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Western Digital’s WD TV Live HD Media Player: Awesome playback, cheap NAS

I recently got a WD TV Live HD Media Player, commonly referred to as the WDTV Live. I bought it mostly because it did a lot of useful things, was dirt cheap, and I was a little curious.

What can it do? You can connect it to your TV and network and play nearly any media your network has to offer. And when I say “nearly any media” I mean the vast majority of media you’d have. Even 1080p MKV files. Even mts2 files, which most PCs have trouble playing. It has an HDMI and component video out, along with old-school composite. Plus it has optical digital audio out.

But yet there’s more, it has two USB ports from which you can connect USB hard drives (or flash drives) and play media directly to your TV without a network.

But yet there’s more, the WDTV Live basically acts as a dirt cheap pseudo-NAS. To those who do not know what a NAS is, it’s a network-attached storage device. For example, you can connect two 2tb drives to the WDTV Live for a total of 4tbs and you can access those drives throughout your entire network.

Of course because it’s not a real NAS, you cannot span or partition those drives from the WDTV Live, but the WDTV Live is not for network certified engineers or linux-heads, this is a simple device designed for tech-knowledgeable family members. You plug it in, plug it into your network, plus in your USB drives, and viola! It’s on your network.

I know what some of you are thinking. “I could connect two USB hubs to the WDTV Live and connect even more hard drives. Like a whopping 16 terabytes!” I thought the same thing, but you cannot. Western Digital likely recognizes that such a device would eventually cut into its genuine NAS business and limits you to only two hard drives. Still, four terabytes is pretty awesome. And USB drives are getting larger in capacity.

Right now I’m using my WDTV Live and two 2TB drives to store most of my family’s media. Videos, music, pictures, etc. Unlike the PC server I used to use, the WDTV is rock solid. Sure, the PC would only go down a few times a year, but it’s annoying when you go to watch something to find the server frozen or shut down. The WDTV Live has been running perfectly for nearly three months without any hiccup.

One wish I have is that the PS3 could find and access the media on it. Apparently, they’re working on it.

The other wish is that you could attach a USB keyboard to it so enter information. E.g., to enter your YouTube information you have to use an awful on screen keyboard, which does not follow the typical “qwerty” format.

I wish you could change the default workgroup.

For the price and in considering what it can do, I consider it a whopping value for any tech-savvy family.

Update – April 1, 2010:

The WDTV’s firmware was updated on March 31st and the PS3′s firmware was updated on April 1st, but the PS3 still cannot natively see media on the WDTV. Maybe next time.

Update – April 6, 2010:

I’ve been playing around with the latest update and the WDTV Live finally lets you change the default workgroup. Now that it’s on the same workgroup as the other computers in my house, it seems that the initial access time has sped up. There used to be a slight three second hang which no longer happens.

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An Inappropriate Act

You’ve probably heard about Joseph Stack who burned down his house and flew his plane into an IRS building in Texas to protest his tax bill. One person died in the attack and several were injured. The building is a complete loss. We’re talking about several million dollars worth of property damage alone.

I love this quote from his daughter who called him a “hero” but also said his actions were “inappropriate.”

To me an inappropriate act is more synonymous with farting in public or talking during a movie. In my mind calling Stack’s acts of destruction, murder, and attempted murder merely “inappropriate” is in itself way beyond inappropriate.

But then again, maybe she’s as nuts as her dad.

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God Works in Mysterious and Prickish Ways

You’ve might have heard the story about the “85-year-old South Florida woman who went looking for a photo of her ex-husband” and “found a $17,500 insurance claim check from 1978 instead.”

The article said,

She said she doesn’t know why she hadn’t found the check sooner and had looked inside the drawer “a thousand times” before the discovery.

Now some people will undoubtedly call this God’s work. That it’s beyond mere earthly reason for this check to suddenly appear in this woman’s time of need. (Ignoring the fact that none of the articles say that she had any such need.)

But if this is an act of God, he’s a prick. The rest of the story says,

It’s unclear if Cosgrove can claim the money from the check, which was issued by an insurance company that has been declared insolvent and liquidated.

In other words, the check is utterly worthless. If God left it there for this woman to find in her time of need, he has a sick sense of humor.

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Is Blu-ray dying?

I had four older movies in my Netflix queue waiting for blu-ray releases. I was notified today that they were converted to DVD formats. Which I assume means that any plan to release these movies in blu-ray format has been killed.

* Sixteen Candles
* Taxi Driver
* The Breakfast Club
* Zathura

I also noticed that the yet to be released movie Bandslam is not going to be released in blu-ray. It too was changed to DVD format.

I really love blu-ray movies. Given the choice between DVD and blu-ray I’ll always choose blu-ray. Given the choice between DVD now and waiting for blu-ray, I’ll wait. I hope the format doesn’t die, but it’s looking like it might.

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The Copyright Industry and the Three Stooges

Right now the copyright industry, music, books, movies, etc., are cruising along in sinking ships. Some ships are sinking faster than others. The movie industry has record ticket sales this year while the music industry is shadow of its former self.

The “problem” of the internet as a means to cheaply distribute copyrighted material has been around since the early 90s. It’s been about two decades later and still very little action has been taken.

