[mrobbo]

Looking for a NAS drive and I'm considered the WD My Book Live 2tb, currently £103 on Amazon.

- Any brief reviews on this? Worth a purchase?
- Has anyone any experience on upgrading Twonky (ships with 5, but apparently you need v7 for MKV streaming etc)
- Similiarly, has any managed to install a torrent client on this?
- Am I better off going for another make and model?

Thanks all.

[mred2000]

I've had one for about 18 months now, no complaints here (touch wood).

I've not updated Twonky, though, and just use it for interim back-ups of work plus streaming media to PC/360/PS3 devices.

I thought there was already a torrent client on it but I could be wrong...

[mac2708]

A user manual is here
http://www.wdc.com/wdproducts/librar...779-705058.pdf

[mrobbo]

Originally Posted by mred2000

I've had one for about 18 months now, no complaints here (touch wood).

I've not updated Twonky, though, and just use it for interim back-ups of work plus streaming media to PC/360/PS3 devices.

I thought there was already a torrent client on it but I could be wrong...

Thanks for this. How do you get on with streaming media to your PS3? Are there media types which you have found cannot be streamed e.g. MKVs?

[mred2000]

Originally Posted by mrobbo

Thanks for this. How do you get on with streaming media to your PS3? Are there media types which you have found cannot be streamed e.g. MKVs?

MKVs and some MP4s don't play but, then, I don't use PS3MediaServer or anything like that. I tend to stick to AVI/MP4 files anyway. Stuff that doesn't play on the PS3 tends to play fine on the 360 and vice versa.

Apart from that the only hitch comes if the NAS has gone to sleep, then I sometimes have to go through the "find media server" option on the PS3 again to wakr it up. Never had that issue on the 360, though.

[mrobbo]

Originally Posted by mred2000

MKVs and some MP4s don't play but, then, I don't use PS3MediaServer or anything like that. I tend to stick to AVI/MP4 files anyway. Stuff that doesn't play on the PS3 tends to play fine on the 360 and vice versa.

Apart from that the only hitch comes if the NAS has gone to sleep, then I sometimes have to go through the "find media server" option on the PS3 again to wakr it up. Never had that issue on the 360, though.

Cheers. The NAS doesn't go to sleep while you're streaming to the PS3, does it?!

How about mobile access e.g. viewing photos on your phone whilst away from the house? You use this feature, and if so, what is your experience of this? Sorry for all the questions!!

[mred2000]

Originally Posted by mrobbo

Cheers. The NAS doesn't go to sleep while you're streaming to the PS3, does it?!

No, it doesn't go to sleep at all when in actual use, it would've been sent back a looong time ago if that happened

I don't access my network remotely at all (I use Dropbox for stuff like that, if needed) so I can;t help with that bit but there was an old thread on here where folk had posted their experiences of this NAS that included some remote access.

[platelet]

My book live forum can be found here:
http://community.wdc.com/t5/My-Book-Live/bd-p/mb_live
A variety of people have played with transmission (torrent client) on it which is available as part of the "feature pack"

[paulj48]

Originally Posted by mrobbo

How about mobile access e.g. viewing photos on your phone whilst away from the house? You use this feature, and if so, what is your experience of this? Sorry for all the questions!!

Would you really need to do this? if so I'm sure you'd be better keeping a copy of the photos on an online service or just locally on your smart phone?

When I was looking at a NAS for streaming I ended up buying a Popcorn Hour and sticking a massive hard drive in there.

Popcorn hours play anything you throw at them, is accessable remotely, can be used as a torrent client and also has a usenet client (using nzb files) built in.

Costs a little more than a NAS but more versatile.

[mrobbo]

Originally Posted by paulj48

Would you really need to do this? if so I'm sure you'd be better keeping a copy of the photos on an online service or just locally on your smart phone?

When I was looking at a NAS for streaming I ended up buying a Popcorn Hour and sticking a massive hard drive in there.

Popcorn hours play anything you throw at them, is accessable remotely, can be used as a torrent client and also has a usenet client (using nzb files) built in.

Costs a little more than a NAS but more versatile.

Never heard of Popcorn Hour. Will take a read, thanks.

[mpmc17]

Originally Posted by mrobbo

Never heard of Popcorn Hour. Will take a read, thanks.

Have you thought about a HP Microserver for £100-118 after cashback? add a few SATA drives, throw on Freenas or Openmediavault and away you go.

[paulj48]

Originally Posted by mpmc17

Have you thought about a HP Microserver for £100-118 after cashback? add a few SATA drives, throw on Freenas or Openmediavault and away you go.

Do either of those work as a media server as the op wants (as he mentions Twonky) or are they just NAS solutions?

[mred2000]

Of course the HP Microserver can be used as a media server...

[paulj48]

Originally Posted by mred2000

Of course the HP Microserver can be used as a media server...

with Freenas or Openmediavault?

[s2k]

I know someone who is actually using a raspberry pi as a media extender. It runs XBMC smoothly enough for 720p (no idea about 1080p since he didnt have any), needs no cooling, can be controlled by the TV remote (using some HDMI magic) and consumes buggerall electricity since it runs off 5V. The way he had it setup it was looking at a NAS that he had plugged into his network, but it could use normal windows shares or even have a drive hosted locally. As far as media playback goes he reckoned it performed better than the WD device he was using previously.

Certainly worth considering if you don't mind a bit of tinkering. No idea about the torrent bit, but since its capable of running various builds of Linux I would imagine its possible.

[whoever,hey]

Originally Posted by mpmc17

Have you thought about a HP Microserver for £100-118 after cashback? add a few SATA drives, throw on Freenas or Openmediavault and away you go.

Or a Synology Diskstation which you can bung a couple of SATA drives into, and it comes with lots of apps that can be accessed even from your phone.

Can be used as a media server too.