Well, no harm certainly. This will be my last post on the subject, since I don't own one; my OP was simply that I was surprised this seemed to be so instantly popular (which likely supports your position GT...someone's buying 'em), as it didn't offer anything new.

Enjoy,

CD

It's cheap, plays all the video ph does, less than 1/2 the price, available locally so no paying shipping, much much bigger name. Most people do not have a NAs, adn if they do most are not over 1-2 TB which can easily be eaten up by Usenet. Just keeping a computer as the main downloader and moving movies over to a different drive to watch is wicked easy and will even save energy because you won't have to keep all your **** on all the time. I'm still stunned as to why anyone wouldn't be interested unless they've already payed for a ph. You keep saying it doesn't offer anything new, well you've been overlooking the fact that it's available right down the road for most of us. Is much much cheaper and is a company that people have heard of, all of these things the ph is not. While it's one of the best network media tanks, a lot of people don't want to spend that much to see if it will work for all of our movies.

I know I was more than a little bummed when my hd-dvd player became obsolete, this allows me to be physical format free for a very low cost entry point.

Could the WD TV HD media player be used in a vehicle (powered by a dc power adapter) with a DVD player which has AV inputs? Obviously the composite video input would have to be used.

wattsup

well i hate to admit it but im probably going to take this back and build a htpc for a little more. the fact that this doesnt do 1080p mkv, or read from iso's. i like the idea of having upgradable hardware so i can do all the audio stuff. is this hdmi 1.3a if so they might be able to do a firmware upgrade to support. but right now there are to many advantages a htpc have over this, even though it will run around 300 as opposed to 100.

well i hate to admit it but im probably going to take this back and build a htpc for a little more. the fact that this doesnt do 1080p mkv, or read from iso's. i like the idea of having upgradable hardware so i can do all the audio stuff. is this hdmi 1.3a if so they might be able to do a firmware upgrade to support. but right now there are to many advantages a htpc have over this, even though it will run around 300 as opposed to 100.

Mine plays 1080p mkvs just fine.

The WD box will not process audio at all. You need to go to system settings and set audio to digital. This will then pass the bitstream of either DD or DTS from your MKV files to your receiver.

So basically, if you try to play an MKV with DTS through HDMI, without using an optical cable or receiver, you are screwed?

Mine seems to work with AC3 2.0 MKV files, but any 5.1 audio wont play through the HDMI.

It's cheap, plays all the video ph does, less than 1/2 the price, available locally so no paying shipping, much much bigger name.

Is vc1 in a .ts or .m2ts confirmed?

Someone said There Will Be Blood (vc1) .m2ts didn't work...

So basically, if you try to play an MKV with DTS through HDMI, without using an optical cable or receiver, you are screwed?

Mine seems to work with AC3 2.0 MKV files, but any 5.1 audio wont play through the HDMI.

It will work. If your receiver can decode audio via HDMI, then you should be getting full 5.1 through HDMI.

It will work. If your receiver can decode audio via HDMI, then you should be getting full 5.1 through HDMI.

Yeah I know it works like that, but what if I dont want to use my receiver and just get sound through the TV? Late at night, I dont want to use the receiver.

Yeah I know it works like that, but what if I dont want to use my receiver and just get sound through the TV? Late at night, I dont want to use the receiver.

Then hook up the optical cable to your TV. You can have them both hooked up simultaneously.

Then hook up the optical cable to your TV. You can have them both hooked up simultaneously.

Im not aware of any TV that has an optical in, and for that matter, a DTS decoder.

Hi-Jack, have you got hold of one of these units yet?...I'd be interested in hearing your feedback.

Also, would be good to get a list of what it does and does not play....like dts in wav file etc...

K

well i hate to admit it but im probably going to take this back and build a htpc for a little more. the fact that this doesnt do 1080p mkv, or read from iso's. i like the idea of having upgradable hardware so i can do all the audio stuff. is this hdmi 1.3a if so they might be able to do a firmware upgrade to support. but right now there are to many advantages a htpc have over this, even though it will run around 300 as opposed to 100.

its reading isos for me just fine. i am disappointed that it doesn't do embedded subs for mkvs.

For anyone interested, I just tested it with my Kill-A-Watt, and this thing pulls only 7 watts when decoding a Blu-Ray .m2ts file. Pulls 5 watts when idle.

I have a few questions in my mind. I hope some of you guys can help.

1- If I buy this in the U.S., will it work in Europe with PAL LCD TVs?

2- Could you please look at the adapter and tell me if it works only with 110V or between 100-240Vs?

3- Can you change the font size of the subtitle? How about the location of the subtitle?

Thank you.

I have not had much time to play with the WD TV I picked up from BestBuys on Monday. Since that time my computer has been converting my 200+ home video clips which I discovered were in an AVI format the unit would not decode. I sure hope the conversions fixed that, as those home movies are my justification for the purchase.

My setup is a 500 gig external WD drive connected to the WD TV and the WD TV connected to my HD LCD TV via HDMI. The biggest pain will be updating/uploading the files on/to the hard drive. I have a media computer near by. A ten foot USB cable would reach the external drive without moving it. I thought about acquiring a two port USB switch. However, since 500 gigs is currently just enough, I will probably be upgrading the external drive. I am thinking looking for a 1 TB USB/NAS combination, since there is a network connection near by.

From what I have read above, I am assuming the following (please correct me if I am wrong):

The USB/NAS will not allow both connections to be live?
The USB connection is the default connection if live?
If I unplug the USB cable or turn the power off to the USB connected device (the WD TV), the network connection will become available (so I can do file maintenence)?

Is vc1 in a .ts or .m2ts confirmed?

Someone said There Will Be Blood (vc1) .m2ts didn't work...

Yea that was me, so other full backups worked fine so it was localized to that rip for what ever reason

Mine plays 1080p mkvs just fine.

Some of mine do, some don't. Is it possibly related to the level 4.1 vs. level 5.1 encoding? I have no idea how to tell which is which.

Some of mine do, some don't. Is it possibly related to the level 4.1 vs. level 5.1 encoding? I have no idea how to tell which is which.

Load the MKV into tsmuxer, it will tell you under video stream

http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?t=134104

Also use MediaInfo, and you get detailed info, example below:

Video
Format : AVC
Format/Info : Advanced Video Codec
Format profile : High@L5.1
Format settings, CABAC : Yes
Format settings, ReFrames : 8 frames
Codec ID : V_MPEG4/ISO/AVC
Duration : 1h 29mn
Bit rate : 6 317 Kbps
Nominal bit rate : 6 600 Kbps
Width : 1 280 pixels
Height : 720 pixels
Display aspect ratio : 16/9
Frame rate : 23.976 fps
Resolution : 24 bits
Colorimetry : 4:2:0
Scan type : Progressive
Bits/(Pixel*Frame) : 0.299
Writing library : x264 core 56 svn-667C
Encoding settings : cabac=1 / ref=5 / deblock=1:-3:-2 / analyse=0x3:0x133 / me=hex / subme=6 / brdo=1 / mixed_ref=1 / me_range=16 / chroma_me=1 / trellis=1 / 8x8dct=1 / cqm=0 / deadzone=21,11 / chroma_qp_offset=0 / threads=1 / nr=0 / decimate=1 / mbaff=0 / bframes=3 / b_pyramid=1 / b_adapt=1 / b_bias=0 / direct=1 / wpredb=1 / bime=1 / keyint=250 / keyint_min=25 / scenecut=40 / rc=2pass / bitrate=6600 / ratetol=1.0 / rceq='blurCplx^(1-qComp)' / qcomp=0.60 / qpmin=10 / qpmax=51 / qpstep=4 / cplxblur=20.0 / qblur=0.5 / ip_ratio=1.40 / pb_ratio=1.30
Language : English

As you can see the reframes = 8 - thats fine, you get problems when 8 is execeded.

I have a few questions in my mind. I hope some of you guys can help.

1- If I buy this in the U.S., will it work in Europe with PAL LCD TVs?

2- Could you please look at the adapter and tell me if it works only with 110V or between 100-240Vs?

3- Can you change the font size of the subtitle? How about the location of the subtitle?

Thank you.

1. Yes, has both 50 & 60 settings in video output.
2. Yes 100-240/50-60hz Need adapter for pins.
3. don't think so.

...but for the network side to be active the WD TV either has to have power unplugged (not just in standby mode) or the USB connection unplugged.

Which would be doable with a somewhat inelegant workaround: Just buy an X10 remote power switch for about $20. I've got one that has a remote and four power receptacles. I use one of them to do power-cycles of my wireless router when it's acting up. Saves a lot of running up and down stairs. :)

1. Yes, has both 50 & 60 settings in video output.
2. Yes 100-240/50-60hz Need adapter for pins.
3. don't think so.

Thanks a lot. You've been very helpful.

Incidentally, has anyone noticed any audio/video sync issues on some files? I can't recall which file types I was viewing when this happened, but on more than one occasion, I noticed some definite problems with sound not matching the visuals. (Pausing/unpausing fixed the issue, however.)

Mine plays 1080p mkvs just fine.

So far I've tested about 25 MKV format movies, 1080p rips from usenet. About 2/3 work perfectly. A couple are completely unwatchable with massive blocking or stuttering. Rest have intermittent blocking artifacts that are too annoying. This is a big issue and I'm on the fence about whether to keep it. But my HTPC can't handle any 1080p, intel integrated video is weak. Ugh.

I tested about 20 MKV format movies, 720 rips from usenet, they ALL play fine. It seems that some people use more aggressive encoding options for 1080p and that is causing problems.

(Pausing/unpausing fixed the issue, however.)

I'm pretty used to this because of how Philips Divx/USB dvd players work...common occurrence and fix on them as well... would be nice if WD fixed this, but after including 4-5 of the features others have listed in this thread already (sequential file playback option inside of a folder, able to use mkv encoded subs w/o extracting srt, etc etc)


Another nice blog review of this player...

http://topnotch.net/blog/2008/11/02/western-digital-wd-tv-hd-media-player-review-unboxing-pix/

its reading isos for me just fine. i am disappointed that it doesn't do embedded subs for mkvs.

are your iso's just the movie in a iso format or the whole disc directory? all my iso are either full disc dvd or blu ray backup. i believe it will play iso if its just the movie not a full disc.

Shouldn't the vobs play continuously if you put them in the same folder?

are your iso's just the movie in a iso format or the whole disc directory? all my iso are either full disc dvd or blu ray backup. i believe it will play iso if its just the movie not a full disc.

I realize this question isn't directed at me; however, my personal experience with the 4 ISOs that I tested -- it played them all with no problems -- were complete DVD rips made with DVD Decrypter.

Thinking of this unit, a small HTPC, or a Playstation 3. My 21 year old son (does not live with us) is pushing me to get the PS3. Says it will do everything this does PLUS has the wireless to stream with and the USB ports to plug in a thumb drive or external HD... Any reason not to go the PS3 route? It can be had for a bit over $300.....
Oh, and it will play Blu-ray movies and browse the internet... Hmmmmmm

I posted my issue with audio synching (actually audio drift over time and gets progressively worse overtime) with a XVId file encoded from a 1080i OTA broadcast....Has anyone else had this problem with their video file playback.

When I play that same file on my computer with VLC or KMPLayer ,I do not see the audio drift problem.

Just curious...

See this review, the person who wrote it is experiencing the same issue/bug if you look down at his cons/negs

http://maddhat.com/?p=31

'A few miscellaneous issues:
Sometimes the video won’t completely fill the screen at first. It’s easily fixed by zooming in, then back out. But for some reason, the decoder just doesn’t scale the video properly. This doesn’t happen always. It seems to happen completely randomly. Once I zoomed in and out to fix it, it would play properly for the rest of the file. This issue is pretty annoying, and hopefully it can be fixed.'

I haven't had any zooming problems from the short time I've had the wdtv (knock on wood). Could this be a problem with your TVs? My tv has an Auto setting that adjusts to the signal coming in. Maybe you guys with the problems should try setting the input to FULL or whatever the standard resolution of the tv is.

So far I've tested about 25 MKV format movies, 1080p rips from usenet. About 2/3 work perfectly. A couple are completely unwatchable with massive blocking or stuttering. Rest have intermittent blocking artifacts that are too annoying. This is a big issue and I'm on the fence about whether to keep it. But my HTPC can't handle any 1080p, intel integrated video is weak. Ugh.

I tested about 20 MKV format movies, 720 rips from usenet, they ALL play fine. It seems that some people use more aggressive encoding options for 1080p and that is causing problems.

I agree this is a big issue. The main reason I'm interested in this player is for HD, if it can't play a great many of the 1080p movies, that's a deal breaker for moi.

Harold

It played the 3 .VOB files I tried last night with no issues. I'm going to return it today, however, since it won't play subtitles off of those .VOB files. This is a huge issue, since even with domestic films there are occasional subtitles which are an integral part of the story. And you have no idea when they're going to show up. I'm not liable to go through all of my DVDs and re-rip them to reformat the subtitles. Does anyone know if Popcorn Hour will read them off .VOB files?

I haven't had any zooming problems from the short time I've had the wdtv (knock on wood). Could this be a problem with your TVs? My tv has an Auto setting that adjusts to the signal coming in. Maybe you guys with the problems should try setting the input to FULL or whatever the standard resolution of the tv is.


I doubt it have playted will all the setting on my optoma HD70 & the WDTV they both are set to 720P/60hz and no matter what I do it is magnify x2 then back to nomal and issue gone. Strange anyone else her having this issue?

Trying to figure out if i should return it for another one to A/B test

I tried a .iso of a full dvd movie (menus, special features and all), and the WD TV will play the main movie, but nothing else. Additional audio tracks as well as subtitles are all accessible. Special features are not.

