[cityjim]

 Anyone try this yet? I bought one and the sound alone playing FLAC files is shockingly beautiful. Even better than from a seperate DVD player to a highly regarded outboard DAC which surprised me.

 I'm looking for a good full glass toslink cable to run my outboard DAC into the mix. Just wondering if my DAC would add any beauty or not. Right now just using the included RCA audio cables that came with the WDTV unit. They probably cost 30 cents at most. Can't complain about the sound though.

cityjim

[cityjim]

 Got the Bel Canto DAC in play. And wow what a beautiful upgrade. The WDTVLive Plus plays everything video and audio related. Full 1080P to the plazma and 24 bit uncompressed wav files are amazing.

cityjim

[acresm22]

Thanks for you comments, cityjim. I just picked up a WD TV Live, the forerunner to the Live Plus, and was wondering about its music streaming performance. I think the Live is virtually the same as the Plus except for the latter having Netfilix capabilities.

[mrhyfy]

Try the Patriot Box office,,it's often cheaper to buy and is even more versatile for file compatibility

[acresm22]

Thanks, I've looked at the Patriot too. It's not quite as cheap as $39 at Costco, though...

[mrhyfy]

Wow!!   $39!!     You may still be better off with the PBO for the extra bucks

[wushuliu]

Will have to strongly disagree on two counts.

1) I found the WDTV/Live sound quality (via toslink) to be a lot higher than Patriot Box Office, in fact out of the media players I've demo'd inc. Oplay, Popcorn, Mede8er, ACRyan, etc., WDTV topped them all. Bits ain't just bits with these players for sure.

2) GUI. Unless Patriot has updated their interface in the past year it's pretty sore on the eyes. Only the ACRyan players had as nice an interface as WDTV.

Being a little bit of a media freak I bought into the hype of all the cheap WDTV knock-offs but ultimately found they suffered from too many bugs and glitches and mainly make their bucks off early adopters who crave features that 99% of people won't actually use. If sound quality is of any importance my .02 is to stick with WDTVs.

[adydula]

I have come close to buying one of these, but want to play flacs to my USB dac.

This unit seems to have USB ports for attaching a USB drive externally and accessing files on it to stream etc..

Is there one of these magic boxes that allow usb out to a usb dac instead of just spidf and a convertor to usb....more $$$ and more connections?

Alex

[Bob in St. Louis]

VortexBox?

[acresm22]

Can someone walk me through the process of using the WD Live to stream FLAC files? Newbie to music streaming here...
Specific questions are:
How do I hook up the WD Live to my stereo system? I assume I use the SPDIF output, correct ? Do I need a SPDIF to RCA adaptor? If I do that, do I compromise the hi rez quality?
I have a few FLAC files on my hard drive now, but have not yet downloaded any software to hear them. Does the software that comes with the WD take care of that for me?
Thanks, guys. As I said, streaming newbie...

[acresm22]

Just read this comment in a 2010 Soundstage review of the WD TV Live:

"The TV Live was capable of playing 24-bit/96kHz stereo FLAC and WAV files, but the frequency of the digital output was reduced to 48kHz. Additionally, hi-rez multichannel WAV files were played only as two-channel signals, and hi-rez multichannel FLAC files couldn’t be played at all. If you’re looking for something with which to play hi-rez audio files, the WD TV Live is less than ideal."

Thoughts?

[mrhyfy]

That's why I switched from the WD to the PBO.

[wushuliu]

Just read this comment in a 2010 Soundstage review of the WD TV Live:

"The TV Live was capable of playing 24-bit/96kHz stereo FLAC and WAV files, but the frequency of the digital output was reduced to 48kHz. Additionally, hi-rez multichannel WAV files were played only as two-channel signals, and hi-rez multichannel FLAC files couldn’t be played at all. If you’re looking for something with which to play hi-rez audio files, the WD TV Live is less than ideal."

Thoughts?

Edit - Here is one audio-focused thread on WDTV: http://www.stereo.net.au/forums/showthread.php/18890-WDTV-Live-as-audiophile-music-player

Not to be a curmudgeon, but if 2-channel is focus I still give the nod to the WDTV regardless of res in the world of media players.. PBO and the others I've mentioned may do hi-rez without dithering but they still sound terrible. Especially the ones based on the Realtek chips - which tend to be the devices with the most hi-rez, features and formats. They are strictly A/V oriented. Movies? Great, if you are pursuing sound quality you will be disappointed. The WDTV reduces to 48, but the flipside is that they have been proven to be free of additional processing in the digital output after people did waveform tests several years back and took them to task over bit-perfect output. I believe that the other media players add additional processing to the digial out, that's how bad they sound. General consensus seems to be Sigma chips (WDTV, Popcorn Hour, Egreat) have better sound quality. Still, of those the WDTV still come out ahead. The Realtek (PBO, Oplay, many more) do not sound neutral, so why bother with hi-rez if you're only going to get crappy sounding hi-rez? I went through all those playes and still came back to the WD for sound quality.

There was a thread on stereo.net.au with audiophiles trying out the WDTV live and coming to very positive conclusions about performance. These devices are geared towards Video, audio is not even remotely a concern. If some folks had not complained about the WDTV output some years back on AVS when it was the only game in town they would not have given much thought to audio either.



Just my .02

[cityjim]

 To use a WD TV Live Plus just use the included audio cables to a preamp. They probably cost WD about forty cents but man does it sound great. Not to mention hooking up a quality DAC with a true glass fiber optic Toslink cable.

 The WD included RCA red and white audio cables will not disappoint. They bested my highly rated Oppo Digital DVD player running to a true high end 75 ohm digital coax cable into a Bel Canto DAC II. Actually they blew that combo away. And that is minus any DAC in the chain.

 Even if the WD only plays up to 48k it sounds wonderful at that. No issues there at my house. I'm sure the full blown 24/96 or 192 might sound better but how much??? And for 95 bucks you can't beat it. Plays most every audio and video file out there. And does it well at that. Best hundred bucks I ever spent. Throw away your squeeze box and other limited box. No video capability from a squeeze for example. You want to play MP3, no problems with the WD TV Live. FLAC and so on. Make all other imitators obsolete.

slomo

[Fatcat]

  I picked up a couple of refurbished WDTV Live Plus boxes for $53 each and have one connected into my two channel rig. I have it hooked up via Toslink to my Onyx DAC 25 and I have to say I am extremely impressed with the sound quality. I had updated the firmware when they arrived to version: 1.06.16 available from Western Digital's website. I looked in the release notes for the firmware and among the the several listed fixes I noticed the following line: Resolved issue where all audio above 48KHZ is down-sampled to 48KHZ. Now while I'm sure this will apply to a digital signal sent through HDMI, I wonder if it also applies to the optical output as well? I just know that it sounds awesome but I have no way to tell what signal rate my DAC is receiving from the WDTV. I'd appreciate if anyone out there could shed some light on what this little sucker with the new firmware is sending out!

Best.....Carlo.

[cityjim]

 Where did you get the WDTV Live Plus units?


cityjim