kerry 10 Report post Posted September 7, 2010 i just got one of these for my b day, all i can say is i love it, movies, photos,music, whatever all on your tv. kids love it too rather than been stuck on the laptop or having to fart ass round setting it up to the tv just plug in the usb or external and away you go. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Guest Simon* Report post Posted September 7, 2010 Did you get the "live!" or the non-network one? I've got a Seagate Freeagent plus. Much the same thing and it's the shizz for all those reasons Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
kerry 10 Report post Posted September 7, 2010 i got this one, i think its non network but i dont know yet http://www.wdc.com/en/products/Products.asp?DriveID=681 Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Guest Simon* Report post Posted September 7, 2010 Oh cool I know the one I was going to go for one of those but then got sucked in with extra features! I swear since I bought it it has mostly played ripped DVD's of "Thomas the Tank Engine" and other kids movies!! Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
briancol 3 Report post Posted September 7, 2010 I swear since I bought it it has mostly played ripped DVD's of "Thomas the Tank Engine" and other kids movies!! Nothing better to watch in the HB Simon???????? Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Guest Simon* Report post Posted September 7, 2010 They're my favourite Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Driftit 1968 Report post Posted September 7, 2010 (edited) I got my Dad one of those a few months back. Was on special at d*ck Smith. Got him a 1TB HDD to go with it which I filled with TV shows and movies for him. He loves it. We had a little trouble getting it to play 720p files though. I was meant to look into why but never did. Might be just a firmware upgrade. There is a few other brands that do similar jobs. Asus just brought out a new range not long ago. Was checking it out at Computer Lounge the other day. Asus one wtih Networking http://www.computerlounge.co.nz/hometheatr...sp?partid=11118 There is a ton of them now. Lots of brands. http://www.computerlounge.co.nz/hometheatr...?parttypeid=556 BTW Computer Lounge has a big new shop on Carbine Road. Its sweet. Edited September 7, 2010 by driftit Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
bravo 34 Report post Posted September 7, 2010 Do the same thing with the PS3. Only drawback of PS3 is the crap media library and drives need to be FAT32. Not a massive problem though. Have been meaning to hook it up to run as a media server from the laptop to solve the media library thing, but a better built-in one would be the go. Added bonus is that it plays DVD and blu-ray discs as well. Those WD tv things look fairly good - lots of formats supported. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Guest Simon* Report post Posted September 7, 2010 I got my Dad one of those a few months back. Was on special at d*ck Smith. Got him a 1TB HDD to go with it which I filled with TV shows and movies for him. He loves it. We had a little trouble getting it to play 720p files though. I was meant to look into why but never did. Might be just a firmware upgrade. I'm pretty sure the WD Mini ones don't play 720p (which still wrongly gets called HD), only their fullsize HDTV and HDTV Live do I got my Seagate (similar spec to those Asus ones) a wee while ago because I couldn't justify the price of a PS3 to play everything I wanted. I have to say it's really impressive - it does youtube, flickr, picasa albums as well as appears on my LAN and plays full 1080p from any source. All for $150 so I was pretty stoked Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Driftit 1968 Report post Posted September 7, 2010 Ah explains things. These media centers are superior to PS3's and Xbox's these days. They are cheap. Play nearly all formats. Are small. Come with remotes. Connect to PC and HDD's without a fuss. All things the consoles fail to do well. The Xbox needs to be connected to the internet before it will allow you to play Divx. lol. I just need a new TV to make full use of one now. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
ED1RTY 2 Report post Posted September 7, 2010 I use Apple TV Use it as external HD so not to clog up my Desktop HD. Kinda cool. Shame the TV progs in Istore not avail yet Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
5amchris 45 Report post Posted September 7, 2010 I work at DSE and we sell them for $99 sometimes down to $69 and they fly out the door!!!!!!! Very cool things but with new tv's coming out with USB in them kind of kills that idea and attachments =D Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
elmarco 56 Report post Posted September 7, 2010 I use Apple TV Use it as external HD so not to clog up my Desktop HD. Kinda cool. Shame the TV progs in Istore not avail yet I have been mulling over getting an Apple TV for a while now. Every time I look, they just don't quite do what I want - which then makes me mad because it is so close.... I love the idea that you can rent or buy movies with iTunes. I also like how simple they are, and how they leverage of all the other music etc I have in itunes. I hate that you can't really use them for even basic web surfing, or stream directly from the net on-demand. And I hate that you can't use them as a standalone media centre with it's own itunes account etc. I'll be interested to see how the new version released last week pans out - but having no HD means streaming only. I want my cake and to eat it too! Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
