Western Digital WDTV Live Hub Review

The WDTV Live Hub was put through v1.0.2 of the AnandTech Media Streamer Test Suite. This version has 50 different test streams and a maximum possible score of 358. The WDTV Live Hub came out with a score of 239 (66.76%). This is a slight improvement over WDTV Live Plus (which score 58.14%). The improvements are enumerated below:

1. WMA / WMAPro audio decode supported
2. DTS core bitstreamed for DTS-HD tracks in MKVs
3. Bitstreaming of TrueHD tracks in MKV containers

The streams in which the LiveHub lost out are enumerated below:

1. DTS-HD bitstreaming from M2TS / MKVs
2. Vorbis decode
3. Real Media decode
4. Hebrew and Vietnamese subtitle display
5. Support for (forced) PGS subtitles in MKV containers
6. Playback of some 1080p30 H264 streams (These are L4.1 H264 streams which play properly on almost all other Sigma / Realtek streamers we have tested. The issues happen only in the WDTV lineup)
7. Playback of 1080p60 Panasonic camcorder H264 streams
8. Support for stylized subtitles (ASS/SSA) with special effects
9. MPEG-4 videos with 3 warp points and GMC
10. Support for playback of Blu-Ray ISO / folder structure

In essence, whatever used to work on the Live Plus worked very well on the Live Hub. Some improvements were seen, but not as many as we would have liked.

Moving onto the picture quality, I put the WDTV Live Hub through the HQV 2.0 benchmark and the Live Hub scored 56 on 210. It is clear that the Live Hub is no great shakes when it comes to video post processing. Do note that some of the tests simply make no sense for media streamers because the knobs to activate and test out the features just don't exist (as manufacturers don't want to befuddle the average user with some arcane menu options). In any case, the score tallies closely with what Cameron got for the WDTV Live Plus.

At this juncture, I realized that the capabilities of the unit with respect to video decoding were almost the same as that of the WDTV Live Plus (particularly with respect to artifacts exhibited when certain test streams were played back). It looked likely that the Live Hub was powered by a Sigma Designs SoC. However, I was not aware of any mass-production ready Sigma chip with GbE capabilities or proper HDMI 1.4a support....