In watching the inaction take place I can’t help but think of the Three Stooges. Remember the Three Stooges bit where they are in a sinking row boat? They get the idea to drill another hole to let the water drain out. It was pretty funny. But it’s not that funny when it’s taken seriously and is used as a part of a business plan.

Music Industry’s Sinking Ship:

The music industry finally allowed Apple to open its iTunes music service in April 28, 2003. Windows users were not allowed in the store until October of 2003. iTunes has been very successful. But it was too late to stop piracy. Much too late.

People were sharing music online since the mid 90s. Back then they used IRC and Usenet. Those services were hard to use and were avoided by most people because of the difficulty.

The original Napster solved the difficulty problem when it was released in 1999. Suddenly, it was easy for everyone to share music.

In the four years between Napster and iTunes, people were used to downloading DRM free music for no money. If iTunes had been released in 1998, before the floodgates of Napster had opened, the music industry would be in a much different situation right now. (But let’s not forget that iTunes really only works with iPods. Those millions of people who use non-Apple MP3 players could not take advantage of iTunes and were forced to use P2P services because there were no legitimate services available to meet their needs.)

But I don’t blame Napster. I blame the music industry’s refusal to take action in providing a service people were willing to use.

Book Publisher’s Sinking Ship:

A similar thing is happening with eBooks. There are publishers and authors who are refusing to release eBooks out of fear of piracy. Think about that for a second. They refuse to give customers a legitimate eBook option because they’re afraid someone else might choose to download it from a widely available and free illegitimate source.

People were sharing music for a decade prior to iTunes opening. The delay in releasing legitimate music did not delay or impede pirated music. It caused and facilitated pirated music. When consumers were faced with no legitimate option, they used Napster.

When a Kindle owner looks for his favorite book in eBook form and is unable to find it on Amazon, where is he or she going to look? The Pirate Bay? Most likely, or somewhere else.

How does not providing a legitimate eBook for customers stop piracy? How could anyone think something so completely ludicrous. I actually think this refusal to sell legitimate eBooks is more asinine than drilling a second hole in a sinking boat.

Movie Industry’s Sinking Ship:

A similar problem is happening with the movie industry. DVD sales are sinking and blu-ray sales are not taking off. It’s partially the fault of the economy, but it’s also a simple fact that the vast majority of people have no need to own a copy of a movie.

Sure you might be a huge fan of the Godfather and maybe you watch it every month. But who really needs to see Paul Blart: Mall Cop more than once? The vast majority of movies are at best, one time events. The vast majority of people who enjoy movies do not obsess over them to the point of watching and re-watching them. The entire business model of people buying hard copies of movies was nothing more than an anomaly.

You might remember an advertisement from several years ago, I think it was for a company called Quest, about a little motel offering every movie ever made. That service is technically possible. Who would not love a service where they could instantly rent any movie or any TV show ever made for a couple of bucks. A few bucks for high def.

But the movie industry is paralyzed. There’s the old DVD/Blu-ray division that is trying to prop up that dead model. There are theater owners worried about their business being marginalized. There’s actors, producers, music people, and the studios all fighting for their cut. And everyone is demanding too much of a cut.

While the movie industry spins its wheels, you can currently get nearly any TV show or movie via bittorrent in about an hour or two. Heck, you can get the entire series of any TV show you want in about 6 hours.

By the time the movie industry finally gets its act together and provides the service I described above at a fair price, will it be too late? The longer they wait, the lower the “fair” price will be. If this service had been introduced back in the early 00s when downloading a movie was unheard of, they probably could have charged a 10 buck rental rate for the privilege of getting it instantly without leaving your house. But now that people are used to getting movies they want without any DRM restrictions, they’d only be willing to pay less. My guess is that $5-6 for a HD rental and $3 for a SD rental.

But of course someone within the industry would complain that the price would cut into its DVD sales and would interfere with its broadcast licensing deals. And they’d be afraid of piracy if they put their movies online. And they’d be afraid of marginalizing some other profit area. So even if this system is ever opened, I highly doubt the prices charged will be considered reasonable.

Cause and Effect:

Of course the copyright industries will bitch about piracy. They’ll blame the immoral pirates and downloaders. They’ll claim we need new draconian laws to prop up their business models. They’ll eventually turn copyright laws in to our next drug war. Already people are being ordered to pay millions of dollars merely because they have 24 dollars worth of music on their computers. (For those not familiar with the Jammie Thomas case, there was no evidence presented at trial that she shared any music with anyone unauthorized to have it.)

But the problem was not caused by piracy. Piracy was caused by the copyright industries’ refusal to provide what customers wanted. In the 90s, music fans wanted to buy MP3s. The music industry did not let them. In the 2000s movie fans wants wanted portable movies, or to stream movies from their PCs to their TVs, or to watch movies on their laptops without discs, etc. But the movie industry refused to offer such services. As we speak book authors and publishers are forcing eBook fans to go to the Pirate Bay because the authors and publishers refuse to provide any legitimate option.

I’ll say it again, pirates did not cause piracy. The internet did not cause piracy. Piracy was and is caused by the lack of any legitimate, reasonably priced, and easy to use alternatives. It’s their fault, not ours. But we’ll probably end up paying for it. I only wish this comedy was a joke.

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