The big thing for me on this unit is the ability to set and play a video playlist, which it apparently cannot do yet.

Another major drawback is the inability to play multiple files in sequence. I loaded a folder full of playable files (xvid) and only the file you physically select in the menu will play. As soon as it stops, the unit reverts to the folder again.

The reason I wanted this unit is so I can rip all my existing TV and Cartoon DVDs onto it in individual files. Then, I could play an entire folder or a playlist of pre-selected vids continuously. Apparently, it can't do this yet.

Ah well, if anyone has a workaround, let me know. Otherwise, at least I have a month to wait to see if WD updates the firmware to address these issues. If not, back to Best Buy it goes!

It will work. If your receiver can decode audio via HDMI, then you should be getting full 5.1 through HDMI.

With my setup, I have the optical from my TV going to my AVR. So, if I have just the HDMI connected from the WD to my TV, and nothing else, would it still pass DD/DTS audio along via HDMI, which my TV would then send along to the AVR via its optical connection with the TV? Or will I be forced to take the optical away from my TV and use it on my WD? I only have one optical input on my receiver.

Which would be doable with a somewhat inelegant workaround: Just buy an X10 remote power switch for about $20. I've got one that has a remote and four power receptacles. I use one of them to do power-cycles of my wireless router when it's acting up. Saves a lot of running up and down stairs. :)

My idea was to plug the WD TV into the switched power plug on the back of an AVR, that way it's only getting power when the AVR is on.

Reviewer writes:
---------------------
"I hooked up an external drive to this unit with a Ethernet port. Dragged and dropped divx files from my pc to my drive and it automatically saw the videos without having to power cycle...
---------------------
Can anyone figure out what drive this guy has?
Is it some NAS with USB port? AFAIK, this port on NAS is usually for USB printer. In our case, we need concurrent (or may be switched) access to NAS as a client via USB port. He claims "without having to power cycle..."

I want to know this info as well. I purchased a WD, but I'm waiting to set it up because this is exactly what I'm looking to do.

Thet do

So, if I have just the HDMI connected from the WD to my TV, and nothing else, would it still pass DD/DTS audio along via HDMI, which my TV would then send along to the AVR via its optical connection with the TV?

same setup I am using as I test this thing out.

the audio passes fine (via optical out from my Sammy) to my avr and in 5.1, if available. . . but if I keep the unit, I will climb behind my equipment rack and give the WD HD a permanent HDMI input to my AVR (4 HDMI inputs on it, Onkyo) and only rely upon the HDMI connection for audio.

I would have done the later setup with hdmi right to my avr, if true-hd , dts-ma , 7.1 was avail for pass through and decode (by the avr of course) from the get go.


So far I've tested about 25 MKV format movies, 1080p rips from usenet. About 2/3 work perfectly. A couple are completely unwatchable with massive blocking or stuttering. Rest have intermittent blocking artifacts that are too annoying. This is a big issue and I'm on the fence about whether to keep it. But my HTPC can't handle any 1080p, intel integrated video is weak. Ugh.

I tested about 20 MKV format movies, 720 rips from usenet, they ALL play fine. It seems that some people use more aggressive encoding options for 1080p and that is causing problems.

thank you for that info... same situation, just haven't had time to test my various mkv's i've collected over the past yr ... so this is pretty helpful in my overall evaluation. I agree, scene standards haven't really been set for mkv rls's (at least not that I know of, and by no means am I claiming to be part of 'the scene') thus adding to a wild west full of variations in 1080p rips/encodes...

...however, mkv is such a versatile container, I find it still pretty impressive that the WD is playing a good amt of folks melting pot of mkv's out there (that are L4.1 and not L5.1)

My idea was to plug the WD TV into the switched power plug on the back of an AVR, that way it's only getting power when the AVR is on.

I have a WD My Passport 320GB attached. When powered off, I could feel the external hdd spin for a while. And then I checked back later, the hdd seems to feel completely silent (although the indicator light in the back still on). So, I think I am pretty alright with just having the WD TV in standby...

But I experienced a problem last nite with the WD TV failed to power on from the remote. I hope this does not happen frequently...

For those having problems playing some 1080p AVC files, the rule seems to be that the width X height X # of ref frames must be equal to or less than 8,294,400 for them to play well on the WD player (1920*1080*4). I posted about this a couple of days ago over here:
http://forum.videohelp.com/topic358929-30.html#1904507
if you're interested.

So there's no way to network connect, or anyway to FTP to the drive, I don't want to move the thing back and forth just to put files on it if I elect to to get one.

So there's no way to network connect, or anyway to FTP to the drive, I don't want to move the thing back and forth just to put files on it if I elect to to get one.

You don't move the unit. You move whatever USB storage device you have connected to it.

It's cheap, plays all the video ph does, less than 1/2 the price, available locally so no paying shipping, much much bigger name. Most people do not have a NAs, adn if they do most are not over 1-2 TB which can easily be eaten up by Usenet. Just keeping a computer as the main downloader and moving movies over to a different drive to watch is wicked easy and will even save energy because you won't have to keep all your **** on all the time. I'm still stunned as to why anyone wouldn't be interested unless they've already payed for a ph.

Well, I'm not just comparing it against PH; PH just happened to be what one of the early posters compared it to, in saying he thought that was a better choice. I'm comparing it against PH, Netgear, TViX, XBMC, PS3, and all the other popular streamers out there. Granted, most of those machines cost a little more (although NetGear and XBMC doesn't), but I think in some cases they do a little more too; namely, they are networkable.

You keep saying it doesn't offer anything new, well you've been overlooking the fact that it's available right down the road for most of us. Is much much cheaper and is a company that people have heard of, all of these things the ph is not. While it's one of the best network media tanks, a lot of people don't want to spend that much to see if it will work for all of our movies.

OK, again, I don't have a horse in this race, so I don't want to continue to argue, but if your case for it is "it's cheap and you can buy it locally", ok...conceded. But when I say it doesn't offer anything new, I mean capabilities-wise; not the fact that you don't have to pay shipping for it.

As for WD being an established company...not when it comes to media streamers they're not. Frankly, you are making my point for me; I said this was a cheap, cute, little box for new streamers to try out. You said, by way of argument, almost exactly the same thing: "While it's one (and I assume you meant to say while it's not one) of the best network media tanks, a lot of people don't want to spend that much to see if it will work for all of our movies". So again, you're agreeing it's not as good as some others, but it is a less expensive way to try something that might work for your streaming needs. And if the subsequent posts, after only 5 days from the OP, are any indication, it doesn't seem to be working out all that well for them. Even after many of them are involved in the very un-nontechnical (in response to your argument that this device was for nontechnical types) processes of remuxing, reformatting, re-zooming, and the such.

I just don't get it. Yes, it was cheap; but even an inexpensive product is a waste of money if it doesn't do what you want, or is going to be obsolete in about 4 minutes.

CD

So far I've tested about 25 MKV format movies, 1080p rips from usenet. About 2/3 work perfectly. A couple are completely unwatchable with massive blocking or stuttering. Rest have intermittent blocking artifacts that are too annoying. This is a big issue and I'm on the fence about whether to keep it. But my HTPC can't handle any 1080p, intel integrated video is weak. Ugh.

I tested about 20 MKV format movies, 720 rips from usenet, they ALL play fine. It seems that some people use more aggressive encoding options for 1080p and that is causing problems.

What is your setup? WD TV to TV or reciever? etc.

List of compatible USB devices (not only HDD) on WD website:

http://wdc.custhelp.com/cgi-bin/wdc.cfg/php/enduser/std_alp.php?p_cats=123&p_cv=1.123&p_pv=2.246&p_prods=208%2C246&p_search_text=&p_new_search=1&p_search_type=answers.search_fnl

Even more here:

http://wdc.custhelp.com/cgi-bin/wdc.cfg/php/enduser/std_alp.php?p_sid=8gPq6eij&p_lva=2581&p_li=&p_accessibility=0&p_redirect=&p_page=1&p_cv=&p_pv=2.246&p_prods=208%2C246&p_cats=0&p_hidden_prods=&prod_lvl1=208&prod_lvl2=246&cat_lvl1=0&p_search_text=&srch_btn_submit=+++Search+++&p_new_search=1&p_search_type=answers.search_fnl

Is vc1 in a .ts or .m2ts confirmed?

Someone said There Will Be Blood (vc1) .m2ts didn't work...

I've tried a bunch of VC1 WMV files. None worked :( I have many of these. Sucks! Anyone figure out how to play these?

So far I've tested about 25 MKV format movies, 1080p rips from usenet. About 2/3 work perfectly. A couple are completely unwatchable with massive blocking or stuttering. Rest have intermittent blocking artifacts that are too annoying. This is a big issue and I'm on the fence about whether to keep it. But my HTPC can't handle any 1080p, intel integrated video is weak. Ugh.

I tested about 20 MKV format movies, 720 rips from usenet, they ALL play fine. It seems that some people use more aggressive encoding options for 1080p and that is causing problems.

I got noticeable blocking with 1080p files on my TV in the front room (JVC 56" HD-ILA 1080p), then moved it to my game room TV which is a Sony 50" SXRD 1080p. The settings on the unit on both TV's were set to 1080p 60hz. I have no idea why it blocks on my JVC, but I did have problems with it when I was running my computer on the JVC with a DVI > HDMI adapter, and running 18xx X 9xx resolution @ 60hz. The problems were less intermittent, but still noticeable even as low as 30hz with my computer when hooked up to the JVC. Point being, it could be your TV.

are your iso's just the movie in a iso format or the whole disc directory? all my iso are either full disc dvd or blu ray backup. i believe it will play iso if its just the movie not a full disc.

I tried both and they play just fine with anydvd and dvd shrink.

I just noticed a problem with my WD TV, when I turn it off (power button on remote) it sometimes fails to power back up unless I unplug it. Quite annoying, anyone else experiencing the same?

I tried both and they play just fine with anydvd and dvd shrink.

I just noticed a problem with my WD TV, when I turn it off (power button on remote) it sometimes fails to power back up unless I unplug it. Quite annoying, anyone else experiencing the same?

Happened once to me last night... I read that someone else also have the same problems...

What is your setup? WD TV to TV or reciever? etc.

I am using HDMI to TV and optical to stereo. I don't have enough HDMI cables right now to see if I can run HDMI to stereo to TV.

Ordered some HDMI cables today, I'll give it a try next week.

$2 each at monoprice if you don't mind orange.
http://www.monoprice.com/products/product.asp?c_id=102&cp_id=10243&cs_id=1024008&p_id=4743&seq=1&format=2

Does anyone know if this is available in Canada? I'm really thinking of buying one but I don't want to get nailed by customs.

For those having problems playing some 1080p AVC files, the rule seems to be that the width X height X # of ref frames must be equal to or less than 8,294,400 for them to play well on the WD player (1920*1080*4). I posted about this a couple of days ago over here:
http://forum.videohelp.com/topic358929-30.html#1904507
if you're interested.

I have at least one that exceed that range and plays normally.
Miami Vice.2006.1080p.mkv, 12.2gb, 1920x800, 6 reframes = 9216000

Checking the other 1080p files that played normally, they do fall below 8294400. Typically 1920x800 with 4 or 5 reframes, High@L4.1

The ones that are somewhat to very garbled were encoded at High@L5.1

Does not play correctly:
Superbad.2007.1080p.mkv, 7.9gb, 1920x1040, 5 reframes = 9984000
Life of Brian.1979.1080p.mkv, 7.9gb, 1920x1040, 5 reframes

Others have 8, 10 even 12 reframes... too complicated for this box. Any chance the number of reframes it handles can be upped through a firmware patch (assuming WD is going to continue supporting theset things, maybe not) - or is it a hardware limitation? If so I imagine Popcorn Hour owners would have the same problem since they both use the Sigma 8635.


More info on the one that works beyond 8294400...

General
Complete name : T:\HD Movies\Miami Vice.2006.1080p.mkv
Format : Matroska
File size : 12.2 GiB
Duration : 2h 19mn
Overall bit rate : 12.6 Mbps
Encoded date : UTC 2008-09-05 12:17:45
Writing application : mkvmerge v2.2.0 ('Turn It On Again') built on Mar 4 2008 12:58:26
Writing library : libebml v0.7.7 + libmatroska v0.8.1

Video
Format : AVC
Format/Info : Advanced Video Codec
Format profile : High@L5.0
Format settings, CABAC : Yes
Format settings, ReFrames : 6 frames
Muxing mode : Container profile=Unknown@5.0
Codec ID : V_MPEG4/ISO/AVC
Duration : 2h 19mn
Bit rate : 10.5 Mbps
Nominal bit rate : 11.1 Mbps
Width : 1 920 pixels
Height : 800 pixels
Display aspect ratio : 2.400
Frame rate : 23.976 fps
Resolution : 24 bits
Colorimetry : 4:2:0
Scan type : Progressive
Bits/(Pixel*Frame) : 0.300
Writing library : x264 core 61 r957M 7ce0f2c
Encoding settings : cabac=1 / ref=6 / deblock=1:-3:-3 / analyse=0x3:0x133 / me=umh / subme=7 / psy_rd=1.2:0.0 / brdo=1 / mixed_ref=1 / me_range=32 / chroma_me=1 / trellis=0 / 8x8dct=1 / cqm=2 / deadzone=6,6 / chroma_qp_offset=-2 / threads=6 / nr=0 / decimate=1 / mbaff=0 / bframes=16 / b_pyramid=1 / b_adapt=1 / b_bias=0 / direct=1 / wpredb=1 / bime=1 / keyint=250 / keyint_min=25 / scenecut=40(pre) / rc=2pass / bitrate=11055 / ratetol=1.0 / qcomp=1.00 / qpmin=10 / qpmax=51 / qpstep=4 / cplxblur=20.0 / qblur=0.5 / ip_ratio=1.40 / pb_ratio=1.30 / aq=2:0.80
Language : English

Audio
Format : DTS
Format/Info : Digital Theater Systems
Codec ID : A_DTS
Duration : 2h 19mn
Bit rate mode : Constant
Bit rate : 1 536 Kbps
Channel(s) : 6 channels
Channel positions : Front: L C R, Surround: L R, LFE
Sampling rate : 48.0 KHz
Resolution : 24 bits
Language : English

Text
Format : UTF-8
Codec ID : S_TEXT/UTF8
Codec ID/Info : UTF-8 Plain Text
Language : English

To our Euro friends, this thing came with 12V power adapter with 100-240v input, but it has American (two flat prongs) power input. The output is fairly common round plug. You can either use power plug adapter from UStoEuro or find another 12V brick.

