WD TV Live Hub

Was purchased in 2012 starting.

Avid internet and movies, video buff who are constantly glued to the computers for entertainment, than must buy this product worth of money.

A high definition hard disk multimedia player, It allows to you to see photos, memorable photograph, movies, lots of videos, listening music, can stream internet from your personal computer to your Television even any video to its HD quality.

It also support Mac and Windows platform.

Full of 1080p HD Player, 1 TB hard drive, supports all audio, image and video, also can enjoy you tube, even Facebook on television now.

Price was 10000

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I bought this media player from US in 2011 for$199.95+ taxes(which came to INR 11, 000). The product was newly launched in US at that time. I went to Best Buy to pick WD TV Live  Plus which was one model lower than WD TV Live Hub but the Sales Representative suggested I should go for WD TV Live Hub which he said had all the features of WD TV Live Plus and the best part was that it had 1 TB built in Hard drive to store the media.

I refused thinking what would I do with 1 TB hard drive when I already had 1 TB external hard drive which I could connect with WD TV Live Plus and I was good to go however there were some other features which I read on the box. It said HDMI(1.4) which meant if I upgrade to a 3D LCD/LED TV in future, my media player would be able to play 3D movies too.

I also did some calculation. WD TV Live Plus was available for$98.99.That means I was paying just$100(INR 5000) for a 1 TB HDD which means no hassles of connecting an external hard drive and all your media is available by just pressing a button on the remote. Not to mention, there were other features like two USB ports(for connecting even a keyboard so it becomes easy to type something if you are accessing Facebook on your TV). I decided to go for WD TV live Hub and I don't regret the decision. The player is giving me much more than I could have imagined at that time.

WD started launching their media players from HD Media Player, followed by HD TV Live, HD TV Live Plus and now WD TV Live Hub(which is still the latest line of Media Players from WD even after its launch in 2011). Let me highlight the key features of WD TV Live HUb. It  has a built in 1 TB HDD to store the media(Movies, Photos, Vidoes, Songs, Files, etc) so you don’t have to transfer the files to a pen drive each time you want to watch a movie.

Just keep storing movies or other media in its built in hard drive and just turn it on to enjoy high definition videos. It has a 1080P output through HDMI(1.4) cable. The player has two USB ports for connecting external storage devices or wireless adapter for WiFi connection or a keyboard which makes easy to type. The player has an Ethernet connection at the back to connect the LAN cable. If you are guessing why it has the Ethernet port or WiFi connection, your guess is right. The player lets you access Facebook, Youtube, Dailymotion, Pandora, Netflix(for US customers) if connected to WiFi or LAN. For WiFi, you need to buy a compatible USB Wireless Adapter. I have a Netgear WN111 300mbps Wireless Adapter which works perfect with my media player. The player has Dolby Digital output. You can connect your Home Theater to the media player and the sound is crystal clear.

The player has the capability of playing video of any format. I have tried multiple formats and it never disappointed me. That is the best part of WD TV Live Hub. The player when connected to an external storage device would automatically synchronizes the contents to its built in HDD however you would be prompted for that.

You may choose to cancel the synchronization. Another good thing about this media player is that it gets connected to your computer through WiFi or LAN so you can transfer the media directly from your computer to its built in hard drive. Its WD Discovery software lets you map it as a network drive so it shows up on “My computer”.

I have been using this media player for last two years without any problems so far. I have updated the firmware 3-4 times and the list of channels has increased:).I got daily motion which was not there at the time of purchase. About the interface, it's pretty simple. On the home page, it gives you different headers like Video, Photos, Music, etc.

Coming to warranty, the product comes with 1 year International warranty. You just need to register your media player on WD website and you can check the status of your warranty online. It's that simple. Western Digital doesn't repair the media player. If there is an issue with your media player, they would do the troubleshooting over the phone. If that doesn't resolve the issue and the media player is under warranty, they generate an RMA i.e. they replace the device. That's an advantage? Not really.

If your product is out of warranty and an issue occurs which WD could not fix over the phone, you have a big problem in hand. You might have to even discard your device in the bin. Reason being, WD doesn't have a service center in India and even their spare parts are not available. That's the biggest disadvantage of buying it. Either, you keep extending the warranty every year or just take a chance like I did. My media player has been working perfectly fine for last two years, though. My friend had a WD TV Live which got an issue and we showed it to so many people locally. We even took it to Nehru Place but no one could fix that. It's lying with me for last 1 year.

I'm listing the Pros and Cons of WD TV Live Hub for your again which would help you in deciding if you want to go for it or not.

Pros:

1.Has built in 1 TB HDD to store the media(Movies, Pictures, Videos, Music).

2.Converts your ordinary LCD/LED TV into a smart TV.

3.Plays all the formats - 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, FLV(h.264); Photo - JPEG, GIF, TIF/TIFF, BMP, PNG; Audio - MP3, WAV/PCM/LPCM, WMA, AAC, FLAC, MKA, AIF/AIFF, OGG, Dolby Digital, DTS

4.Interface is easy to use.

5.WiFi(through a wireless adapter).

6.Easily transfer the media from your computer to its built in HDD.

7.Small size(size of a STB).

Cons:

1.No service center/Repair in India.

2.Does not support protected premium content such as movies or music from the iTunes Store.

My viewpoint -

Cons are not more and to some extent negligible. If warranty is important for you, keep extending the warranty or take a chance like I did. The product is pretty amazing and gives you complete satisfaction.

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