Western Digital WD TV Live Hub Media Center
WDBABZ0010BBK-NESN
"WD TV Live Hub Media Center (WDBABZ0010BBK) - Bring your digital life to your big screen. Whether it's your own videos, music, and photos or Internet entertainment, you can play it all in the comfort of your living room in brilliant high-definition. Put your personal media on the high-capacity built-in hard drive and stream it to any screen in the house."
Western
Digital WD TV Live Hub Media Center
WDBABZ0010BBK Information
Watch Things You Love
The WDBABZ0010BBK allows you to watch whatever you love on the screen you love. With the WDBABZ0010BBK you family and friend can sit back and enjoy what they want and in the comfort of your own home. Whether it's your own videos, music, and photos or Internet entertainment, you can play it all in the comfort of your living room. Here is a taste of what you can view with this handy device; Facebook, Netflix, YouTube Videos, Pandora, and Blockbusters On Demand.
Your Media Where It CountsThe WDBABZ0010BBK goes so much futher than similars products by giving you an internal hard drive to save and to play your own media collection. Through this you can stream to any TV or computer on your network. You can also download directly to the WDBABZ0010BBK.
Full-HD 1080p
Now the only way to really experience the WDBABZ0010BBK is in high-def. You'll get crystal-clear digital sound and Full-HD 1080p. To make this even better the navigational menus are intuitive making them easy to work your way around. Instanly Watch Moives and TV episodes
You'll never have to wait on the mailman to deliver your movies and don't settle for streaming to your small computer screen. You can easily access your Blockbuster On Demand or your Netflix membership. Make sure you have an unlimited membership with either one of these companies to have this feature work for you.
With the included high-capcity drive you can store all of your media right on the WDBABZ0010BBK. Share those vacation vidoes and music on your big screen in the comfort of your living room.
The internet will also come to your TV with this device. YouTube, Facebook, Flickr, Pandora, and watch podcast from CNN, NBC, EPSN, and other online content.
If your home network is setup then you will be able to access your WDBABZ0010BBK. With the included Ethernet port you connect this media player to your home netowrk. Any media that may be on any computer on your network can be accessed.
Well some cable netowrks will limit you and make you buy more equipment to have your favorite on every TV, not with the WDBABZ0010BBK. You can stream any file on the WD TV Live Hub media center to a WD TV Live media player or any DLNA/UPnP compatible TV, Blu-ray Disc player, or game console.
WD TV Live Hub supports a wide variety of the most popular file formats including HD camcorder video formats. No need to spend time transcoding.
It also allows you to archive you video camcorder media directly to the unit without a PC.
Tranfer file with ease. Copy, move or delete files stored on a USB drive, a network drive, your camcorder, or a camera attached to the media center using the on-screen menus.
This is probably the most perfect of the features. The ability to use your own keyboard. Use the on-screen keyboard, an alphanumeric keypad, or attach your wired or wireless USB keyboard for easy text input. Perfect for searching videos on YouTube or updating your status on Facebook.
Supports a wireless network connection to your home network with an optional USB wireless adapter. Or, get the speed you need to stream HD with a WD Livewire powerline AV network kit—it extends your Internet to any room in your home using your electrical outlets.
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.
WDBABZ0010BBK
Live Hub Media Center Features
· Watch popular movies and TV episodes
instantly. · Access popular Internet content from the comfort of your living room.
· Play almost any type of media file.
· Automatic play.
· Collect your media in one place.
· Stream it anywhere in the house.
· Access media anywhere on your home network.
· It's a multi-room media server streaming to any TV in your house.
· Video camera-ready.
· Sync new media.
· Transfer files easily.
· Full-HD 1080p video playback.
· Programmable remote.
· Works with USB keyboards.
· WiFi-ready.
· HDMI 1.4, composite video and component video output.
· SPDIF digital output
File Format Support
Video - AVI (Xvid, AVC, MPEG1/2/4), MPG/MPEG, VOB, MKV (h.264, x.264, AVC, MPEG1/2/4, VC-1), TS/TP/M2T (MPEG1/2/4, AVC, VC-1), MP4/MOV (MPEG4, h.264), M2TS, WMV9
Photo - JPEG, GIF, TIF/TIFF, BMP, PNG
Audio - MP3, WAV/PCM/LPCM, WMA, AAC, FLAC, MKA, AIF/AIFF, OGG, Dolby Digital, DTS
Playlist - PLS, M3U, WPL
Subtitle - SRT, ASS, SSA, SUB, SMI
Note
· MPEG2 MP@HL up to 1920x1080p24, 1920x1080i30 or 1280x720p60 resolution.