More about video:
last night I was playing with included CD. Video converter limited to SD only,so, what's the point?
Anyway, I've tried included video clips copied to thumb/flash drive, with some of my own MP2s. Well, it behaves badly every time I play included samples. After play stops any other file I'm trying to play will came up with no video, just black screen, for two or three attempts. After that It still allow me to navigate and select to play, but 100% will display message that this video is not compatible and all that...
Only cold start restores normal operation. Playing these samples again guaranteeing same events. MP2s from same flash drive never caused any problems. Anybody else having same problem with included samples?

Here is more:
I have some Euro DVB2 TS files. Not playable directly, but after I remux them through VLC as TS or PS and rename them to M4V they play fine, but don't allow me to FF at all.

Does anyone know if this is available in Canada? I'm really thinking of buying one but I don't want to get nailed by customs.

Circuit City has it in their system here in the states, so you might wanna try The Source.

Another reason these are a good choice for many people (besides the complexity for some to setup networking both physical cables and software, and complex media center pc's or altered gaming equipment) is power.

Reports are that this device uses 5 watts normally and 7 watts maximum while playing complexe video. Now add the wattage of a external hard drive and you still have a very low amount of power usage. You cannot build any other media playing device with that low of power consumption.

I still think that the following can be a viable and relatively inexpensive solution:

Build NAS with myutn50. It allows to network and manage several USB drives.
Cost about $180.
http://www.seh.de/english/products/n...myutn50txt.htm

Attach each USB drive to manual USB AB switch
http://www.amazon.com/Device-Switch-Printer-Scanner-etc/dp/B000I97N4O/ref=sr_1_7?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1226008638&sr=1-7

This is about $12 per switch. Connect one port of the switch to usb drive, attach other two (switched) ports respectively to myutn50 and to WD TV port and you're all set.
This is not a hub so I hope WD TV will not mind.
Still you'll have to press buttons on switches but this is not a big hassle.

Well, this contraption must sit next to your television…but modern usb drives are relatively quiet.

Thoughts?

how do I extract AVCHD ISO's? Arnt I suppose to extract the streams for WD HD , because it wont read iso's right?

Hello,

My video requirements are modest because I am still using a Toshiba SDTV, and I would use the device for TV encodes and SD DVD rips, but composite video is a bit too low for even me. ;) If it were not for limited video output options, I can see this as a wonderful stopgap until I feel compelled to fully embrace (read: $$$) the world of HD.

From what I understand, there is no HDCP through the HDMI output, and the HDMI video coming out is YCbCr. If this is true, then does that mean an HDMI to "component" video cable will work with the WDTV?

thanks!

I tried an iso last night and it read it just fine.

This thing leaves directory with SQLite data on every drive it sees. Besides the fact that utility is possible to manipulate this data to make play lists etc, it might be actually a Linux device. If so - source code should available and just a matter of time that some USB to Ethernet device will be possible.
I would be very happy with simple UDP slave to stream from VLC.

Maybe we should ask ScottWD about that? ;)

Can't wait to see next firmware. It will be easier after that

Cheers!

does hd dvd isos work on this? i dont have any on hand to test.

I just bought one and I noticed that it takes about 1 second to go from file to file when browsing for files in folder view, to me that just seems a bit too slow.

thats odd, i havent had that problem. is there like 10 thousand files in the folder?

Ever single Transformers scene release I play is blocky? Is anyone else having this problem? Also how do I play PS3AVCHD Iso's?

does anyone know if this is available in canada? I'm really thinking of buying one but i don't want to get nailed by customs.

+1

thats odd, i havent had that problem. is there like 10 thousand files in the folder?

197 in one folder I think, and almost 1 million files total on the drive. I am playing a movie on the unit right now so I can't check.

it might have still been reading all of the data on the drive since it is a 500gig unit with less then 100gigs free.

EDIT: it is faster now, nearly instant going from file to file.

hi there, very interested in this as have been looking for a cheap alternative to plugging my pc directly into the tv

question though - can the aspect ratio of video files, especially xvid/divx be changed? I realise it can zoom, but want to know if it can actually adjust the ratio to fill the screen

thanks

Anyone think this thing will get firmware updates to add more codecs and support? Just wondering.

Anyone think this thing will get firmware updates to add more codecs and support? Just wondering.

I would imagine, when you install the software on your computer it asks you if you'd like to check for newer firmware.

All this talk of it plays that MKV but not this one has ruled this out for me. Looks like i'll stick with my Lim for the moment.

K

To our Euro friends, this thing came with 12V power adapter with 100-240v input, but it has American (two flat prongs) power input. The output is fairly common round plug. You can either use power plug adapter from UStoEuro or find another 12V brick.

More about video:
last night I was playing with included CD. Video converter limited to SD only,so, what's the point?
Anyway, I've tried included video clips copied to thumb/flash drive, with some of my own MP2s. Well, it behaves badly every time I play included samples. After play stops any other file I'm trying to play will came up with no video, just black screen, for two or three attempts. After that It still allow me to navigate and select to play, but 100% will display message that this video is not compatible and all that...
Only cold start restores normal operation. Playing these samples again guaranteeing same events. MP2s from same flash drive never caused any problems. Anybody else having same problem with included samples?

Here is more:
I have some Euro DVB2 TS files. Not playable directly, but after I remux them through VLC as TS or PS and rename them to M4V they play fine, but don't allow me to FF at all.


Hi the unit i bought in the UK (euro addition) comes with several smart type AC heads you just select the one in my case 3 pin 13 amp and it clips to the AC-DC block !

Paul

Circuit City has it in their system here in the states, so you might wanna try The Source.

No, The Source sells mostly overpriced no name garbage. Circuit City's equivalent in Canada is Future Shop which they own. Unfortunately Future Shop does not list it ether.

No, The Source sells mostly overpriced no name garbage. Circuit City's equivalent in Canada is Future Shop which they own. Unfortunately Future Shop does not list it ether.

future shop is owned by bestbuy

future shop is owned by bestbuy
Yes your right. Don't know why I thought they were owned by Circuit City...

But the USA Best Buy's have the WD TV, and Future Shop and the Canadian Best Buy's do not. So in the end it changes nothing :(

Well, I'm not trying to make enemies, but I guess I should have also noted that I see a lot of you are new to posting, and maybe new to streaming? And one of the other points I might have made is I guess this isn't a bad way for the uninitiated to get into streaming...cheaply.

And that's fine, if it is, everyone has to start somewhere. IMO, I think that you'll find going digital means you'll just yearn more for the convenience of having everything available at your remote-controllable fingertips, not just what one drive here or there will satiate; and when you get bitten by that bug, this thing will collect dust.

CD

Sounds like someone with a financial interest in PH.
Commision/kickbacks?

The attraction of this product is simple: it is a low-cost solution to playing nearly every video a person owns from a hard drive without a FAT 32 (and thus, file size) restriction or an existing network. After a few bugs/kinks get worked out, I think this will be the perfect product for those like me who want to do just that.

It also makes it possible to easily grab the unit and hdd and take on the road. The PS3 isn't exactly easy to transport, not to mention having to reset the video settings on TVs that aren't set up like your own. Plus, the video files are located on an external drive that can be transported, as opposed to being located on an internal hdd on a media center PC.

Plug and play is the big plus here. There are other products that can accomplish the same thing as this and more (networking is the major one), but if you're looking to play your library on only one TV and would like to move it around if need be, the WD TV does all of that.

Also, with Best Buy carrying it, one can buy it locally, try it out, and then return it if they so choose. I'm still not entirely sold on the device. If WD can address some of the video resizing issues as well as sequential or video playlist capabilities, then this would be perfect for my needs.

But to each his own, right?

Help Please. I have a PS3 connected to my AV Receiver through HDMI and a PC (with video/audio files) connected to my LCD TV through the monitor cable & to the AV Receiver through toslink. Can someone tell me if there is any advantage to owning this Media Player if I already have the setup I mentioned? I am guessing that the video quality will be much better?

Oh, Also, I have a DVD Recorder with a USB input which upscales to 1080p, is that kind of the same thing as this media player? can I hook up a PC or Hard drive to that and will it do the same thing?

For anyone interested, I just tested it with my Kill-A-Watt, and this thing pulls only 7 watts when decoding a Blu-Ray .m2ts file. Pulls 5 watts when idle.

What about when its OFF?

Thanks for your previous info!!! Seams like a very green device when compared to my Laptop or PS3.

Help Please. I have a PS3 connected to my AV Receiver through HDMI and a PC (with video/audio files) connected to my LCD TV through the monitor cable & to the AV Receiver through toslink. Can someone tell me if there is any advantage to owning this Media Player if I already have the setup I mentioned? I am guessing that the video quality will be much better?

Oh, Also, I have a DVD Recorder with a USB input which upscales to 1080p, is that kind of the same thing as this media player? can I hook up a PC or Hard drive to that and will it do the same thing?

I have the same setup minus the DVD recorder. One thing my HTPC can't do is play 1080p movie rips, the integrated graphics aren't good enough (it's an older Aopen MiniPC, a mac-mini clone, no expansion slots). Also it can be a hassle to mess with a PC when company is over. I'm thinking the WDTV is good for playing HD content with minimal fuss. It powers up in just a few seconds, you choose music or movies, select your file and that's it. PS3 will play some digital media but the formats it handles are very limited. WDTV will play about anything you can scrounge off the web with the exception of some 1080p movie rips.

Just got mine.. couldn't play the first file I tried (MKV with H264/FLAC)..

Said "Audio track 1 unsupported".

There never has been and I suspect there never will be a replacement for the awesome power that is the HTPC.

hi all
can someone check if it support hebrew subtitles from right to left?
it's very important.

thank you

Just got mine.. couldn't play the first file I tried (MKV with H264/FLAC)..

Said "Audio track 1 unsupported".

There never has been and I suspect there never will be a replacement for the awesome power that is the HTPC.

Yeah but that is a highly unusual configuration, in fact I've never downloaded an MKV (or other video) that uses FLAC for audio. Is that your own creation..?

As long as it can handle PCM, MP3, AAC, AC3, DTS that will cover 99% of video files out there.

I picked this up yesterday, and am already having issues with some of my movies. This will not play Transformers, 300 or I Am Legend in 1080p without getting pixelated. It happens whenever there is motion on the screen. It is extremely frustrating. Has anyone else had issues like this? Is there something that can eb done to fix this?

So far I've tested about 25 MKV format movies, 1080p rips from usenet. About 2/3 work perfectly. A couple are completely unwatchable with massive blocking or stuttering. Rest have intermittent blocking artifacts that are too annoying. This is a big issue and I'm on the fence about whether to keep it. But my HTPC can't handle any 1080p, intel integrated video is weak. Ugh.


Why don't you buy a cheap new ATI card like that 4670 which is much less than $100 that has HD decoding? Seems like that would be better for you than this device. And there are a couple AGP variants out there too if you have an older system.

I picked this up yesterday, and am already having issues with some of my movies. This will not play Transformers, 300 or I Am Legend in 1080p without getting pixelated. It happens whenever there is motion on the screen. It is extremely frustrating. Has anyone else had issues like this? Is there something that can eb done to fix this?

What kind of TV do you have?

I pretty much have my media drive configured to work with the WD TV. One glitch I cannot seem to solve is when I want to show all my photo's as a slide show, the unit is finding cover art from the music folder and displaying those (a long with my personal family pictures). I don't know if it is a Vista thing (the one thing I hate most about Vista is the File Explorer), but I cannot find the cover art files so that I can remove them. Any suggestions?

Sounds like someone with a financial interest in PH.
Commision/kickbacks?

LOL...if you bothered to read all the posts, instead of just reacting to one, you'd see I'm not even the OP who brought up PH; and I'm on record as saying I don't even own one, much less have an affiliation with the company. I just don't get this unit as anything new, compared to all the other streamers, XBMC, PS3, NetGear, TViX...and yes, PH...that have been around and working for a while now.

CD

I read threw this thread and I have a question that wasn't addressed. Maybe someone could test this idea if they have the proper equipment, or at least me know if it's semi-possible.

I was in the market for a popcorn hour for a while, but haven't had the extra cash, but now that this device has come out, I’m very interested. My issue is that I'd like to have something that is hooked up to my computer and my TV at the same time. I don't want to move cords around a lot, I only want playback, I don't really want anything else. So, with the popcorn hour, I could install an internal hard drive, slave it to the comp, put files directly onto the popcorn hour internal hard drive, and when I turn it on the TV, I have access to all those files, without having to plug/unplug external hard drives and stuff.

This WD device would require the loading of files to an external hard drive, ejecting that hard drive from the computer, and hook it up to the WD device.

