WDTV Live - NETWORK ISSUES [Text View]

das75

10-21-09, 09:45 PM

I opened this thread for people discuss Network issues in WDTV Live!

I think is better to compile all the info in one dedicated thread!

;)

posted in the other thread but since you're trying to pull network problems together...

Can't see any shared folders on my XP computer.

Am I'm just missing how to select? I'm looking for movies installed in a shared folder on my desktop so on the WDTV I select VIDEO, press enter, NETWORK SHARE then enter again on the remote, but nothing, no prompt for user or password, no files. Same if looking for a shared music file, nothing.

From a desktop computer can move files off and on the WDTVLive, play them on the PC etc. I've followed instructions for sharing, turned off the Windows Firewall, turned on the user guest account, run the Network Setup Wizard, but no luck.

I have since connected a laptop to the router and with it, can see the shared files on the desktop (and also the WDTVlive) so appears no problem with the shares on the DT or firewall on the router.

I'm XP (SP3), wired connection with a Trendnet router (TEW-432BRP) that shows on the supported list.

Bigsby

10-22-09, 06:14 AM

posted in the other thread but since you're trying to pull network problems together...

Can't see any shared folders on my XP computer.

Am I'm just missing how to select? I'm looking for movies installed in a shared folder on my desktop so on the WDTV I select VIDEO, press enter, NETWORK SHARE then enter again on the remote, but nothing, no prompt for user or password, no files. Same if looking for a shared music file, nothing.

From a desktop computer can move files off and on the WDTVLive, play them on the PC etc. I've followed instructions for sharing, turned off the Windows Firewall, turned on the user guest account, run the Network Setup Wizard, but no luck.

I have since connected a laptop to the router and with it, can see the shared files on the desktop (and also the WDTVlive) so appears no problem with the shares on the DT or firewall on the router.

I'm XP (SP3), wired connection with a Trendnet router (TEW-432BRP) that shows on the supported list.

Exactly the same problem for me. I've been able to view files wirelessly using media server software called Twonky, but I'd prefer just to see the network shares as I'll have to pay for Twonky soon.

mrgimble

10-22-09, 07:23 AM

I've been seeing a number of problems reported streaming hi-def (eg. Blu-ray m2ts files) over a wired lan. I'm wondering if the problem is with WD's ethernet controller!?. So...in order to keep the benefits of a wired connection, has anyone tried a usb/ethernet adapter? A good jumping off point would be the list of 'approved' adapters found in the Wiki.WDTV web site.

The adapter I was using with my WDTV does not work on my LIVE. My guess is they do not provide any other wired adapter drivers.

philnort

10-22-09, 10:19 AM

The adapter I was using with my WDTV does not work on my LIVE. My guess is they do not provide any other wired adapter drivers.

My experience also. HOWEVER, on Tuesday I found my answer/workaround. Like others with WinXP, I could not use Network Shares...totally frustrating. I then tried TVersity..Perfect! I can now mark any folders using "Share with TVersity", including USB connected to PC hard drives that contain all my blu-ray rips. Perfect and FAST. No stuttering, hesitation, etc.

I highly recommend anyone experiencing a non-starter with Network Shares to try TVersity!

das75

10-22-09, 10:27 AM

Contacted WD and here's their response. Didn't work for me but might help others.

Thank you for contacting Western Digital Customer Service and Support.

Please refer to the following links to help you with your issue that you stated below.
http://wdc.custhelp.com/cgi-bin/wdc.cfg/php/enduser/std_adp.php?p_faqid=3806&p_created=1255561261&p_sid=xzQqZZKj&p_accessibility=0&p_redirect=&p_srch=1&p_lva=&p_sp=cF9zcmNoPTEmcF9zb3J0X2J5PSZwX2dyaWRzb3J0PSZwX3Jvd19jbnQ 9MjIxLDIyMSZwX3Byb2RzPSZwX2NhdHM9JnBfcHY9JnBfY3Y9JnBfcGFnZT0 xJnBfc2VhcmNoX3RleHQ9d2QgdHYgbGl2ZSBzZXR1cA!!&p_li=&p_topview=1
http://wdc.custhelp.com/cgi-bin/wdc.cfg/php/enduser/std_adp.php?p_faqid=2726&p_created=1225472151&p_sid=i4OGZZKj&p_accessibility=0&p_redirect=&p_srch=1&p_lva=&p_sp=cF9zcmNoPTEmcF9zb3J0X2J5PSZwX2dyaWRzb3J0PSZwX3Jvd19jbnQ 9MjIxLDIyMSZwX3Byb2RzPSZwX2NhdHM9JnBfcHY9JnBfY3Y9JnBfcGFnZT0 xJnBfc2VhcmNoX3RleHQ9d2QgdHYgbGl2ZSBzZXR1cA!!&p_li=&p_topview=1
http://wdc.custhelp.com/cgi-bin/wdc.cfg/php/enduser/std_adp.php?p_faqid=3544&p_created=1239926788&p_sid=PdJNZZKj&p_accessibility=0&p_redirect=&p_srch=1&p_lva=&p_sp=cF9zcmNoPTEmcF9zb3J0X2J5PSZwX2dyaWRzb3J0PSZwX3Jvd19jbnQ 9NjMsNjMmcF9wcm9kcz0wJnBfY2F0cz0wJnBfcHY9JnBfY3Y9JnBfc2VhcmN oX3R5cGU9YW5zd2Vycy5zZWFyY2hfZm5sJnBfcGFnZT0xJnBfc2VhcmNoX3R leHQ9d2QgdHYgbGl2ZQ!!&p_li=&p_topview=1
http://wdc.custhelp.com/cgi-bin/wdc.cfg/php/enduser/std_adp.php?p_faqid=3787&p_created=1255389287&p_sid=PdJNZZKj&p_accessibility=0&p_redirect=&p_srch=1&p_lva=&p_sp=cF9zcmNoPTEmcF9zb3J0X2J5PSZwX2dyaWRzb3J0PSZwX3Jvd19jbnQ 9NjMsNjMmcF9wcm9kcz0wJnBfY2F0cz0wJnBfcHY9JnBfY3Y9JnBfc2VhcmN oX3R5cGU9YW5zd2Vycy5zZWFyY2hfZm5sJnBfcGFnZT0yJnBfc2VhcmNoX3R leHQ9d2QgdHYgbGl2ZQ!!&p_li=&p_topview=1

das75

10-22-09, 01:41 PM

IT WORKS.

I installed TVersity and could see the shares, see the server on the PC.

Thought that TVersity has straighted out my PC as when I exited it, no longer could see the server fr WDTV, icon no longer on the desktop toolbar but still had the shares but appears TVversity was still running (still shows in task manager)

jwalters69

10-22-09, 10:55 PM

There must be a way to do this without installing 3rd party software. I can't figure out why my network connection drops after 5-5.5 minutes while streaming a video from my PC to the WDTV Live.

OS: XP SP3

Network Hardware:
On WDTV Live -> Buffalo WLI-UC-GN (Approved hardware by WD)
On PC -> Linksys WRT54GL (Firmware 4.30.11)
On PC -> Realtek RTL 8168/8111 (Driver Version 5.682.1122.2007)

Things I have tried:
- Static & Dynamic IP's on the WDTV Live
- Disabled Task Offload function on Realtek card from suggestion in other thread
- Disabled Powersave function on Realtek card from suggestion in other thread
- Router Firewall is disabled
- Router UPNP is enabled

Future things to try:
- Disable Windows Firewall
- Run a 100ft cat6 cable from the router to the WDTV Live

zetaprime

10-23-09, 04:48 AM

Has anyone figured out how to get the WD TV Live to stop dropping the network connection every few minutes while playing media files from the computer whether connected by wired ethernet or wireless USB adapter? This problem doesn't seem to affect media streamed off the internet, like Pandora radio or Youtube, nor does it affect access to the attached hard drive from the computer.