diablo23 1 Report post Posted September 7, 2010 got a wd hd live, great for playing blu ray rips, and pretty much everything on my 2td hd, only draw back is you can only surf youtube no other sites :/. and half the videos on youtube you dont have the right to play them on your tv so they dont load.. otherwise its great Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
E30-323ti 66 Report post Posted September 7, 2010 Do any of them play .MOV with the AIC CODEC? For playing back iMovie HDV. Most seem to need re-encoded Mpeg H.264 MOV's. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
kiwi535 538 Report post Posted September 7, 2010 i have got absolutely no idea what you guys are talkin about! Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
_Matt_ 42 Report post Posted September 7, 2010 Do any of them play .MOV with the AIC CODEC? For playing back iMovie HDV. Most seem to need re-encoded Mpeg H.264 MOV's. do you mean .aac or .aif? I got my dad onto the popcorn hour, hes has no problems with that all HD movies are encoded in .mkv now so i would recommend getting your hands on 'Handbrake' and encode ur iMovies to .mkv using the .h264 codec Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Mikal 4 Report post Posted September 7, 2010 Very cool things but with new tv's coming out with USB in them kind of kills that idea and attachments =D My Samsung LCD surprised me with what it could play straight from my external hard drive. Was thinking I would need to convert all my files before playing but I'm yet to find a video file on my hard drive it can't play. Navigating through my hard drive with the TV remote is really easy also. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
mrad01 0 Report post Posted September 7, 2010 I have been mulling over getting an Apple TV for a while now. Every time I look, they just don't quite do what I want - which then makes me mad because it is so close.... I love the idea that you can rent or buy movies with iTunes. I also like how simple they are, and how they leverage of all the other music etc I have in itunes. I hate that you can't really use them for even basic web surfing, or stream directly from the net on-demand. And I hate that you can't use them as a standalone media centre with it's own itunes account etc. I'll be interested to see how the new version released last week pans out - but having no HD means streaming only. I want my cake and to eat it too! AppleTV is awesome. Only AppleTV owners know what I mean. You can look over specs and features all day and night - but once you get one, you will wonder why the hell you didn't get one earlier. Fast legit way to get movies. Browse the store, watch trailers, choose a movie and click rent. Starts playing in about 2 minutes. Screw the whole torrent thing - too slow and for a $4.99 rental it just isn't worth wasting my time hunting torrent sites and pissing around. However, ATVFlash is a AppleTV software patch which lets you play .avi files your cheap ass pirate mates make you watch Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
_Matt_ 42 Report post Posted September 7, 2010 who still uses torrents? thats so 2008 Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
bravo 34 Report post Posted September 7, 2010 all HD movies are encoded in .mkv now so i would recommend getting your hands on 'Handbrake' and encode ur iMovies to .mkv using the .h264 codec mkv is just a container. the h264 codec is the important bit. if you use the wrong codec for your video shoving it into a mkv container won't help. Most players will also accept the mp4/m4v container aswell provided the codecs are supported. It's a silly situation really, having so many different available formats, but that's the way it is. I try to stick to a single format where possible which in my case is a m4v container (so it works on both my PS3 and apple products as apple need the m4v), and the h264 codec for video and AC3 Dolby Digital 5.1 audio. If you don't need apple or quicktime playback, you can use mkv which has most of the same features as m4v/mp4, but you have the option of either Dolby Digital or DTS 5.1 audio when encoding. If a 5.1 source is not available I use AAC stereo. Those of you who use Handbrake to encode video will probably have already figured out from the above that it is what I use. Handbrake also has the option of placing both a AC3 or DTS 5.1 track, and a Dolby Prologic II AAC track in the same container. it means a slightly larger file, but means that you can play the file of a lot of different devices without worrying about how it will sound. Like I said - silly how many formats there are. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Guest Simon* Report post Posted September 7, 2010 Yes Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Guest Simon* Report post Posted September 7, 2010 Mine plays .mkv right out of the box and best of all there's a community of people writing scripts for free download. Have reflashed mine once already with a third party firmware and it added a whole heap of cool shizz. Oh, and if you're so inclined, it will download torrrents automatically to itself. All day, all night at home without me having to touch it Best thing I've done lately is join vimeo so I can download cool stuff in HD to play on the telly. Like this one http://vimeo.com/11932030 Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
kerry 10 Report post Posted September 7, 2010 all that is way over my head. i think im behind the times these days Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Guest Simon* Report post Posted September 7, 2010 Just hit play and enjoy mate! The rest is all nerd-talk Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
