WTB/TF: Western Digital Live TV /equivalent. Must Play Local Media from USB, Not WiFi Streaming.....

topcat989

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Joined
Jan 2, 2001
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Like the title says. Tired of dragging my laptop over to the TV and hooking up everytime me and Pop want to watch some of the media I have. Not interested in streaming, just something SIMPLE that can play from USB thumbdrive or USB HD like WD Passport drive. And has a remote. So basically HDMI and remote control.

To be clear: All I intend to do is load whatever we want to watch onto a thumbdrive and sneakerNET it over to the WD Live TV
 
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I think I have one. It was the last gen that was made. PM me with an offer.
 
whats wrong just get a nexus TV? it has microUSB, you can get microUSB to OTG usb hub+SD card, and since is android, install VLC or EX explorer and you are set... it also comes with remote too
 
It's unfortunate that these WD TV type of HDD players vanished. The WD TV was awesome. ..
The landscape has changed, and it's all client/server model now.. where you stream your content from a centralized server.
You may have to go the China route (DX, Gearbest... etc..)
 
I think I have one. It was the last gen that was made. PM me with an offer.

PM sent. Thanks!

whats wrong just get a nexus TV? it has microUSB, you can get microUSB to OTG usb hub+SD card, and since is android, install VLC or EX explorer and you are set... it also comes with remote too

WD is simpler, and that's what I'm shooting for.

It's unfortunate that these WD TV type of HDD players vanished. The WD TV was awesome. ..
The landscape has changed, and it's all client/server model now.. where you stream your content from a centralized server.
You may have to go the China route (DX, Gearbest... etc..)

Hopefully somebody has a WD Live model that they are not using and are willing to sell to me.....cheap.:p

a raspberry pi works great for what you want to do.

And I may go that route if there are no WD Lives to be had or they want too much for them

every (modern) bluray player with a USB port can play mp4 files.

And IDGAF about bluRay players with USB that can play mp4 files, because I have no BluRay discs, don't rent them, and have other formats such as MKV, AVI, WMW to play aside from the mp4 ones.

Pm sent. I have one

Replied. Thanks!

I also have one, the last model they made. PM me if you are interested.

PM sent. Thanks!
 
'And IDGAF about bluRay players with USB that can play mp4 files, because I have no BluRay discs, don't rent them, and have other formats such as MKV, AVI, WMW to play aside from the mp4 ones.'

Well sure but used, they are also super cheap if not free now days. Even cheaper if the BD drive is bad.
 
'And IDGAF about bluRay players with USB that can play mp4 files, because I have no BluRay discs, don't rent them, and have other formats such as MKV, AVI, WMW to play aside from the mp4 ones.'

Well sure but used, they are also super cheap if not free now days. Even cheaper if the BD drive is bad.

even so, limit of mp4 files kills the deal for me. Not interested in converting or transcoding. Just stick the thumbdrive in and it plays the media files on it. The WD TV does that.
 
Topcat my homie - I too was in your shoes... my beloved WD TV Live has kicked the bucket a few months ago and I could not bring myself to buying an untested used one on eBay for nearly $100 nor could I find one locally.

So I bit the bullet, installed plex, got a Roku and have not looked back since. Sure, it has some quirks but 99% of the time it works flawlessly. Plus much easier to use for the wife.
 
Like the title says. Tired of dragging my laptop over to the TV and hooking up everytime me and Pop want to watch some of the media I have. Not interested in streaming, just something SIMPLE that can play from USB thumbdrive or USB HD like WD Passport drive. And has a remote. So basically HDMI and remote control.

To be clear: All I intend to do is load whatever we want to watch onto a thumbdrive and sneakerNET it over to the WD Live TV

I used to have a mess of these, I'll look and see if I have them but I am positive they may have been thrown. There was 3 of them, 2 new in box...
 
even so, limit of mp4 files kills the deal for me. Not interested in converting or transcoding. Just stick the thumbdrive in and it plays the media files on it. The WD TV does that.
actually, anything mp4 (which includes AVCHD) in whatever container be it MKV, TS, MTS, M2TS , AVC, MOV, etc. Basically, anything those old WDTVs can play, a modern BD player can also play.
 