· MPEG4.2 ASP@L5 up to 1280x720p30 resolution and no support for global motion compensation.
· WMV9/VC-1 MP@HL up to 1280x720p60 or 1920x1080p24 resolution. VC-1 AP@L3 up to 1920x1080i30, 1920x1080p24 or 1280x720p60 resolution.
· H.264 BP@L3 up to 720x480p30 or 720x576p25 resolution.
· H.264 MP@L4.1 and HP@4.1 up to 1920x1080p24, 1920x1080i30, or 1280x720p60 resolution.
· An audio receiver is required for multi-channel surround sound digital output.
· Compressed RGB JPEG formats only and progressive JPEG up to 2048x2048.
· Single layer TIFF files only.
· Uncompressed BMP only.
· For details, please refer to the user manual.
Files Not Supported
Does not support protected premium content such as movies or music from the iTunes Store, Cinema Now, Movielink, Amazon Unbox, and Vongo
Physical Specifications
Capacity 1 TB
Interface Gigabit Ethernet, USB 2.0, HDMI, Composite A/V, Component video, Optical audio
Physical Dimensions
English
Height 1.25 Inches
Depth 7.80 Inches
Width 6.10 Inches
Weight 1.22 Pounds
Metric
Height 31.75 mm
Depth 198 mm
Width 154.00 mm
Weight 0.55 kg
Environmental Specifications
Temperature (English)
Operating 41° F to 95° F
Non-operating -40° F to 149° F
Temperature (Metric)
Operating 5° C to 35° C
Non-operating -40° C to 65° C
Electrical Specifications
Current Requirements
Power Dissipation
AC Input Voltage 100-240 VAC
AC Input Frequency 50-60 Hz
WDBABZ0010BBK
Photo
Scanner What Experts Say
The space that Western Digital TV Live Hub has tried to occupy is one
that has a host of other competitors such as Apple, Roku, Netgear, and
Boxee just to name a few. Each one of these products works to separate
themselves from the other in one way or another. We will look at how
the WDBABZ0010BBK
separates itself from the crowd and breaks away into a class of its own.Western Digital has taken the concept of home A/V access and internet to another level by adding an onboard 1TB of data space which goes great with storaging all of your extentsive audio and video collections. And it also comes in handy when it comes to Blockbuster On Demand because movies are played off the disk.
WDBABZ0010BBK supports DLNA which means this puppy can stream directly from other devices that are compatible with DLNA, such as Blu-ray players, gaming consoles and NAS units. To boot the WDBABZ0010BBK has 1080p HD and HDMI 1.4 support, programmable remote, customizable interface and retrieval of meta data.
The internals in the WDBABZ0010BBK include power given by Sigma Designs SMP8654AD-CBE3 controller and a 2GB Samsung K9F2G080UB flash chip. The design has a rather small foot print as compared to other in the class. The WDBABZ0010BBK is completely black, with a matte texture top and bottom and glossy trim going around the perimeter. On the front is a standard USB2.0 port for connecting storage media.
The rear of the unit is where all the magic happens. Western Digital included plenty of connections, spanning from the latest and greatest HDMI 1.4-out to the tried-and-true composite video out for compatibility with even the oldest televisions. It also includes component video and analog stereo out line-out jacks, as well as optical audio-out, Ethernet hookup, and a single USB 2.0 port. The only thing not included is S-Video, but considering how few people use that anymore, it saved space by removing it.
Interface
The look is completely redesigned from previous models. The new look is more of an iPhone touch and feel look. So for more of us this will be very familiar and comfortable. There a navigational bar at the bottom of the window at all times to indicate the mode that you are in ie, files, video, setup. Integration is Netflix , YouTube and Accuweather are seemless and very natural. The remote is functional as well. If you've had the earlier version there may be some feel and function that you may mis, but though of you that are new to the device you won't miss a beat.
