Moving up to HD from SD tv and video.

[JackDog]

I still use a dvd player and an SD tv but I'm thinking about moving up to an HD tv and some kind of streaming device for downloaded videos. What are some of the different streaming devices that would be appropriate for concert videos?

[jabulon]

price range, wireless?

[JackDog]

I don't think that wireless would be necessary for me and I'm not sure about the price range since I don't know anything about this. Is $100 to $200 too low?

[AAR.oner]

$100-$200 for a streaming devicesure, but not an HD TV too...last one we bought was around $400 [40" Samsung LED]


plenty of streaming devices to choose from, but i just use a PS3 for the task...you can get one NIB for under $200, now that the PS4 is out

[JackDog]

Yeah, I'm just talking about the streaming device. I'm 100% clueless about this. What I'd like is something as simple as an external hard drive that I could connect to the tv, but I'm guessing that you need something between the two.

[vladsmythe]

JackDog, I have the WD TV Live device, and it cost me about $80 or $90 dollars at Office Depot. http://www.wdc.com/en/products/products.aspx?id=330

Plays every video format. Audio too, as a flac player even, though it's only drawback is gaps between tracks. I like my cds anyway, so it's a non issue. I use a usb hub and connect numerous externals. The menu is user friendly, and it also connects to your wireless network, so you can stream, or surf the web.

I think you would enjoy the ease of this gizmo. It also does slideshows of digital photo albums.

The thing is, it is only HDMI output, so you need a flatscreen TV. There is an analogue output for audio.

Hope this helps a little.

[JackDog]

the WD TV Live device

Hope this helps a little.

That helps a LOT! Thanks. That's exactly what I was looking for.

[Silver Stallion DVDs]

JackDog, I have the WD TV Live device, and it cost me about $80 or $90 dollars at Office Depot. http://www.wdc.com/en/products/products.aspx?id=330

Wow! This thing looks great. I've got a fairly high-end Sony blu-ray player. But in spite of advertising that you can plug a thumb drive or SD card into it and watch the files on them, it's not much good for anything except blu-ray disks. About the only thing that does work is it will play video files from an SD card, but only files shot from a camera, and the files have to be the original files (in other words, if you take the card straight out of the camera, it will play the video files - but if you copy files to the SD card, even if they were shot with the same camera but recorded to a different SD card - it won't play them).

[knobby]

Yes what Vlad says is the way to go.HDMI to the tv and SPDIF to an amp.Connect a portable hard drive to the WD player and its all there in front of you.No need to burn dvds.or cds.They play all formats,better quality than old fashioned dvds:)

[JackDog]

I bought this today and it took me a while for it to recognize the folders on my computer that I wanted it to, but now that I can get to my music the videos aren't playing. They'll start fine for the first 3 seconds but then they'll slow down and go silent. I've Googled for help, but I thought that I'd ask here too. Is wireless video playback a problem with this? Is there a way to fix it? Or should I just connect an external hard drive full of music to it?

[vladsmythe]

sounds like a range issue, so the data is buffering. That is the greatest problem with wireless, which is why I plug my HD directly into the player. If you don't want to do that, you should look into a signal booster such as the Netgear Powerline 200 Nano.
http://www.amazon.com/NETGEAR-Powerline-200Mbps-Nano-Adapter/dp/B006OOKT3Y

I use the ativa mobil IT 7 port usb hub with portable HDs, so I don't have to use powered large HDs...I use 1 TB WD portables. Works beautifully!
http://www.officedepot.com/a/products/196179/Ativa-Mobil-IT-7-Port-USB/#firstTab

The WD TV Live device will take a couple of minutes to read the files, but no more than a few minutes per TB of data.

[vladsmythe]

I should also mention that once the data is recognized, it is stored in memory as long as you leave the HDs connected - even after you power down. So all data is instant each time you turn on the player.

[JackDog]

The thing is, it is only HDMI output, so you need a flatscreen TV.

I forgot to mention that this device has a composite out, so it turns out that you CAN connect it to an SD tv.

And today I picked up a WD My Passport 2 TB external hard drive to use with this, but I've got over 500 GB of videos to transfer so I won't be able to test it out until tomorrow.

[vladsmythe]

Great! Mine only has HDMI video out. You're styling! Let me know if you need any vids...always happy to share. :)

[JackDog]

This thing is pretty cool. Not only is it great for the videos that I've downloaded it's got some other extras that look good. One of them is that you can access YouTube through it and you can pair it with your smartphone to use the phone as a browser and the videos play on your tv. I haven't explored anything else yet but already it's worth every penny, and since it works with my old tv it's saved me a few hundred bucks.

[vladsmythe]

Nice. I am still discovering how to play with mine.
I'm doing Blu Ray video of Mark Knopfler now and I am happy as a clam. Audio and Video integrity. really nice device. :thumbsup
I think the thing to remember is if you are loading data on HDs to be sure you title the files in a user friendly manner. Watching vids on the TV needs user friendly titles often times.

[JackDog]

FYI to anyone thinking about going from SD to HD: the back of my tv only had one set of RCA in's so when I hooked this up I had to disconnect my dvd player. I wasn't very happy about that, so I googled the problem and I ended up buying an RCA connector box (just $13 w/ shipping) that's got 4 RCA in's and 1 out which allows me to connect the WD tv Live box, my dvd player, my vcr, and still have an open RCA slot.