Other WD TV Live Hub settings (reachable either from the on-display menu or a dedicated button on the remote) let you designate its hard drive as a DLNA server, network share, or even an iTunes server, thereby making its content available to other network devices. I was able, for example, to use a Wi-Fi connected notebook in my upstairs bedroom to play iTunes music stored on the WD TV Live Hub in the TV room downstairs.

The Services menu icon is where you go to access media from Websites ranging from Netflix (with software that lets you choose content on the fly without having to put it in your on-demand queue) and Flickr to YouTube, Pandora, and Mediafly (a podcast aggregation service). New offerings with the Live Hub are Blockbuster's on-demand service, Facebook, and Accuweather. Western Digital's selection of media-streaming Web support still lags behind the likes of Roku--or, for that matter, many connected TVs--but it has some big guns, which may be all some users want.

Overall, the WD TV Live Hub shapes up as a versatile and (with the exception of the problem of accessing network shares) user-friendly media streamer and storage device, both for streaming media to a connected HDTV and serving it throughout the home. For people who want to access media in multiple locations in a home, it's worth the $200 cost.