Western Digital Live 1080P Internet Media Streamer

[PJPro]

I've finally decided to do something about my noisy PS3 as my music source downstairs. While it was cool to stream music, photos and video from my PC to my PS3, it's all a bit of a performance and an unnecessary waste of energy. In the spirit of DIY, I've been toying with an idea to make something to do the job for me. However, I've decided to buy something ready made this time around.

I've gone for a Western Digital Live 1080p Internet Media Streamer. This little box of tricks will playback my music, photo and video files from a USB connected external HDD. It suppports a respectable number of file formats (including .flac) and is small and discrete. It also has wired network capability allowing connection to various rubbish online sites but will also allow me to copy ripped files across my gigabit network from my PC. It also allows for online updates to the firmware (cool).

Western Digital Live 1080p Internet Media Streamer

This little box requires a telly to use as its display and connects via an HDMI lead. Audio is via an optical cable.

Clearly, the media streamer needs an external HDD or I'm back to having my PC on upstairs. So I got myself a Samsung Story 1.5TB external HDD. Don't know why really.....I usually go for Seagate drives....perhaps it was the low price or the nice case (with on/off switch). The bonus side effect of this approach is that I will have a further copy of my media on another HDD (two in my PC, one in my drawer at work and one downstairs). In my experience, you can't have enough copies of data, especially when it's pictures / videos of the kids!

Samsung Story 1.5TB external HDD

The WD Live 1080P cost me £96 and the Samsung Story £85 both from Amazon. They are due to arrive tomorrow [rubs hands in glee].

 

[Gerrardasnails]

Good choice PJ. I'm sure you will be happy. I like the look of that hard drive. Shame I just bought a Seagate 1tb fir £61.

 

[John Duncan]

Yay! Somebody else takes a hit for the team! Cheerleaders come out for smooches!

 

[PJPro]

Yeah. Thanks for bringing it to my attention Mr Snails. I'm just having a look at the WD community website. Hmmm. A few issues it seems.....not least the unresponsive support from WD. It's the sort of thing that can really annoy you!

 

[PJPro]

JohnDuncan:Yay! Somebody else takes a hit for the team! Cheerleaders come out for smooches! I'm not entirely motivated by altruism, but yeah. Thanks. I don't mind taking the odd one on the chin if everyone else does.

 

[Gerrardasnails]

PJPro:Yeah. Thanks for bringing it to my attention Mr Snails. I'm just having a look at the WD community website. Hmmm. A few issues it seems.....not least the unresponsive support from WD. It's the sort of thing that can really annoy you!

I came across a similar forum for my extender - and they have stopped making them and support ended a while back. However, it works so I don't change anything. I doubt that many of the people on the WD forum are using it specifically for music, like your good self. I can't see you having any issues - my Dad is comfortable with his and he didn't know what Ctrl, Alt, Del was until I explained it to him a couple of weeks ago!

 

[Gerrardasnails]

JohnDuncan:Yay! Somebody else takes a hit for the team! Cheerleaders come out for smooches!

John, I'm sure you will ditch your Airport Express soon....

 

[John Duncan]

Gerrardasnails:JohnDuncan:Yay! Somebody else takes a hit for the team! Cheerleaders come out for smooches!

John, I'm sure you will ditch your Airport Express soon....

*ahem*

 

[Gerrardasnails]

JohnDuncan:Gerrardasnails:JohnDuncan:Yay! Somebody else takes a hit for the team! Cheerleaders come out for smooches!

John, I'm sure you will ditch your Airport Express soon....

*ahem*

You have one of these now? What's it like?

 

[John Duncan]

Just as good, if not better, than the AE, but with added gorgeous interfaceness (when i have it plugged into a telly, which is very rarely).

 

[PJPro]

There seems to be a lot of these streamer type thingys out there at the moment at a very reasonable price. You can get the mini version of the thing I've bought for less than 50 notes! Can only be good for us technophiles!

 

[Gerrardasnails]

JohnDuncan:Just as good, if not better, than the AE, but with added gorgeous interfaceness (when i have it plugged into a telly, which is very rarely).

It looks nice but 160gb wouldn't be enough for me. It wouldn't cover my music, let alone films and photos. I think I will get the same as PJ and see if I can get used to the UI.

 

[John Duncan]

Gerrardasnails:JohnDuncan:Just as good, if not better, than the AE, but with added gorgeous interfaceness (when i have it plugged into a telly, which is very rarely).

It looks nice but 160gb wouldn't be enough for me. It wouldn't cover my music, let alone films and photos. I think I will get the same as PJ and see if I can get used to the UI.

No agreed, which was why I paid $50 for ATVFlash, which supposedly allows you to add an external USB drive to it (inter alia). But I haven't actually tried it (having found that a lot of the other promised functionality of ATVFlash didn't work - like composite out of component).

 

[PJPro]

Hurrah. Daddy's toys have arrived!

I've busy transferring all of my media data to the Samsung Story. So far, it's been plug and play. There is some fancy software provided too but, to avoid complication, I'm just going to copy the whole lot onto the external HDD and then drag and drop new media over the network manually as I rip CDs, etc.

So far, so good.

I think I'll leave playing with the media streamer until after the kids have gone to bed. If the external HDD is still doing its stuff (3hrs to copy all files) I'll experiment with streaming data from the PC.

Watch this space....

 

[John Duncan]

"This is so cool I have to go to the bathroom."

 

[PJPro]

Corrr. This is easy! I've got the media streamer setup, the firmware has updated and I'm streaming audio from Foobar2000 on my PC. Fab! My wife could have set it up.

I'm using HDMI for video and optical for sound. Sounds great! Just popped upstairs to authorise network sharing with WMP to see what photos and video are like.

It's all good so far......

 

[PJPro]

Oh and did I mention it's the Foobar2000 playlist that it's playing back?

 

[John Duncan]

How's the UI?

 

[PJPro]

A bit clunky. But I intend to have the TV off once the music is playing. It's a real pity it doesn't allow a remote handset (via blue tooth?). The IR remote's a bit clunky too.

But it's soooooo small. About the size of three CDs.

I'm having a little trouble connecting to WMP at the mo. The WDTV is saying that the folder is empty?

 

[Gerrardasnails]

PJPro:A bit clunky. But I intend to have the TV off once the music is playing. It's a real pity it doesn't allow a remote handset (via blue tooth?). The IR remote's a bit clunky too.

But it's soooooo small. About the size of three CDs.

I'm having a little trouble connecting to WMP at the mo. The WDTV is saying that the folder is empty?

Are the files "hidden"?

 

[John Duncan]

PJPro:I'm having a little trouble connecting to WMP at the mo. The WDTV is saying that the folder is empty?

Don't look at me, mate, I've got an Apple TV

 

[PJPro]

No, it won't pick up the files. Ordinarily, I'd do a reboot to ensure that WMP has sorted itself out but I can't when I'm copying the files. I could go into Services and cycle them manually but I think I'll wait.

 

[Gerrardasnails]

PJPro:No, it won't pick up the files. Ordinarily, I'd do a reboot to ensure that WMP has sorted itself out but I can't when I'm copying the files. I could go into Services and cycle them manually but I think I'll wait.

I'm a little lost here PJ, you are doing something different to how I'd imagine I would use the WD player. Are you not playing from the hard drive and just streaming from your computer?

 

[PJPro]

The intention is to use the HDD and only connect to the PC when I need to suck new files over the network but while I'm waiting for the copy of my media files, I'm seeing what it can do....

 

[PJPro]

And I've still got another 45 mins to wait!