I’ll get down to the problems I’m having with the new WDTV LIVE HUB. This problem is intermittent, sometimes I can see the computer with the three external drives via the HUB in the Network Shares menu and sometime I can’t. Sometimes I can see the other computers and sometimes I can’t. Sometimes one is missing and other times all computers are missing from this menu. There is not a consistent combination of visible and missing computers and all at connected differently to the network, in other words, it’s not all of the wireless connections or all of the cable connected computers that disappear at the same time. They are only missing from the WDTV LIVE HUB and not the WDTV LIVE PLUS. I have no problem with the WDTV LIVE PLUS ever seeing or not seeing all of the computers on the network. I have reset the HUB and have rebooted the computers, I have cleared the network login. Sometime this works to make them visible again and sometime it doesn’t and they just show up the next day or will remain inaccessible for just a few hours. It’s crazy and frustrating. I have never experienced this with any of my other WDTV LIVE products.
That is the main issue I have. Other issues I have with the WDTV LIVE HUB that might be an indicator to the problem are as follows:
The HUB frequently locks up and has to be unplugged to reset. This happens when playing the games, trying to access Netflix, getting media file information from the internet, and when a file has finished playing and you try to go back to the video menu.
When compiling the Media Library, frequently it will kick me out of what I am doing and take me back to the dashboard. Sometimes this happens when compiling the Media Library and most often happens when getting video file information from the internet for a video file. It seems to me that the RAM (if present) is getting full or over taxed and it just dumps you back to the dashboard.
I have been a user of the WDTV line of products since they came out. I started with a WDTV LIVE and moved up to the WDTV LIVE PLUS when it was available. I have recently purchased a WDTV LIVE HUB. We have two televisions on the network and three computers, One television has the WDTV LIVE PLUS via a wireless dongle, the other television has the WDTV LIVE HUB via a network cable, two computers are connected via wireless and one computer is connected via a network cable. I have two Cisco wireless routers one is a WRT610N (Client) and the other is a Cisco 17934 (Gateway). The routers are connected via a network cable and one functions as a gateway and the other is a client. They are both configured correctly for this application and everything functions as it should except for the WDTV LIVE HUB. In addition to this I have many terabytes of files that are stored on WD My Book External Drives. Connected to the WDTV LIVE PLUS is a 1TB WD My Book. Connected to one computer (via wireless-n, via client router) are three WD My Book External Drives (1-1TB and 2-2TB).
That is the gist of how my network is set up, complicated, I know, but it spans 2 buildings and three acres and gives us access to the wireless network through our cell phones anywhere on the property.
To end on a positive note, I really like the expanded remote and the fact that the remote will work with the other WDTV LIVE media players and vice versa, I also really like the new menu structure and the dashboard feature and function. The ability to see a description of a movie after it has been located in the online database is a great function also, I just wish the whole system would function consistently and fully as it was designed to.
I’m open to suggestions on how to correct any and all of these problems. I am reluctant to upgrade my other WDTV LIVE product to a HUB if the HUB is going to problematic. I do not want to have to work on it for a few hours every time I want to watch a movie.
