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Amazon has the Western Digital WDBHG70000NBK-HESN WD TV Live Streaming Media Player for $89 with free shipping. Features built-in 802.11n Wi-Fi, 1080p output, Netflix, Hulu Plus, Spotify, and Blockbuster streaming, and supports most file formats including MKV, MP4, XVID, AVI, WMV, and MOV via USB.
$89
beware, keep in on the stock firmware, 1.03. if you upgrade to 1.04 the stuttering and audio problems the latest patch introduce make the unit useless. I was content with mine with only a few niggles until the last patch(with no ability to roll back). Now it it utterly useless. avi and mpg still play ok, but they broke most container files. Mkv, iso, and m2ts all have problem detecting the correct audio path which freaks the unit out causing it to stutter and even hang occasionally.
You should RMA your unit. I have the latest patch and have no issues at all. Sounds like your unit could have memory issues or processor issues with the patch and could be a isolated issue. Call WD for support or the location you purchased your unit from.
mine has the latest as well, seem ok, you should return yours illuxion.
How is this compare to the old model Live Plus? anyone knows?
The name just keeps getting longer. I wonder what the next upgrade will be, but better yet what the name will be.
There's a bit of a stink in the WD community forums for the latest SMP(nickname for this unit) firmware, maybe they have some defective units. it depends on the bitrate and media. Lower bitrate files seem to not freak it out as much, but the better part of the movies on my nas are straight bluray iso rips, keeping all menus, video and audio streams as well as subtitles(I detest dealing with hard media). I dumped Cars2 straight into an mkv(24meg mkv) with DTS-MA and no subtitles and it did better but still stuttered a bit. My previous gen WD Live plays the iso or mkv with no issues(I believe 1.6fw) and it has no issues with any of the ones the SMP has trouble with(tried both one after another on the same tv, same wire out of my prosafe switch, same hdmi cable). Thankfully it's still new enough that I can just take it back to Frys. I've been thinking about trying a netgear NTV550 to have BD menu support, but I really like my last gen live.
Just buy the original Live or Live plus, not this newer model. They worked out the software issues in those and they are solid. Firmware issues plagued them for the first year or so, sounds like the same here.