I bought the WDTV Live to show a short high def video on a large screen in an endless loop all day. I was influenced by the glowing reviews here on Amazon. But it didn't work for me.
I spent about four hours of total frustration trying to get the WDTV Live to see files on my Mac and visa versa. My network has one Mac and one PC on it that were already working fine. The WDTV would see the Mac but wasn't able to connect to it or see folders or files on it. The Mac likewise would see the WDTV and the flash drive connected to it, but couldn't see the files on it. I could also never get any output from the component output. (Yes, I found that I must first connect to HDMI and then find the menu selection to change it; but it still didn't work.)
These problems may well have been settings of mine that weren't correct. But, I got no help from the very simplistic user manual. And customer telephone support was a travesty. Three different support technicians knew almost nothing about the device. None of three knew that the serial number can be found within the menu structure and is also on the box. One tried to convince me that there was no component output, even after I read the specs to him and told him I was looking at a jack on the back labeled component output on the back. None of the three knew anything about Macs or Apple networks (or PC networks for that matter.) All they could do was email me "solutions" from the online FAQ list, solutions that had no relevance to my problems whatsoever. Most irritating was that on my third call the same day I was suddenly hung up on a about 3:05 pm PST. I waited a few minutes to see if they called me; they didn't. So I called them and got the recording that it was "after hours." Yup, on their website it says that they close at 5:00 pm CST (3:00 PST) on Fridays. So I guess when that time comes they just disconnect who they talking to.
The performance of the device was mixed. It played my 1920x1080 AVCHD camcorder files beautifully. (Quite a feat.) But my .mov files created by iMovie and Final Cut were not smooth. They didn't stutter, they just were somewhat jumpy, like not every frame was being properly interlaced.
Conclusion: I'm returning it tomorrow.
None of this is intended to denigrate any of the other reviews. It's just another perspective and another experience.Get more detail about Western Digital WD TV Live Network-ready HD Media Player WDBAAN0000NBK-NESN.
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