Western Digital TV Live Plus….$100 well spent!

This post is long overdue.

There are some technologies that fundamentally change the way we consume media in home entertainment.  The DVR and TiVo were one.  I remember my wife scoffing at the need to use a DVR with our Dish Network system.  She thought it was a waste of $200.  Now both of us get extremely frustrated when we cannot pause or rewind television.  I think if it were a choice between me or the DVR, I might get the short end of the stick.  My youngest daughter has never known a television where she could not pause or rewind the show.  When she was younger, the concept of “live television”  (or at least television being shown as it is broadcast) was an enigma to her.   The DVR truly changed the way we watched television.

Likewise the Western Digital TV Live Plus has changed how we watch our videos and DVDs.   Having young children and a DVD player in the car equates to having a lot of missing, scratched, and damaged discs.  We were constantly finding empty cases and wayward DVDs destroyed beyond the point of ever being able to be played again.  I personally have purchased “Cheaper by the Dozen” at least three times. So when a friend described the WD TV Live, I knew I had to try one and see if it would resolve my DVD woes.

The WD TV Live plus is a multi-function media player.  It connects to a home network via Ethernet cable and connects to your TV via HDMI, Composite Video, or Composite A/V.  The full specs can be found here.  I attached my WDTV up to a 3 TB WD My Book, fired up Handbreak on the macbook and started ripping my DVDs and uploading them to the 3 TB Hard drive.  I was hoping 3 TB would be enough.  So after ripping all 120+ DVDs I am left with…yikes!  2.7 TB free space left….talk about overkill!  Now with the touch of a few keys I am watching any movie in my collection.

I would recommend categorizing the films by some method and putting them into folders on the hard drive.  Then an image can be uploaded into each folder and renamed folder.jpg.  This will become the image for that folder.   I recommend Xzener's Icons for this.  A Google search for this will turn up several sources, but I would recommend this one.  It makes for a nice tidy little interface that looks kind of impressive.

It has a pretty good selection of Internet media, for me the most notable being Netflix, Hulu Plus, YouTube, and Pandora. The streaming of Netflix quality is very good and the interface is easy to navigate.  However the search capability is hampered by the poor input method of entering text.  The resolution and buffering were at least on par with the better streaming devices I have used like Roku and some embedded players. 

Hulu Plus, which never really impressed me before, has piqued my interest again and I am taking a second look at their offering.  I’m not sure if I will subscribe, but the offerings seem to have gotten better.  The quality seems at least as good as a normal HD broadcast and with less commercial interruptions, it seems like it might be worth it.  I am on a one-week trial right now, which seems kind of short for a decent evaluation.

I purchased the WD TV Live Plus in October 2011.  Shortly afterwards, Western Digital released the WD TV Live Streaming.  This newer device has an app in the iTunes store that allows you to control the WD TV Live remotely.  Additionally the new WD TV Live also has the Spotify app.

Another current offering from WD is the WD TV Live Hub which, in addition to that way cool iPhone app that I can’t get, has a built in 1 TB Hard Drive and UPnP capability.  While this was available when I purchased my WD TV Live Plus, I didn’t think it made sense  to purchase it.  The WD TV Live hub was running $229, but I could purchase a WD 2TB drive for $120.    So for $9 less I could get 1TB more storage!  But in retrospect, I wish I would have gotten that one instead for the iPhone app and the uPnP.

But at the end of the day there is no buyer’s remorse here.  I am still very pleased with performance and capabilities of the WD TV Live Plus.

iPhone ActiveSynch issue

One issue that keeps rearing it's ugly head with this new exchange server is that some of my users have a difficult time getting their exchange information on their iPhone.  Whenever they set up the account, it authenticates correctly, but when an attempt to get mail is made, an error "Cannot Get Mail – The Connection to the Server Failed” is received.

This error continues to confound me despite having resolved it several times in the past.   (I keep forgetting I have encountered this before.  :)  ) 

While there can be several causes of this issue, in my instance what is happening is that the user does not have the correct security permissions to access their own mailbox via activesync.  I needed to change the Exchange security settings by turning on  “Include inheritable permissions from this object’s parent” in the user’s security options in Active Directory Users and Computers.

So after fighting this latest one for about an hour and identifying it wasn't a phone issue and was indeed and account issue, I remembered this little issue.  So I wanted to journal it again so when it happens to me again I won't have to fight with it as long.  :)

AmbiScience Zen Master Bundle App

One of my favorite Zen apps is AmbiScience's Zen Master Bundle (now called Pure Mediatation Premium, but I'm apparantly "old school.")  The purpose of this app is provide sound for meditation.  It is an aid to help focus the mind and block out external sound.  