Bigsby

10-23-09, 06:48 AM

IT WORKS.

I installed TVersity and could see the shares, see the server on the PC.

Shut the TVersity down as was going to play some more to try and see the shares just with WDTV only, but hey, for some reason the Network Share stays up. TVersity is off as can't see the server anymore. Whatever the install did, it straightened out my PC.

Nice one. Will give it a try, hopefully I'll be able to dump Twonky.

Nogib

10-24-09, 02:18 AM

At my wits end here...

How in the love of god do I get this thing to login to my main Windows 7 desktop? I continually get a "Failed to connect to file server" when trying to access it from my WDTV Live. Ironically, my netbook, with the exact same network settings, can be connected to from the WDTV Live with no problem!

I am not using Windows 7's Homegroup crap. I have Network Discovery on, File and printer sharing on, Public folder sharing on, Media streaming off, Password protected sharing off. All my PCs have been able to see and share their directories with one another with Win7 for months now. No problem there. But the WDTV Live refuses to connect to any desktop. I briefly thought that it may have something to do with Symantec Endpoint Protection, but I have since uninstalled that and switched to Microsoft Security Essentials in an effort to make it identical to my netbook which as I said can be connected from the WDTV Live.

Searched through this thread high and low and saw a few other people having a login issue like this, but no resolution. What in the world do I have to do to get this bloody thing to simply login to my PC properly??? This really shouldn't be that hard or maddening like this.

Eihcet

10-24-09, 03:00 PM

Eihcet

10-24-09, 05:16 PM

Problem: The WIRED network connection stopped working issue " THERE IS A PROBLEM CONNECTING TO THE NETWORK " " THE DEVICE COULD NOT CONNECT TO THE NETWORK" happens from either an XPPro or W7 PC.

To troubleshoot I isolated the HD Live and a second WIRED PC (a laptop, XPPro) on a dedicated switch/router with no internet connection, just the routers local DHCP Server for IP assignments. NO OTHER DEVICES. Between the HD Live and the local PC the shows will stream and then after some random amount of time, perhaps 5 minutes, the HD Live will drop back to the menu and popup an error that the network connection was lost. The highest speed measured (using NetMeter) was 4MB/s when I was FF/RR video. During static playback the streaming xfer didn't go over 2.2MB/s. [That's MB and not MBit]. So it's not saturating the link, that I can see.

In a second troubleshooting test, with my regular network config (HD live on TV downstairs, server upstairs through a couple of switches). I'm pushing a file from my server to the HD Live's USB connected drive. It's transferring at ~7.8MB/s across the network without any hiccups WHILE the HD Live is playing back the same test video from before from the USB connected Drive downstairs. All 8GB fo the file transferred with no issues. So, it doesn't seem to be heat, network infrastructure, OR video file format issues.

I'm positive now it's not a network cable or network switch defect. I haven't called WD yet, and It'll be fun convincing them of that I imagine.

In a third test (really before I did the two above) I was streaming video to my Laptop over the same wired connection while at the same time to the HD Live from the same server (Win7 Ultimate). The HD Live did fine for about 5minutes before it stopped while the laptop continued receiving video without a hitch.

I gotta say I'm really disappointed with this situation. Hopefully they find the problem and can release a fix soon, my main intent was to stream shows from my Mediacenter PC to the live and now the best situation is for me to 'push' the files to it's USB connected drive which is very inconvenient (since they are in different rooms). I'll likely end up returning it for a refund.

zetaprime

10-24-09, 09:49 PM

synaptic

10-25-09, 03:47 AM

Edit: Dose of my own medicine, this started happening.

zetaprime

10-25-09, 05:01 PM

I'm afraid I have to disagree with you there, I've been streaming HD ~9GB files over my local network quite successfully, so not all the boxes are broken (and I have a highly complex network setup).

On another note, I'm trying to figure out how to get a fairly constant situation in regards to the servers listed on the WDTV. The Media Servers I think are done using uPNP announce. I'm interested in how it 'discovers' the network computers connected to it for shares.

My WDTV is exhibiting a behaviour that suggests something seriously wrong with whatever method this 'discovery' is. I have two networked printers, neither of which obviously have configurable options nor are secured to any degree. Quite randomly, the WDTV will show one, both, or neither of them. This makes no sense whatsoever, and they really shouldn't be shown in the first place.

Anyone have any idea how this 'Discovery' occurs?

If anyone from WD reads this, can I suggest that you shelve this 'discovery' method and just create a new section in the settings which maps samba drives when you select this option in the Videos/Music/Pictures menu and leave 'discovery' out of the equation; it's simply not working consistently.

I never said that I thought all of the boxes were defective, only that a significant number are having problems. That's usually what happens with product defects. You just happen to be one of the ones who got lucky.

bubbarayhick

10-25-09, 05:04 PM

philnort

10-25-09, 05:18 PM

it is sad i have to have TVersity loaded on my PC to get the WD live to stay networked.
not one drop out in 3 days using it. with the WD just connecting the my shares it drops randomly anywhere from 3-10mins into a HD film. my 720p encodes seem to play ok but 1080p stutter. using TVersity same 1080p files play all the way through no stutters...

something is wrong with how WD is doing there net code plain and simply....

I'm on board with you..TOTALLY. You got further than I....Couldn't even get "Network Shares" enabled. However, switching to TVersity, couldn't be happier...fluid M2TS play...haven't had one stutter or drop out!

bubbarayhick

10-25-09, 05:24 PM

I'm on board with you..TOTALLY. You got further than I....Couldn't even get "Network Shares" enabled. However, switching to TVersity, couldn't be happier...fluid M2TS play...haven't had one stutter or drop out!

i am using wireless with xp sp3 on the PC... i didnt get any issues with my shares being found to be honest, just as soon as i tried to watch a full movie in HD it just takes a sh*t...

philnort

10-25-09, 05:31 PM

i am using wireless with xp sp3 on the PC... i didnt get any issues with my shares being found to be honest, just as soon as i tried to watch a full movie in HD it just takes a sh*t...

Is that with "Network Shares"..? or with TVersity? I'm using WinXP SP3 also,...and TVersity's the ticket if you're having problems with streaming. I have a wired Cat6 network. I'd be curious on your improvement using TVersity using a WI-FI network.

zetaprime

10-25-09, 05:36 PM

Is that with "Network Shares"..? or with TVersity? I'm using WinXP SP3 also,...and TVersity's the ticket if you're having problems with streaming. I have a wired Cat6 network. I'd be curious on your improvement using TVersity using a WI-FI network.

I've tried Tversity..It works fine with non-HD files. But with HD files the sound either doesn't work at all or drops out after about 30 seconds. MKV files always come up with "no audio channel". So for me Tversity is useless for HD.

philnort

10-25-09, 05:44 PM

I've tried Tversity..It works fine with non-HD files. But with HD files the sound either doesn't work at all or drops out after about 30 seconds. MKV files always come up with "no audio channel". So for me Tversity is useless for HD.

