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Product Description
From the Manufacturer
WD TV Live Hub Media Center - Store and play all your media.
The most entertaining media player and drive in one. Stream the latest movies, your favorite videos, hit shows, online entertainment, live TV and chart-topping music. Stream your media collection from any source straight to your TV in Full-HD. And with a built-in network hard drive, you can store and play your entertainment all in one place.
Your entire media collection in one place.
A media player and network hard drive, so you can store your media collection in virtually any file format, download movies, and enjoy it all on your TV.
Endless entertainment on your TV.
Stream the latest movies, trending videos, hit shows and your favorite music. Play media from the built-in drive, USB drives, computers and more.
Shoot it on your smartphone, share it on your HDTV.
Take a photo or video clip with your smartphone or tablet and upload it directly to the built-in hard drive on your WD TV Live Hub using the WD Photos app.
With the WD TV Live Hub media center, you can centralize your media collection and enjoy the best entertainment including movies, shows, live TV and your personal media collection all from one box in Full-HD 1080p.
Centralize your media collection - Load up the built-in high-capacity drive with all your media to create your own media jukebox. Store your home videos and music for a stutter-free playback experience.
Get the best entertainment on your HDTV - Stream hit movies, view the latest viral videos, catch up on shows, play games, stay connected to your social network, and watch highlights from the biggest games of the season. Don't settle for online entertainment on your small computer screen. With WD TV Live Hub, you can enjoy it all on your HDTV.
Your media collection belongs on the big screen - Enjoy your media library, home videos, vacation slideshows, and favorite songs on your HDTV and sound system in your living room. Sit back and enjoy the spectacular picture quality of Full-HD 1080p.
Enjoy media from any source - Stream videos, music, and photos from your USB drive, network drive, and any PC or Mac computer in your home. Our media library collects the content from all the drives, so finding the perfect video, song, or photo to view is easier than ever.
Play virtually any media file format - WD TV Live Hub supports a wide variety of the most popular files including MKV, MP4, XVID, AVI, WMV, and MOV video formats. Get the freedom to enjoy your media now, in virtually any file format.
Your shows on any TV at home, or away - Watch your favorite live and recorded shows in any corner of your house, just add a Slingbox. Use WD TV Live Hub as a set-top-box for other rooms using the SlingPlayer app and get access to your cable service when you take WD TV on the go. With Slingbox and WD TV Live Hub, you can extend your complete living room HDTV experience to another TV in your home, or around the world.
Shoot it on your smartphone, share it on your HDTV - Take a photo or video clip with your smartphone or tablet and upload it directly to the built-in hard drive on your WD TV Live Hub using the WD Photos app. When you get home, you have new files waiting for you so you can enjoy them on your HDTV. You can also get quick access to all the photos stored on your WD TV Live Hub media center and show them off with your smartphone or tablet from anywhere.
Ready, set, stream - So easy to set up, you'll be up and running in minutes. Use the Ethernet port to connect to your wired home network.
Show photos and movies directly from your digital camera or camcorder - Connect your camcorder or digital camera directly to the media center using one of the USB ports, and instantly view or archive HD video and photos without a PC. Works with any digital imaging device that supports Picture Transfer Protocol.
Turn your smartphone or tablet into a touch-screen remote - Control your WD TV experience with the swipe of a finger using the WD TV Remote app. Great for text input when logging into a service and searching for a movie or video. One-touch access to your favorite online services. Download the free app from the Apple iTunes store or Google Play for Android users.
Use your keyboard for easy searching and updating - Use the on-screen keyboard or attach a wired or wireless USB keyboard for easy text input. Perfect for searching videos on YouTube or updating your status on Facebook.
HDMI and composite video output - The HDMI port lets you connect to the highest quality HDTV or home theater. Additional composite (RCA) and component outputs ensure compatibility with virtually all television sets.
SPDIF digital output - The optical audio output sends digital signals to your AV receiver for the best surround sound experience.
