Very Simple Question

[Bedowyn]

Hi, I have a very simple question.  I am sorry if this has already been asked elsewhere, but I am not finding my answer, so I thought I would ask directly. 

Anyway, I have recently purchased the newer version of the WDTV Live Plus, and am finding it great.  I love the updated interface and it is doing everything I want; it is ideal. 

My question is whether or not an OLD (original) WDTV Live Plus with most current firmware would have the same interface and capabilites?  The original firmware gave me challenges and I ultimately shyed away fromt he third party firmware.  But if the old unit has been updated with the new software, I will make a point of flashing it.

Thanks for your responses in ahead!

[richUK]

What do you call the new version of the WDTV Live plus. If its the latest Live Streaming player then its completely different to the Live Plus and the User interface has not changed.

[Bedowyn]

Sorry, this is the new version of the WDTV Live Streaming player that was released this last fall.  It was an update to an older version.

I want to know if the current software on these older models has been updated to be the same as this current model, or whether they were abandoned all together?

Thanks

[Scandy]

If both of the units that you are talking about are the Live Plus, then Yes, you can install the latest firmware on the old one and it should be the same thing as the newer Live Plus. If the older one is the WD TV Live, you can still install the latest firmware (but there is a different version for the Live as compared to the Live Plus). The Live and Live Plus firmwares have the same interface. Here are the links to the latest firmware.

WD Live Firmware

Live Plus Firmware

Part of the confusion with your original question is because WD has just released an even newer media player called WD TV Live Streaming Media Player. If you have that one, it has a completely different interface and it cannot be installed on the older media players.

[tjkaz]

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Bedowyn wrote:

Hi, I have a very simple question.  I am sorry if this has already been asked elsewhere, but I am not finding my answer, so I thought I would ask directly. 

Anyway, I have recently purchased the newer version of the WDTV Live Plus, and am finding it great.  I love the updated interface and it is doing everything I want; it is ideal. 

My question is whether or not an OLD (original) WDTV Live Plus with most current firmware would have the same interface and capabilites?  The original firmware gave me challenges and I ultimately shyed away fromt he third party firmware.  But if the old unit has been updated with the new software, I will make a point of flashing it.

Thanks for your responses in ahead!

---

If you're comparing the new (gen 3) wdtv live streaming media player (SMP) (released late 2011) with the previous wdtv live plus, then the answer to your question is simply NO.  As you noted, and among other things, the UI is different where the SMP UI is more like the Live HUB.

The latest FW for the plus is 1.06.16 (in scandy's post) with the possibility of one more release coming (as stated by the WD forum mod/admin), although it is believed that the pending release will only fix (some) existing bugs and most likely add some online content.  So, if you're running the latest version for the Plus, then it's probably as good as it's going to get from a UI standpoint.

Hope this answers your question.

[Bedowyn]

I continue to be confused.

As I understand it, there are currently two media head units that attach to your tv, available from WD.  One is the WDTV Live and one is the WDTV Live Hub.   

• The first is a small, solid state unit that was just updated this last fall http://wdc.com/en/products/products.aspx?id=330
• And the other is older unit that contains a 1 TB HD http://wdc.com/en/products/products.aspx?id=570

Other than these two, are there other, similar units that I am not familiar with?

If I just purchased one of the first units and have another of the previous version, can I bring the software capacities and software of the older unit up to speed with the former?

(Sorry for the confusion.  It feels like such a simple question).

[Bedowyn]

Having looked again, I thik I see what you are saying.  Generation One can be brought up to generation two, but generation three is a different beast, and gen 2 hardware will not be able to recreate the experience, at least with official firmware.

Correct?

[Scandy]

In your original post, I thought you said you bought a Live Plus. As I said in my previous post, if both units are a Plus, then you can update them to the same software. Please read my previous post again. All of the information is there.

If you can tell us the product number of your devices, or tell us the software versions that are in your current units, we can determine which products that you have and give you a better answer. Basically, you need to find out whether you have a WD Live, Live Plus, or Streaming Media Player (The Live is the oldest, the SMP is the newest, and the Live Plus has been out for about a year).

EDIT: Here is link to a WD page that has all the product numbers. Just hover your cursor over the pictures and it gives you all the product numbers. If you have a gen 3, then you cannot update the older devices to have the newer interface.

Downloads/Product Numbers