Western Digital WDTV Live Hub Review
by Ganesh T S on October 26, 2010 7:38 AM EST- Posted in
- Home Theater
- Media Streamer
- Gadgets
The last few products from Western Digital that I have unboxed have eschewed any unnecessary cables or connectors which usually end up in the unused pile. The WDTV Live Hub was no different. Opening up the package revealed the following contents:
- Short and concise setup guide with pictorial guidance
- Warranty and tech support information booklet
- The main Live Hub unit
- 24W power adapter
- Remote control with 2 batteries
The main unit was surprisingly easy and lightweight to handle. With a diagonal measurement of around 9.5" and a weight of less than 600g, carrying it around was as easy as handling a tablet. Compared to the earlier WDTV models, the height (or depth, depending upon orientation) has been reduced. The new industrial design blends the unit into any home theater setting. One of the main complaints about earlier WDTV units was the lack of an explicit power button on the unit. The Live Hub take care of this, and we now have a recessed rectangular power button in the lower left corner of the front panel. The Live Hub has 2 USB 2.0 ports, and one of them is made available at the lower right corner of the front panel. In the middle is the WD logo lit up from behind by a powerful white LED indicator. By default, this indicator blinks when the internal hard disk is accessed through the network. At other times (when the unit is powered on), this indicator remains lit. Fortunately, the LED can be completely disabled from one of the internal menus.
The rest of the connectivity options are at the rear end of the unit. From the left, we have the power adapter input, optical SPDIF out, HDMI 1.4 output, USB 2.0 port, GbE connector, composite A/V out and component video out.
The remote is a welcome departure from what was used for the earlier versions of the WDTV. With a numeric / text entry keypad akin to the one found on mobile phones, it becomes easier to enter search queries on YouTube / passwords etc. The build quality of the remote is also much better. The plastic at the back of the remote is gone, and overall, it feels much better to hold and operate.
Let us wrap up this section with a table summarizing the A/V and data connectivity options of the WDTV Live Hub.
| Western Digital WDTV Live Hub | ||||
| Feature | WD Config | |||
| HDMI | Yes (v1.4) | |||
| Component | Yes | |||
| Composite | Yes | |||
| VGA | No | |||
| SPDIF | Yes (Optical) | |||
| Stereo | Yes | |||
| Optical Disk Drive | No | |||
| USB | Yes (2 x 2.0) | |||
| eSATA | No | |||
| LAN | Yes (1000 Mbps - GbE) | |||
| Internal HDD | Yes (1 TB) | |||
| WiFi | Supported (Not Included) | |||
| Card Reader | No | |||
In usual reviews, the teardown section would be up next. However, I am going to save that for the last, so as to take readers through the same path of discovery that I went through in the process of evaluating the unit. The next section will deal with the UI of the WDTV Live Hub.
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ganeshts - Tuesday, October 26, 2010 - link
Exactly what I felt too :)odedia - Tuesday, October 26, 2010 - link
I have the first gen product and WD does nothing to support its previous users. A simple firmware upgrade to enable Hebrew/Arabic fonts would be great service. Yet they refuse. I don't need all the rest of the mumbo-jumbo (Although WI-FI seems like a must).At this price - Just buy the new Boxee Box, it looks 10 times like a better investment at the same price point.
ganeshts - Tuesday, October 26, 2010 - link
True. Gave feedback to WD regarding a host of issues in previous generation products which haven't been fixed yet. Not sure if they will act on it.gigahertz20 - Tuesday, October 26, 2010 - link
I wish Anandtech would do a review of the Popcorn Hour A-200 and compare it to the WDTV lineup. I was looking the other day and saw that Amazon now carries it for $180. Anyways, I own a Popcorn Hour A-110 and a WD TV Live, and from my experiences playing back hundreds of different movies in several formats, the Popcorn Hour has better support.There were several movies that would not play back correctly on my WD TV Live but played fine on the Popcorn Hour, and the last firmware Western Digital issued for it was in March. They clearly do not care about fixing bugs when the last firmware they released was almost 7 months ago...I mean come on.
ganeshts - Wednesday, October 27, 2010 - link
gigahertz20,We would love to evaluate the PCH / Dune / Xtreamer series, but we can only request the manufacturer for a review unit. If the manufacturer is unwilling, we can't do much. Yes, we can purchase a unit ourselves, but when we have a backlog of items sent by other manufacturers, it is quite difficult :)
That said, we are constantly in touch with various companies making innovative products and you should see them appearing in the review section soon. The Nixeus Fusion HD appears to be a likely candidate for getting reviewed sometime next month, but no guarantees.
gigahertz20 - Wednesday, October 27, 2010 - link
Thanks for the update :)rogress - Sunday, October 31, 2010 - link
Ditto on this. I really like these reviews of media players. Would also like to see the PCH units reviewed so we can compare.I wish these WD models had a web browser like the PCH units - so we can use our own "movie jukebox" like YAMJ. Thats the only thing missing for me.
EddyKilowatt - Tuesday, October 26, 2010 - link
I've been eagerly awaiting a refresh of the WDTV before the holidays, hoping they'd fix the many reported bugs and video artifacts. My heart sank with each item on the feature list, and somewhere around 'supports Blockbuster' I lost hope. Looks like I'll have to widen the search again...Homerboy - Tuesday, October 26, 2010 - link
Does it provide video shuffle? Can I queue up a directory of my choosing and have it play those contained videos randomly? I am having a heck of a time finding a setop box that can do this like my XBMC units can.Chillin1248 - Wednesday, October 27, 2010 - link
I have recently purchased the Argosy 335T, and they have a shipping version that includes a 2TB HDD for $180. I would love for you to compare the WDTV against it.---------
Chillin