Wow..i thought i was the only one still using these (i have these in all my rooms). Would love to see a 4k version ;)

Bump and good luck!
 
i use to use the WD boxes but now they do not play everything i want.

i started buying used zotac zbox mini PCs and putting KODI on them and handing them out. then people can plug a thumb drive into them and play anything under the sun. and if you watch for a deal the zbox can even be less than a wd box. here is a quad core beefy little thing that would work good for 100ish.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Zotac-Sico..._nkw=amd+zotac&_from=R40&rt=nc&LH_TitleDesc=0
 
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I have a WeTek Core you may enjoy. I used to use WDTV boxes for my less tech-savvy family, but i've transitioned to others including WeTek which are some of the best supported of their type. It comes with an easy to use remote, runs Android as well as LibreELEC (note - if you want simple, LibreELEC may be the way to go. It basically is just enough Linux to boot Kodi and all configuration is within Kodi itself). There are USB ports ready to accept local storage, WiFi for config/streaming, and ethernet (note - higher bitrate stuff tends to work better over ethernet, but if you're loading most locally this is a non-issue) and more. Plays just about everything with hardware acceleration up to and including x264 and some types of x265 encoded content. PM if interested.
 
bump and PM's being sent, answered. Keep them coming!

i use to use the WD boxes but now they do not play everything i want.

i started buying used zotac zbox mini PCs and putting KODI on them and handing them out. then people can plug a thumb drive into them and play anything under the sun. and if you watch for a deal the zbox can even be less than a wd box. here is a quad core beefy little thing that would work good for 100ish.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Zotac-Sicom-ZBOX-SNANO-320GB-HHD-AMD-A4-5000-Quad-core-1-5GHz-4GB-WiFi/263811529032?hash=item3d6c647948:g:c-kAAOSwWwtbR6AG&_sacat=58058&_nkw=amd+zotac&_from=R40&rt=nc&LH_TitleDesc=0

Will check it out, but looking to spend much less than $100 a head

I have a WeTek Core you may enjoy. I used to use WDTV boxes for my less tech-savvy family, but i've transitioned to others including WeTek which are some of the best supported of their type. It comes with an easy to use remote, runs Android as well as LibreELEC (note - if you want simple, LibreELEC may be the way to go. It basically is just enough Linux to boot Kodi and all configuration is within Kodi itself). There are USB ports ready to accept local storage, WiFi for config/streaming, and ethernet (note - higher bitrate stuff tends to work better over ethernet, but if you're loading most locally this is a non-issue) and more. Plays just about everything with hardware acceleration up to and including x264 and some types of x265 encoded content. PM if interested.

I am interested. PM incoming.
 
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I've got one sitting in a closet. I'll check it to make sure it/remote/etc still works. These things truly were ahead of their time - they just worked when nothing else really did!
 
Will check it out, but looking to spend much less than $100 a head

.

dual core apu mini ones are available around 40$ and i have had good luck with them on anything except huge 4k rips. also you will want to use elec or something, not a windows kodi variant. even with the setup involved it was better for me to hand them out and have them be able to play nearly anything they found, over the WD media players. for what they are, the WD media players still do o.k. too as long as you work in their confines.
 
I have at least one in a closet. I think I lost the remote or something. I have an IDE popcorn hour even. I built a plex server and moved on. Local storage just wasn't cutting it once you grow a bit. I built an R710 system and now even that is showing its age and ready to retire. I plan on moving to a 12 drive setup like the HP DL380. I'm probably going to start with a low end server and eventually upgrade it to dual 10 core chips. I have some high end X series hex cores in the R710 presently. Its nice to be able to build with low end and upgrade over time. I'm not ready to jump to DDR4 memory and just moving 100Gb from the R710 and moving up a couple gens in CPU's helps.
 
Still looking people. I'm getting nibbles in this thread and in PMs then they seem to fade away:(

dual core apu mini ones are available around 40$ and i have had good luck with them on anything except huge 4k rips. also you will want to use elec or something, not a windows kodi variant. even with the setup involved it was better for me to hand them out and have them be able to play nearly anything they found, over the WD media players. for what they are, the WD media players still do o.k. too as long as you work in their confines.

I'll look into it. I was sorta set on the WD Live TV because it's simple, and plays MKV, MP4, AVI which is 95% of what my video media is.

I just want to plug it in, and it works.
 
topcat989

Make me an offer on my WDTV Live Hub 1TB. Comes with Box, remote, psu, and unit.
My Pioneer AVR died on me a few weeks ago and I am trying to gather up some funds to get a replacement.
 
I have a Patriot branded box. It is just sitting on the shelf. I don't remember much about it, other than it is/was a direct competitor to the WD. I remember it also has a flashed/hacked OS. I can dig it out and give details if you are interested.
 
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