WD TV Live Hub Media Center

Pros: - Compact
- Quiet
- Good playback quality
- Decent fast forward, rewind, tracking
- Feature rich
- Nice looking interface

Cons: - 1000Mb ethernet runs at about 100Mb half duplex, in reality, and significantly degrades performance during network transfers
- Non-multimedia feature addition prioritized over fixing existing multimedia feature bugs
- Poor firmware consistency across devices (Different Live Hub, different firmware behavior
- Poor performance, underpowered
- Using Media Library feature cripples device for some users
- Poor online firmware update support (WD recommends manually updating firmware with a USB drive)
- Generally unreliable
- Issues with networking and local media library make onboard storage a bit of a waste. Mine goes unused these days.

Other Thoughts: If WD would modularize all the Facebook/Flickr/Picasa/Games/etc, to make them optional, upgrade the processor, add a true Gb ethernet connection, and prioritize core functionality in firmware development, they would have an excellent product. As it stands it tries to do too much and does nothing particularly well.

If you can figure out what firmware version makes the most features usable for your use patterns, it is a pretty good media player, but still expect lockups and general sketchiness. Identifying 'your firmware' can be problematic, seeing as no two devices seem to react quite the same to each firmware release. Myself and 3 friends all have them, they all have similar issues, but never entirely the same. The issues are generally minor, but stack up quickly to ruin the experience of "upgrading".

Currently I run mine off a NAS, due to onboard media library/NIC issues. And I would recommend the model without a drive. Stream from your PC and save yourself some money/frustratio

Pros: None

Cons: Everything including the interface, navigation, network and reliability.
These are the very few issues , I had faced over the short period of time I have owned it ( I m returning it now ) -
1) The reliability - very frequent freezes and random restarts.
2) The navigation is very slow
3) Media library updation takes forever ( actually was never able to use it as it takes forever to update - instead I used to go with folder view - which is more slower to navigate and it caused freezes or restarts more times than it worked )
4) never played the files it promised ( I am techie and know about different audio and video formats it promised it plays)
5) bad network speeds - took me more than 10 hours to copy my personal videos ( 15gb ) over a wireless connection with only the player and Laptop connected to the router ( Laptop - Alienware m18x with Force GT SSD, router - NETGEAR - N900 Dual Band - I mentioned these because it is not my HDD read speed or the router which caused the slowne

Other Thoughts: The Player has caused me more trouble than the minimum pleasure I have expected from it. Please DO NOT BUY this player until you know what you are dealing with. The player never worked continuously for more than 30 minutes ( 30 minutes being the maximum ). It restarts randomly and very frequently without any reason. If we are in the middle of a playlist and it restarts you have to listen to all the songs again or have to be there to skip all the songs you listened till then to get to new songs ( Imagine if you are in shuffle mode ).
I am running it on the latest firmware, did several restarts and factory resets, tried downgrading the firmware and all other steps mentioned on WD site with no use before writing this review.
I was a fan of WD line up ( had WD HDDs and Live plus earlier and upgraded to Live Hub ). I am returning this player and would never recommend WDTV to anyone. They lost a loyal customer.

Pros: Having a place to organize and store all my digital movie collection has been great. The dvd player is now barely ever used, I never have to mess with unskippable movie previews and annoying menu screens again!

It can play basically any file format you throw at it.

Startup is pretty quick.

Cons: There are a few:

1. though it could see and play my movies that were in a VIDEO_TS format, when I tried to move them (to organize them in different folders ie, action, comedy, etc) it would only move the .VOB files, not the whole folder! So now I'm encoding them into MP4 and AVI formats.

2. Because it's its own Media Server, it never really turns off. You can press the off button and it'll go into a low power state but the fan never turns off. I think this is because it was built to work with the WD Lives that can stream from the hub. I don't have any of those and would rather it shut completely off so that the fan doesn't wear down sooner.

3. It can do everything but I feel that most of us just want to watch videos. Though the startup menu looks fantastic, I'd rather it bring me right to options for consuming my data. My Media Library, Netflix, etc. Right now it just takes a few too many clicks to actually play anything.

Other Thoughts: Taking a few too many clicks is also why it didn't take over Netflix duties from our Roku.

Moving all my files over takes time (typical USB 2.0 speeds) but once they are all on and organized it will be a time AND space saver. We've already moved all of our DVD's into a closet. Also I've unplugged it before and taken it to a friends. Don't know what to watch? Just peruse my entire library!

Pros: The WD HD TV Pro Live is great! The menu is fast, customizable, easy to use. The device itself is very small, only gets slightly warm, stores a lot of media. Front and back USB which I used to plug in an old wireless keyboard. Worked perfectly! Very nice remote too making it unnecessary to buy a universal remote; this one has a nice feel to it- ergonomic. Lots of services from Hulu, YouTube, Netflix, Blockbuster and a mess of others that I haven't even tried. Pandora works great and you can even check your Facebook. There is even an RSS feed feature that was just added but I haven't even tried that yet either. I'm still enamored with the handful of features that I use on a regular basis!

You can download just about anything and store it on this player. I downloaded free open lectures from YouTube using a browser plugin and stored the .MP4 files on the device to help me with some classes that I struggled in. I got all A's last semester and I thank WD for that!

Cons: Like nearly every media player, it's power saver state could be better but it's not bad! You might hear a whinny reviewer say bad about it but I'm in a small dorm room and if I can hear it at night, I simply hold the power button on the remote for 2-3 seconds until the device fully powers off. WD was thoughtful enough to consider the bright LED in front- you can set the light to not stay on at night. On the other hand, the device is always ready to serve media files over the network!

My only complaint is that the device is so useful, so handy, so important to my media scheme that I wish it could come with 2 TB or 3TB storage! YES, you can add a USB storage device to it. I just haven't gone that route yet.