All data formats play without issue. Following are the format fully supported by WDBABZ0010BBK.
Top 5 Objective Reviews WDBABZ0010BBK
#1 It does what it claims with minor exceptions (little annoyances),
This review is from: Western Digital WD TV Live Hub 1 TB
Media Center (Electronics)
First of all let me start by stating that this thing works as stated by
the manufacturer. It performance well and it supports all the file
formats I threw at it. The only reason I gave it 4 stars and not 5 is
because for my particular taste it lacks a couple of little things.
I bought this device for 3 purposes: 1)to use it as a Netflix player, 2)to stream movies from it, 3)to use it as a media NAS.
After testing it and really analyzing my LAN setup and house shape I'm returning it and getting the WD Live Plus player (no hard drive, $89) and purchasing a NAS with DLNA (Lacie Network Space 2 1TB, $109). The Plus also plays Netflix.
Interface (A+):
Excellent, intuitive, beautiful, smooth, bright, solid, easy.
File format (A+):
Tested with AVI(xvid, divx, mpeg 1/2/3), MKV (avc1), M4V (avc1), MPEG and MOV.
NAS connectivity (C):
Connecting to it from windows is simple (start/run/\\IP_ADDRESS\WDTVLIVE).
Connecting it to a NAS only works if your NAS is running/supports DLNA (mine doesn't).
You can't type in a network share manually.
Netflix (A+):
Flawless with the exception of the 'Back' button which it doesn't really works.
Network Write Speed (B):
All connections at 1000Mbps (source and destination) a 2.6GB file took 6 minutes. 16Gb took 22 minutes.
Network Read Speed:
Didn't test because I couldn't connect to my NAS.
Video Performance (B):
All the movies below were played from the hub's local hard drive.
Legend(P=Pixelation, A=Audio out of sync, X=OK)
Movie 1: AVI (video: XVID, audio: mpga, Res: 640, size: 750 MB) Performance(P,A)
Movie 2: AVI (video: XVID, audio: mpga, Res: 720 size: 1.5 GB) Performance(P,X)
Movie 3: MK4 (video: avc1, audio: a52, Res: 720 size: 1.8 GB) Performance (X,X)
Movie 4: AVI (video: XVID, audio: a52, Res: 720 size: 1.5 GB) Performance (Px,X)
Movie 5: MK4 (video: avc1, audio: a52, Res: 1280 size: 2.6 GB) Performance(X,X)
Movie 6: AVI (video: XVID, audio: a52, Res: 1280 size: 1.6 GB) Performance(X,X)
Movie 7: AVI (video: XVID, audio: mpga, Res: 624 size: 716 MB) Performance(P,X)
Movie 8: M4V (video: avc1, audio: mp4a, Res: 720 size: 1.4 GB) Performance(X,X)
The AVIs seem to have a little trouble with pixelation (artifacts) issues but.......................
..........................................<<<Click Here To Read Full Review>>>
#2 Ok but,
This review is from: Western Digital WD TV Live Hub 1 TB
Media Center (Electronics)
Set up was easy (I used a wired connection because it was convenient
for me and the WIFI is not integrated). It connects as a NAS, but the
copy speed was painstakingly slow. In the end it is much faster to use
the USB connection to copy in your media files. The main menus are easy enough to use, the setup was not complex, but it took several tries to get the media library compiled. I had to clear it and re-compile it several times before it found everything. Sorting and categorizing is ok, but weak, allows no cover art (don't think iTunes-like here...), no descriptions.
The remote is adequate but is missing a few things users take for granted, notably no slow-motion (forward or back), and video control is very imprecise. The remote control buttons are confusingly placed and make it awkward in a dimly lit room. Using the on-screen keyboard with the remote is not at all a positive experience.
It has an automatic firmware update feature, but the WD Support site is full of horror stories of firmware updates that totally or partially disable the unit. Note that their site is also full of..................................<<<Click Here To Read Full Review>>>
#3 A great device,
This review is from: Western Digital WD TV Live Hub 1 TB
Media Center (Electronics)
It works well and plays Netflix and can stream regular sized DVD files
(i.e. DVD9 /IFO, mp4, avi, etc.) from a computer or NAS. WDHub can play
blu-rays if you download them to its hard drive (an hour in advance) of
watching the blu-ray.
