WD TV Live Hub

[extremedigital]

Well i suppose i better kicks things off as there has not been much info posted here re this new player.....

My obversations so far:---


Firstly the stock UI is an improvement over the WDTV Live or Live Plus.....

With the fact that custom osd mod themes are possible this will only improve with time.


Whilst it is not as major a leap as you might imagine going from the Live to the Live Hub, it does add some very nice features including:-

Built in 1tb Hard Drive....not looked at if possible to upgrade the internal drive but i am sure at some point someone will

Built in Twonky media server, so you can use a media controller (eg juliojs android app) to send the media either back to the Hub or to other Media Players/Renderers in your network.

This built in Twonky server also opens up alot of possibilites to remote control the Hub and for example you now have a new Webend interface that has a remote control feature amongst other things.

A little feature that you may miss at first is the inclusion of a small mediamark to show half watched or fully watched movies

Obviously the big talking point apart from the themes is the inclusion of movie information...

Note the 'moviesheets' will only show in the Gallery View mode but you can pull up the info in the other modes....

Talking about view modes you have the following views:

1: List View (only text filenames)
2: Preview (list + preview window on right right this is like on previous model with a few cosmetic changes)
3: Gallery View (thumbs are in single line on the bottom very much like sheet mode this is the 'moviesheet' mode)
4: Small Grid View (4x4 thumbs wide matrix)
5: Large Grid View (3x3 thumbs wide matrix)


I did read on the internet that is possible to modify the xml of Gallery View to change to a custom view...whilst this could be done to get back a Large Thumbnail view like in the Live it might also be interesting if this can be used to give a custom moviesheet view ???


It has an interesting Sync feature that would allow you to Automatically Sync the files from a usb drive or a network location to a special folder on the hard drive called usb_sync, whilst i can't imagine i will be using it much myself it could be useful for others


There was a small silly point when you take the box out of it is wrapped in a clear bag which has a seal you have to break

On the seal it says 'Purchase and use of the WD TV is subject to the acceptance of the End User License. Go to

http://www.wdc.com/company/legal

well this url doesn't exist


Lastly get used to having to navigate with a totally different system based around Sort/Filter...And by Content.....you will need to memorise the functions of the Green/Red/Yellow/Blue keys to navigate faster.

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Will update this page with some pictures

New Webend


















This reminder to update my firmware is actually as a result of me using the ver trick..i installed the newest firmware a second time via usb to make sure that the online firmware and downloaded ones were the same (ie the downloaded one still didn't add the Neflix or Blockbuster apps) However the funny side effect is that the webend still thinks there is a newer firmware version as it has seen it previously on a usb stick LOL




Twonky Server Screens:

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On the Non USA boxes Neflix and Blockbuster are NOT installed from the factory....

However Pandora is still there along with the message that says you cannot use...

The Hub stores the thumbnail in a folder called " WDTVLiveHub\metadata\movie "

You can change the thumbnail to your custom one by removing the saved version and replace it with your own...for some strange reason the box will not use your folder.jpg or moviename.jpg

So for example you can change Movie%20Name.jpg with your own picture .... (notice that it put %20 where there was a space) also if you have the movie twice for example you copy from your network to the internal drive it uses the same jpg and xml also if you rescan the information it will download from the internet again....

This method also allows you to use a thumbnail for your home movies or ones not found on the internet....


In the main movie.xml file here is 2 examples of the same movie stored externally or locally...

Code: Select all

<metadata><title>Movie Name</title><genre>Drama</genre><uri>file:///tmp/media/usb/Local/WDTVLiveHub/BLURAY MOVIES/Movie Name (720p)/Movie Name.mkv</uri></metadata>



Code: Select all

<metadata><title>Movie Name</title><genre>Drama</genre><uri>file:///tmp/PC/MOVIES/Movie Name (720p)/Movie Name.mkv</uri></metadata>

from that info i can deduct that the location of the top folder on the internal drive is possibly this:-

Code: Select all

file:///tmp/media/usb/Local/WDTVLiveHub

But unfortunately in my initial tests whilst i was able to change the description etc in the xml so far i have not been able to get it to see a local backdrop/moviesheet


The only way i have managed so far to use the existing moviesheet is to 'revert' to using Files instead of Video the great news is that it will show all the files in the folder APART from folder.jpg so you should only see two files ie movie.mkv and any name for your moviesheet.jpg (dont use folder.jpg of course)

The BAD news is that Files does not allow you to change the views it just has a basic File View structure......

To see the moviesheet press enter on the jpg and back to come out then you can press enter on the movie file to play it...

Not very elegant but at least your can see use your existing moviesheets this way...

Btw it doesn't matter if you view local files or network files the folder.jpg (old double thumbnail bug) is GONE...............


*Edit* found a nicer way to view your moviesheets

Press Play on the folder and it will play all the jpg you have in that folder (apart from folder.jpg again) if you have more than one moviesheet you get a very nice animated fade effect

Press Back or Stop and then enter the folder and choose your Movie file...

