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.
Facebook
Twitter
RSS
53 Comments
View All Comments
ram1009 - Monday, January 17, 2011 - link
The first thing I did when I hooked up this unit was to upgrade the firmware. Following some connectivity issues I tries to play some VOB files over my WIRED connection and had choppy playback. After many days of forum research with some senior people there seemed no answer until I rolled the firmware back to default settings. The problem disappeared immediately and has not recurred. If you get one of these don't upgrade the firmware. You've been warned.pshen7 - Tuesday, February 22, 2011 - link
The LiveHub with the internal 1TB HDD is cheaper than a Live+ and a 1TB Passport. It's a potent unit at it's price point.Something I didn't note before: the WDTV Live Hub can share media to the Live+, both the internal HDD and USB devices that are plugged into it.
You can even have both units play the same file at the same time.
Peter Shen, founder Koowie.com
anand_s63 - Thursday, June 9, 2011 - link
as i opened the boxed wd tv media hub some four hours ago i was apalled by the insensitivity of the western digital people. first of all the power plug supplied was not of india specification which it should have been while they sell the product here. i ran back to the market spent time searching and got one. as i started the device i found the remote was faulty. the down scroll, numbers 5,7 9 were not responding and didnt work. i had to use my smart phone to setup the network. when i tried to dicover the device with the wd discovery software it did not discover any thing. than i had to search the device through the network folder and than i was able to u/l some pics and videos to the device. it works excellent all i hope that they could be a little sensitive and thoughtful with this very good product.