The Official PC building thread - 4th Edition

The WD TV Live has a USB port to connect the docking station to it.

 

So WDTV can be used as a substitute for a PC? And if you don't have a WDTV than a PC is needed correct?

 

Yes, unless there is another device that can play the many formats WD TV Live is able to play.

BTW, (posted by omega7) here are the many channels WD TV Live can access, http://www.wdc.com/en/products/products.aspx?id=570

 

Interesting, is there a monthly fee with this WDTV

 

None.

 

The reasoning for this is that the services themselves may/may not charge a monthly fee as appropriate, all you have here is a device to connect to them, a bit like buying a separate cable TV set top box without a subscription contract from the supplier. Things like youtube would be free, things like netflix chargeable. Smart TVs can do a lot of this sort of thing already, but if you have an older TV or want more flexibility, you need one of these devices, the WD TV is one among many, but a good particular example.

 

In other words if you want to get into some real viewing there will be fee's? and since your in the UK do the same rules apply here(US)

 

Yes, and yes. The content has to come from somewhere, WD don't host their own channel that I know of, so it depends which service you connect to. There will be some free ones out there, but I don't imagine you'll get much without paying. Not unless you play media sitting on your own PC over the network which of course is free to do.

 

Got it, I kinda figured that, clicking on stygys link and all those streaming channels for free my antennas did go up and said wait a minute, it's still an interesting possible bargain, as styguy says a docking station can be used without a PC, or another possibility here our big gun high speed Internet provider is Comcast, and you can stream a lot of content thru them for free even movies if you used a PC, I have watched a couple of programs on my PC screen just to check it out, the quality was good but do not know what it would look like on a big screen, plus the fact you can also use the PC with your docking station watching movies from the station or the PC itself, plus the fact watching a movie just loaded from the net with true 1080p which I think does not have to be converted, hoping that way the quality would shine, am I correct so far?

 

Fred, a docking station is little more than a super large flash drive. They convert hard drives to popular formats. E.g. USB 2.0/3.0 Firewire(uncommon now), and eSATA. Some even have LAN ports. I've recently been turned off of network drives though. A modded Wii, WDTV, laptop, PC, will see them as a removable hard drive. The WDTV is very intelligent. It'll play just about any file format. My blu-ray player behaves similarly. I've heard that some of the Oppo players will even play ISO format on removable storage Though I believe they don't design players that way anymore. You would need one of their older players.

 

I pretty much understand whay a docking station is, this WDTV has cought my interest, plus the fact it can also be used with a docking station, I have yet to see a movie aquired from the internet without it being converted and watch if the quality is as good watching on my PC screen, if yes that would be a big plus.

 

Is there really a big difference between ddr2 1066 mhz and ddr2 800 mhz?

 

My TV displays input information when I hit the Info button on the remote and displays the bandwidth, MHz, and resolution as well as a couple more things, much like you can do with a PC depending on the media packages you use. Not all TV's do this so yours may not but it is a nice feature when you are watching Netflix or some other streaming program. And like Kevin stated Netflix can look great in 1080p or like you would state and I that it looks like a VHS tape only sometimes they crop & chop the video.

I've converted several BD movies to DVD and they do look fantastic but it can be extremely tasking and you can screw up doing it. But when it comes to the compression it is really the same as music. DVD's are MP2 compression and Blu-ray's are essentially MP4's, truly H.264/MKV. It becomes more complicated converting since you have to sinc the audio with the video when converting putting it simplistically.

As to your problems with BD to DVD-DL it would depend on what program(s) you are using to do this and the formats used in the movie source, it can be complicated to convert depending.

On another note there can be other issues pertain to your media used if you are using disc's. For instance I've now moved to Watershield discs like I use for CD's and DVD's but with BD's the only one's out there that I'm aware of are JVC/TY LTH'es.

The problem with LTH media can be a huge compatibility problem. They may not work with your burner and they may not work with your player. With Verbatim LTH's this is true but the new JVC/TY's it doesn't seem to be an issue as I've tested them on many different units without issues and the print out great! So that disc is my new staple for all of my ripping.

There are several streaming sites on the net as well but the quality isn't always good so with WDTV, GoogleTV, Ruko, and several others you could possibly drop your cable/satellite bill for these alternatives with a few sacrifices of course, but I would save close to $2,100 a year in TV bills. It's is temping but I would loose watching some of the sports I still like.

On another side note closer to this this thread I see the new 8 core AMD's are out so it seems like I must upgrade mu CPU to the close to 5GHz CPU's. Yeaaaaaaa!

 

Steve, careful with those TY LTH's. Their longevity may be unappealing. They scan well initially, but a year down the road, there could be a problem. It's also possible, that the burner I used, may be at fault. I had to retire it rather early -_-

 

That can be true with any media you use. I had just that happen with some Phillip's media I was buying and had to replace over a hundred disc's which I'm still in the process of doing. JVC claims these will last long but like you say it could be a problem. I've never had bad luck with TY so I have to believe I should be in good hands with these. In fact that is why I just bought the Verbatim's but found they don't measure up, not even close. I've had more problems with Verbatim then TY's, it's not even close and some people swear by Verbatim's.

I'm well aware of the LTH issues and have steered away from them until TY introduced them. As usual TY has done a bang-up job once again....

 

I only bought one stack of TY LTH's. It was a VERB that recently gave me a read problem. I plan to test the older TY's soon. I believe "Green Hornet" is my oldest one. I am due to watch that one again

 

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Steve great input on that last post of yours, thanks, about every 6 months I buy a ton of blank media especially if I can get a good sale, I have always stuck with my first choice supermediastore.com, the rest I would use newegg and brick stores like officemax that every once in a while has a good sale per hundred.

I have been lucky with my verbs for years, I only use ty's and verbs period, several months ago I ordered a bunch of verbs right now I don't remember which site it was, it was one that had a sale 16 bucks per hundred DVD+r verbs, something I never do but I took a shot, one of the members in the blank media forum posted it, after getting them my DVDIdentifier labeled my verbs as ridek made, man was I pissed, I have not had a coaster in years, low and behold I already have had several with this new batch, that's just one problem, who in the hell knows how long these new verbs will even last, I bought 6, 100 batches, I turned greedy when I saw the 16 bucks per hundred without thinking, a lesson learned, I will never again leave the places that never screwed me before. If you need to spend the extra bucks for quality than so be it.

 

Yes, I've had that same experience too and I won't buy RiDATA Ritek's any more, way too many issues with them. I haven't looked at the LTH Verbatim's manufacture yet but it raises a good point for-sure.... Verbatim buys their media from others so if you find cheap Verb's there can be a good reason for that.

 

1yr 3 months ago, I installed my OCZ Vertex 4. It's still going strong Guess I got a good one Every application opens smooth as silk. Though don't get me wrong. I'd like to install this one in my laptop, and get a new one for my tower. My laptop would run excellent!

 

I've been looking at the "Corsair ooops" Crucial M500 960GB SSD, I've found it under $500 USD which is cheap and would be perfect for a laptop or desktop PC.

Kevin, if your feeling lucky you can find tons of refurb'd OCZ SSD's on the market for cheap!