Advanced functions for power users - Audio lip sync adjustment to match with playing video, subtitle color, position, and timing adjustment, password-protected parental controls for specific online services.
Ideal for
- Storing your digital media collection on the high-capacity built-in drive
- Streaming hit movies, trending videos, shows, games, and popular online entertainment such as YouTube, Spotify, Facebook, and more
- Enjoying your digital media library in Full-HD 1080p on the biggest screen in the house
- Playing a wide variety of file formats including MKV, MP4, XVID, AVI, WMV, and MOV
- Streaming videos, music, and photos to your TV
- Playing media from USB drives, network drives, and any PC or Mac computer in your home
- Connecting a Slingbox to stream live TV to any room in the house
- Saving photos from your smartphone or tablet to enjoy on your TV with our WD Photos app
What's in the box
Media center: media player with built-in hard drive, Remote control with batteries, AC adapter, Quick Install Guide.
Requirements
Standard or high definition television with HDMI or composite video connections. Cables not included. Home network and broadband connectivity for online services.
Features at a glance
- Centralize and play your media on the built-in network hard drive
- Stream movies, shows, music
- Play virtually any media file format in Full-HD 1080p
- Upload movies and video clips with the WD Photos mobile app
For more great WD products, visit the Western Digital Store at Amazon.com
 Media Players Comparison Chart |  |  |  |
| WD TV Live Hub | WD TV Live | WD TV Play | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Store and play your entertainment all in one place. | Stream entertainment + your media collection. | Get instant entertainment. | |
| Access thousands of hit movies, TV shows and chart-topping music |  | | |
| Watch your own videos, view your photos and listen to your music | | | |
| Full-HD 1080p resolution | | | |
| Built-in Wi-Fi | | | |
| Plays the most popular media file formats | | | |
| Plays MPEG2, VOB and DTS | | | |
| Multi-room streaming to any DLNA device in your home | | ||
| High-capacity network hard drive | |
Product Description
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Customer Reviews
I want to begin by saying the 'I like' (but I don't yet fully 'love') WD's TV Live Hub and this earns it 4 (but not 5) stars. And I like it in spite of it lacking a few almost 'must have' features for a device in its class such as some storage redundancy (RAID-1 = disk mirroring) or at least a built-in backup utility or any significant security or, to a lesser extent (I'll explain) built-in Wi-Fi. And I like it even though bugs still exist such as the Hub's occasional failure to maintain/update its 'media library'. And I do like it even though the Hub's supported Web 'services' are few at this time - because some of the 'major' ones are there.
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Note: (9/9/2011 update):
I am upgrading this to 5-stars because since the original writing of my review most of the bugs have been addressed and many important Web services and other features such as 'games' were added.
Because of its versatility, built-in storage, low power consumption and its ability to integrate with everything else the Hub is now the centerpiece (the true hub)of my entertainment center.
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WHY I LIKE IT
Some of the shortcomings duly noted above, I like the Hub because:
The Hub turns out to be a well connected, relatively easy to use and operate, low-power, physically small, versatile video/music/still photos player with the built in ability to store the equivalent of almost 200 DVD-quality movies on its built-in 1TB drive, expandable to many times more than that via an attached USB drive and capable to sync and play content from any accessible media server such as PCs, Xboxes or PS3s, Microsoft Home Servers or NAS (Network Attached Storage) devices.
The Hub can also go out on the Net and report the local weather, play YouTube videos, Netflix, Hulu Plus and Blockbuster movies, Podcasts and Pandora music (I compiled a list of supported Web services below).
I was able to add the TV Live Hub to my Harmony universal remote control setup and I was able to address the lack of built-in backup (running a scheduled Robocopy task off a Home Server) because the Hub's drive can be mapped and managed as any other computer drive through a PC.
The Hub plays content off existing media servers and it acts as a media server for other devices (PCs, PS3s, etc.) on the same network. It can be set to sync with whatever content it can discover on your home network and it supports iTunes (did not test iTunes support myself). And for the hard-core YouTube users, a USB-attached keyboard should allow for easy searching. Also, the Hub makes it easy to post content directly to Facebook and Flickr.
