Refrub 40GB ATV or WDTV Live?

[dztvtechie]

I've been toying with getting some sort of media interface for my living room for quite some time. My thoughts about Apple TV are the device is really limited unless you do some hacking (which I'm not opposed to). I do like the concept of WDTV Live especially because it now supports streaming, but it is more limited when it comes to its potential to view online content. Their price point is about the same. I would obviously love to just get a Mac Mini but I can't justify spending double or triple what one of these devices costs to do more or less the same thing. Thoughts?

 

[bigdaddyp]

At this point I am going to add a wd tv..

Since I have a mac mini doing the heavy lifting I think I am going to get a wd for use in another room. I don't see limited internet streaming as a bad thing for my use. I don't use netflix, i only use hulu on rare occasions. I think the greater format flexibility and ability to play 1080 video beats the atv.

 

[glennsan]

ATV or WDTV Live

I've been toying with getting some sort of media interface for my living room for quite some time. My thoughts about Apple TV are the device is really limited unless you do some hacking (which I'm not opposed to). I do like the concept of WDTV Live especially because it now supports streaming, but it is more limited when it comes to its potential to view online content. Their price point is about the same. I would obviously love to just get a Mac Mini but I can't justify spending double or triple what one of these devices costs to do more or less the same thing. Thoughts?

I'm in the same boat as you. I was waiting for an ATV but just heard about the WD Live yesterday. It sounds like it would work well as I am getting a tv that can access the internet for Netflix and just needed something to hold my DVD collection that I have ripped. I can wait a little longer but if there is not a new ATV in a month or so Apple has lost my money.

Glennsan

 

[GermanSuplex]

I don't care about hacking or having direct DVD rips, so the Apple TV suits my needs. There is some stuff I'd like to see added to it, but nothing I can't live with. So I would say that if you use primarily iTunes and trasncode your stuff to h.264 files, Apple TV is the way to go.

If you just keep a gaggle of videos around and the like, then read up on Apple TV and ATVFlash.

If that still doesn't offer everything you need, then go with the WD device.

 

[pmcdunnough]

I've been toying with getting some sort of media interface for my living room for quite some time. My thoughts about Apple TV are the device is really limited unless you do some hacking (which I'm not opposed to). I do like the concept of WDTV Live especially because it now supports streaming, but it is more limited when it comes to its potential to view online content. Their price point is about the same. I would obviously love to just get a Mac Mini but I can't justify spending double or triple what one of these devices costs to do more or less the same thing. Thoughts?

I have a crazy setup on a 52" Samsung which consists of an Asus O!Play, WDTV Live, Mac Mini (09), Apple TV. The first 2 are very recent additions. It's really a function of what you want to do. If your main aim is to play HD video from a variety of places, and not iTunes or other protected sources, then the WD or Asus is what you want. They are both very nice. I started off with the Mini and XBMC/Plex which is pretty well as good as you are going to get. I then got an Apple TV and slowly but surely stopped using the Mini for video. It is trivial to install Perian, Sapphire, nitoTV, ATVfiles and Software menu. It can all be done by point and click (no Terminal). Of course you can also install XBMC/Boxee. Syncing the ATV is my preferred way and any non H.264 files can be placed in iTunes using VideoDrive ( great, great software) without transcoding.

Quite frankly I still use the ATV more than the rest combined. Sure the WD Live plays 1080p files, supports HFS+ USB drives and has wired ethernet. But it is not as elegant as the Apple TV.

The Asus O!Play is around $90 and the WD Live is $20 more. They play .mkv files fine and support idx+sub subs which is nice. They are quiet, require external hard drives and don't have wireless.

It's hard to recommend the ATV as Apple should have upgraded it by now. But in my opinion it's still the best of all of these media players, but it really needs to be upgraded. In short, wait.

My ATV now has an internal WD 320gig drive. Given that people are jumping at the WDTV Live and Asus O!Play perhaps you might find a good ATV for $100. That's probably what I would do.

philip

 

[melamina]

Philip,
I'm planning on buying a Apple TV or a WDTV Live.

What I'd wish to do is stream wirelessly the movies I have in my Macbook Pro (which are nearly all divx/xvid with srt subtitles, and some DVD's) through one of these devices onto my TV (which for the time being is only a Philips stereo tv).

I have all these divx/xvid (avi's) movies loaded onto itunes by saving them "as a reference file (mov)". I then add the info such as art, year, etc. in itunes. They play perfectly well with the subtitles as well.
Where they don't play properly is in Front Row. All movies do appear under the Movies Section (with art, etc.) but only play the sound, no video.

My main question is: can I stream these movies wirelessly from my macbook to an apple tv (and see the cover art, etc.)?
Or should I buy the WDTV Live and connect it wirelessly to be able to see my network?

If you can give me any help I'll be much obliged.
Thanks, Jimmy