quality is same as playing them off a connected HDD.

The Sparrow wrote: »

Can you stream large .mkv HD files?

You can stream 1080p fine.. but it all depends on your specific dongle and network setup. Using NFS shares is faster than using CIFS/SAMBA (which tend to be a bit slower though).

You can also upload files via FTP so you don't even need to disconnect your drive. And you can install a web interface on the WDTV (with access to RSS feeds, weather, YouTube beta stages, Apple Trailers etc).

The Sparrow

Wow that sounds great. Particularly the ability to upload files by FTP. I'm gonna try getting this up and running later. I bought the wireless dongle that was recommended earlier in this thread but got completely lost trying to set it up so I'll give it another bash tonight.