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The plot ticknens....

It seems as if the Live Hub has a hidden partition where the actual xml and jpg are cached to.

So it copies the info from the editable visible copy to the hidden copy.


However this explains why editing the visible xml to include a new location from the backdrops doesn't work as it has cached over the online versions already.


Also i was informed by PyschoTHC that in order for the Live Hub to use your movie.jpg instead of folder.jpg (eg Avatar.mkv linked to Avatar.jpg) you must have the jpg in the folder before the library is scanned the very first time. If you then change the movie.jpg after it will not automatically be used, unless you delete or change the metadata within the .wd_tv folder on the hub..

However it always seems to scan the thumbnail for the moviesheet directly from the internet !!!


Another annoyance is that if you have a structure of keeping the movies in their own individual folders the movie information will be blank when you use Gallery View (Sheet Mode) and will only show when you enter the actual folder containing the movie files.


So the Hub seams to be reversing the laws of physics (well maybe not quite ) What it really wants you to do is have all the movies in ONE central folder with a corresponding movie.jpg as opposed to the more tidy one movie per folder structure that most people using wdlxtv have got used to using.

So for example my current structure would go something like this

Code: Select all

C:\Bluray Movies\
Movie\                                                  Movie1\
Movie.mkv , Movie.mkv_sheet.jpg, folder.jpg            Movie1.mkv , Movie1.mkv_sheet.jpg, folder.jpg     

And What it wants me to use for optimum performance is

Code: Select all

C:\Bluray Movies\
folder.jpg.. Movie.mkv , Movie.jpg ... Movie1.mkv, Movie1.jpg .. Movie2.mkv Movie2.jpg .. etc

Don't get me wrong wow the Hub is a major improvement over the Live without a doubt BUT we need more of the skilled coders on here to get interested in this box so that it can achieve it true potential....If i was someone that simply went from stock firmware Live to stock firmware Live Hub i would be overjoyed ...but i didn't i used wdlxtv first

However it would be great to start polishing this box if that is at all possible However i am not holding much hope out at this present time....

Saying that i still have the Live with wdlxtv and they do complement each other very well...as you can definately use both at the same time i am just not sure which one will be my main box at this moment in time....

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Ok Maybe i jumped the gun a little on the folder structure....Phew


It is possible to still have the movies in individual folders, BUT..... the folder name MUST match exactly with the file name of the movie..


In other words previously my folder was called something like

Folder was called:- Avatar (720p) and the File was called:- Avatar.mkv

You have to make sure that they are EXACTLY the same...

so either

Folder called:- Avatar and the file called Avatar.mkv

or

Folder called Avatar (720p) and the file called Avatar (720p).mkv


Things to note the movie information will now show on the top folder level, But the backdrops will only show when you go into the actual folder and now on the top level you just get a black screen instead of your wallpaper


However unless it is me no matter what i try i cannot get the box to use my moviename.jpg or folder.jpg instead of the internet thumbnail on the actual moviesheet and I have to revert to replacing the thumbnail inside the metadata folder of the Live Hub to my thumbnail.


Something Interesting however is that when using 'Files' to browse

When the library is OFF then you can see all the files inside any folder,

However when the library is ON it will hide the following jpg files:-

folder.jpg

However if your Folder Name is EXACTLY the same as the movie file as explained above AND your library is ON it will hide the following files:-

folder.jpg , moviename.jpg , moviename.mkv_sheet.jpg

So basically you have to name your moviesheet a different name eg fanart.jpg or wdtv.jpg and it will then show along with the main movie file....

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More Pictures:-

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Thanks to the built in Proxy function in the hub after a lot of effort to find a proxy that works i was finally able to get this working ..

But my feelings is that it is not going to be that stable unless you have a rock solid proxy connection thats up all the time....But it's SUCCESS for now !!











Sorry about the quality of the photos but its late and i am tired after spending hours trying to find a working proxy.

[Deeked]

Great information. The info about naming of the folder and movie helped me tremendously. Pain in the but renaming, but you solved my problem none the less.

[china423]

Hi, I'm really confused on if there's any way to get a movie sheet to display on the hub. I used WDTV MSG 1.6.9 and here is a pic of the files it created in the folder but i'm having no luck getting a movie sheet to display:

[Deeked]

Hi, I'm really confused on if there's any way to get a movie sheet to display on the hub. I used WDTV MSG 1.6.9 and here is a pic of the files it created in the folder but i'm having no luck getting a movie sheet to display:

I can only get the sheet to display on ALL the movies when I change the view to "All" as apposed to Folders view. Try and see if that works for ya. It's not pretty if you are viewing network shares if ya have several folders in the share like myself, so I use that view only on internal storage. Don't forget to scan from the HUB (painfully, one at a time) so it can build it's own metadata.