Here is my idea, can this work?

Buy an external hard drive that has an USB 2.0 and eSATA connection. Hook the eSATA end to the computer, and the USB 2.0 end to the WD device. Would this allow the computer to see and access to drive, but at the same time allow the WD device to see and play from the device?

Thanks if anyone has any input.

Why don't you buy a cheap new ATI card like that 4670 which is much less than $100 that has HD decoding? Seems like that would be better for you than this device. And there are a couple AGP variants out there too if you have an older system.

My HTPC is the size of a Mac Mini, but it's an Aopen miniPC. Long story short: girlfriend spilled wine on new laptop, rescued some parts, built HTPC. That said, if you can find a way to jam any other video card in there I would be very interested, but I don't think it's likely.

The WD TV is now featured on the front page of wdc.com which seems to indicate that it is a major product release for them. IMO there is a better chance now that it will be improved through firmware development. At first it seemed like a one-off product that they weren't going to push.

Here is my idea, can this work?

Buy an external hard drive that has an USB 2.0 and eSATA connection. Hook the eSATA end to the computer, and the USB 2.0 end to the WD device. Would this allow the computer to see and access to drive, but at the same time allow the WD device to see and play from the device?

Thanks if anyone has any input.My solution is to have my ext drive on a USB switch connected to my computer and to the WD. So it just takes a button press to connect the drive to my computer, copy files, press button, files are being read by the WD. Sweet.

Harold

I canceled my popcorn hour order, and went with this.

I'm kind of happy with it but


It does not play high def .WMV files at all, or converted .mp4 files I had.

It also starts marcoblocking on any high def animation I have. Any have any ideals to fix that?


The positives are

It plays all my high def TV mkvs, and all my 1080p and 720p movie files without problems, and play isos without errors.

I might return it, and get something more powerful, and updated, but it does a solid job with MKV files.

Anyone know where to get the new firmware?

Got mine today, and just tried a few clips on an 8GB SDHC card plugged into a USB adapter. So far, some short dvd VOBs, downloaded mpg, and a 4 year old 1080i hdtv clip (.ts renamed to .mpg) plays perfectly.

Unfortunately, no passthrough resolution setting, and no 480i HDMI option at all. Built in scaling isn't bad, but my Lumagen video processor could do much better.

I'll keep it just to play with.


--Dan

Just got mine.. couldn't play the first file I tried (MKV with H264/FLAC)..

Said "Audio track 1 unsupported".

There never has been and I suspect there never will be a replacement for the awesome power that is the HTPC.

I got a similar message when I tried a file through the analog audio but through the hdmi, the audio worked fine. I believe it was a m2ts file with DTS sound. I don't have an mkv with flac though so I can't test. You may want to try audio through the hdmi or the digital output.

What kind of TV do you have?

LG 52LG70 (1080p/120Hz)

The power cycle issue seems to appear quite often for me, and the worst thing is, after I power cycle, it seems to lose the resume state. I have to start my movies from the beginning (and remember we have no chapter support and jump to time!)

I emailed wd support, don't know what they will say...

Does anyone have experience using this with 2-3 TB hard drives?

I have played with this a little, and I have to say it is an interesting device. The interface is nice, as well as the appearance. This thing is nowhere near the PH. I like the competition though, and I would definitely pick one up if they fix the subtitling issue, and if it could play back L4.1 1080p mkv's. At the moment, it seems to struggle.

This is a great low end device for people who don't need the horsepower of the PH though, and I give credit to WD for getting in the market.

Going back to an early discussion about using a NAS with this WD device. This product from Buffalo

http://www.buffalotech.com/products/external-drives/drivestation/drivestation-flexnet/

allows a user to switch from NAS (Ethernet) mode to USB 2.0 mode. Seems like it could work nicely, allowing files to be sent to the NAS part over the network then when ready to play files on the WD TV, flip the switch and a USB external hd is hooked in.

I've having issues with playing the main M2TS file from There will be Blood, I'm guessing because it's VC-1 encoded.

Does the WD TV play VC-1 encoded files for sure?

If not, can someone point to an easy tutorial on converting them so they will play?

So where you download new firmware for this, so I can get new features?

:confused:

So where you download new firmware for this, so I can get new features?

:confused:

? The product just came out, there is no "new firmware" yet... I am keeping fingers crossed that they will have one, soon.

Yeah but that is a highly unusual configuration, in fact I've never downloaded an MKV (or other video) that uses FLAC for audio. Is that your own creation..?

As long as it can handle PCM, MP3, AAC, AC3, DTS that will cover 99% of video files out there.

Indeed.. HD-DVD backup of 'Next'.. Muxed the H264 stream and the TrueHD -> FLAC

Was really hoping it could handle what it said it could handle.

so i just bought this and also got a "unsupported audio format" with my mkv file,im watching alot of high res anime fansubs and these guys all use different audio compressions which doesnt help. and what ive found with all my mkv anime so far is that the subtitles do not show up on any of them. i will say though that the video quality itself is great so far.

Going back to an early discussion about using a NAS with this WD device. This product from Buffalo

http://www.buffalotech.com/products/external-drives/drivestation/drivestation-flexnet/

allows a user to switch from NAS (Ethernet) mode to USB 2.0 mode. Seems like it could work nicely, allowing files to be sent to the NAS part over the network then when ready to play files on the WD TV, flip the switch and a USB external hd is hooked in.

This looks like an ideal solution for me! Under $200 for the 1TB too. I think I will have to go for it......

Anybody else get an error on startup saying the "media library compilation needs more space (1228MB)"? I think the issue may lie in the fact that I have a dual drive enclosure because each of the drive has ~7GB left on each. These are both HFS+ drives with journaling disabled. I also have an issue ejecting the drives but I'm assuming once again because it is a dual enclosure.

EDIT: I opened the enclosure and disconnected 1 of the drives which solved the ejecting issue but not the space issue.

A couple of notes on my experience so far with the WD TV...
I tried two DVD images (VIDEO_TS directory) from homemade DVDs. One I had made by recording the video into my DVD recorder, which results in AC3 audio. This would play on the WD TV. The other was encoded with the TMPGEnc encoder with an mp2 audio track. This one played the video ok, but the audio did not play. To summarize:
-Plays AC3 audio
-Does not play mp2 audio (at least not the 384KBps track on my DVD)

Another thing I found was the fast forward didn't work on dvr-ms files. It would fast forward, but when you hit play, it would either go back to the start of the file or knock it back to the screen where you select the file you want to play. I ran VideoReDo's Quickstream fix on this file (saving as .mpg) and the fast forward then worked ok.

has anyone successfully play an xvid file with .srt subs? The subtitles option comes up (Subtitle 1/1) but the text does not display on the screen.

Another thing I found was the fast forward didn't work on dvr-ms files. It would fast forward, but when you hit play, it would either go back to the start of the file or knock it back to the screen where you select the file you want to play.

Are you saying dvr-ms is supported for playing?

Martin

Hi, newbie here. I'm confused about something and really need to know something before I buy this device.

My DVD Home Theater has only one HDMI out and No optical sound capabilities. My Philips LCD has 4 HDMI inputs.

What would be the best option for me to get the highest quality video and sound? Will it work if I connect the WD TV to my LCD through HDMI and connect WD TV to my Home Theater through composite? (HT is connected to the LCD TV through HDMI).

Or would you recommend any other setup? I'd appreciate if you could give me some opinions on this. Thank you.

My DVD player broke in my minivan and I've been looking for something new to play my kids' movies with. I bought this last week and completed the install over the weekend. It's nice that it's 12V so that I didn't need a brick to connect it to my van's power supply. I've been been running it with and 8GB flash drive and so far it's great for my application. Will probably buy a passport next. The only downside I've found is that I need to make sure that I don't have any DTS encoded files as it won't play those out the analog ports.

I also have a popcorn hour for my main home theater and although this thing doesn't have as many features, I would say that it's great for the price!

My DVD player broke in my minivan and I've been looking for something new to play my kids' movies with. I bought this last week and completed the install over the weekend. It's nice that it's 12V so that I didn't need a brick to connect it to my van's power supply. I've been been running it with and 8GB flash drive and so far it's great for my application. Will probably buy a passport next. The only downside I've found is that I need to make sure that I don't have any DTS encoded files as it won't play those out the analog ports.

I also have a popcorn hour for my main home theater and although this thing doesn't have as many features, I would say that it's great for the price!

Two things... first, download the popcorn hour video converter. It can transcode DTS audio to AC3 quickly without touching the video. Second, I'm not sure I'd put a hard drive in a vehicle... vibration, even though it may seem minor, seems like a recipe for early drive failure.

Can anyone tell me how the subtitles are filled in the screen?
Is it IN the movie or below? Can you move it up or down?
Can someone make a screenshot of it?

Ok I thought this thing can play PS3AVCHD Files, I extracted the mt2s stream file and it plays the video fine but Audio which is DTS stops after a bit? Has anyone else had this problem?

Are you saying dvr-ms is supported for playing?

Martin

I'm able to play dvr-ms files that were created by GB-PVR, a program I use to record HD programs (http://www.gbpvr.com/), but I could not fast forward or reverse (pause/resume is ok).

I don't know if it makes any difference that the only USB drive I have at this point is an 8GB thumb drive.

I've been using mine for about a week. I was using a refurb Philips DVD player with USB port to play files off an 8gb DOS formatted thumb drive, but was running into the 4gb file ceiling. Nice to have all my files on a 750gb drive and just hit play. I tried a Buffalo 1tb RAID drive formatted to HFS+ journaled, but the WD wouldn't recognize it. Dumped all my videos to a WD 750GB I had lying around. There was an initial hiccup where I'd hit play on VIDEO_TS/.mp4/.avi files and nothing happened. Reset the player and it recognizes almost everything I've thrown at it in Media Library mode, even some 720 .mkv files. It choked on my ISO of Brazil (two seconds of video, then pixelated skips), but I extracted the VIDEO_TS files and those played just fine. Interface is snappy; able to shuffle between alternate audio tracks without a hitch. Unable to turn off English subtitles on the Family Guy Star Wars Special for some reason, but no big deal because my 5-year-old is learning to read anyway and she prefers subtitles.

Pushed via HDMI to my Sanyo PLVZ2000 and a 120" screen, this looks great. Very satisfied for my $99. This will tide me over until I either put an HTPC together, or there's an AppleTV that will play everything I have without having to hack it.

I have at least one that exceed that range and plays normally.
Miami Vice.2006.1080p.mkv, 12.2gb, 1920x800, 6 reframes = 9216000

Checking the other 1080p files that played normally, they do fall below 8294400. Typically 1920x800 with 4 or 5 reframes, High@L4.1

The ones that are somewhat to very garbled were encoded at High@L5.1

Does not play correctly:
Superbad.2007.1080p.mkv, 7.9gb, 1920x1040, 5 reframes = 9984000
Life of Brian.1979.1080p.mkv, 7.9gb, 1920x1040, 5 reframes

Others have 8, 10 even 12 reframes... too complicated for this box. Any chance the number of reframes it handles can be upped through a firmware patch (assuming WD is going to continue supporting theset things, maybe not) - or is it a hardware limitation? If so I imagine Popcorn Hour owners would have the same problem since they both use the Sigma 8635.


Correct. It's SDK related. But Sigma made a workaround in their SDK to give some minor support for High@L5.1 profile

Can anyone tell me how the subtitles are filled in the screen?
Is it IN the movie or below? Can you move it up or down?
Can someone make a screenshot of it?

When playing a movie I pulled off of one of my DVDs, the subtitles loaded up exactly as they look when the physical DVD plays in a DVD player. They appeared at the bottom of my screen. I did not try to move the subtitles, but I don't know that I saw anything along the way that would suggest it's an option, either.

Ok I thought this thing can play PS3AVCHD Files, I extracted the mt2s stream file and it plays the video fine but Audio which is DTS stops after a bit? Has anyone else had this problem?

similar occurrence with Tranformers 2 part 18 gig AVCHD , didn't happen through 9 gig Rambo (new one) , but hiccuped again on a 9 gig rip of Apocalypto about 1 hour in

all avchd extracted to mt2s and put on to a seagate NTFS 7200 32mb drive.

When playing a movie I pulled off of one of my DVDs, the subtitles loaded up exactly as they look when the physical DVD plays in a DVD player. They appeared at the bottom of my screen. I did not try to move the subtitles, but I don't know that I saw anything along the way that would suggest it's an option, either.


Thanks!
That would be great because with aspect ratio 2.35:1 it is very annoying to see the subs in the movie.

Can anyone try this with a xvid or mkv movie?

Regarding the power cycle issue (that it doesn't power on from the remote and has to power cycle it), I contacted WD and they got back to me saying that I should have it replaced from the store I bought it from...

Is it true that only a small number of us get this power cycle problem?

When playing a movie I pulled off of one of my DVDs, the subtitles loaded up exactly as they look when the physical DVD plays in a DVD player. They appeared at the bottom of my screen. I did not try to move the subtitles, but I don't know that I saw anything along the way that would suggest it's an option, either.

I think alcatel was talking about SRTs.. DVD subtitles are images and their position is fixed.

Regarding the power cycle issue (that it doesn't power on from the remote and has to power cycle it), I contacted WD and they got back to me saying that I should have it replaced from the store I bought it from...

Is it true that only a small number of us get this power cycle problem?

I have the power cycle issue, 3x in the last 4 days. I haven't tried resetting it yet, but if that does not work I'm exchanging it. Otherwise it's a great addition to my movie viewing experience.

