Western Digital WDTV Series

2014-01-07 23:44:25

I am currently interested in this piece of hardware.
What I want to know is...
My main purpose will be to play FLAC files on external storage.

1) Can it play FLAC files gaplessly?
2) Does it read album art (embedded) and/or JPG file in the current folder?
3) Is its responsiveness quick when browsing media and playing?

Thanks for answers!

Western Digital WDTV Series

Reply #1 – 2014-01-07 23:47:00

... and I forgot...
4) Does it read ReplayGain tags?
5) Which models of WDTV in specific can perform the majority of the required tasks?

Western Digital WDTV Series

Reply #2 – 2014-01-08 00:27:14

I've got a WDTV live.

1) Not sure I'll test tonight for you.
2) It doesn't read album art stored in the folder if you are using 1 jpeg for the whole album (folder.jpg). If it's anything like the movie part then the art work will have to match the file name. I'll test embedded art work tonight.
3) The responsiveness isn't super quick, art work can slow browsing down (it does with movie covers enabled).
4) Nope, doesn't support replaygain.

Music playback might be better on these units using DLNA, I'll test this as well.

Western Digital WDTV Series

Reply #3 – 2014-01-08 04:15:35

update,

1) Not gapless in file share or upnp playback
2) Album art works on folder view but doesn't appear on when playing songs when using 1 jpeg for the whole album (folder.jpg). Embedded art does show when playing. upnp art work shows in folder view but not in playback view.
3) Unit is very sluggish with large album art (1000x1000) very painful to use, also the scaling down of the art looks awful.

I hope this helps.

if your looking for a powerful mini PC for music playback have you had a look at the Intel NUCs?

Western Digital WDTV Series

Reply #4 – 2014-01-08 23:36:38

Thanks AMED, I also imagined that album art would slow things down in a painful fashion. I will look into the Intel's.

Western Digital WDTV Series

Reply #5 – 2014-01-09 06:24:40

The Intel NUCs have very nice specs. But they are a lot more expensive than streaming boxes such as the WDTV. You wouldn't only require the NUC itself but also RAM, SSD storage, and a WiFi card (plus you'd have to assemble that on your own -- but that itsn't hard). All together, a Haswell-based Intel NUC can set you back close to $500.

The NUC also consumes roughly as much power as an ultrabook (with the display turned off). That's five to ten times as much as an energy-efficient, small ARM-based streaming box. If you intend on keeping the system running 24/7, the difference in energy cost will be non-negligible. (I won't post exact numbers as they will depend on a large number of variables.)

If you really only want to use the streaming client to play FLAC, a Raspberry Pi (roughly $40) may do the job. If you need analog audio, you have to add the cost of a USB DAC (starting at roughly $10) on top of that. If you need a little more power than the Pi offers, there exist many other solutions (e.g., the Wandboard).

If you don't want to mess with configuring a small single-board developer computer such as the Raspberry Pi, there's still a bunch of alternatives that are plug-and-play, can handle FLAC and gapless playback, and still cheaper and more energy-saving than a NUC.

This is not to dismiss the NUC suggestion completely. The NUC is very nice for certain usage scenarios and I have entertained the idea of getting one myself. But it's overkill if your mainly need an audio streaming client.

Western Digital WDTV Series

Reply #6 – 2014-01-09 08:27:26

Out of interest how did you test the gapless aspect? Presumably it will be different via Samba shares and DLNA streaming?