Page 4: Testing And Use, Conclusion
Testing And Use
We are prominently going to feature out video review at the top of this section for the specific reason that it is the easiest way to show you how the Live Plus works and feels. Feel free to leave us some feedback on Youtube or join our forums and post your thoughts.
Reviewing all the features of the WD TV Live Plus is one of the hardest things to do. We've had this product for about a month and have yet to try all the specific features, but the ones that we have tested work great.
Let's start with one of the best features and the most important. The streaming Netflix support is excellent. Just like the "»Netflix Player," the Live Plus handles Netflix streaming content with ease. It is like an application built into the Live Plus that you activate to your account and you're ready to watch streaming. The streaming service on Netflix is one of the best things to happen to home entertainment and we're very satisfied with the way it works on the WD TV Live Plus.
The internet content doesn't end with Netflix. You get full Youtube support. You can easily access the ASE Labs Youtube channel! We did notice a few hiccups from time to time. You can see in the video review that Youtube timed out once. This is the internet, after all. You can search for videos and have favorites to bring up all the time. With Youtube, you've got endless amounts of content ready to go.
There's even more. Pandora streaming radio is ready to go on the WD TV Live Plus, as well. Flickr support is included and there's more features than we can even list. Do you want additional content? The Live Plus gives you access to MediaFly to give you a wide range of viewing content.
The USB media support is excellent. While you are able to use any number of USB mass storage devices, the real and best way to use this is on a network with some back-end streaming servers. One very interesting way that the WD TV Live Plus entices you to place it in the center of your media hub is that it can accept nearly all USB media such as cameras and camcorders. Using the on-screen file management, you can copy the contents of the device to a network share. This is an easy way to watch and backup the content all in one place. You need the infrastructure with network shares, but if you're buying this device, chances are you already have that.
UPnP AV streaming is where it is at for local network media. Take any good server (such as the MythTV UPnP AV server or the Synology DS-210j) and the WD TV Live Plus can play pretty much any content you can throw at it. It is really the best way to use the unit. Throw up content on your server and the Live Plus will be ready when you are.
If you don't have a UPnP AV server, but you do have network shares for videos and music, you're still good. The Live Plus can handle network shares directly. This is a great feature since not everyone has a UPnP AV server sitting on their network, but most networks have network shares ready to go. Western Digital really got the support right for the TV Live Plus.
We did encounter some errors. We found a way to lock up the audio playing of the Live Plus by trying to play a stream from our Synology DSM-210j (an OGG stream). It failed to play, but then the unit failed to play all the audio files until we power cycled it. This is a pretty weird edge case, but we report what we find.
The media support was excellent. There was nothing it didn't play. Seriously, name something you think it can't do and it probably does it.
Conclusion
For $150 MSRP (cheaper at Amazon, Newegg at $120!), the WD TV Live Plus does it all. Seriously, it does. You do need to pair this up with a network storage server to really unlock the full feature-set of the Live Plus, but the internet content alone is amazing. Netflix support works great and having the entire catalog of Youtube ready to go is great for entertainment all the time. Pair this up with an UPnP AV server and it becomes the media player for your digital life. Western Digital has a winner with the TV Live Plus. We are amazed with the media support and it speaks loudly about how well Western Digital makes a product. Well done.
ASE Labs would like to thank Western Digital for making this review possible.
We are prominently going to feature out video review at the top of this section for the specific reason that it is the easiest way to show you how the Live Plus works and feels. Feel free to leave us some feedback on Youtube or join our forums and post your thoughts.
Reviewing all the features of the WD TV Live Plus is one of the hardest things to do. We've had this product for about a month and have yet to try all the specific features, but the ones that we have tested work great.
Let's start with one of the best features and the most important. The streaming Netflix support is excellent. Just like the "»Netflix Player," the Live Plus handles Netflix streaming content with ease. It is like an application built into the Live Plus that you activate to your account and you're ready to watch streaming. The streaming service on Netflix is one of the best things to happen to home entertainment and we're very satisfied with the way it works on the WD TV Live Plus.
The internet content doesn't end with Netflix. You get full Youtube support. You can easily access the ASE Labs Youtube channel! We did notice a few hiccups from time to time. You can see in the video review that Youtube timed out once. This is the internet, after all. You can search for videos and have favorites to bring up all the time. With Youtube, you've got endless amounts of content ready to go.
There's even more. Pandora streaming radio is ready to go on the WD TV Live Plus, as well. Flickr support is included and there's more features than we can even list. Do you want additional content? The Live Plus gives you access to MediaFly to give you a wide range of viewing content.
The USB media support is excellent. While you are able to use any number of USB mass storage devices, the real and best way to use this is on a network with some back-end streaming servers. One very interesting way that the WD TV Live Plus entices you to place it in the center of your media hub is that it can accept nearly all USB media such as cameras and camcorders. Using the on-screen file management, you can copy the contents of the device to a network share. This is an easy way to watch and backup the content all in one place. You need the infrastructure with network shares, but if you're buying this device, chances are you already have that.
UPnP AV streaming is where it is at for local network media. Take any good server (such as the MythTV UPnP AV server or the Synology DS-210j) and the WD TV Live Plus can play pretty much any content you can throw at it. It is really the best way to use the unit. Throw up content on your server and the Live Plus will be ready when you are.
If you don't have a UPnP AV server, but you do have network shares for videos and music, you're still good. The Live Plus can handle network shares directly. This is a great feature since not everyone has a UPnP AV server sitting on their network, but most networks have network shares ready to go. Western Digital really got the support right for the TV Live Plus.
We did encounter some errors. We found a way to lock up the audio playing of the Live Plus by trying to play a stream from our Synology DSM-210j (an OGG stream). It failed to play, but then the unit failed to play all the audio files until we power cycled it. This is a pretty weird edge case, but we report what we find.
The media support was excellent. There was nothing it didn't play. Seriously, name something you think it can't do and it probably does it.
Conclusion
For $150 MSRP (cheaper at Amazon, Newegg at $120!), the WD TV Live Plus does it all. Seriously, it does. You do need to pair this up with a network storage server to really unlock the full feature-set of the Live Plus, but the internet content alone is amazing. Netflix support works great and having the entire catalog of Youtube ready to go is great for entertainment all the time. Pair this up with an UPnP AV server and it becomes the media player for your digital life. Western Digital has a winner with the TV Live Plus. We are amazed with the media support and it speaks loudly about how well Western Digital makes a product. Well done.
ASE Labs would like to thank Western Digital for making this review possible.