I have the power cycle issue, 3x in the last 4 days. I haven't tried resetting it yet, but if that does not work I'm exchanging it. Otherwise it's a great addition to my movie viewing experience.

Thanks wpalomine for replying so I know I am not alone. I tried resetting it, it won't help. Too bad Bestbuy is backordered on this now so I couldnt' get an easy exchange... I will wait a bit and see...

Question if i have a hard drive attached to one of the usb port on the wd tv, can i plug a usb drive into the other port and copy whats on the usb drive to the hard drive or do i have to take the hard drive and upload them via my pc?

Question if i have a hard drive attached to one of the usb port on the wd tv, can i plug a usb drive into the other port and copy whats on the usb drive to the hard drive or do i have to take the hard drive and upload them via my pc?

Dont' seem to have this feature for the time being, I believe...

similar occurrence with Tranformers 2 part 18 gig AVCHD , didn't happen through 9 gig Rambo (new one) , but hiccuped again on a 9 gig rip of Apocalypto about 1 hour in

all avchd extracted to mt2s and put on to a seagate NTFS 7200 32mb drive.

Damn I hope there is a fix for this soon ??:mad:

Does anyone know if you can connect to a USB port on your PC and access media files from any HDD in the PC?

Thx
bnw

Thanks wpalomine for replying so I know I am not alone. I tried resetting it, it won't help. Too bad Bestbuy is backordered on this now so I couldnt' get an easy exchange... I will wait a bit and see...

Got another follow-up email from WD that the symtom seem to be thermal related. Well, I haven't removed the plastic wrap from the player yet... (thinking that I might return it and wanted it to look nice if I do...) Anyway, I removed the plastic wrap now, hope the problem goes away...

Hey for those using a western digital passport external hard drive when you turn off the wd tv does it also turn of the drive attached or does it put it in standbuy?

Also can someone try this in dvd shrink make an iso image(make sure in pref., you dont split into 1 gig chunks)

After the iso is made using the command line to rename the iso to mpeg and check if it will play that and what the quality is like

I have no longer a AV receiver and my question is, will I get sound through
the hdmi from my tv when playing a dolby digital avi/mkv? Will the
output be pcm converted from DD.

I have no longer a AV receiver and my question is, will I get sound through
the hdmi from my tv when playing a dolby digital avi/mkv? Will the
output be pcm converted from DD.

You will get sound (I ran the HDMI directly to my Toshiba LCD). Not sure about the rest of your question.......

Hi, I extracted srt file from MKV because the media player does not recognize embedded srt or ass files. When I display the subtitle from the extracted srt file it shows up on the screen roughly at 40% height from the bottom. This is annoying. I don't see any obvious setting in the option menu to lower the position of the subtitles. Anyone having the same issue as me, or have a solution? Thanks.

Hi, I extracted srt file from MKV because the media player does not recognize embedded srt or ass files. When I display the subtitle from the extracted srt file it shows up on the screen roughly at 40% height from the bottom. This is annoying. I don't see any obvious setting in the option menu to lower the position of the subtitles. Anyone having the same issue as me, or have a solution? Thanks.


Does this only show in this particular mkv file or all other avi and mkv files?
Too bad, it isnt like BS player. So far thats the only player which you can easy move the subs up or down.
Maybe a mail to WD for a firmware upgrade.

Hi, I extracted srt file from MKV because the media player does not recognize embedded srt or ass files. When I display the subtitle from the extracted srt file it shows up on the screen roughly at 40% height from the bottom. This is annoying. I don't see any obvious setting in the option menu to lower the position of the subtitles. Anyone having the same issue as me, or have a solution? Thanks.

I think you push subtitle on the remote a couple times to get to location, then you can adjust it that way using the up/down arrows or right/left, not entirely sure.

Hi, I extracted srt file from MKV because the media player does not recognize embedded srt or ass files. When I display the subtitle from the extracted srt file it shows up on the screen roughly at 40% height from the bottom. This is annoying. I don't see any obvious setting in the option menu to lower the position of the subtitles. Anyone having the same issue as me, or have a solution? Thanks.

When you extracted the srt did you manage to get subtitles on the movie while playing it on the WD media player? How did you do that?

I have few MKVs on foreing languages that have subtitles when I play them on my PC, but show no subtitles when playing them on the WD HD media center.

I will appreciate any help on how to get subtitles to correctly appear on the WD HD media player.

Thanks

Does this only show in this particular mkv file or all other avi and mkv files?
Too bad, it isnt like BS player. So far thats the only player which you can easy move the subs up or down.
Maybe a mail to WD for a firmware upgrade.

Hi, I've only had to deal with srt's for MKV files so I can't say if I have the same problem with AVI. I sure would like for WD to update their firmware to play embedded srt's or ass's.

I think you push subtitle on the remote a couple times to get to location, then you can adjust it that way using the up/down arrows or right/left, not entirely sure.

Neat, where did you find that out? I'll try that when I get home. Thanks.

When you extracted the srt did you manage to get subtitles on the movie while playing it on the WD media player? How did you do that?

I have few MKVs on foreing languages that have subtitles when I play them on my PC, but show no subtitles when playing them on the WD HD media center.

I will appreciate any help on how to get subtitles to correctly appear on the WD HD media player.

Thanks

Here's how I did it. I renamed the srt filename to match the mkv. When I play the file I press the option button on the remote and then move over to the subtitle option to select it.

Just in case your problem may be with non-srt subtitle files you may have to convert them to srt. For example I have a few MKVs that have ass subtitle streams and when I extract them the media player does not recognize them.

You can use a utility program call DSRT to see which streams you have. If you do indeed have a ass file you can convert to srt from the same program. That's what I use.

Good luck.

Here's how I did it. I renamed the srt filename to match the mkv. When I play the file I press the option button on the remote and then move over to the subtitle option to select it.

Just in case your problem may be with non-srt subtitle files you may have to convert them to srt. For example I have a few MKVs that have ass subtitle streams and when I extract them the media player does not recognize them.

You can use a utility program call DSRT to see which streams you have. If you do indeed have a ass file you can convert to srt from the same program. That's what I use.

Good luck.

CMM0325,

Thanks a lot I tried and it works perfectly.

As somebody mentioned above the subs are about 40% from the bottom on the screen, while I couldn't move the subs as somebody suggested, if you are watching the movie on 2.35 format, then you can move the image up and the subs will not interfere with the movie.

Thanks again

Bummer about not being to move the subtitles. This is rather unfortunate for an otherwise ideal media player solution for me. There's always hope for a firmware update for improved features.

Had it for a couple of days now. It played ISO files fine, wouldn't play IMG file. I renamed IMG to ISO, it worked fine. I also extracted VOB files from IMG, merged them into one big file, it played. These films were in English w/occasional subtitles, all subs worked properly in both VOB and ISO. MKV files, 720p, all movies worked so far, one tv series was squished-looking, other tv series were good. Haven't done any 1080 yet. AVI files all good so far, except one was out of sync, but I've also had trouble with that file on my OPPO 980. MKV, foreign flick, subtitles worked great.

Also my URC IR remote learned the WD remote, no problem. I even setup some nice little macros for the WD.

Picture is great, sound is great, I've very pleased. Nice deal at $99. Now I plan to buy the Hauppauge HD PVR so I can transfer hi-def recordings from my cable box to archive on my computer, then play them back on the WD when I so desire. Coolness.

Harold

Had this thing for about a week now, still love it, I hook it up to my 5 years old Panasonic 42in Plasma, at the time there is no HDMI, I got my self a HDFURY a DVI to VGA converter. that will convert HDMI to DVI then to my VGA, I hook up the optical to my receiver to get the digital sound. works great.

here is my testing out come:

subtitle that are embed in MKV u have to extract them out. I use the mkvtoolnix hxxp://www.bunkus.org/videotools/mkvtoolnix/ , I use the mkvextractgui hxxp://coreforge.org/projects/mkvextractgui/

the ssa file I use the online convert @ hxxp://www.akira.ru/osc/ssa2srt.php to make a srt file. then I can view them on the WD HD TV, but Chinese subtitle srt file don't show it says unsupported. the subtitle is all thin white color not very nice but it works.

I also dl whole bunch sample mkv, 1080p
SAMPLE-Blade.Runner.1982.Final.Cut.1080p.HDDVD.DTS.x264-CtrlHD.mkv video plays nice but the sound is bit choppy thought the optical since it is DTS

all 720p mkv playback is good.

also I notice some of the xvid avi is out of sync Step.Brothers.UNRATED.DVDRip.XviD-DiAMOND for example u will hear it is bad. just not as perfect as mkv files.

also I disconnect the power cable when I shutdown. this thing get hot/warm when its off/standby.

You will get sound (I ran the HDMI directly to my Toshiba LCD). Not sure about the rest of your question.......

Thanks, I was just wondering what kind of digital signal it would put out
through the hdmi.

Two things... first, download the popcorn hour video converter. It can transcode DTS audio to AC3 quickly without touching the video. Second, I'm not sure I'd put a hard drive in a vehicle... vibration, even though it may seem minor, seems like a recipe for early drive failure.

This is where the 8GB and 16GB thumbdrives come in handy... :p

I picked up a WDTV from Best Buy over the weekend. I had a few DVDs stored as ISO and the unit played most of them fine. Subtitles seemed to work fine although no chapter support. A few ISOs kept dropping frames every few minutes. Extracted the Vobs from the ISO and they played fine.

To save disk space, I used Handbrake to re-encode using H.264 in a M4V container (sorry if I have the terminology wrong, but I am new to this) Fast forward didn't work and neither did the subtitles.

Does anyone have an opinion on the ideal format for the WDTV that would allow:
1. subtitles,
2. smaller file size
3. chapter support
4. fast forward/reverse working
5. embed the dvd cover art in the file so the thumbnail mode works.

I am trying different options myself, but when it takes 2 hours to encode a dvd, the process is going to take awhile to test.

Thanks,

N

Bummer about not being to move the subtitles. This is rather unfortunate for an otherwise ideal media player solution for me. There's always hope for a firmware update for improved features.

Indeed. There are a lot of ppl out there who use subs. 40% is really annoying. Who knows when or if there will be an update for this.

I've got email from WD today:

Thank you for contacting Western Digital Customer Service and Support.
The WD TV uses the same chipset as Blu-Ray players, Sigma Design 8634.
The WD TV uses HDMI 1.3.

Just picked one of these up last week, still waiting on my hdmi to dvi cable from Newegg... Does anyone know if I use a USB wireless adapter on this, can I stream media to it OR if I hook up a USB wireless adapter and a usb hard drive, can I stream media to that hard drive from my computer in another room?

I have the same issue, I want to migrate media files over my network to a usb drive connected to the WD TV. So far the best option I can find is to use a network storage device like this one. http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=3672426&csid=ITD&body=MAIN#detailspecs.

You could make this wireless with a bridge http://www.pcstockpile.com/product_info.php?products_id=9574

May be better options I am still looking. This thing needs an Ethernet port to be of real value for me.
bnw

I've got email from WD today:

Thank you for contacting Western Digital Customer Service and Support.
The WD TV uses the same chipset as Blu-Ray players, Sigma Design 8634.
The WD TV uses HDMI 1.3.

but there's a picture at "maddhat.com" that reveal the chipset is Sigma SMP8635LF :confused:

I have the same issue, I want to migrate media files over my network to a usb drive connected to the WD TV. So far the best option I can find is to use a network storage device like this one. http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=3672426&csid=ITD&body=MAIN#detailspecs.

You could make this wireless with a bridge http://www.pcstockpile.com/product_info.php?products_id=9574

May be better options I am still looking. This thing needs an Ethernet port to be of real value for me.
bnw

Looks to me like the USB port on this can only be used to add an additional hard drive, not link to a computer or a device like the WD TV.

does anyone know WD TV support "DTS down mixing"?

Someone out there who knows more about pda's may be able to answer this. My last phone was an HTC mogul that had built in wifi. I remember there was some software that you could load on the device that would let you plug it into a computer and it would be seen as usb storage. I also remember seeing posts on several forums about mapping a network drive to the pda through wifi. If both of these are possible, couldn't one use a pda to essentially map a drive from their home network to this device?

At last it is starting to appear on Canadian sites:

http://www.ncix.com/products/index.php?sku=98329J&vpn=WDAVN00BN&manufacture=WESTERN%20DIGITAL%20-%20RETAIL%20DRIVES

Unfortunately its as usual more expensive than Americans pay. Also NCIX does not list it as available yet, so who knows how long it would take to ship.

Someone out there who knows more about pda's may be able to answer this. My last phone was an HTC mogul that had built in wifi. I remember there was some software that you could load on the device that would let you plug it into a computer and it would be seen as usb storage. I also remember seeing posts on several forums about mapping a network drive to the pda through wifi. If both of these are possible, couldn't one use a pda to essentially map a drive from their home network to this device?

Someone would have to write an app for the PDA that would make the WDTV see the PDA as a drive. The way you're describing things, the PDA would see the drive over the network, but the WDTV would still see the PDA as a PDA (or more likely just as an incompatible device).

I think our best hopes for adding networking to this thing is someone (WD or, more likely a Chinese OEM) releasing a NAS or NDAS that allows simultaneous read-write access over Ethernet and read-only access over USB.

Wow hopefully the 1.3 comment is correct. I would love to see hd audio codec bitstream...

Wow hopefully the 1.3 comment is correct. I would love to see hd audio codec bitstream...

how come people love bitstreaming compressed audio so much? what's the diff whether the player decodes or your receiver does?

(logically it makes much more sense for your player to decode - and for hdmi not to know anything about codecs)

All,
So far I love this product and while an ethernet port would have been great to access NAS, I am in the habit of archiving my videos and audio to DVD-R's (I would need several TB's to rip and transfer everything to ext USB hard drives or NAS's).

