WDTV Live install tips on ADC Mobile.com

wottenad · March 28, 2012

I made a page specifically outlining the steps to mod a WDTV Live box for installation in a vehicle and posted it to our website.

This info is available for ADC Mobile customers only (requires a login) and will be located under the "Support"-"Product Support"-"WDTV Live Installation".

Klyde32 · March 31, 2012

Walt, thanks again for doing all of this. I am getting close to buying another WDTV Live and doing this myself. I like the idea of just leaving one in my truck. Quick question, do you know what 4 conductor M-M cable you used to connect the WDTV to the media link? I have found a few online but want to make sure the rings on the connectors match up to the media link. I am planning on taking the deck back out soon and checking the connection of the media link to the OGM-1 since i get a lot of feedback noise when I hook my WD up now. After looking at all of this, I am almost wanting to pull the trigger on the headrest monitors, but have never installed headrest monitors in a vehicle so might wait until I feel a bit more comfortable with it.

wottenad · March 31, 2012

Walt, thanks again for doing all of this. I am getting close to buying another WDTV Live and doing this myself. I like the idea of just leaving one in my truck. Quick question, do you know what 4 conductor M-M cable you used to connect the WDTV to the media link? I have found a few online but want to make sure the rings on the connectors match up to the media link. I am planning on taking the deck back out soon and checking the connection of the media link to the OGM-1 since i get a lot of feedback noise when I hook my WD up now. After looking at all of this, I am almost wanting to pull the trigger on the headrest monitors, but have never installed headrest monitors in a vehicle so might wait until I feel a bit more comfortable with it.

If you look at the schematic I posted, I tore apart the MediaLink cable to do the switching, so I didn't use the male to male 3.5mm cable. However, another customer of mine (blee on this forum) did this install and he parked the box under the seat and ran an RCA to male 3.5mm adaptor at both ends to be able to plug it into this AV jack on the MediaLink pod - this allowed him to prove the concept without jumping into it with both feet, but also pointed up a potential problem with using a straight-through male to male cable: if you look at the connections that worked for him, the video and left channel outputs were switched to get the outputs of the WDTV box to route to the correct inputs on the MediaLink pod. So, you could definitely use a male to male cable, but you may have to do surgery in the middle of it to reassign the outputs. It would certainly be worth a try to see what you get...

RCA Adaptors:

WDTV box mounted under the seat:

Output to MediaLink pod:

wlee001 · April 2, 2012

Thanks Walt! Great idea putting the WD-Live in the truck. The only problems I had with this hook up was engine noise with the power lead going right to the 12V on the vehicle. I installed a $20 Costco special 110V inverter, used the 12V power supply that came with the WD-Live and no more engine noise. The other issue was when hooking portable hard drives 500G and larger, sometimes they would hang up. I think that happened when I had it in the house also. That's why I switched to Asus. SD cards work great every time with a USB adapter. I'm sure a flash drive would work also. Oh yeah, the remote works fine with the WD-Live under the seat. I loaded MP4's formatted for my iPhone and the videos look good. The WD-Live also gives you the option to zoom in to fill your screen if needed:~)