Best media box around 100-150?

[zfields]

Well looks like I'm a bit late but try a reset of the older WD media player. Just use a toothpick or a nail and push a reset switch through a hole I think on the back of the box.

I've been using my WD player for years, plays everything, looks great, no issues.

Brian

I did that, along with trying multiple custom firmwares. We also wanted something that supported Netflix.

Sent from my Incredible 2 using Tapatalk 2

[sholling]

I'd look hard at the newest WDTV Live. I used the OG WDTV Live for a few years before moving to a Roku XS for Netflix and HTPC for music and stored video but the new WDTV Live will do what you want. The only limitations on the WDTV Live is no native playback of 24bit FLACs and no support for DTS-HD MA from BD rips.

http://www.amazon.com/Western-Digital-Streaming-Media-Player/dp/B005KOZNBW

[ibanezfoo]

I have these in every room:

http://www.amazon.com/Western-Digital-1080p-Media-Player/dp/B003MVZ60I/ref=sr_1_2?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1335198981&sr=1-2

Its a little older but I haven't found anything better. I rip my DVDs to ISOs I keep on my server and play them from there. Each one acts as its own file server so you can hang a USB drive off it and stream from another device if you want. I also have a Roku 2 XS I bought because people said it was so great but it pretty much sucks compared to the WDTV Live Plus.

The only thing that sucks about the WDTV is its lack of Amazon Prime. Netflix works perfect. ISOs, WKV, whatever all work fine for me.

[sholling]

I have these in every room:

http://www.amazon.com/Western-Digital-1080p-Media-Player/dp/B003MVZ60I/ref=sr_1_2?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1335198981&sr=1-2

Its a little older but I haven't found anything better. I rip my DVDs to ISOs I keep on my server and play them from there. Each one acts as its own file server so you can hang a USB drive off it and stream from another device if you want. I also have a Roku 2 XS I bought because people said it was so great but it pretty much sucks compared to the WDTV Live Plus.

The only thing that sucks about the WDTV is its lack of Amazon Prime. Netflix works perfect. ISOs, WKV, whatever all work fine for me.

The Roku and WDTV Live just excel at different things. The old WDTV Live+ will play Netflix pretty well but I found it less than ideal for other online content and the Roku supports Netflix in 1080P and 5.1 DD+ sound - for the few Netflix movies in 1080P and 5.1 DD+, but the Roku sucks at playing local content.

The best solution that I've found so far is a two-box solution with a Roku 2 combined with a Netgear NeoTV 550 because the 550 is better at playing Blu-Ray rips than the WD (the NTV550 supports DTS-HD MA and Dolby TrueHD passthrough) and supports 24bit lossless audio but the 550 does not play Netflix or any online media.

The sad thing is that any new boxes that come out will be locked down with a Cinavia chip preventing them from playing newer Blu-Ray rips in any format.

[PanchoVilla]

I use a mac mini too. The bonus is that our second TV is a google tv so I use Plex on the mac mini and can run the plex app on the google tv so I can stream to either TV. There is even a handy mac mini form factor USB HD you can use for more space.

[zfields]

The new WD live is working out great so far. We dont' have surround sound, so the lack of some of the higher end high def audio codecs isnt a big deal.

ordering the second one for the other room since the first is working out so well.

[Peter.Steele]

I'm sort of hoping that someone will hack a way to run Netflix on Linux. If that happens, I'm buying a couple of Raspberry Pi's and making my own media players.

[zfields]

I'm sort of hoping that someone will hack a way to run Netflix on Linux. If that happens, I'm buying a couple of Raspberry Pi's and making my own media players.

Are those Rasberrys available yet? everywhere I have seen is still preorder.

[stilly]

So the old WD live TV we have been dealing with the last couple years is just getting to be a piece of crap. Movies stutter and freeze, no support for netflix, always dropping connection. We need new ones damnit, sick of having to come all the way to the computer to watch my por....er....movies?

Any recommendations?

Must be wireless N
HDMI 720, 1080 preferred
Netflix capable
support ISO, MKV, along with all the other common formats.


We have been looking at the Asus O Play live, but reviews seem to suck pretty bad on it.

I have had a hard time finding something to better the WD Live box that I just got. I have not hooked it up but supposedly it does netflix and all that crap, plus I LOVE that it does MKV and BLURRAY and all that other stuff. How old was your box? Maybe you just need a new one? They also have the hub but I dunno about it being wireless. THAT would be nice. LEt me know if you find a better alternative because I am fired up about hooking up my WD Live box and I HATE WD stuff...

[Yugo]

ROKU is the best ever made. The company started with commercial type boxes and started making ones for residential.

http://www.roku.com/roku-products?gclid=CJSzkcaF3K8CFQ4zhwodfzxUCw

[sholling]

I have had a hard time finding something to better the WD Live box that I just got. I have not hooked it up but supposedly it does netflix and all that crap, plus I LOVE that it does MKV and BLURRAY and all that other stuff. How old was your box? Maybe you just need a new one? They also have the hub but I dunno about it being wireless. THAT would be nice. LEt me know if you find a better alternative because I am fired up about hooking up my WD Live box and I HATE WD stuff...

If you're going to try to play full quality Blu-Ray rips across the network I'd run cables. Even 802.11n struggles when trying to stream 12-25GB/hour.

[ibanezfoo]

ROKU is the best ever made. The company started with commercial type boxes and started making ones for residential.

http://www.roku.com/roku-products?gc...FQ4zhwodfzxUCw

Uhm, no. I have Ruku 2 XS and the WDTVLive+ and the WDTV kicks its *** in just about everything except its lack of Amazon. The Roku is slow and annoying and doesn't play any local media types (except one type of file and only from a USB drive). The WD does way more plus there some custom community made OSs you can throw on it if you want.

[zfields]

I have had a hard time finding something to better the WD Live box that I just got. I have not hooked it up but supposedly it does netflix and all that crap, plus I LOVE that it does MKV and BLURRAY and all that other stuff. How old was your box? Maybe you just need a new one? They also have the hub but I dunno about it being wireless. THAT would be nice. LEt me know if you find a better alternative because I am fired up about hooking up my WD Live box and I HATE WD stuff...

I ended up with the newest WD box, it works GREAT. I've been using it contently since I got it, both netflix and local hi-rez media. MKV, ISO, everything I have needed, all via wireless N.


Only complaint is that it "loses" authorization from netflix pretty often, so I have to re-enter the username and password.