It might just be the difference between wired and wi-fi....or.....have you remuxed the file? As stated....I use TSmuxer and NATIVE m2ts files...never saw a need for transcoding. Just for kicks and whistles, you might try remuxing your disc with m2ts file and adjust for languages, audio as necessary, etc. I seen a number of peoples' problems with mkv files both on the original WD-TV and this second generation. ..never a problem with native m2ts files....provided your network can stream it.

zetaprime

10-25-09, 06:19 PM

It might just be the difference between wired and wi-fi....or.....have you remuxed the file? As stated....I use TSmuxer and NATIVE m2ts files...never saw a need for transcoding. Just for kicks and whistles, you might try remuxing your disc with m2ts file and adjust for languages, audio as necessary, etc. I seen a number of peoples' problems with mkv files both on the original WD-TV and this second generation. ..never a problem with native m2ts files....provided your network can stream it.

I've tried it wired and wireless. There's no difference. And I've not touched the files. Anything that plays from the USB connected hard drive ought to be able to play off the network. If it doesn't then that's a defect in the WDTV Live software and not something I should have to waste time re-muxing files for.

Eihcet

10-25-09, 08:42 PM

I've tried it wired and wireless. There's no difference. And I've not touched the files. Anything that plays from the USB connected hard drive ought to be able to play off the network. If it doesn't then that's a defect in the WDTV Live software and not something I should have to waste time re-muxing files for.

I was getting dropouts today streaming MP3 files, so, it's not just video related. No problems transferring the files to the usb attached drive though, only streaming them.

bubbarayhick

10-26-09, 03:28 AM

I've tried Tversity..It works fine with non-HD files. But with HD files the sound either doesn't work at all or drops out after about 30 seconds. MKV files always come up with "no audio channel". So for me Tversity is useless for HD.

install ac3 filter and disabled any other codec that is turned on for ac3 playback like ffdshow. i can play 1080p over wireless with ac3 640kb encodes.

to be honest i havent tried dts yet....

http://ac3filter.net/projects/ac3filter/releases

bubbarayhick

10-26-09, 03:46 AM

Is that with "Network Shares"..? or with TVersity? I'm using WinXP SP3 also,...and TVersity's the ticket if you're having problems with streaming. I have a wired Cat6 network. I'd be curious on your improvement using TVersity using a WI-FI network.

i am only using wireless and it works great for HD files i make as backups.

1080p mkv with x264 video and ac3 sound 640kbps work perfect with TVersity.
these encodes are bluray compatible so i suppose any m2ts remuxed to mkv should be fine too...

Bigsby

10-26-09, 07:42 AM

Tried Tversity and although it would play my files fine, it slowed my machine right down and wasn't very user friendly.

So I switched back to Twonky. Much better software.

zetaprime

10-26-09, 06:06 PM

install ac3 filter and disabled any other codec that is turned on for ac3 playback like ffdshow. i can play 1080p over wireless with ac3 640kb encodes.

to be honest i havent tried dts yet....

http://ac3filter.net/projects/ac3filter/releases

How would the codec on my computer make a difference? The WDTV Live is playing the files, so I'd think the codecs would have to be on the WDTV Live.

bubbarayhick

10-26-09, 07:12 PM

How would the codec on my computer make a difference? The WDTV Live is playing the files, so I'd think the codecs would have to be on the WDTV Live.

because if tversity cant play it,then it cant send it to the WD..........

all i know is i got the same no audio issue, but with ac3filter installed its all good...

DTS also works ok through TVersity///

i am hoping WD fixes the issue there end to be honest,so no need for tversity, but this is a work around right now...

bubbarayhick

10-26-09, 07:14 PM

Tried Tversity and although it would play my files fine, it slowed my machine right down and wasn't very user friendly.

So I switched back to Twonky. Much better software.

is it free? like tversity is tho...

eblend

10-26-09, 11:45 PM

I noticed that the network shared disappear shortly after power on if you start to play stuff, however if you power it on and just leave it on at all times, the CIFS shares work fine

zetaprime

10-27-09, 04:12 AM

because if tversity cant play it,then it cant send it to the WD..........

all i know is i got the same no audio issue, but with ac3filter installed its all good...

DTS also works ok through TVersity///

i am hoping WD fixes the issue there end to be honest,so no need for tversity, but this is a work around right now...

I thought the PC is just acting as a file server and that the client device (the WDTV Live) processes the video.

Bigsby

10-27-09, 05:28 AM

is it free? like tversity is tho...

Unfortunately not.

jwalters69

10-28-09, 08:46 AM

Here's a tiny update regarding the network drop problem:

With Azureus/Vuze installed on my PC, I installed the DEVICES (Beta) addon, then dragged a video file from my 'Library' folder to the 'Devices' folder.

The video could be streamed to my TV via the WDTV Live box without a problem. I would have to navigate to 'Media Server' in the WDTV Live in order to see the video file in Vuze.

But here's the dumb part - when I dragged the file to the 'Devices' folder, it had to do a conversion. It took a 700meg file and 'converted' it to a 1.4 gig file. Why it would increase the size by double for streaming is unknown to me.

This solution won't do for me. I don't want to have duplicate files on my pc which are twice the size as the original - but perhaps it will work for others.

christoofar

10-29-09, 08:15 PM

Can anyone please advise what thruput speeds they are seeing when using
WDTVLive w/ external hdd attached and transferring files from PC to it ?
I have tried ethernet cable, USB N DLink appproved dongle, and even the Netgear Powerline Network HDXB111.
The fastest transfer I can manage from any of these is perhaps 100kB/s.
But dropping files FROM the ext. hdd to my PC I can hit 4.5MB/s.

Why is there such a huge difference between directions? :confused:
It's taking forver to move anything out to the drive this way.

This is driving me buggy:eek:

dvlowe

10-30-09, 12:47 PM

My current setup is based on a HP MediaSmart Windows Home Server which stores my media. I then have two TVs that both have Xbox 360s and PS3s which I am trying to steam to. I had PS3 Media Server running which trancodes videos to the PS3 and worked well but was limited and allowed only one HD viewing at a time or it whould choke and crash. I got the WDTV Live because it looked to be the closest option to the original Xbox with XBMC with a huge support for media types. I want to be able to watch HD content even if my room mate is watching an HD video.

I picked up the WDTV Live Wednesday and ran into some of the common issues. Not all Shares showing and whatnot. I do see my Video shares so I will deal with the shares issue later but I have run into the choppy HD .mkv viewing using wired networking.

I know TVersity transcodes video to allow the video to be viewed on otherwise unsupported devices like the Xbox 360 and PS3 but are the users here transcoding the videos for the WDTV Live or is it setup to stream the videos as originally encoded?

tiefling

10-30-09, 07:19 PM

I have had much sadness :( with my Live - After waiting over a month to track one of these down it died after two days with a flashing power light :confused: - I can't get a replacement for love nor money so I've gone back to my WDTV HD instead.

Interestingly (and the networking part of this drama) before it died I transferred a load of files over, through the Live's network connection, onto one of my attached USB drives from my computer - Every single one of these files is corrupt and will not play on the WDTV HD - This is most annoying :mad: and I have effectively lost these files now - thankfully I have backups.

I have really lost faith in this product after looking forward to it for ages and I am very tempted now to invest in a new Popcorn Hour C-200 instead when I can get ahold of one

zetaprime

10-31-09, 01:17 AM

action_jackson

11-01-09, 10:20 AM

Is anyone having this problem with a Network Attached Storage (NAS)? I am currently having the same problem as others, running XP SP3, and loosing connectivity.