Here are it's limitations:
You can't stream blu-rays to it. Although the HDhub has a "gig" ethernet connection, it actually doesn't function as a gig connection (really, what was the point then?), so transfer speeds are limited to about 7.5 MB sec on a gig network. This is documented elsewhere online.
I wished the remote control had volume control. This they could do without raising the price of the device.
I would prefer a more robust GUI, such as XBMC provides for those using a computer as their media player, but computers with HDMI are 3x the price, and then you need to buy and configure a remote on top of that. XBMC is robustly updated and it would be great if WD could support it as Apple TV supposedly will.
With the current WDHub GUI interface, you can't custom name your movies as of yet, which makes it difficult to tell the difference which disc is which in sets with intermissions (say, with Lawrence of Arabia or Ten Commandments, etc.) However, you can store content in directories, and this may a limitation of XBMC. So maybe a trade off.
With current WDHub GUI interface, Movie metadata (cover art, synopsis, etc.) mostly needs to be loaded one disc at a time. There is a program available from a user on the WD forum that claims to load the metadata, but I couldn't get it to work for me. However, now that the movie info and cover art is loaded, all is well. As stated, the metadata graphics are not as nice as you get from your computer using XBMC, but show me a sub $250 netbook with HDMI and I'll go that route instead. WD and XBMC do use use much of the same metadata anyway. Supposedly the new Sigma chip, which WD may use in the future, will support XBMC.
Everytime you restart the media player or add movies to your network drive,.....................................<<<Click Here To Read Full Review>>>
#4 Excellent,
Functional, and Completely Stable,
This review is from: Western Digital WD TV Live Hub 1 TB Media Center (Electronics)
-It will support any wireless adapter based on the Ralink or Atheros chipsets.
-It has limited support for USB Hubs
--If more than one storage device is pluged into a USB Hub, the last storage device to be pluged in will be the only recognized storage device by the WD Live TV Hub,
--However, a USB Hub can be used to connect a storage device, a keyboard, and a wireless adpater, or any combination of the three.
-Even though the device has gigabit ethernet, network transfer speeds max out at ~10mbps. Direct transfer from a USB storage device connect directly to the WD TV Live Hub is much faster.
-Rebuilding the media library may be required under some conditions (i.e. after a large network transfer of files).
-The max energy usage under heavy operations is 13 watts.
-The unit is absolutely silent and the casing never get too warm to the touch.
-The software has a lot of features for navigating files, selecting favorites or recently viewed media, and timeskipping to a certain point in the media file. It even will resume a video so long as the unit stays powered up. A reboot or power cycle erases any point makers for the resume feature.
For what this device is capable of there is nothing better on the market. Well maybe the Apple TV will give it a run but not until the Apple allows USB connected devices. Even though the Roku is mightly popular the playback format list is pretty thin. I debated a long time between the WD TV Live Hub and the Roku XD|S but in the end I chose the WD because more media formats were supported. This device may not be for everyone especially if you have specific needs outside of what WD allowes or your more into tinkering with the feature set instead of using it to actually view your media.
Overall, this unit fits my needs...................
<<<Click Here To Read Full Review>>>
#5 Works For Me,
This review is from: Western Digital WD TV Live Hub 1 TB
Media Center (Electronics)
I purchased one as soon as it was released. It performs numerous rather
sophisticated functions, but so far I only use it to watch 1080p MKV
titles stored on external USB drives, connected to my 1080 LCD TV via
HDMI of course. It also performs the quite useful function of being
able to navigate menus of standard DVDs copied to a hard drive. It is
particularly nice for me that it supports Mac OS formatted drives. The
remote is pretty basic, but gets the job done; unfortunately you can't
read it in the dark, it doesn't glow or anything.
The only annoyance that I've encountered so far is that it occasionally resets the video output to 720p, and I have to notice this and reconfigure it; this may be some HDMI handshake issue with my TV however and not the fault of the box.
One thing that makes me nervous is that its internal (and external bus-powered USB) drives seem to be warm and running all the time, even when its powered "off" from the remote. I think this may be because it can act as a network Share.
I've performed one firmware update (via USB thumb drive) which went smoothly, and ...................
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