Other Thoughts: Works fabulous in a Linux network environment! Sadly, I don't think EXT4 format on the USB flash drives are recognized anymore. It was with the first firmware out of the box but I think that ended after one of the newer firmware updates. EXT4 file copying is much faster. However, the device will copy files faster than any Windows machine can do it even with Fat32 or NTFS. Copying files through the network is also much faster to the device than it would be to MS Windows. I know, I've compared the two.

Also, I can't believe this thing is still only $199 after the hard drive factory crisis in Thailand. Well worth the money just for the 1TB hard drive space. *sigh*

Whatever problem arises, you can post on the WD media device forums and I think they usually fix things.

Pros: Elegant look

Cons: Cannot handle DVD menu very well, it freezes a lot, especially with Disney titles. Also cannot play RMVB files.

If I turn on the DVD menu function, movie A gets stuck at fast play and freezes. Movie B works normally without freezing or lagging.

If I turn off the DVD menu function, movie A now plays, but both movie A and B have serious lagging in playback.

Both movie A and B play flawlessly in VLC Media Player.

You just cannot win with this player.

Other Thoughts: I read from somewhere that this DVD menu issue was once fixed in previous firmware, but when the new firmware was introduced, that fix was gone again. I hope they can fix this issue in the next firmware soon.

Pros: Small size, wide range of formats, decent remote, internal storage plus rear usb for additional drive, hdmi out. I disabled the gallery and startup takes me right to my media folders on the internal drive with one click. A few extra clicks and you can access the folders on an external drive. I haven't used Netflix yet but I expect good results there as well.

Cons: 'Always on' fan

Other Thoughts: This is almost the perfect replacement for HTPC. The one flaw is the lack of a selectable power save mode. If you turn it off, it stays in standby mode with the fan running. Not ideal in terms of longevity and completely unacceptable in my bedroom. If you hold the power button for 5 seconds it will power off completely. Others have complained of a slow cold start but it doesn't seem too long for me, similar to my DVD player. Full power off does cause the player to forget where you were if you were partway through a movie. The annoyance of remembering to hold the power button and also losing your place will probably keep me from buying a second one. Should have a sleep mode that would address both issues, or at the least have a selectable power off mode in the menu.

Pros: Just discovered that in addition to sharing its internal drive over my home network, it also shares any USB drives attached to it. Also you can attach a wireless usb keyboard which helps greatly when setting up Netflix, Pandora, Network File Share Passwords ...

Cons: They need to allow you to move a cursor on the movies progress bar. Instead you can fast forward or rewind by up to 16x, and type in a specific time. A skip ahead/behind by 10% feature would work as well.

Other Thoughts: If you have a lot of media, I suggest you disable the media library, and just browse your files and folders. If you connecting to a device which can handle digital input make sure you select that rather than stereo.

Pros: Plays .mp4, .mkv, .avi the 3 major formats
Netflix as well as 19 other online services from Flikr, blockbuster, hulu plus, FB, etc.
Netflix works just sign in no activation of device
Web interface has a remote control that I can access through my phone or latpop.
Automatically detected my AirLink101 AWLL6075 Wireless N Mini USB Adapter
Accessed and played media from pc network shares
Box shows up as media center for other devices such as PS3/XBOX
Internal Storage 1TB
Front USB Port (2 Total)
Compatible with multiple file systems NTFS & FAT
Box design is great slim and fits in with other devices on tv shelf.
Runs quiet & Cool

Cons: Network transfer slow but it's like that on every other media box i've owned.
Remote is direct line of sight
Choked on .flv files
Received box two firmware versions behind took about 15-20 minutes to update to the latest firmware via hardwire.
Copy command does not include (No To All) when replacing or updating files to and from the device.

Other Thoughts: Great box for what's included doesn't play all file formats but I would say it plays the main 3 (avi,mp4,mkv). Storage and Netflix were the deal breakers not to mention I got it at great price :-) which I will not mention as not to break Neweggs long list of Product Review Guidelines.

Pros: Does everything that it's supposed to do and more. When I first got mine, it was a Best Buy exclusive. Couldn't get it anywhere else. (I checked Newegg before I bought, as always) Paid 230.00 w/tax and was very pleased because it recognized and plyed all major formats and a few minor ones at the time. It's like having a NAS with remote that does services; youtube, netflix, etc. But it only got better. It has updates that actually change and makes the product better each time. Constantly adding new stuff, new services. Then I found it on Newegg for alot less on sale and picked one up for my nephew. After running the WD Discovery tool on my pc, it was able to find the second WD TV Live and I started transferring alot my content to nephews box. I use it with my xbox 360 by using the Media Center extender and now I access the box from anywhere in the house. I can even watch one movie in one room while watching a different one in a different room.

Cons: You should know that both boxes I have had to set the network settings manually. Had a few problems with it until I got that straight. After setting the IP address , to one within my routers realm, and running the WD Discovery tool to link it to my master PC as a network drive, all was great.

Other Thoughts: I had a similar product made by Arch_s that cost way more, had a much smaller hard drive, recognized much less, and they wanted $ for each new "Plug-in" that you bought so that it would function correctly. Tried to nickel and dime you to get their product to function correctly. Western Digital is the opposite. They sell a quality product, (I won't buy anyone elses Hard Drives) and they keep you updated without charging. No, I don't work for Western Digital:)

Pros: all my friends love this, many compliments! this thing is outstanding!

Cons: none..

Other Thoughts: except I would have liked an esata out for internal hard drive, so that i didnt need to dissasemble to connect to my pc. I had to transfer 1 Tb of data wich would have take 100 hours/4.16 days over my network.