I also have Vuze running on my XP machine, and this is really strange, sometimes I can see movies on my shares and not from Vuze, and others times I can see movies on Vuze, and not of my shares. A movie was working from shares, stopped 25 minutes in, had the connection error screen come up, then I proceeded to watch it from Vuze. Only problem is in Vuze I couldn't FF at all? So I ended up powering it down and unplugging the power form the back, waited 10 seconds, and plugged it back in. The movie played all the way through after that from the shares, and I was able to FF and skip to the spot I had stopped at. I guess the bookmark is lost after a full reboot.

I am about ready to send it back, but i really just want it to work. I just ordered a NAS, if it doesn't work with it, then I'm sending it back. Anyone know if a NAS works better than Shared folders, or has the same issues?

eblend

11-01-09, 12:47 PM

Anyone who is having network issues should really install b-rad's hacked firmware and use xmount. I like many have been batteling with wdtv live network share dropout problem and I tried everything imaginable to get it to work, yet it simply wouldn't. So what I did was I downloaded b-rad custom firmware version 1.07 and installed it. To get this to work you will need to constantly have a usb stick plugged in but at least this works, until WD fixes the issues. Actually this works even better then the network shares that are build in.

1. Download B-rads latest firmware
2. Flash the firmware into the player
3. Take a small sized usb key (I have a bunch of dell 512mb ones, but you can use the smallest available and will still work) and copy the net.mounts file to the USB key, it is found with the firmware package you download.
4. Open the net.mounts file and modify it to have the proper information for your CIFS shares (or NFS shares, instructions are included as comments in the net.mounts file)
For me, this is how my net.mounts file looks
xmount //192.168.0.185/All_Media Media cifs user=wdtvlive,pass=mypassword (can ommit user and password entries if using annon)
5. Place the USB key into the WDTV live and power it on. Once it is powered on and the usb light is solid on the front, navigate to Videos/Local Drives/USB2 (or 1) and open it.
6. If you got the right syntax in your net.mounts folder, all of your files will appear as it they were on the actual usb thumbdrive! (on first boot sometimes it takes about 30 seconds for the drives to appear as there is a sleep value set on xmount to ensure it establishes a connection). From here on you can browse all of your network media as if it was local to the small sized usb drive you have plugged in! The benefits of this vs a network share (which has all the dropout problems) is that, for one, NO Dropouts!! I watched like 3 movies since and works perfect, and benefit number 2 is that unlike network shares, thumbnails work just as if they were local to the usb key, so if you named your thumbnails exact same as the movie name, the actual movie file will carry the thumbnail without the extra thumbnail file being visible! So simply name your thumbnails same as the movie and the thumbnail will appear for the folder view, and once again as the image of the MKV file! If you want to have a thumbnail for a general category like Movies, you can also place a file called folder.jpg into the movies directory and that thumbnail will become your folder icon, without the actual jpg file being visible in the tree.

Hope this helps someone, was super easy to setup and it worked for me right away! Hope this helps you guys out until wd releases proper firmware to fix the issues, but even if they do I wouldn't go back to using the network shares option since the thumbnails do not work as well as they do on local disks

lindsrj

11-01-09, 09:38 PM

I can't find the secret sauce on how to set up the WD TV Live to connect to my shared folders that are on a Windows 7 PC. Every time I try to connect I get the error message "Failed to connect file server, the account/password may be changed. please check it." Doesn't matter what Windows account name I choose. I even tried setting up a new account just for WDTVLIVE and nothing changes.

I tried changing the account name in the logon screen to one that is fully qualified (\\PCNAME\accountname) and the behavior changed. There was a pause and then it popped up the error message "this media server cannot be accessed." From this point I'm back to the original error about failing to connect.

I've read all the forum messages people have posted and it seems some have gotten further (only to be stymied by other anomalies). Does anyone have any idea how to make this work? I only bought this thing to stream MKV files which requires accessing network shares. I have never had so much difficulty doing something this simple. Thanks in advance.

bubbarayhick

11-02-09, 01:57 AM

zeleni

11-02-09, 05:43 AM

Just got my wd tv live, and as many people, i am having trouble with network shares. It is very certain that win 7 network discovery is very special.

Anyway.

I have shared my files, i have everyone account as reader, i have done the advanced sharing options.

I can actually access the shares, after i turn on wd live and then reboot my pc. The shares remain available as long as wd tv is on. This is definitely very troublesome, but it is the only solution. I have had bunch of samba related problems with xbmc on the org. xbox, but solved all of them. Unfortunately, the same solutions do not work for wd live.

Ill see how does wd tv live preforms with tversity or twonky, before i go ahead and check the b-rad homebrew.

morbidz

11-02-09, 08:24 AM

disabled network discovery in my windows 7. since then a week w/o losing network shares now! My only gripe with wdtv live now is thumbnails that show up twice. otherwise all is GREAT!:D:D:D

eblend

11-03-09, 12:48 PM

can this be used over wireless ?

i can get it running on wired network, but not wireless. do i have to add the network name ?

I don't see why not? Did you already flash the firmware? If it has a network connection that is all it cares about.

christoofar

11-03-09, 01:20 PM

bubbarayhick

11-03-09, 06:56 PM

Any place where there's a tutorial to set this up for non-Linux users? Lots of the editing & commenting goes right over my head. :(

you just quoted a tute? you cant make it any easier really. i am a windows only guy too, but did it. still cant get this to work on wireless tho, only wired connection for me works great...

this is the line for window shares:

xmount //192.168.0.185/SHARED SHARED cifs user=YOUR LOGIN NAME,pass=YOUR PASSWORD

if you dont login to your pc then you dont need the user/pass bit:

xmount //192.168.0.185/SHARED SHARED cifs

christoofar

11-03-09, 08:32 PM

you just quoted a tute? you cant make it any easier really. i am a windows only guy too, but did it. still cant get this to work on wireless tho, only wired connection for me works great...

this is the line for window shares:

xmount //192.168.0.185/SHARED SHARED cifs user=YOUR LOGIN NAME,pass=YOUR PASSWORD

if you dont login to your pc then you dont need the user/pass bit:

xmount //192.168.0.185/SHARED SHARED cifs

well, that helps some, thanks. Although with my current top speed transferring out from my PC to the network being only 130 kb/s, not sure this will make anything better. If I plug my media drive into my router as a network drive, the slow speed will stil lcause poor performance, won't it? Moving data from my WDTVLive ext. drive to my PC, I hit over 6 megabits.

bubbarayhick

11-03-09, 09:04 PM

well, that helps some, thanks. Although with my current top speed transferring out from my PC to the network being only 130 kb/s, not sure this will make anything better. If I plug my media drive into my router as a network drive, the slow speed will stil lcause poor performance, won't it? Moving data from my WDTVLive ext. drive to my PC, I hit over 6 megabits.

is that wired or wireless? i get the same throughput over wired up and down 7.4Mb/s

if thats over wired then something aint right, maybe HDD or router..

msilano

11-03-09, 09:42 PM

Hi. Just got my Live today and had a very strange issue.

First off, my work PC was on and VPN'd into the corporate network.

Wasn't able to mount any of my fileshares - even using an account that works with my Popcorn Hour.

Fired up the network sniffer...and saw the Live HD trying to do a lookup for each and every PC on my VPN-connected corporate network! It finally gave up, and was unable to connect to any resources.