Now I know this is not possible out of the box, but how can I make WDTV recognize an external DVD-ROM (or even a Blu-Ray drive) so that I can pop my disks into the drive and use WDTV to play them?

Is there no way to do this? I cannot find anything on the net to explain how this is possible or if it is not, what is the reason for it.

Thanks in advance...

All,
So far I love this product and while an ethernet port would have been great to access NAS, I am in the habit of archiving my videos and audio to DVD-R's (I would need several TB's to rip and transfer everything to ext USB hard drives or NAS's).

Now I know this is not possible out of the box, but how can I make WDTV recognize an external DVD-ROM (or even a Blu-Ray drive) so that I can pop my disks into the drive and use WDTV to play them?

Is there no way to do this? I cannot find anything on the net to explain how this is possible or if it is not, what is the reason for it.

Thanks in advance...

Not possible, it will only work with hard drives. DVD/BD-ROMs require a software driver and there is none built in the WDTV firmware, nor will there be I imagine. The whole point of this is to get people to buy more hard drives.

You will have to copy your DVD-Rs to a hard drive and play them from the hard drive.

how come people love bitstreaming compressed audio so much? what's the diff whether the player decodes or your receiver does?

(logically it makes much more sense for your player to decode - and for hdmi not to know anything about codecs)

I would think the opposite, that it makes more sense for the player to pass the audio stream to the stereo receiver for decoding, since a home stereo will probably have better quality digital-to-analog conversion.

Thanks to a helpful forum member, I've been told how to make this thing play video files in sequence from a USB drive. Instead of hitting "enter" to play a video, press "play" instead. Once the file is finished, it will then move to the next one in sequence instead of reverting to the folder view!

Now, can anyone tell me how to make a video playlist work on this thing?

I think our best hopes for adding networking to this thing is someone (WD or, more likely a Chinese OEM) releasing a NAS or NDAS that allows simultaneous read-write access over Ethernet and read-only access over USB.

The only problem here is the device writes some index files to USB when it connects.

Any way to make this networkable, so I can upload files to it?

If i add usb wireless device for ftp, will it work?

or a N.A.S. :confused:

my big question would be how does it handle JPEGs and images?

Most of the other media players are pretty pathetic in showing a decent slideshow, and most take up to 5 seconds to display a simple 2MB image.

Can anyone that has one provide some feedback on this??

my big question would be how does it handle JPEGs and images?

Most of the other media players are pretty pathetic in showing a decent slide-show, and most take up to 5 seconds to display a simple 2MB image.

Can anyone that has one provide some feedback on this??

I played a slide show today with jpeg images ~5MB and time between photos was about 3 sec. Still a bit sluggish for me. However, the video play back capabilities on this little box are very impressive.

I'm playing full 7GB native DVD .ISO files that look great on my 42" 720P display with full audio coding of Dolby Digital AC-3 and DTS.

I did some comparisons today of a source DVD playing on an up-scaling OPPO DVD machine vs a ripped .ISO of the same movie playing on WD TV, the WD TV unit looked even better than the DVD source. Just my observation.

Other than not being a network ready device out of the box this player is going to turn some heads for the low $$.

bnw

Anyone else have problems with the remote on this unit?At first it worked fine but within an hour the unit would not respond at all so i put brand new batteries but still no go.The only way was to hold the remote less than an inch from the unit to get some commands to work intermittently.Very frustrating.Sometimes i click on the right or left arrow and no response then after repeated tries it would move the options on the screen continually in rapid pace even after taking out the remote batteries.Maybe there is something wrong with the remote sensor on the unit?


It's to bad because when i got to play some files they looked spectacular.1080p MKV's that my computer chokes on plays back wonderfully smooth,really impressive!Most 720p MKV's plays perfectly.Now some negative observations:there are some MKV encodes out there with less than 1280 vertical resolution and for example a 960x688 MKV that looks very nice on the VLC player on the computer plays back with a squeezed aspect ratio.Also there is no sound from a .mp4a inside an MKV file.I also tried some European HD files and i got some stuttering on 720p/50 .ts files.Some MKV 720p/25 fared better but still some slight stutter.I will try to change the framerate on those and remux them to see if they work better.


This is still a great gadget for the money but i will have to return mine because of the remote problems.

my big question would be how does it handle JPEGs and images?

Most of the other media players are pretty pathetic in showing a decent slideshow, and most take up to 5 seconds to display a simple 2MB image.

Can anyone that has one provide some feedback on this??

If you use the remote to manually advance the photos it was surprisingly quick.
The slideshow mode I think is 2 sec max setting you can choose.
I was viewing 3-7 megpix pics. You can select original size or scale to screen.
Both produced excellent image quality. The best I've seen yet of all the viewers I've tried.
Even crappy images grabbed from the internet looked good.
No problems with my remote at all.
Impressive little box!

What do we need to do to go about putting a FAQ page together? I ordered one of these from Dell and would be willing to help put a FAQ together. Can we insert a post right after the first post in the thread?

This thing looks perfect for my needs, however, the subtitle issue is a real
big problem for me. So, I have a couple questions for those who owns this
and use subtitles (and of course have tested it in the way i describe in my questions)

First, the 40% from bottom placement of subtitles with mkv, is this confirmed ?(screenshots).
Is it the same problem on Xvid, DVD iso?
Will it display subtitles with mp4 files?

Thanks

HD audio codec would be huge for bitstreaming...right now this thing will pass DD and DTS bitstream over HDMI for your receiver to do the processing. If WD releases a firmware for TrueHD and DTS-MA bitstream this would be huge as it would allow people to play blu-ray rips at 1080p with uncompressed audio. However currently HDMI 1.3 is the only version that allows bitstream of the HD codecs hence why I was surprised and hopeful the information provided was accurate.

Anyone else have problems with the remote on this unit?At first it worked fine but within an hour the unit would not respond at all so i put brand new batteries but still no go.The only way was to hold the remote less than an inch from the unit to get some commands to work intermittently.Very frustrating.Sometimes i click on the right or left arrow and no response then after repeated tries it would move the options on the screen continually in rapid pace even after taking out the remote batteries.Maybe there is something wrong with the remote sensor on the unit?


It's to bad because when i got to play some files they looked spectacular.1080p MKV's that my computer chokes on plays back wonderfully smooth,really impressive!Most 720p MKV's plays perfectly.Now some negative observations:there are some MKV encodes out there with less than 1280 vertical resolution and for example a 960x688 MKV that looks very nice on the VLC player on the computer plays back with a squeezed aspect ratio.Also there is no sound from a .mp4a inside an MKV file.I also tried some European HD files and i got some stuttering on 720p/50 .ts files.Some MKV 720p/25 fared better but still some slight stutter.I will try to change the framerate on those and remux them to see if they work better.


This is still a great gadget for the money but i will have to return mine because of the remote problems.

It could be your unit, why not exchange for another one and give another try?

AVS Forum's is an awesome source for community feedback! I've gathered some great feedback, comments and suggestions on how to improve and enhance your WD TV. I've been working very hard with the WD TV Team on these improvements and plan to have an update soon. Stay tuned! :D

-ScottWD

Has anyone figured out the remote codes for this? Specifically the codes for programming a JP1 remote?

the reason I feel this is superior to the Popcorn Hour / NMT's:
1. Cost
2. No need to have a PC/Mac powered on in order to stream
3. No need to have internet by the HDTV (wireless won't cut it, wired is not feasible in home)
4. No messing with networking terminology/hassels (SMB shares vs. FTP vs iLink vs NFS network options one needs to master to get the PCH configured)
5. WD well known, USA based, reputable, and the product is on a pre-order only delay from China.

yeah, i have switched to laptop only in my household and i am totally wireless...This thing eliminates me having to plug it in and set everything up to stream something...Just dump to a little hard drive and roll. Plus the PS3's chances of playing something are like 50/50 anyway without 30 conversions to get it right.

AVS forums is a great place for feedback, comments, and suggestions -- We are listening! I've been working very hard with the WD TV Team to improve and enhance the WD TV experience - an update is on the way. Stay Tuned!

-ScottWD
Western Digital - Sr. Product Manager

Hi Scott, welcome to the forums! I for one am really looking forward to the WD TV Media Player, it should be delivered next week.

You are in the right place for feedback and such!

Bring on the HD Audio!! :)

Cheers

AVS Forum's is an awesome source for community feedback! I've gathered some great feedback, comments and suggestions on how to improve and enhance your WD TV. I've been working very hard with the WD TV Team on these improvements and plan to have an update soon. Stay tuned! :D

-ScottWD


Any chance you can add powering down the USB port when the unit is shut down with a firmware upgrade?

Any chance you can add powering down the USB port when the unit is shut down with a firmware upgrade?

Hi dangerdoc1, Improved power management is high on the list.

I've had this box for a week. Overall, very impressed so far, but I have found some problems:

1) Like some other posters, I find the remote inconsistent.

2) I seem to have an intermittent HDMI connection. Video comes and goes. I can usually fix by adjusting the cable at the WD box. I'm using a rather heavy HDMI cable, but I still would not expect a problem. I'm swapping out with a new cable tonight to see if the problem is with the cable or the box. Anyone else seen this?

I've had this box for a week. Overall, very impressed so far, but I have found some problems:

1) Like some other posters, I find the remote inconsistent.

2) I seem to have an intermittent HDMI connection. Video comes and goes. I can usually fix by adjusting the cable at the WD box. I'm using a rather heavy HDMI cable, but I still would not expect a problem. I'm swapping out with a new cable tonight to see if the problem is with the cable or the box. Anyone else seen this?

Rocket,

I have the same 2 issues as you, for the remote it is specially bad to turn on the unit (Sometime I have to disconnect/connect the power).

For the HDMI connection, it worked with no problem for 5 days and just this morning it started to be intermitent!!

AVS Forum's is an awesome source for community feedback! I've gathered some great feedback, comments and suggestions on how to improve and enhance your WD TV. I've been working very hard with the WD TV Team on these improvements and plan to have an update soon. Stay tuned! :D

-ScottWD

Scott,

I agree with you this is a great forum!!! And thanks for stopping by.

I have 3 things I would really like to see (And I'm sure many other guys too)

1.- Ability to jump to a particular point on a video as the 16x Fast forward can be slow if you have to advance say 1 hours into the video

2.- Support for DVD menus

3.- Better support for subtitles on MKV files (As written on other post for subtitles to appear when playing an MKV, you need to first extract them from the MKV and then copy them to the same folder were the MKV is)

We all hope to be able to see this and other improvements on the coming (hopefully soon) new firmware for our WD HD media players

AVS Forum's is an awesome source for community feedback! I've gathered some great feedback, comments and suggestions on how to improve and enhance your WD TV. I've been working very hard with the WD TV Team on these improvements and plan to have an update soon. Stay tuned! :D

-ScottWD

Welcome Scott. This product has really a lot of potential. Kudos for that.

My main concern is subtitles. I can not emphasize how important subtitles are for a lot of people around the world. It's not just the foreign movies, there are other uses of subtitles.

I had a Philips Divx player which had very similar subtitle support (only .srt). And a guy in one of the forums wrote a firmware for it which added, among other things, .sub support, bigger fonts and the ability to move the subtitles under the movie.

So, my point is, if it could be done on that I'm hoping that it can be done with even more features on this device by WD programmers. Please don't underestimate the importance of subtitles when preparing the upcoming firmware.

Thanks.

I agree.They have to do something with the SUBTITLES otherwise i will have to return this product.

I have an mkv of Mongol and the subs are working w/o any extraction.

AVS Forum's is an awesome source for community feedback! I've gathered some great feedback, comments and suggestions on how to improve and enhance your WD TV. I've been working very hard with the WD TV Team on these improvements and plan to have an update soon. Stay tuned! :D

-ScottWD

Thanks for reaching out to the community. Great product you guys have released, kudos.

A few issues from me.

- Forwarding faster than 16x and skipping though set intervals in videos would be appreciated. Trying to fast forward to a particular part in a long video can be frustrating at 16x. It would be nice to hit the >>| button and skip 2, 3 or 5 mins. It would be nicer if we could set what time interval it skips by in the settings menu.

- This seems silly but it bugged me. For those that are not tech savvy like us, please have the message boxes say something more intuitive than OK and Cancel. Make the choices logical answers to the what is being asked. I want this thing to pass the girlfriend/wife test.

- The remote it too tiny to feel ergonomic in my Paul Bunyan hands :( More my fault I guess....


Thanks again for listening to us.

All,
So far I love this product and while an ethernet port would have been great to access NAS, I am in the habit of archiving my videos and audio to DVD-R's (I would need several TB's to rip and transfer everything to ext USB hard drives or NAS's).

Now I know this is not possible out of the box, but how can I make WDTV recognize an external DVD-ROM (or even a Blu-Ray drive) so that I can pop my disks into the drive and use WDTV to play them?

Is there no way to do this? I cannot find anything on the net to explain how this is possible or if it is not, what is the reason for it.

Thanks in advance...

DVDR's? those fail after a couple years. i can barely read some of my cd's i burned 5 years ago. and old dvdr's are failing too. and this is on brand new drives. plus, you would have stacks and stacks. one hard drive can carry all that. a 1.5TB drive is like $140 now.

