WD TV Live replacement? (1 Viewer)

Looking for ideas ... I have a couple WD TV Live boxes, and one just died creating a much-wanted opportunity! While the boxes work OK for the most part I still find them to be buggy and often have to reboot it at least once after I fire the thing up. My main TV on the other hand uses a HTPC running XBMC that I only reboot every 120 days or so. This is what I'm used to and expect (mistakenly?) from the WD box. I'm therefore looking for a solid WD TV replacement that: 1. Plays everything! The WD plays most video stuff that I throw at it but has problems with some audio stuff (aac or flac, perhaps?). Whatever it doesn't play doesn't come up often, just often enough to be annoying. 2. Plays 1080p video seamlessly. This unit is used almost exclusively for watching stuff on a big screen (110"). My projector has a Reon-VX chip in it so something that just passes lower-res stuff through without trying to upscale it would be perfect. 3. Uses NFS. I have no patience for Samba - too slow. The WD box doesn't do this so I stream stuff through my xbmc machine. Still faster than Samba and XBMC organizes stuff better so I can find what I'm looking for. 4. Ethernet connection for file access. I have wireless-n but it still stumbles with really high bitrate stuff. 5. Good user interface for movie, TV and music files, including a decent remote. 6. Good processor speed. I have a decent movie collection and a huge music collection. The WD box takes a LONG time to scroll my music collection by artist alone (10 to 15 minutes probably, if you had the patience to wait for it) Not needed: 1. Hulu, youtube and other low-res streaming video sites (that look REALLY bad when blown up to 110") 2. Local storage (besides video buffer space). My entire video / music / photo collection is on a file server so I don't need local storage 3. Blu-ray drive. Already have a Blu-ray player - never use it ... 4. Email, web browser, games and other stuff I won't use. This is strictly a watch movies and listen to music device. 5. Netflix - don't use it Hopefully there's something out there that comes in around the $100 mark. I don't mind spending more for a better picture or faster processor, just not for extra stuff I won't use. Ideas? Thx

I can empathize with you, I had a WD Live and it worked for about 30 minutes. Sent it back twice and they never got it working. I'm using a Seagate Theater+ which I like. I stream VOB, Flac, and mp4 with no problems. I won't say the device is great though, the UI is very basic. I've heard good things about the Popcornhour models. I didn't get them at the time because of the cost and the fact that they didn't handle Netflix. Worth checking out givenyou requirements though.

You might really look at PopCorn Hour..


http://www.hometheaterforum.com/t/312133/popcorn-hour-a210-rolls-royce-of-a-media-device


It's a really great find.


If you look in the HTPC area, we reviewed quite a few different units

Wow I have a WDTV live that has been perfect! even have it hooked up to a drobo with 5TB of video to pick from. i can't see buying anything else.