Once I killed the VPN connection - and those pesky netbios advertisements (don't ask me why they are bleeding through (Cisco VPN), the WD Live HD was able to easily connect to my WHS and access my shares.

Anyone else seen this? I'm assuming this is a firmware issue - should I be reporting it to WD?

Thanks,

Mike

christoofar

11-03-09, 10:50 PM

is that wired or wireless? i get the same throughput over wired up and down 7.4Mb/s

if thats over wired then something aint right, maybe HDD or router..

good lord...both wired & wireless, hdd is a new WD 1TB Green Caviar, plugged into a Thermaltake BlacX dock, had a new Belkin N+ router, two hours on the phone with support, no help (they said it must be the WDTV causing it), returned it just got a new DLink DIR-655, set it up, same thing.
Have posted asking for help on two different forums, no responses, no suggestions.

eblend

11-04-09, 10:48 AM

good lord...both wired & wireless, hdd is a new WD 1TB Green Caviar, plugged into a Thermaltake BlacX dock, had a new Belkin N+ router, two hours on the phone with support, no help (they said it must be the WDTV causing it), returned it just got a new DLink DIR-655, set it up, same thing.
Have posted asking for help on two different forums, no responses, no suggestions.

Sounds like you got some outbound firewall or something setup because there is no reason you should not be able to transfer stuff at a decent speed, 130kb...thats insanely slow. I think the problem is somewhere on your computer.

christoofar

11-04-09, 11:02 AM

I've tried turning off the firewall (both on PC & in router) turned off A/V, nic card set to 100 full duplex,turned off traffic shaping in router, swapped out Belkin N+ to DLink DIR-655, did all the same things as above, still no joy.
I've run out of ideas:eek:

DarinHTPC

11-04-09, 11:12 AM

Is there anyone out there that is not experiencing network drop outs? While testing the unit some more last night I decided to copy files (from the PC) to the unit's attached usb drive and play a movie through the network share at the same time. The unit as always plays for a little while then loses connection to the share. The unit however did not completely drop off the network because the file transfer was still running and finished long after the unit loss its connect to the share while playing the movie. So... when the unit is playing and then drops out, I could still access its attached usb from the PC through the network. I wonder what the issue really is for playing media through the network and why is drops.

eblend

11-04-09, 11:19 AM

eblend

11-04-09, 11:20 AM

DarinHTPC

11-04-09, 11:28 AM

Read a few posts above, very common, only work around right now is b-rad firmware with xmount.

Yes I know, been on this thread for a long time since before the unit was released. I was just sharing!

DarinHTPC

11-04-09, 11:30 AM

Yes I know, been on this thread for a long time since before the unit was released. I was just sharing!

Read a few posts above, very common, only work around right now is b-rad firmware with xmount.

eblend, does the b-rad firmware work for wireless?

eblend

11-04-09, 11:31 AM

Yes I know, been on this thread for a long time since before the unit was released. I was just sharing!

Yah I did alot of digging into this and it is very strange. I monitored what happens when WDTV live connects to a network shre and it is strange, at first it logs in as a Unix system, then as a Linux Distributable, so at one point there is 2 connections to a share, then about a minute later the Unix connection disconnects while the other Linux connection remains. With x-mount only the linux connection is there from the getgo, no Unix connection at all. I think it is a bug somewhere in the firmware on how the authentication works and related timeouts.

DarinHTPC

11-04-09, 12:13 PM

Yah I did alot of digging into this and it is very strange. I monitored what happens when WDTV live connects to a network shre and it is strange, at first it logs in as a Unix system, then as a Linux Distributable, so at one point there is 2 connections to a share, then about a minute later the Unix connection disconnects while the other Linux connection remains. With x-mount only the linux connection is there from the getgo, no Unix connection at all. I think it is a bug somewhere in the firmware on how the authentication works and related timeouts.

Hmmm, very strange. Thanks!

eblend

11-04-09, 01:24 PM

eblend, does the b-rad firmware work for wireless?

I have no idea. I don't use wireless. bubbarayhick said he had problems getting it working under wireless, I think perhaps it has something to do with the delay in aquireing a network connection and it trying to xmount.

I don't know if the wireless problem is just getting any wireless to work, or the xmount over wireless specificailly.

delphiguru

11-04-09, 01:34 PM

Windows 7 64 bit
WD LIVE ( original 1' FW )

i can connect to my Shared PC disk , i can list all mkv Files :)

but..... if i press PLAY on mkv file,

appear un error : I CANT' PLAY FILE.........

hint ?

Bigsby

11-10-09, 09:34 AM

Just as an update, I mentioned earlier in this thread I mentioned that I wasn't able to see Network Shares using XP (SP3). Well, I got badly infected with malware and had to do a clean install. After doing so, I can see Network Shares no problem. Everything working perfectly now. :)

stever2

11-10-09, 11:55 AM

Have a pretty simple wired setup:

Linksys router
Nexstar LX NAS, 500GB

NAS has a simple folder structure with media in folders, Pictures, Music, with sub folders.

Updated NAS to latest NAS-Basic 49 firmware

WDTVLive sees the NAS but cannot see any of the media no matter what I do
Folders are all public with no passwords.

Another problem is the Attached USB drive, Its a 1GB WDelemnts USB drive. Again a pretty simple folder structure:

Home Videos
Movies
Pictures
Music

With sub folders. WDTVLive sees all the folders and sees all the media except for in the Home Videos folder. There are 22 folders in there with the folder name being the date ie 2004-12-27. The WDTVLive only sees 4 of the 22 folders, I've messed with the names putting a ! in front. Occasionally I get a glimpse of a few more folders then they just disappear.

Tried all the tricks renaming, deleting the WDTV folder off the HD power cycling, blank USB key in USB port, nothing???

Any suggestions welcome.

georgeorwell

11-12-09, 10:00 PM

bubbarayhick

11-12-09, 10:53 PM

One problem with either Tversity or Twonky....is that they won't do anything with ISOs, whereas the WDTV will play them. So if someone has content in ISO format, they kind of need the WDTV to be doing what it's supposed to be doing.

i uninstalled tversity as soon as i tried brad's modded firmware which uses net.mounts

i havent had any issues with drop outs / stutters etc and i can access the network files as if they are local drives which is quicker and less button pressing to get too.....

this unit is now pretty solid all round for me anyways....

georgeorwell

11-12-09, 11:42 PM

What does the modded firmware do to the original menu? I see it's based on the 1.03 firmware. Do you still keep the original menu, with items such as Pandora?

bubbarayhick

11-13-09, 12:46 AM

What does the modded firmware do to the original menu? I see it's based on the 1.03 firmware. Do you still keep the original menu, with items such as Pandora?

its pretty much the same firmware with some things done right... take a look here and read up some of it and see..

just search google for WDLXTV-LIVE-0.1.X

mixon78

11-16-09, 02:51 PM

I have recently bought WDTV Live and this little thing plays everything i through at it. I have tried high bit rate Divx (i.e. 2 Gbs,) BDMV folders (i.e. M2TS) not riped with original bitrate + subtitles. Bunch of re-muxed VC1 and AVC1, H.242, FLAC, MP3. MKV plays flawlessly.This monster plays everything.
However, the only problem i have is with network UPNP Streaming.

Here is my setup:

1) I have WD500 connected to my Router WRT610N with USB Link.
2) I have enabled Media Server in the router settings and scanned all folders on the disk.
3) WDTV Live is connected to DLink 5 port switch.

