Thursday, November 12, 2009

ICY TIP: Expand your WD TV Storage Capacity with The ICY DOCK Enclosure



In the recent years, video files have grown exponentially in their size. When storing huge collections of movies, television shows, and other videos, a dedicated media drive can max out quicker than you would like it to.

The current solution to this problem is buying an external hard drive, storing your videos, and then moving on to another external drive when free space is gone. Additionally, with most media extenders like the Western Digital TV HD Media Player, the user will also need to utilize a USB hub due to the product only have a single USB input. However, in most cases, this also means adding another power supply, and another interface cable. In some cases, this leads to 3 or 4 different drives, all bound up together in a rats nest of cables. This definitely does not sound like something you want sitting on your media center in your living room!
The solution, of course, is much simpler, and more efficient. Using our MB561US-4S Quad Bay SATA HDD Enclosure, you can have up to 8TB of storage (2TB x 4 HDD), allowing you to store almost endless amounts of video, photos, and music. This device uses a built in USB port multiplier so that you only need a single USB port to access all 4 drives, and even has a built in power supply. Using our multi-bay hard drive enclosure you have already cut down your mess of wires and external drives, and cut down on your power bill!

Simply gather your hard drives, empty or containing existing files, and install them into their respective EZ Slide trays. Now place them into the MB561, connect the single USB cable to your WD TV HD Media Player and the single power cord to an outlet. Finally, flip the power switch, and you are ready to go.

Another issue when using multiple drives is figuring out a convenient way to transfer all of your files to these storage devices. Since Icy Dock products are engineered for multi-system integration, you can take a single drive out of the MB561, use our MB559 Series Single Bay Enclosure that is permanently stationed near your desktop or mobile PC, and use it to transfer all of your media for use with your MB561 that is connected to your WD TV HD Media Player.
The benefits to this include not having to lug around the large multi-bay enclosure that can begin to weigh over 10 lbs when fully loaded with hard drives. Another benefit is that both products use our EZ Slide trays, so there is no fumbling with screws or different sets of trays for each enclosure.

There are many different methods for utilizing your media collections, however, here at Icy Dock we always prefer to use the simplest means possible. Using what we call the "Single" method, you can use a single multi-bay enclosure, a single USB cable, and a single power cord to do the work of four different external hard drives, cut out four different power adapters, and four different USB cables. If you're looking for a solution to your media center, look no further than these two Icy Dock products in combination with the Western Digital TV HD Media Player.


Cheers,

Team Icy Dock

Links and Other Information
http://www.icydock.com/product/mb559uea-1s.html - MB559UEA (FIREWIRE 400 & USB)
http://www.icydock.com/product/mb559ueb-1s.html - MB559UEB (FIREWIRE 800 & USB)

**Please note that due to recent firmware updates for the WD TV HD, USB hubs and multi-drive enclosures will not work. Version 1.02.08 and later firmware are reported to no longer work with USB hubs. Support for USB hubs did work in versions 1.02.07 and earlier releases. Please refer to this link for more information: WD TV HD Firmware. Before making changes to your device, please always do sufficient research into the topic and procedure.

****Unofficial firmware is also available that allows for USB hub use and additional features such as network support and USB Blu Ray and DVD drives. This may or may not void the WD HD TV warranty.

6 comments:

  1. Here it's mentioned that the Icy Dock MB561US-4S has an 8TB capacity? From what I've read online it's only 4TB. Does anybody know what the true capacity is?

    ReplyDelete
  2. The enclosure does indeed have an 8TB capacity, capable of using a 2TB hard drive in each of its 4 bays.

    If you have further questions or concerns, please send them to tech@icydock.com

    Thanks,

    Roland
    Team Icy Dock

    ReplyDelete
  3. Hi ICYguys,
    I'd like to buy soon the MB561US-4S beast and fill it with 4x1Tb WD GreenPower drives, but I wanna ask three things first:
    - the SATA multiplier thing scares me.. i read somewhere that the eSata port could not work with some motherboard! Is this true? I wanna just see 4 single drives on my desktop, no RAID or other fancy things;
    - in you knowledge, does this 4bays beast work with devices such as Linksys NSLU2 (with unslung firmware, not the stock one)? I'd like to test it as Ethernet NAS;
    - can the fan be updated with a Noctua or other silenced fan? I read online that the stock one is too much loud and that's no good for me!

    Thx for you support :)
    PS. Do you plan to make a Gigabit Ethernet version of this beast?

    Regards,
    Rob

    ReplyDelete
  4. Hi Rob,

    1. To use this device with eSATA, you must use an eSATA port that has a built in port multiplier. The enclosure lets 4 SATA connections go through a single eSATA, but your computer must be able to read those 4 connections.

    Most motherboards do not have port multiplication built in. The most common set up is to use a PCI Express card using Silicon Image or other chipset that supports port multiplication. Another word for this is multilane capability.

    2. As long as the firmware or device supports USB port multiplication, then yes, this will work. In other words, if the firmware lets you use a USB hub with up to 4 devices connected, it will be the same as connecting the MB561 that has 4 drives connected.

    3. Unfortunately the fan cannot be upgraded. However, I believe the reviews you are referring to are in regards to the old version of this. The power supply had a fan on it, and it was quite noisy. Our new version has a fanless power supply built in, and it is suprisingly quiet, even with 4 7200 RPM drives inside.

    And at this point, we do not have any plans to make this a NAS enclosure. It would require us to enter a brand new, and moreover, unfamiliar market.

    If you have further questions or concerns, please contact us using our tech support email address: tech@icydock.com.

    Thanks,

    Roland
    Team Icy Dock

    ReplyDelete
  5. hi sir,
    just want to as.. for a WD TV, what is the maximum capacity of a single enclosure for it to play the movies in it..?

    hope you could reply to my email michael_casiano@mailgateways.com

    ReplyDelete
  6. Hi Michael,

    The maximum capacity is at least 2TB, however it may be higher, especially with new 3TB drives starting to show up. I would advise contacting Western Digital for a definite answer.

    Cheers,

    Roland
    Team Icy Dock

    ReplyDelete