And, finally, the Hub is likely to do more and do it better tomorrow because WD is constantly updating the firmware and hopefully it will address some of the more annoying bugs soon and because there appears to be an active, lively, innovative, helpful and supportive user community. [Note: 2 firmware updates later, several new Web services were added and some bugs were fixed.]
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Here are the hub's features in a more organized format.
MEDIA PLAYER
- Plays videos with full support for HD and multi-channel sound.
- Plays music with support for playlists.
- Plays movies/videos with filters for genre, rating and so on.
- Displays photos, has slideshow capabilities.
- Games section (added on 5/17/2011) has 'mind games' such as Sudoku, puzzles, memory games.
MEDIA HUB
- Acts as a media server for other devices (PCs, PS3s, Xboxes). My PS3 'saw' the Hub and was able to play content off it as soon as it went online.
- Plays content from other media servers on the local network. It saw 'everything' we were sharing as soon as we turned it on.
- Plays content off NAS (Network Attached Storage).
- Syncs with media found on PCs and has support for iTunes.
ONLINE SERVICES
- Services availability is controlled by WD. As far as I know, you can't add or remove a service but that may change in the future.
- Current selection is limited but 'big names' are supported: Netflix, Blockbuster, YouTube, Pandora, Flickr, Facebook, etc.
- Grabs metadata (title, description, cover graphics) for music and movies.
- Firmware is upgraded by WD remotely.
CUSTOMIZATION
- Users can download or create their own themes and backgrounds.
- Integrates with Harmony remotes.
- Several styles of menus.
- Additional storage can be attached directly through USB port(s).
- Supports USB keyboards.
- Supports certain Wi-Fi USB-connected devices (not tested by me).
SPECS
- I/O ports: Optical, HDMI, Composite, RCA, 2 USB, gigabit Ethernet
- Video (Full HD 1920x1080): AVI (Xvid, AVC, MPEG1/2/4), M2TS, MKV (h.264, x.264, AVC, MPEG1/2/4, VC-1), MP4/MOV (MPEG4, h.264), MPG/MPEG, TS/TP/M2T (MPEG1/2/4, AVC, VC-1), VOB, WMV9
- Audio: (multichannel up to 7.1) AAC, AIF/AIFF, Dolby Digital, DTS, FLAC, MKA, MP3, OGG, WAV/PCM/LPCM, WMA,
- Photo: BMP, GIF, JPEG, PNG, TIF/TIFF
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MY EXPERIENCE: SETUP
It was as easy as plugging in the unit, connecting to a network hub with an Ethernet cable (not supplied) and to a receiver through an HDMI (not supplied either) cable.
HDMI 1.4 is supported but composite (RCA), and component outputs are also available as well as an S/PDIF digital (optical) output. For best results, 'wired' network connectivity should be preferred. It's the only one supported out of the box and, if you expect to play or stream HD content, it's the only one that can support the load reliably.
Once the box is turned on it quickly updates itself and it's ready to use. Literally 5-10 minutes after powerup we were watching YouTube videos. Of course, additional setup is needed to fully customize it but the Hub can make itself useful quickly and there's no need to rush. Some of the Web services such as Pandora or Netflix require that you have an account but the Hub makes it easy to set yourself up if you don't have one. On the local network, as I mentioned already, the Hub became immediately visible and it was able to see and use the other active media servers running. From a PC it's easy to connect the Hub's drive and upload content. It's also the only way you can back it up.
MY EXPERIENCE: OPERATION
I've been using the hub to store and play DVD and Netflix movies and occasionally music. I've already uploaded several thousand photos, home videos, backed up lots of DVD movies and TV shows and some 700 songs and there's plenty of room for more. Video play off the local disk or from a Microsoft Home server we keep on our network was flawless. I prefer the Hub to PS3 playback because, the Hub lacking big fans, there is no audible 'hum' during playback. Music playing is okay, both off the disk or off Pandora and so are the photo slideshows. Some of the 'radio' and other content services don't look/sound so good but, since I've experience flawless HD playback on Netflix and music on Pandora, I'm blaming 'them' for the low quality.