WDTV Live see the UPNP Server just fine and I can see HD movies MKVs in the list of files. When I try to play one over from UPNP Server, it looks like it is going to start playing and displays message that the file can not be played because File Type or Codec is not supported.

More interesting is i tried to play high bitrate Divx 2 Gb size and it starts playing displays black screen like it is going to start any time soon and nothing happens no error message just seats there with the black screen.
The unit is responding to commands so it does not hang or anything just would not play over the network.

Moreover, when I try to copy many small files to WDTV Live from my PC runing Vista Ultimate 32, I can see that the speed starts at about 1MBps and than slowly starts to drop and bounces around 144KBps after a while.

I had the unit hang only one time when I played Blue Ray Dark City no cluw as to why.

Does anyone know the solution and have the same problem?
Is the unit defective or is it a firmware issue and needs an update?

Will the B-RAD firmware work with UPNP Servers and not network shares?

DarinHTPC

11-19-09, 01:24 PM

anyone experiencing any more network drops since the release of the latest firmware?

mixon78

11-19-09, 01:34 PM

I have upgraded WDTV Live firmware and also found new firmware upgrade to my WRT610N router. After upgrades, most of the problems have been solved (i.e. I was able to play MKV, high bit rate Divx etc) However, I am still getting frequent stuttering and audio on VC1 or AVC or H.242 would frequently disappear and than appear after a minute or so.
Also, the in the middle of playing movie from UPNP Server, it would stop after 5-10 minutes and say unit can not connect to network. Than after a minute it would reconect just fine.

I am connected all the way through ethernet wire and using WRT610N router with external connected USB drive MY BOOK WD 500

anakletor

11-19-09, 06:06 PM

I received my WDTV Live yesterday. I am also having network problems. I turn it on, it connects to the network, I look for a movie on my Synology NAS, start playing movie and after about 5 minutes the playback stops and I get the message that network connection is lost (or something similar). I then go to network setting and do a network check showing "incorrect DNS server". Restarting the device allows me to play 5 more minutes.... and so on. I am going to return it and hope I wont get a lemon next time....

anakletor

11-19-09, 07:01 PM

Opentoe

11-19-09, 08:16 PM

I just wanted to mention that the connection drop only happens while video streaming. I have had the WDTV Live on for 30 minutes now without doing anything and connection is still good. This makes me think that it could be related to some buffering issues. Something like a software error at the TCP/IP stack. Of course I cannot rule out a failure on the route side, but this would surprise me since I have so many other network devices connected to the router and never had a problem.

Make sure you have it configured statically along with all the other devices on your network. After I did that to all my computer's and devices I've had a much more stable home network. All wired 1000gb with all Netgear switches and a Cisco Router.

erkkip

11-20-09, 07:46 AM

anakletor

11-20-09, 09:39 AM

I just changed my workgroup name to WORKGROUP and it solved all my problems. Before my workgroup name was KODU, and it dropped like after 5 minutes. Now I watched a half hour movie and with no network drops. :)

My media is stored in a Synology NAS and its workgroup name is WORKGROUP. So I don't think that is the problem in my case.

anakletor

11-20-09, 09:40 PM

Well, this is my lucky day :)

I have not done any changes to my setup since my last post, except for two things:

1. I disabled the "Advanced DNS" setting on my D-Link DIR-655 router and
2. I restarted my Synology NAS

My WDTV Live is working great now! I have played about two uninterrupted hours without any network drop so far. :)

WDTV Live is just great!

synaptic

11-21-09, 12:01 AM

I just changed my workgroup name to WORKGROUP and it solved all my problems. Before my workgroup name was KODU, and it dropped like after 5 minutes. Now I watched a half hour movie and with no network drops. :)

That is the conclusion I have come to, I'd like to see WD implement this into their firmware, it is about as important as being able to statically set IP/DNS.

Murphy74

11-22-09, 02:31 PM

Well, took the new WD firmware, and still having the same drop out issues after 5 minutes or so over the network. I can manually reconnect, or just let it sit for a few minutes and it will automatically reconnect.

Will try changing the workgroup name before I try the brad firmware hack.

Where is WD?? lol I've emailed the TWICE now with no response at all! Thank God for AVSfroums and knowledgeable users willing to share their findings!

anakletor

11-22-09, 02:35 PM

Hi. Try restarting all devices connected to your LAN, including NAS. That's what worked for me. My WD TV Live kept losing network connectivity becuase of some DNS issues. I was going crazy. After restarting all devices (router, computers, NAS, WD TV... everything) it has been working like a dream. No problems at all. Good luck!!

Murphy74

11-23-09, 05:38 PM

Well, changed 2 PC to the workgroup name "WORKGROUP", and both seem to be streamable again without drop offs!! Let each one go for about an hour last night without issues!

Hopefully this helps others as it did me, and hopefully it alerts WD to another flaw in their firmware to get fixed!

Thanks erkkip and everyone esle who figured this change out! :)

turbo1

11-24-09, 01:08 AM

All fixes to network are here.
http://wdtvforum.com/main/index.php?topic=2840.0

Justanothername

11-24-09, 01:36 PM

Sorry if I missed this, but I have had a little bit of a strange issue.

I am running Win7 and have had pretty good luck. When I put a new movie into a share, WDTV does not find it right away. And actually, I don't know exactly when it does. But it will find it sometime. I have waited now 2 days for the video to be found. Is there a way of refreshing the WDTV so that it updates more frequently?

Also, why is it that some avi's won't stream but play fine on an external HDD?

Justanothername

12-02-09, 03:11 PM

Anyone?

mixon78

12-02-09, 03:31 PM

Justanothername

12-03-09, 11:24 AM

I am not an expert in this; however, I can recall there is a web service running on WDTV on some port and it has option to scan for files. Just google for it

I have had zero luck trying to google it.

I have some movies that are not appearing at all and they have been on there for quite some time.

oBMTo

12-08-09, 07:05 PM

I don't how it works, but after I switched off the sharing WDTV Live under network settings I don't have network drops anymore.

NanuGTR

12-09-09, 11:24 PM

Hey Guys,
Anyone having this problem.....
Ok so i have the WD Live connected to my network i have server 2003 with all my high deff content. Now i am able to access youtube but when i go to Videos > network shares and i click on network shares nothing happens, i cant even get to the part where it shows me list of computers on my network. This was working about a week ago but i was getting network drops with streaming from my server, now i have no idea why i cant get into Network Shares...
please help!
thanks!

sportflyer

12-10-09, 04:30 PM

bubbarayhick

12-10-09, 08:28 PM

sportflyer

12-10-09, 11:01 PM

xmount //YOUR SHARE FOLDER COMPUTER IP/Media Media cifs

same for all your shares you have just change the name

xmount //YOUR SHARE FOLDER COMPUTER IP/Media1 Media1 cifs
xmount //YOUR SHARE FOLDER COMPUTER IP/Media2 Media2 cifs
xmount //YOUR SHARE FOLDER COMPUTER IP/Media3 Media3 cifs

i havent changed my modded firmware since version 0.7 which does all i need it too. so i dont know about .fff file..

Are you saying no reference to drive is needed so long as the share names are unique ?

xmount//192.168.1.100/movies movies cifs

xmount//192.168.1.100/compmovies compmovies cifs

even though movies is in drive F and compmovies is in drive D ?

Thanks

AVS66

12-10-09, 11:59 PM

I just got a 100' of cat5 cable and tried to set up the network. After few hours of trying, I have a mix feeling.

Connect to youtube and it is working fine. Happy

Desktop/laptop/Live they all can see each other.