AVS Forum's is an awesome source for community feedback! I've gathered some great feedback, comments and suggestions on how to improve and enhance your WD TV. I've been working very hard with the WD TV Team on these improvements and plan to have an update soon. Stay tuned! :D

-ScottWD
hey Scott welcome, how about shipping some of these bad boys north of the border to canada? and if they are on the way....what store??

hey Scott welcome, how about shipping some of these bad boys north of the border to canada? and if they are on the way....what store??
You can order from Newegg.ca. I ordered mine yesterday and it shipped out 2 hours later (gotta love Newegg shipping). $153.99 isn't nearly as nice as $99 at some of the stores state-side, but I e-mailed customer support at Bestbuy and FS and neither of them had the product in the pipeline, so I pulled the trigger.

I'm not allowed to post links.

You can order from Newegg.ca. I ordered mine yesterday and it shipped out 2 hours later (gotta love Newegg shipping). $153.99 isn't nearly as nice as $99 at some of the stores state-side, but I e-mailed customer support at Bestbuy and FS and neither of them had the product in the pipeline, so I pulled the trigger.

I'm not allowed to post links.

Here you go - http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136325

Here you go
How nice for me, it dropped $7.00 since yesterday. I highly doubt Newegg offers any sort of price protection.

Some stuff I would like to see:

- Thumbnails for MKV files...I actually prefer the thumbnail view.
- Optional GUI themes, all black would look slick!
- Get Info on a file while it is playing (FPS, size, audio stream, etc)
- I have to zoom in and back out every time i start a movie to make it fit full width on the screen.

AVS Forum's is an awesome source for community feedback! I've gathered some great feedback, comments and suggestions on how to improve and enhance your WD TV. I've been working very hard with the WD TV Team on these improvements and plan to have an update soon. Stay tuned! :D

-ScottWD
I've had this thing a couple weeks now and have been very satisfied with it. Another possible firmware upgrade would be to have a "page down" feature - especially for the music list. It takes forever to go down one at a time. I know if you hold the down arrow down, it will speed up. But then it's almost too fast and I end up passing up what I wanted and then have to arrow back up.

I also think jpg's look great on this and load fairly quickly.

AVS Forum's is an awesome source for community feedback! I've gathered some great feedback, comments and suggestions on how to improve and enhance your WD TV. I've been working very hard with the WD TV Team on these improvements and plan to have an update soon. Stay tuned! :D

-ScottWD

Hello ScottWD
I recently purchased the WD TV HD Media Player. Apart from the high quality of the player, there is a very important issue concerning player's capability in showing subtitles during play back of video files, avi or mkv containers. The Greek subtitles are not displayed correctly. In fact...they can't be read. Characters are missing and spacing is bad. If you want to help and see into this bug, tell me and i will send you a sample srt file to have a look. In Greece there are a lot of customers that we have bought this product and we are having this, let me say BIG issue, with the WD TV HD Media Player. If this problem is not fixed with an upgrade within the next days, and NOT months, we will have to return product back this week. There are other media players in the market that play subtitles with no problems, like E-Great or PopcornHour, for wich i'm sure you're aware of.
Looking forward for an answer and a solution soon.
Best regards
Achileus

It could be your unit, why not exchange for another one and give another try?

I'm on my 3rd unit now and i desperately want to like it but unless i have unbelievable bad luck they are not responding to the remote.This is 3 brand new units from Best Buy on La Brea in Los Angeles.The unit is supposed to respond to the remote control even if no usb device is connected, right?


On all 3 units i have to keep pressing the buttons on the remote 20-40 times held within an inch from the unit for it to respond and if it does most times the menus keeps scrolling for up to a minute on it's own even if i take the batteries out of the remote.Same thing on all 3 units!It is also very sensitive to what kind of hard drive is connected because i have tried 5 different ones:Acom 80GB,Spire enclosure with 250GB Maxtor,Maxtor 3200 160GB,Maxtor OneTouch 4 750GB and Maxtor Mini III 100GB.I can get the Mini III to work after a lot of fiddling with the remote but as soon as i just display a picture it freezes and i have to press home or back 20+ times to get back to the menu.The Spire enclosure is just impossible,i managed to get a video playing after 100+ button pushes on the remote close to the unit but no control over ff or options etc.


On the WD site they claim that the Maxtor OneTouch 4 320GB is tested to work but my 750GB is very similar and does not work.At some point i thought it was all HDMI related somehow so i tried 3 different monitors on the composite video but the problems remain the same.There is also a tiny reset button right next to the side usb port that i have not seen anyone mention.I have used this reset button as well as resetting in the menu several times to no avail.Another weird problem is that when setting output to 1080i instead of 1080p i get a loud screeching sound through the speakers on my Samsung 650 LCD even when i mute or turn the volume down to 0.


I would also welcome ScottWD to the forum(I was going to register over at Macworld but now i don't have to).Again,i really would like to keep my unit but at this point it seems that i have to give up or should i try a 4th unit?

anyone try an external ext3 drive?

Yes. Can someone confirm if a external ext3 drive would work. It would mean I can pick one of these up and it would play all my popcorn hour media.

Hello guys, does this actually allow you to play Real Media format?

For instance on the USB side, can I plug in external drive and play RM if any possibilities?

AVS Forum's is an awesome source for community feedback! I've gathered some great feedback, comments and suggestions on how to improve and enhance your WD TV. I've been working very hard with the WD TV Team on these improvements and plan to have an update soon. Stay tuned!

Maybe we should start another thread with feature requests for this product. Either way I wanted to add my request:

- the unit currently has a resume function but this does not work if it loses power. This is problematic if you switch the power with your receiver or if you install it in a automobile like I did. I notice that it writes a file on the root of the drive. Maybe they can store the resume points in that file.

I dont think the remote has worked once to turn it on. I always have to unplug the power cord and plug it back in. Then it turns on right away. Otherwise I love it.

AVS Forum's is an awesome source for community feedback! I've gathered some great feedback, comments and suggestions on how to improve and enhance your WD TV. I've been working very hard with the WD TV Team on these improvements and plan to have an update soon. Stay tuned! :D

-ScottWD

A lot of ppl in de world use srt (subs) and is very important for them. Unfortunately a lot of these media players dont pay attention to it. My advice for srt improvement

- Can move it up or down
- Can choose diff size, fonts, colors etc etc

I will wait for a firmware upgrade.

I see a lot of people having problems with the remote. I have the same issues.

An email exchange with WD tech support states that a firmware update in the near future will correct that problem.

I see a lot of people having problems with the remote. I have the same issues.

An email exchange with WD tech support states that a firmware update in the near future will correct that problem.

I wonder whether it's the remote's problem, or actually it's the unit fails to respond some times. E.g. if I fastforward x16 for say... 3 mins, sometimes the unit simply does not respond to the remote, just keep fast forwarding.

Does the "resume" feature work like my Time Warner PVR?

The PVR will always remember where I stoped a video.

I could have a dozen videos all partially watched and each video will resume right where it was stopped.

This feature is a deal breaker for me.

Thanks

Do you have to use the ArcSoft MediaConverter software to load the files onto your media drive? If not, is there any advantage to doing so?

Does the "resume" feature work like my Time Warner PVR?

The PVR will always remember where I stoped a video.

I could have a dozen videos all partially watched and each video will resume right where it was stopped.

This feature is a deal breaker for me.

Thanks

Yes, as long as you keep the hard drive plugged in, it can resume playback where you stopped it on any movies.

What happens if I remove the HD to add some new files?

Assuming you need to detach the HD to connect to a computer to transfer new videos.

Will I loose the saved "resume" points?

I have two tvs I want to use this on. Do I need to get one device for each tv and then take files via usb drive to whatever one I want to watch it on? Is this almost like a glorified USB drive for a tv? I mean that in the best way just trying to get a feel for what this does as i`m new to this streaming stuff and looking for the best option right now...

You can carry the WD from one location to another without any hassles. To get those most enjoyment, use HDMI connection. Is this a glorified USB drive for tv? IMO, it's more like a mini(make that TINY!)-HTPC, minus the storage. Plug in most external USB drives with the supported media files (Music, Photos, Videos) and be prepared to be amazed! For $99 (earlier BB sale)I was floored! Now I can stream my media from WD HD TV via a 2' HDMI cable, instead of 25' HDMI and coaxial from HTPC to Onkyo 605. The presence of "ScottWD" representing the manufacturer in our forum, sweetens the deal.(BTW ScottWD, please hurry up and fix the remote problems and wer'e good to go).

What happens if I remove the HD to add some new files?

Assuming you need to detach the HD to connect to a computer to transfer new videos.

Will I loose the saved "resume" points?Yes.

Question maybe some of you all can help me w/...

I have an MKV movie with DTS audio.

The unit is connected directly to my TV w/ just HDMI.

I am not getting any audio at all.

If I change the container to just mpeg4, and convert the audio to AAC stereo it is fine and I get sound.

Shouldn't something along the way (in the WD TV HD, or my TV itself) be able to take the DTS stream in that MKV file and convert it to something my HDTV can use though without re-encoding the audio?

There is no internal DTS decoder so, as such, there is no way to decode a DTS stream. There is, however, a piece of software on the Popcorn Hour website that will convert DTS audio to AC3 without touching the container or video. That should fix your problem.

There is no internal DTS decoder so, as such, there is no way to decode a DTS stream. There is, however, a piece of software on the Popcorn Hour website that will convert DTS audio to AC3 without touching the container or video. That should fix your problem.

Thanks, I saw that link in this thread but at the time didn't understand what they were talking about. Looks like it is Windows only. I can bootup VMware on my Mac and try it out though. Anyone know of a way to do this in OS X?

So when they say passthrough, it means if I run the optical cable to my DTS receiver it could decode the audio stream?

UPDATE: this seems to have some answers to my question about DTS to AC3 in OS X.

A DTS capable AVR would be able to decode the DTS stream if passed over either optical or HDMI.

Thanks, I saw that link in this thread but at the time didn't understand what they were talking about. Looks like it is Windows only. I can bootup VMware on my Mac and try it out though. Anyone know of a way to do this in OS X?

So when they say passthrough, it means if I run the optical cable to my DTS receiver it could decode the audio stream?

UPDATE: this seems to have some answers to my question about DTS to AC3 in OS X.

I'm also a Mac user, I use the audioconverter from the popcorn site. I don't use it through VMWare though. I picked up CrossOver a couple weeks ago when they were giving it away free, audioconverter works perfectly with CrossOver.

I also wanted to thank Scott from WD for answering questions from the community.

I returned this, it doesn't handle any animation files well, or subtitles.

It fails to play wmv, some iso, and lots of other codecs.

Also lots of audio dropouts, and stuttering with 1080p.


I rather get a popcorn hour, that has frequently updated firmware, and networking so I dont have to keep moving back and forth computer to TV to add/delete files.

Plus plays 1080p files, more codecs, and has more inputs.

PLUS NETWORKING like I've said before.

The regular remote they give you sucks, and has no range. Take forever to navigate.

My Harmony remote worked 100x better then that remote, and was able to control the WD device with ease.

The regular remote they give you sucks, and has no range. Take forever to navigate.

My Harmony remote worked 100x better then that remote, and was able to control the WD device with ease.

I programmed my Harmony 550 to fire up the LCD, switch to HDMI 2 and turn on the WDTV. At first things did not work completely. But after an email session to Logitech, the 550 now controls everything nicely.

I agree, the Harmony remote works better than the included remote.

What i experienced was way beyond most other users who seems to be able to navigate around the menues with some glitches.Like i said before,i had to press a button on the remote up to 100 times to get a response on the unit.This happened exactly the same on all 3 units that i tried.Today i went back and was going to try a 4th one but Best Buy did not have any more left.I am trying to become a customer and would overlook some of the other anomalies mentioned in this thread until new firmware is released but this product is just unusable right now.


If ScottWD is reading this there will be at least 3 returned units from Best Buy on La Brea i LA and i did not record the serial # on the first two but the third one had serial #WNT184002994 so you can take a look at that particular unit and see how bad it is.

The more I've played w/mine the more annoying glitches I've encountered. Not sure if a FW update will fix it, but right now this thing is not ready for prime time.

It did, however, wet my appetite for a media player. I've ordered the Popcorn Hour A-110 and will return the WD.

I still think the WD is a good device for the price, if they work out the current problems.

What i experienced was way beyond most other users who seems to be able to navigate around the menues with some glitches.Like i said before,i had to press a button on the remote up to 100 times to get a response on the unit.This happened exactly the same on all 3 units that i tried.Today i went back and was going to try a 4th one but Best Buy did not have any more left.I am trying to become a customer and would overlook some of the other anomalies mentioned in this thread until new firmware is released but this product is just unusable right now.


If ScottWD is reading this there will be at least 3 returned units from Best Buy on La Brea i LA and i did not record the serial # on the first two but the third one had serial #WNT184002994 so you can take a look at that particular unit and see how bad it is.

Um... that's weird. Please allow me to ask a silly question, did you remove the plastic wrap on the unit?

Or perhaps the whole batch from your local bestbuy have problems...

Um... that's weird. Please allow me to ask a silly question, did you remove the plastic wrap on the unit?

Or perhaps the whole batch from your local bestbuy have problems...

Yes i did,and i even tried brand new batteries of my own to no avail.

I'm using a Western Digital 320GB External HDD being controlled by RF from my Harmony 1000. I'm having two major issues.

I can't turn the unit on sometimes. I had to unplug the unit a few times before it would finally come on (By OEM remote provided and my RF connector). Is anyone having this same issue. (BTW where is a good place to put my rf cable on this unit? I can't find a solid spot on this unit with a consistent result of control)

And two I'm having issues of the WD hard drive connected to be recognized. It seems to have connections issues with my hard drive to be recognized. I turned off the unit and the HDD and after a few times powering on and off and switching the usb cable to slot 1 to 2 and vice versa, it finally picked it up. Very annoying especially when I not only bought the WD media streamer but also their external hard drive.

