• WD TV Live Hub

    WD TV Live Hub

    Roydon Cerejo, Dec 20, 2010 1156 hrs IST

    Offers the best solution for the price

    Good pricing, sturdy build quality, easy to use UI, runs cool and silent, will play almost any file

    Gigabit LAN speeds are limited

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Western Digital (WD) created quite a wave when it first launched the WD TV player. This tiny little box had capabilities to play your entire HD movie collection straight off a portable hard drive. This meant no more burning DVD movies on to a disk and it gave us a much simpler way of accessing our HD movies on our HDTV's without having the need to plug in our PC or notebook. The next installment from WD was WD TV Live. This added an Ethernet port, which gave us access to Internet widgets like YouTube, etc.

It also came with a faster video processing chip that made the UI a bit snappier and had better video playback capabilities. There was also a WD TV Live Plus, but that never made it to Indian shores, as all it did was add support for Netflix, which is not available here anyways. A couple of weeks back WD launched a slew of new products and one of them included the WD TV Live Hub. This box broke the traditional chubby design and offers users a completely different experience.

WD TV Live Hub



For starters, the Hub consists of a 1TB internal 2.5" hard disk to store your media files. The next big change is the inclusion of a Gigabit Ethernet port for faster data transfers over the network. This would also help when streaming multiple files over the network since it also has a NAS feature built in. Finally, we have HDMI 1.4a for playing back 3D content on the newer 3DTVs. The Hub is a big step forward in terms of design and build, and it seems a lot more polished this time around. Next, let's have a look at the contents of the box.

Bundle

The WD TV Live Hub comes with the following accessories;

  • Instruction manual
  • Remote
  • Batteries
  • Power adapter

WD TV Live Hub Bundle



The remote has improved a great deal and now features alphanumeric buttons for easier typing. The button layout and overall build is a lot better. The bottom has a rubberized finish lending it a very nice touch.


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Related Links
WD TV Live Review
Seagate GoFlex TV HD Media Player
Asus OPlay HD2
Tag keywords
WD TV player WD TV Live western digital tv player



Discussion Board
(25) Comments
Anand Sharma
,Agra, on Jun 09, 2011 09:47 PM
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.
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Girish
,Aurangabad, on Dec 20, 2010 01:39 PM
Is it possible to attach a external USB DVD drive ?
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Bheem
,Bangalore, on Dec 20, 2010 09:51 PM
Is the 1TB 2.5" drive swappable........????! Is the hub designed for it...?
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Roydon
,Techtree, on Dec 20, 2010 11:00 PM
@Girish...Sorry, Optical drives are not supported @Bheem...The internal drive can be removed but you'll probably void the warranty. Also there are no screws so you'll have to pry the top open.
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shoummo
,Kolkata, West Bengal, on Dec 22, 2010 05:03 PM
think so, since u can do the same with playon hd media player.
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Kaushik Subrama
,Bangalore, on Dec 21, 2010 04:31 PM
This looks to be a nice gadget. could somebody guide where i can buy this in India, preferably in Bangalore.
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kapil
,Meerut, on Jan 18, 2011 06:46 PM
today i have discussed about this product in nehru place and the minimum price for this product is Rs. 10900.0 and the news is confirmed that mistaken they have announced wrong price in media.
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Sachin
,Delhi, on Feb 02, 2011 09:53 AM
Hi, can you advise which store is selling for Rs.10900 ? Please!!
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Sandeep
,Bangalore, on Dec 21, 2010 02:48 PM
Hi, I have 4 year old 5.1 sony home theater, can it be connected ti the Live Hub.
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Jayesh
,TechTree, on Oct 18, 2011 09:05 PM
Yes, if your home theatre system has the required connectivity ports as present on the WD TV Live Hub. Check the photo on the page 2 of this review to find out what connectivity options are available on this product.
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Harpreet
,delhi, on Jan 28, 2011 05:27 AM
where to find the best deal for this product in Nehru Place , ndelhi.. it seems like the hub is not at all being sold for Rs 9999, which was told in the release...
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Sumit Saini
,Delhi, on Jan 13, 2011 07:44 PM
is WD Tv Hub convert normal movie into HD movie.
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Deepak
,Chandigarh, on Jan 12, 2011 12:32 AM
If we buy this from the US will it have any issues with usage in India?
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GuruGraptor
,Bangalore, on Jan 10, 2011 04:22 PM
Golchhait India is booking it for 11.5K. They are saying that Price given in press release was incorrect.
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RDureja
,Jaipur, on Jan 05, 2011 12:49 PM
Netoteric India is booking this one for 11800+Tax. They are saying that Price given in press release was mistakenly given.
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Avinash Kothari
,Mumbai, on Jan 01, 2011 12:26 PM
I tried finding a retailer for wd tv live hub yesterday on lamington road ... but no luck :( Has anyone brought one yet? Techtree guys can you enlighten as to where you got your hands on this box from? (assuming of course that this is the official model that is to be sold in India)
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Samir Kothiwal
,Moradabad, on Dec 21, 2010 11:17 AM
Where can I buy the WD TV Live Hub in New Delhi/NOIDA area? I need to buy it before Xmas.
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Akshay Singh
,New Delhi, on Dec 30, 2010 01:48 PM
Did you manage to find a dealer? I've been looking around but no luck
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Tavpraneet Sing
,New Delhi, on Dec 24, 2010 02:10 AM
Where can I buy this in Delhi?
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shoummo
,Kolkata, West Bengal, on Dec 22, 2010 04:58 PM
how does this compare with playon hd
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Ritesh
,Delhi, on Dec 21, 2010 10:49 AM
Just bought a Samsung series 6 TV (32 inches) with support for Drives upto 1 TB(FAT32 and NTFS) and support for most media file types.. Clarity is awesome with the upscaling of the video.. So won't be needing this .. ever..
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Raunak Mehta
,Indore, on Dec 21, 2010 10:21 PM
Buddy, you probably don't realize the capabilities of WD TV Live Hub. Your TV might play media files but that's just one of the many things that this player can do.
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Sumant
,Mumbai, on Dec 21, 2010 09:18 AM
how we diffrenciate with other media player in market - Asus-OPlay, Seagate, Avermedia - HD Media Player, others
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Ashu
,New Delhi, on Dec 20, 2010 12:35 PM
Can we play 7 speakers with this, if not then how much maximum we can play ?
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Roydon
,Techtree, on Dec 20, 2010 01:41 PM
7.1 channel should be possible over SPDIF (Optical)
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