If I access to Video -> Network shares -> I can see my desk/labtop -> Users (this folder from C:\users). I put a SD ripped ISO movie and it plays no problem about 30 min. I stop playing but I think no problem there.

Now, I want to create the shared folders on desk/labtop and keep movies there so I can access from Live to play . Can anyone work me through how to because I tried to create the shared folder, the Live could see the shared folder but when I clicked it said "there is no media in the current folder" even there are few ripped movies in there.

This is how I created the share folder: Create new folder then go to computer -> manage -> share folders -> shares -> right click, new share -> and access to the created folder.....Is it the right way to do?

The desk/laptop run with Windows 7, 32bit. Router G. Desk/laptop are wireless, Live is wired.

Oh, one more thing. Playing Youtube, some clips are fine, no hitcup, but some are stutter but I think may be because of my speed internet. It is 768/3xx.

utlonghorns4

12-11-09, 02:53 AM

YouTube always seems to buffer a lot. Even on the computer and I am running 22Mbps/2Mbps internet. I guess YouTube's servers just can't handle the growing amount of users.

tommer12

12-11-09, 08:54 PM

For *fun* today, I went out and bought a new Wireless N+ router. Placed in the same spot my TrendNet was at, turned it on. Magically, my home windows 7 machine went from 54megs to 270 megs. Something is not right with the TrendNet Wireless N routers..

I purchased a Belkin N+ for $89. Hooked up my wireless USB TrendNet to the WDlive and I could stream my home movies flawlessly no issues. Before, same USB network sticks and TrendNet router, did not stream from my home PC windows 7.

I still need need to add security and move everything over to my cable modem and try out Playon Hulu. My WD NAS drive always played movies fine over the wireless, never a problem there.

It was the streaming from cable modem to access point to home pc, then back to access point then to the WD live.

I think i found my solution.

The trick here is to when you think you have a good wireless setup, you dont. Double check the speeds at the media pc in my case Windows 7 home premium. (2 year old HP pc, runs fine)

bubbarayhick

12-11-09, 10:20 PM

Are you saying no reference to drive is needed so long as the share names are unique ?

xmount//192.168.1.100/movies movies cifs

xmount//192.168.1.100/compmovies compmovies cifs

even though movies is in drive F and compmovies is in drive D ?

Thanks

yes. unless you have to login to your share folder computer, and then a user/password will need to be added to the line as shown:

xmount//192.168.1.100/movies movies cifs user=LOGIN_NAME,pass=YOUR_PASSWORD
xmount//192.168.1.100/compmovies compmovies cifs user=LOGIN_NAME,pass=YOUR_PASSWORD

geoffcaplan

12-12-09, 04:35 AM

No problem accessing local external USB for viewing but everytime I want to stream direct from my Mac network stores, WD asks for a user name and password. I don't know where I am supposed to get this? I connected the WD Live Player via ethernet. My network user name and PW not working on WD. I have a Mac user name and no password. Maybe that is what is needed? I have the Mac set for sharing. Thanks.

sportflyer

12-12-09, 12:44 PM

bubbarayhick , thanks very much .

cabito

12-12-09, 02:53 PM

I see a lot of "yes" answers to this question, but my setup says "no." I have a laptop on the LAN (XP SP3, workgroup=WORKGROUP); the WD can see shares and stream from them, but the device isn't visible from the PC, so I can't load up the attached Passport. I "moved up" to the Live so I wouldn't have to carry the Passport or USB sticks around the house, but it's not working out that way. WD Discovery discovers nothing. No pertinent firewall or router messages. The worst part is that all my content is on a PC on the WAN side of the router, and even the WD can't see that far. I can stream from that box if I run TVersity or whatever, but that's not what I had in mind. I just wanted to remotely load up attached storage and play without streaming. I hate to keep sending these back. Anyone have any suggestions??

tommer12

12-14-09, 02:49 PM

I finally fixed my network issues.

If you are using any type of wireless network, the security settings on the wifi will kill your connection speed. Its quite some time for any network adapter to encrypt and decrypt security.

I had my brand new Trendnet router set at WPA Auto and my adapters would not connect to higher than 54megs. I switched to WPA2 and AES and it everything works flawlessly now.

Those with any wireless device, for giggles, try using it as unsecure, then step your way up to see if the connection drops stop or the video stays stable.

Anyways, hope this helps everyone.

http://www.smallnetbuilder.com/content/view/30664/228/

mbm1

12-15-09, 02:12 AM

Mike_Stuewe

12-26-09, 08:07 PM

having issues with networking...obviously :)

i have 2 pc's with media content on them. the wdtv live can see both of these pc's. when i click on the one, it opens the shared documents folder just fine. when i click on the other, i get an error message that the media server cannot be found (or played or whatever the generic error message is).

the pc that can be seen but does not play files has multiple hard drives on them. each of them is set up for sharing and can be accessed via the other pc.

another caveat, i also have an lg bd390 blu ray player. it has the same scenario of being able to see both pc's, but only access the folders and files of the one.

does anyone have any thoughts on what settings i may have wrong on this pc? i have doublechecked firewall settings and have the same virus scan settings on both pc's.

thanks

sdholden

12-27-09, 05:18 AM

Hey guys. First thanks for all the tips and I can't tell you how much I love this forum.

Second, I thought I'd post some success since it doesn't seem there's been much. I'm running Win 7 on my pc, with a wired connection to my WD Live in my media closet. I had all kinds of trouble with the network connection being dropped every five minutes, certain .m2ts files refusing to play at all, some playing without audio, etc etc. After reading and re-reading, i followed the tutorial here about Win 7 and network shares. I then disabled network discovery in Win 7. Next i configured WD Live for a static IP, along with a static IP in my router. I also configured my firewall (kaspersky) to disable UPNP. I'm not sure exactly which step did the trick or if it was a combination of everything or what, but the difference is unbelievable. All files play perfectly, HD, SD, mkv, m2ts, subtitles, multiple audio, you name it. Thumbnails load nice and snappy and I couldn't be happier. Strange to say since i was pretty close to an RMA just a few hours ago. Thanks again guys.

P.S. I am running the latest WD Live firmware. The B-rad firmware was my next move, but at this point it isn't necessary.

cmberry20

12-27-09, 01:45 PM

Ok, I need some help off you guys because I'm having all sorts of troubles with Windows 7 (64bit) & network sharing on the WD TV Live. (Latest FW installed)

Firstly, I been through the guides found here:
{cant post urls yet, but paste this into the site & it will get you there:
'avs-vb/showthread.php?t=1194088'

Got a simple setup with two internal HDDs in my PC - one with Win7 on it the other with media on it. eg. Multiple folders - TV, Films, Music, Pictures.
A pretty simple setup.
I actually managed to get the network shares working & was extremely pleased with my WD TV Live. But, I came back the next day (after everything had been turned off) & I couldn’t access them again (even though nothing had changed) It just wouldn’t let me past the 'network shares' icon.
So, In a desperate attempt to sort it out, I reformatted Win7 & tried again. This time I had a little more success & it let me in but asked for my username & password - I then realised that I forgot to do the registry tweaks - after I did that I got a little further & managed to access the PC but..... It now says that there is no media present... WTF!!!!!
All my shares are correct, I've even tried moving a folder off the media hdd on to my Windows7 drive & setting up another share of that - but again the player said there was no media!!

