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Can WD-TV-LIVE be used as a dedicated-source-component?

post #1 of 8
12/15/10 at 1:14am
Thread Starter 

 

I'm in the process of designing my music-pc which I would like to be small, quiet and decent looking.

I plan to load all my music in FLAC format and connect over USB to my new Zodiac+ DAC.

I don't want to have another server running so that rules out all streaming products like APPLE-TV and Squeeze Box.

First option I considered was Mac Mini, but it was ruled out as it must be black to fit the rest of my rig.

Second option was to build a custom PC around atom chip which I’m still considering.

I had a discussion with a friend and he suggested using  WD-TV-LIVE-HUB http://www.wdc.com/en/products/products.aspx?id=570

 

Spec includes 500MHz CPU, 256MB of DRAM, 1TB HDD (2.5 inch) and 2GB of Flash memory (for OS and APPS) .

Connectivity includes one GigE, two USB2.0, one digital-out and one HDMI 1.4.

There is even a programmable remote which can be replaced by any universal remote.

Total power consumption is about 10-12W.

It comes in a small and inoffensive case for the grand sum of $200.

In theory this is a perfect miniature PC for a price made possible through the miracle of mass production.

 

There is a hacked FW done by http://b-rad.cc/wdlxtv/ which runs Linux on that box so should be possible to load some minimal version of Linux with Foobar and stream music to any DAC (USB or S/PDIF).

 

There is another version called “WD TV Live” for $100 less which is essentially the same product without the internal 1TB HDD and which is 100% passively cooled (The TV-LIVE-Hub has one fan)

 

Has anyone tried this at home or that I’m the first one coming with this idea?

Your thought are highly welcome

 

Thx

/gabriel


Edited by gabrielo - 12/15/10 at 1:18am
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post #2 of 8
12/15/10 at 2:20am

I got the WDTV Live. And used it for a while as a source. But in the end I got sick of having to turn on my TV to change songs. Also its not very intuitive user interface and you have to control everything from a remote.

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post #3 of 8
12/15/10 at 3:06am
Thread Starter 

I didn't mean to use it as a streamer with WD code, but instead to load Linux and use it as if it was a PC with Foobar and proper USB Audio sound

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post #4 of 8
12/15/10 at 3:53am

I had the original WDTV (no longer functioning now). I don't know how much improvement WD has made since then, but it was slow at cataloging files from the USB hard drive. Every time it starts up it would take a couple of minutes to read the drive and catalog new files.

 

I didn't mind the user interface nor the need to have the TV turned on like the previous poster though.

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post #5 of 8
12/15/10 at 4:08am
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by MadCow View Post

I had the original WDTV (no longer functioning now). I don't know how much improvement WD has made since then, but it was slow at cataloging files from the USB hard drive. Every time it starts up it would take a couple of minutes to read the drive and catalog new files.

 



 

The CPU on the LIVE is about twice as fast as the original HD, but my point was not to use the WD-TV as is with WD S/W, but to treat it as if it was a standalone PC running Linux.

Since this box is able to stream real time BD content (about 50 Mb/s) I assume that being slow on cataloging was caused by bad WD programming.

 

When I was much younger I was running full blown web-server on a machine with lower spec.

I guess programming is a lost art in the age of GHz CPU and abundant amount of RAM

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post #6 of 8
4/20/11 at 9:47am

Old'ish thread, but I just came across it.

 

The problem with the WD TV Live is that it downsamples all audio to 44khz, and even worse - it applies about 8db gain to audio! This results in subtle distortion in a lot of music, and horrible horrible horrible distortion with certain music. It's obviously not so much that most people have noticed, but it's definitely there, it's been measured by some folks at avsforum. For me, I first noticed it when listening to a track from the XX, which left my speakers buzzing so hard I thought they were going to break.

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post #7 of 8
6/1/12 at 2:42pm

OK, looks nobody understood what you were talking about.  I am somewhat interested in doing this and it seems it would be possible if you can get ALSA or some other sound output platform loaded onto the Linux distro.  Then you could use something like Squeezeslave as a headless music player.  I will report back if I get around to trying this.  It would sure beat having to build a full blown mini HTPC at around triple the cost.

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post #8 of 8
7/2/12 at 8:06pm

@kimchee

 

Looking forward to your progress on this L3000.gif
 

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