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Western Digital's WDTV Live can play any file you throw at it. http://www.wdc.com/en/products/products.aspx?id=330

It supports many online services as well, but unfortunately no Prime Instant Video. I have yet to see a box that offers everything I want: Local and network media playback, Netflix, Prime.

However, I wish the WDTV had better specs and UI - it can be a little clunky.



Roku is close once you use Plex. You get local network playback + Netflix, Prime, Crackle, Hulu, Pandora which is what I want. The video quality, performance, bugs, and gaming support of the Roku suck though. I keep swapping my Roku for a Chromecast and back again.

I'd like a box that supports Prime, local network playback, and casual gaming/emulation. If Amazon would have released a Prime Video app I'd switch to some of those cheap Android PCs on an HDMI stick by now but they've been holding out probably to use as a carrot to get people locked into their app store.

I hate having to side-load apps but if I can on the FireTV and get local network playback working I very well might buy one.

Edit: Looks like it will have Plex and Miracast support.


I used to use Plex for network playback with my earlier roku's but with my Roku 3 I can play videos, mp3s, photos etc. natively directly from my NAS.


I've been holding off on the WDTV because of the UI and a few other issues I came across while researching it.




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