The version I have has twenty-four different sound patterns including such sounds as "Fire Opal", "Moonstone", and my personal favorite "The Android's Dream."  (This one always reminds me of Blade Runner, which I then have to put that out of my mind, but I don't mind being reminded about that movie. ;) )

Additionally there is a built-in alarm and a built-in shut off timer.

The other "half" of the app I have is an "entrainment" portion.  I am new to this, but my understanding is the this "brain entrainment" essentially causes the brain waves to essentially all in to lock-step with an audio or visual pattern (in the case of this app, audio.)  This can reportedly aid with sleeping problems and mediatation. 

The app can be used with either headphones or the built-in iphone speakers.  However, in the case of the entrainment feature, some of the sound patternes are specifically designed to be used with either the headphones or speakers only the speakers.

Now there are those that have mentioned to me that this type of aid can be detrimental to the practice of mediation.  I disagree.  I see it as just another focus point, not unlike a candle or incense.

Overall, the app is quite functional and worth the small price for the mediation aid.

It's Official!!! iPhone comes to Verizon

Well, I admit it.  I thought it was a unicorn and I was wrong.  The iPhone has officially come to Verizon.  The iPhone will be available on the Verizon network on February 10th and it will cost $199 for the 16 GB version and $299 for the 32 GB version.  Pre-orders will be available on February 3rd for existing Verizon customers.

One interesting thing is that AT&T iPhones will not work on the Verizon network.  (Verizon uses a CDMA network and AT&T uses GSM network.  Apple had to redesign the iPhone to include to orrect hardware to work on a CDMA network and test it to be able to work on the Verizon network.) From the Verizon site "in order to take advantage of the nation’s largest and most reliable wireless network, you will need an iPhone 4 that works on the Verizon Wireless network."

(Side note:  Who else uses CDMA?  Well, just about everyone.  U.S. Cellular, Verizon, Sprint Nextel, AllTel, etc.  The two major carriers that use GSM are AT&T and T-Mobile.  By far, however, CDMA is the most common data technology.  I wonder how long before jail broken iPhones are on Sprint's network?  And can a U.S. Cellular iPhone be that far behind?)

Another thing is that the Verizon iPhone will have the mobile hotspot app that will allow up to five users to use the iPhone as a portable wi-fi hotspot.  Given AT&T's stance of wanting to minimize the end user's use of data, this is quite a refreshing stance.  The Verizon iPhone will "have the 3G Mobile Hotspot app pre-installed and it will also have other popular apps available in the market such as VZ Navigator, and V CAST Media Manager."

The only questionable thing now is that Verizon has, in the past with many phones and platforms, hobbled them to suit their own needs at the expense of the end user.  Will Apple allow Verizon to do this to the iPhone?

It will be interesting to watch how this will effect android sales.  While many source seem to point to the contrary, Verizon had reported weaker than expected android sales .  Other rumbling and grumblings in the tech industry point to the frustration of carriers modifying the open android platform and locking it down to prevent end-user modification.  While the techy-geek love affair with the android doesn’t seem to be over, the general public (who might not share that love) might gladly hop over to the iPhone platform.

I’m guessing that is what Verizon is betting on.

Well played, Verizon, well played.

Ya say ya want to upgrade, well you know, we all want iOS4...

So I went to upgrade my iPhone 3G to the new iOS4.  My experience with Apple upgrades have always been pretty smooth sailing.  This one was to prove to be the exception.  But still it wasn't all that difficult.  Just a bit nerve-wracking.

The problem first apeared when I went to the normal OS upgrade like I've done several times before.  I selected the "update" button.  

And waited.  And waited.  And waited.  I took note of the small print that says "which may take an hour or longer to complete."  I waited some more.  Practicing my Zen, I saw this as an opportunity to practice patience.

Four and half hours later it is still upgrading.  The backup was excruciatingly slow, and it had to actually to a restore during the upgrade process.  At one point, it had to do a firmware update (that took about 45 minutes)  and then after the backup, the restore, the firmware upgrade, only then could it go back and reinstall the applications.

Whew!  Surely that's the last step, right?

Not a chance sunshine.  The we need to reload all the music and videos.  Then it's time to reactivate the sim card and update the music library.

Which is where I now sit.  Five plus hours.

Yet, it is all part of the process.  There are two silver lining here.  The first is there was no cost for this upgrade (unlike some of Apple's pervious offerings.)

 The second is I should be getting my new iPhone tomorrow.