Did anyone ever figure out a NAS-enabled HDD that works with this media player?

If I could find one, I'd buy this in a heartbeat.

Has anyone had trouble reading from FAT32 external USB drive?

I have an external (powered) 160GB USB drive that works fine connected to PC, but when connected to WD TV Media player, it has strange problems. The first is, folder names are all non-printable characters and files simply don't show up. Second problems is, the unit displays "Storage cannot aggregate", with no further explanatory text. If it matters, I still have 20G of free space left on the drive. I don't know if these two are somehow related. I have no problems with viewing media from a USB flash key.

The tech support person insists that WD TV Player doesn't support regular internal 3.5" drive which are enclosed in external USB enclosure. I find that somehow hard to believe, otherwise I'd have read pretty harsh words on unit's capability on this forums :). He further suggested to try and reformat the drive, but even my old Philips 5982 DVD player can read from the drive perfectly.

Anyone encountered similar problem?

TIA

P Adhia

I returned this, it doesn't handle any animation files well, or subtitles.

It fails to play wmv, some iso, and lots of other codecs.

Also lots of audio dropouts, and stuttering with 1080p.


I rather get a popcorn hour, that has frequently updated firmware, and networking so I dont have to keep moving back and forth computer to TV to add/delete files.

Plus plays 1080p files, more codecs, and has more inputs.

PLUS NETWORKING like I've said before.


I was tempted by the popcorn machine, but if you thought the WD was buggy, go check out forums talking about popcorn...

i guess i'll just have to wait until somebody comes out with a better product. i really like the idea of both the wd and the popcorn and i'm willing to wait.

I dont think the remote has worked once to turn it on. I always have to unplug the power cord and plug it back in. Then it turns on right away. Otherwise I love it.

The same thing is happening to my unit.

This device works at basic level. There are real issues with this device.

1. DVD menus are not possbile for ripped DVD folders.
2. Forwarding is at worst. After forwading @ 16x or 8x then the movie starts randomly from some location not from the forwarding stopped. This is a real problem. 32x forward is very much needed. Can't want 12min to get last few minutes of a 3 hour movie.
3. Some times video wobbles and does not happen with other players.

Glad to hear that WD support manager is looking into our problems.

Still cannot get it to see cover art for MKV tried Folder.jpg, filename.jpg, cover.jpg nothing works butthe sample MP4 that come included have cover art and show up. Does it have to be MP4 for cover art?

The couple of CD albums I have added cover art works though it shows cover art for each song, not for the folder.

This is very frustrating a long with the constant magnifying back and forth for it to format correctly to screen.

Has anyone got cover art to work please share the steps.

Any updates on thumbnail art. Can't get any artwork to show.

TIA.

This thing runs hot on standby!!

When I turn it off using the power button on the remote, I check back in a few hours and the base is hot (I have it lying lengthwise on carpet). Now I am wondering how much power it draws while on standby. And how this affects the long term life of the unit.

I was tempted by the popcorn machine, but if you thought the WD was buggy, go check out forums talking about popcorn...

i guess i'll just have to wait until somebody comes out with a better product. i really like the idea of both the wd and the popcorn and i'm willing to wait.



At least popcorn hour has frequently updated firmware.

At least popcorn hour has frequently updated firmware.

wow, this device was released like, 2 weeks ago... Do you want daily firmware updates? It's too bad you couldn't get any of the ones you got to work, me, I'm having a great time!

Also, I've had a few remote problems but it seems to be the unit most of the time, sometimes if I hold the power button for ~ 10-15 seconds it will power up.

At least popcorn hour has frequently updated firmware.

They should have skipped the first update.
The first firmware update crippled the poor thing.
I'm with the other guy, PH is not ready for primetime.
The WD will hold me fine till better is available.

I returned this, it doesn't handle any animation files well, or subtitles.

It fails to play wmv, some iso, and lots of other codecs.

Also lots of audio dropouts, and stuttering with 1080p.


I rather get a popcorn hour, that has frequently updated firmware, and networking so I dont have to keep moving back and forth computer to TV to add/delete files.

Plus plays 1080p files, more codecs, and has more inputs.

PLUS NETWORKING like I've said before.

same as you are, I can t play anime release correctly and even 720P too much issue (unsupported audio , pixel garbage freeze etc...) and since mkv's embedded subtitle is not well supported ( which is shame imho) this device is totally useless to me for now ,

besides this I have lots of trouble with the WDHD lots of garbage pixel after 1 or 2 hours no response from the device , cant turn on after turning off etc... looks like overheating to me and lots of french user have issues with the hdmi port

to talk about the problem around the IR remote and the WDHD some people have noticed the issue ( not responding to the remote controler command) when the WDHD is near a screen (LCD or plasma), it may be caused by the screen which emit some radiation and the WDHD IR receiver is sensible to it which may cause this problem,

I suggest people who have IR remote problem to test and try by moving the WDHD far from their LCD/PLASMA and other A/V .

ps sorry for my poor "engrish"

I hope ScottWD will take a look to french forum or ask WD french representative to look for french forum in order to get better support and update for this device which could be great !

orginal post is here (http://www.homecinema-fr.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=1089&t=29896793&st=0&sk=t&sd=a&start=330)in french

Any updates on thumbnail art. Can't get any artwork to show.

TIA.

the only success i have had with thumbnail artwork is importing mp4's into iTunes and adding the cover art there. these images show up fine. that is all well and good but the majority of files i have are MKV. i really prefer the thumbnail version, much more wife friendly. if ScottWD is listening, lets get MKV thumb support.

wow, this device was released like, 2 weeks ago... Do you want daily firmware updates? It's too bad you couldn't get any of the ones you got to work, me, I'm having a great time!

Also, I've had a few remote problems but it seems to be the unit most of the time, sometimes if I hold the power button for ~ 10-15 seconds it will power up.

I agree. Still hope firmware will be end of the year for the most commom problems.

I'm using a Western Digital 320GB External HDD being controlled by RF from my Harmony 1000. I'm having two major issues.

I can't turn the unit on sometimes. I had to unplug the unit a few times before it would finally come on (By OEM remote provided and my RF connector). Is anyone having this same issue. (BTW where is a good place to put my rf cable on this unit? I can't find a solid spot on this unit with a consistent result of control)

And two I'm having issues of the WD hard drive connected to be recognized. It seems to have connections issues with my hard drive to be recognized. I turned off the unit and the HDD and after a few times powering on and off and switching the usb cable to slot 1 to 2 and vice versa, it finally picked it up. Very annoying especially when I not only bought the WD media streamer but also their external hard drive.


I was getting connection problems too. I traced it to my usb cable. I have a few longer cables that would intermittently lose connection to my passport hard drive. Then I switched to a short usb cable and I haven't lost connection since.
On another note, my wdtv remote works great. I have all my av gear in the back of my room, so I don't get any interference from my plasma tv. I sit 10' away from the wdtv and I can point my remote at the ceiling towards the back and it still works. I have a problem with my harmony remote though, the enter button is not mapped correctly.

I just picked up the WDTV to play around a bit before committing to a media streamer.

No problems with the remote so far. Only tried a few 720p MKV's and a few ripped ISO's from DVD. They definately have to fix the fast foward issues of jumping around the movie.

I hope WD will continue to support/upgrade this device, but not too confident since it's an inexpensive one-off type product for this HD manufacturer.

Picked one up just to mess around. These types of reviews sometimes do not apply to everybody depending on people's needs and what type of files they play, and even how the file was created. So for me, this thing lacks in these area:

-As mentioned already, cannot play dvd files like a true dvd. You can only start the movie. You cannot access menu or special features.
-Subtitles do not work on my Nero Digital movie MP4s. They worked on tvix.
-Subtitles do not work on my divx movies created by Fairuse Wizard. Fairuse creates image subtitles (.sub/.idx).
- I incorporate the subs using a program called aviaddxsub. It still does not work, but if you use this program, then all your subs will display properly on a PS3 (if you have one.)
-ISO files created by Dvd Shrink plays fine, but once again, subtitles do not work.
-Remote response time is slow. Nothing unbearable. You just can't push buttons like a mad-man. If you press something, wait for it to respond before pressing something else, then you should have no problem.

Since my PS3 has been relegated to just playing movie. I figure I would return the thing and use this for my movie purposes. Though WD TV will play uncompressed dvd movies and the ps3 will not, it plays my divx collection without subs while my ps3 does.

Within 30 days, will we get dvd menu and thorough subtitle support for all formats from WD? Haha, can't take that chance. I'll return it, but keep up to date on these boards to see if WD gives firmware updates to support these lacking features.

I was getting connection problems too. I traced it to my usb cable. I have a few longer cables that would intermittently lose connection to my passport hard drive. Then I switched to a short usb cable and I haven't lost connection since.
On another note, my wdtv remote works great. I have all my av gear in the back of my room, so I don't get any interference from my plasma tv. I sit 10' away from the wdtv and I can point my remote at the ceiling towards the back and it still works. I have a problem with my harmony remote though, the enter button is not mapped correctly.

That was one of the Logitech Harmony issues I had (the enter/ok button not working). My email to Logitech fixed it (they went into my account and fixed it).

That was one of the Logitech Harmony issues I had (the enter/ok button not working). My email to Logitech fixed it (they went into my account and fixed it).

Is it account specific, or do you think they fixed it for everyone? I'll update my remote later and check. Thanks for the info.

I'm still waiting patiently for UPS to deliver mine here North of the Border, but considering what the complaints have been regarding the device, I don't imagine that I'll be too displeased when it arrives.

I plan on using it for mainly just Xvid and HD MKV files mostly. I've got a few WMV-HD, but if they don't work I'll just convert them to MKV or replace them, so that's not much of an issue. I rarely watch movies with subtitles, so I'm not too concerned (however a fix would be nice). I don't plan on backing up my SD DVD's as ISO's on the unit, so the lack of menu's doesn't really bother me. And finally, I'll be setting up a macro for the unit in on my Harmony remote, so unless the remote is such a dud that I can't even use it to learn the IR codes, then I should be just fine.

A few people have mentioned it, and I would also like to see cover-art support for for more file-types than MP4. Hopefully when I get the unit, that will continue to be my only gripe.

I need to pick up an external drive for the unit, has anyone connected a 1.5TB drive to it yet with success?

...
I rarely watch movies with subtitles, so I'm not too concerned (however a fix would be nice).
....


Ha! You don't realize how much you'll miss it till it's not there. Try watching any of the Bourne movies (Identity, Supremacy, Ultimatum) without subs and wait for the foreign language parts. Sure you'll still get gist of what is being said but it's not the same.

Ha! You don't realize how much you'll miss it till it's not there. Try watching any of the Bourne movies (Identity, Supremacy, Ultimatum) without subs and wait for the foreign language parts. Sure you'll still get gist of what is being said but it's not the same.
Point taken. I've seen the Bourne movies so many times that I can likely remember what's being said, but there are probably enough movies out there that have enough small sections of foreign language that it would probably make a difference.

OK, put me down as a supported for fixing the Subtitle support!

I can't fathom why such a device would not have a full range of subtitle support. The mere fact that China and Korea or big players in this market should tell WD that Asian people buy these types of devices. Plus, they also love hollywood cinema, hence it's no surprise that devices like the tvix come with full range of subtitle support. A large portion of this market will be curious about the WD, but will pass once they find out it's lacking. Vice versa, Asian Americans or any other type of foreigners who keep up with foreign movies would need subtitles support.

I can't fathom why such a device would not have a full range of subtitle support. The mere fact that China and Korea or big players in this market should tell WD that Asian people buy these types of devices. Plus, they also love hollywood cinema, hence it's no surprise that devices like the tvix come with full range of subtitle support. A large portion of this market will be curious about the WD, but will pass once they find out it's lacking. Vice versa, Asian Americans or any other type of foreigners who keep up with foreign movies would need subtitles support.

This is version 1.0 and it has only been out 3 weeks, let's give them some time to work the kinks out. Scott has been pretty good about trying to reach out to us and get feedback. It looks like WD is headed in the right direction with this device.

This is version 1.0 and it has only been out 3 weeks, let's give them some time to work the kinks out. Scott has been pretty good about trying to reach out to us and get feedback. It looks like WD is headed in the right direction with this device.

True. :)

anyone have a USB hub and a couple of external drives?
I want to know what happens if you hook up more than one drive.

Works fine with hard drives. I have an external USB enclosre with 2 drives and they both identified fine. On the screen I see:

USB2 ===>
DISK1
DISK2

AVS Forum's is an awesome source for community feedback! I've gathered some great feedback, comments and suggestions on how to improve and enhance your WD TV. I've been working very hard with the WD TV Team on these improvements and plan to have an update soon. Stay tuned! :D

-ScottWD

Scott-
Good to see you on the boards. I'm very impressed with the performance of the WD TV considering the price. I have a few requests for upcoming firmware that I'm sure others share.

1. 1080p 24fps support. The popcorn hour can do this and it seems they share the same sigma chipset.

2. auto adjust resolution to the native resolution of the file being played. Not sure if this can be done but it would be great.

3. "chapter" skip in MKV, avi, etc. files. Some sort of way to fast forward/rewind quickly.

4. Better power management regarding USB support. Sounds like you're already on this.

To say again you have a great product and I hope you continue to update the features and support the AVS community.
Thanks

hi all
can someone check if it support hebrew subtitles from right to left?
it's very important.

thank you

It support UTF-8. I can with 100% certainty state that it supports cyrillic characters.

As stated previously my one request to you ScottWD is support of bitstreaming hd-audio codecs (Dolby TrueHD, DTS-MA) if the WDTV does indeed have HDMI 1.3