For years I've been looking for a device to stream video, music and pics from my servers to my TV, however, until recently the technology has been flaky to say the least.
Friday, I picked up the new WD TV LIVE from Western Digital. This device does everything I need and more. My wife loves being able to steam Pandora through the Home Theater setup now and I love being able to watch all my Anime and Movies on my TV rather then having to hook up my laptop to the tv or sitting in front of my computer.
WD TV Live Overview
Play network and internet content.
- Connect to Internet sites like YouTube, Flickr, Live365, Pandora or stream content from your home network.
Full-HD 1080p resolution.
- Experience spectacular Full-HD video and crystal-clear digital audio.
Enjoy your media instantly.
Supports a wide variety of the most popular file formats. No need to spend time transcoding.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.
This device is still not with out flaws. Spent a couple hours re-configuring my Shares on my Servers and it can take up to 15 minutes after powering on the WD TV LIVE to recgonize your Network Shares. Also, unless you have a Wireless N capable network I would suggest hard wiring this until to your router/switch. Kramer and I spent the portion of the night run cable from one corner of the basement up behind the tv in the livign room. But for $119.00 at Bestbuy this unit can't be beat.
Trouble Shooting docs I found helpfull ...
http://wdtvforum.com/main/index.php?topic=2351.0
Win7 (and Vista) has some issues broadcasting its availability on a network.
You could try these changes to your Win7 box:-
Firstly, configure Sharing and Discovery:
1. Navigate to the Network and Sharing Center via the Control Panel
2. Click on the down arrow icons and select ON/OFF as follows:
Network Discovery - ON
File Sharing - ON
Public Folder Sharing - OFF
Printer Sharing - ON
Password Protected Sharing - OFF
Media Sharing - OFF
Next, configure the folder you want to share:
1. Select the folder
2. Right-click and choose 'Share' from the menu
3. From the drop-down box select the Everyone (All users in this list) account, making sure permissions are set to 'Reader'
4. Click the buttons Add, Share and Done.
Here are some further registry 'tweaks' if this doesn't work:
WARNING: This requires editing your PC's registry which, if edited incorrectly, can cause Windows systems to become unstable and unusable. So, follow the instructions below at your own risk. - we are not responsible for any damage caused by following these steps.
1. Navigate to the following location in the registry editor.
MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\Lsa\
2. On the right side, double-click on 'everyoneincludesanonymous' and change the 'Value data' from '0' to '1'
3. Double-click on 'NoLmHash' and change the 'Value data' from '1' to '0'
4. Navigate to the following location in the registry editor:
MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\LanManServer\Parameters
5. Double-click on 'restrictnullsessaccess' and change the 'Value data' from '1' to '0'
6. Close the registry editor
Finally, restart your PC.