As far as the other Web services, I don't have major complaints but it's annoying that YouTube recognizes the Hub as something that's attached to a TV and will NOT let you to see anything that's 'big media' produced. Netflix is okay and the latest firmware upgrade brought in the same great interface (Netflix 3.0?) I have on the PS3.
The Hub can make media watching and organizing as easy or as complicated as you are prepared to allow it. It has the ability to consolidate everything it sees on its local storage and on the network around it into a big pile of 'stuff' and the 'media library' will then show you all sci-fi movies you have (an example) regardless of where they are. Or, if you want things arranged in a certain way, you can create your own folders, name them any way you want and navigate to your favorite movies/shows yourself.
From a PC you can easily stream music off the Hub but, because all the movies I keep on it are at the highest resolution, DVD movies streaming can be a little jittery over Wi-Fi and HD doesn't work at all. The Hub works best when playing off its own disk or accessing/serving content over 'fast' wired connections. My home is not wired for Ethernet but I'm using a Western Digital WD Livewire Powerline AV Network Kit to pipe Ethernet over the power lines. It works.
I should also mention that the online manual is VERY well written, very well organized and very helpful. It comes with links to other online resources, including the very active Hub community board where you can find a lot of good advice concerning enhancements and bugs.
BUGS
On 'day one' after uploading some 5000 photos, a message informed me that the Hub was compiling its media library. It was still compiling on 'day two' and it didn't stop until I told the Hub to drop the library and then rebuild it. Rebuilding the library can take 10-15 minutes but it's annoying and I hope that the next firmware update will take care of it. Meanwhile, I learned to be careful as in "don't try to do something else while the media library is being rebuilt" and I only had once similar incident in the past month. I'm not sure whether this was because of the firmware updates or because I'm more 'gentle' when interacting with the Hub.
Another bug seems to be the 'queue'. Read more ›
The only issue I've had the last couple days is getting it to see the internet and my computer through the router...and I'm running a cable to the router-I'm not wireless.
I could plug the WD straight into my modem and get netflix fine but when it went through my brand new netgear wpn824N-100NAS router, I couldnt get on or network with my computer. I've tried everything, read every troubleshooting forum on the web...but no joy. The router works for my computer...I get the internet on it just fine, but not on the Live Hub.
Called WD today. after an hour of resetting router,resetting Live Hub, going through networking on my computer--all of which I'd tried already, he finally asked me what router I used. Then said it wasnt compatible with the Live Hub. I'm sort of questioning if it's just an excuse, but going to try a different router tomorrow. Most on the list he sent were actually difficult to find at a bestbuy.
I caution everyone to make sure they have a approved router before attempting this. very frustrating to spend days trying to figure it out.
***UPDATE***after being told by WD that my router wasn't compatible and being told by NetGear that the HUB was at fault...I went and bought a E2000 lynksis router instead. Set it up, plugged Live Hub into router, clicked on Network Setup...Boom! computer see's the hub, Hub see's the internet and Netflix streams flawlessly! After two weeks of heavy frustration, I really enjoy the Live HUB.
Only two simple things need to be done after you have plugged everything in.
Read the manual provided online. It is very informative and explains everything in detail.
Download WD Discovery. Link for it is provided in the online manual.
You can then map the hub as a hard drive and it'll function just like any other hard drive you might have used.
Just drag any content you want into it and you are done.
My dad who isn't technologically savvy has started using it as well which tells you a lot.
It really is that simple to use.
eyou tube and recording software.
you legally can get an awesome education
The remote needs work,too spungy, the fast forward... Read more
This is way better than the live unit.
It remembers account sign ins even after a update. Read more
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