So, I've tried media streaming - which I DO NOT LIKE!!!
Firstly, Windows Media streaming doesn’t work with my MKV files - so that’s a no go for a start!!
Next - tried TVersity. For some reason the picture & the sound is really bad & stutters all over the place. Fast forward & rewind is almost impossible. Why I’m having problems & other said that it works great I just don’t know??
Next I'm using Twonky - Its ok. However, it doesn’t play my xvid files nor MOV files. Plus, it merges all my video folders together (TV & Films) so it takes me longer to browse. Also, it’s not free.

So, I'm thinking of trying B-RAD WDLXTV LIVE-0.3.2 firmware. Apparently, there’s a method of using Networks Shares that works. Has anyone tried this? Does it work of with Win7 64bit? Is it easy to do?

I really want to get Network Shares working & I'm willing to pay/donate £5 to anyone that either solves my share issues or helps with get the B-RAD FW share working.

I’m that desperate to solve the problems!!

Cheers.

bubbarayhick

12-27-09, 03:33 PM

Have problems mounting my shares!
Im running windows 7 32bit and share folders. WD TV Live plays them fine, but the network shares are a slow on popping up in WD TV.

Have B-rad firmware, and tired to mount my shares, but there are no vidoes found on when plugin the USB-stick.

Copied the netmount on the usb with the following text:
xmount //192.168.1.34/!Kids Kids nfs
also tried
xmount //192.168.1.34/!Kids Kids cifs
xmount 192.168.1.34:/FILM/!Kids Kids cifs

What would the right text in my netmount be when the windows shared are:
D:\!Kids or as shared //FILM/!Kids

what is the complete route to the share folder on your computer? D:\!Kids ?

if so then xmount//192.168.1.34/!Kids Kids cifs as long as the ip is the ip of the share computer.

you might have to power cycle the wdtv by pulling out the power cord.

maybe try without the ! in the folder names...

sdholden

12-27-09, 10:31 PM

I'm looking for a litte more help with the B-rad firmware. I decided to go ahead and install it, and the upgrade went fine, and my network shares seems to be much more reliable. I'm having trouble with the xmount methods as some others have described, and i have a couple questions I haven't found the answer to.

1. Where does the net.mounts file go? In the root of my USB drive attached to my WDTV?

2. If the net.mounts syntax is correct, will it automatically execute when i insert the flash drive? Or is there something else I must do?

3. I'm using Win 7, and my network shares are visible in WDTV and play fine. The ip of my computer is 192.168.1.65, the shares are on F:\ and are named Blu-Ray and music. So I have...

xmount//192.168.1.65/Blu-Ray Blu-Ray cifs
xmount//192.168.1.65/Music Music cifs

Is this not correct? It doesn't seem to work. If i understand correctly, i should be able to access the local flash drive and it appear as though my shared files reside on it. That doesn't happen yet. Thanks for any info.

mbm1

12-28-09, 08:17 AM

Has anyone win xp on there pc?
Thinking of trying XP instead of Win 7. Maybe it is better?

Techaholic

12-28-09, 10:17 AM

Ok had a very interesting problem, I downloaded several Avatar HD trailers, and was playing them with my WD Live of off my Windows Home Server, everything was fine, connected to the Network share and it played the mov files just fine, then boom.. everything froze and every click of the remote took an age to respond and I had to recycle the WD to get it back to normal (pull power plug not just turn off). So I played these files from a PC of off the WHS and had no issues, but as soon as I tried to play that particular one with the WD it would lock up or slow to a crawl. So I moved these files to a thumb drive thinking this was a network issue and much to my surprise, when I tried to play the file that caused the problem from a network share, it also had the exact same effect from the thumb drive and the WD would become really slow or freeze completely. I tried this with two WD units that I have. So here was a mov file that played fine on a PC but was like a poison pill to the WD... something about that particular media file had the WD knickers in a knot... this could be part of the problem that people are experiencing, because this slow response was not fixed by just turning the device off, you had to actually pull the power cord out to get the WD back to its normal speed.

mbm1

12-28-09, 12:40 PM

I have win 7 pc´s running with shared folders..
The one is always avalible on the WD TV live, the other one is driving me mad.. Very often it shows up in shares:mad:

Thinking of getting an other mediabox.. Maybe the Asus or Patriot or another is working better with network shares?

cmberry20

12-28-09, 12:50 PM

ok, i think I've solved it.

I followed the tutorial shown in the youtube video {youtube.com/watch?v=EQstgQ4eJCM} & my network shares suddenly appeared!! Very happy now {as long as they dont vanish again!!}

However, I did the same with my previous install of Win7 to see if I can get it working again (I kept a copy/image on a spare HDD) but, the Shares still dont work. Its probably some settings somewhere that preventing the HD TV Live from accessing it, but I'll be buggered if i can find it!!

So to sum up - if your still having problems accessing the Network Shares with Win7, try reformatting & reinstalling Windows, as it worked for me!!

sdholden

12-29-09, 02:06 AM

I've found a solution that I think is worth mentioning. It may not work for everyone, but my setup is pretty common, and this is something that I definitely overlooked, so I think it could be very helpful. My PC runs Windows 7, my WDTV Live is hardwired to my router, and I have a Samsung Story 1.5TB external USB drive that I share my music and videos from. First off let me say that I never had any trouble getting my shares to connect, i just couldn't keep them connected. Sometimes 5 minutes, sometimes an hour, but always a network disconnect. So I tried everything, from every forum on the Internet. Win 7 network settings, share this, don't share that, registry hacks, router settings, you name it I tried it. Nothing made any difference for me, and every time the network disconnected i had to restart my PC, which is a royal pain and for me makes my WDTV Live unusable. So I was digging tonight and found "USB Selective Suspend".

Control Panel-> Power Options-> Change Plan Settings-> Change Advanced Power Settings-> Expand USB Settings, then expand USB Selective Suspend Setting. Change this setting to disabled. All your other power options should be set to Max Performance, or Always On. You don't want anything going to sleep while streaming.

I had missed the USB setting however. Normally, the USB selective suspend will not suspend a device that is in use, and is supposed to be able to suspend individual USB hub ports, without affecting the other hubs in the port. However, depending on your USB hub or motherboard, this may or may not work. In my case, when Windows 7 decided to suspend my USB hub, sometimes my external HD stayed connected, sometimes it didn't. Once it disconnected, restarting my PC was the only way to resolve it. Since I have disabled this setting, my WDTV live has been streaming for 6 hours consecutively, with no disconnects. Previously it had never worked for more than 45 minutes.

I hope this helps someone as I've been pulling my hair out. Now I can get to loving my WDTV Live, because it really is awesome... when it works.:D

calvinccli

12-29-09, 09:58 AM

I think i am going to give up this WDTV live. The network thing is so buggy, it makes me so frustrated.
I used to have a wireless bridge setup to connect to his WDTV live, and yesterday when i changed the wireless bridge to another one, WDTV live was not able to get the IP address at all. Even I went to network setting, and tried it, it just keep saying not able to get the IP address.
On the other hand, My Xbox 360 have no problem at all to get the IP address from the new wireless bridge.
So i have to wait for over 10 minutes, and tried it again. Finally, the WDTV live was able to get the IP address.
Also the network share and media server access are not stable at all, sometimes i can see my PC/Media Server, sometimes i cannot. And the player drops out of network once a while, also the MP4 audio out of sync issue - but that's not related to networking.

socon

12-30-09, 08:30 PM

Continued network drops using shared folders also has me looking for another solution. Got past the Win7 share challenge only to find movies dropping randomly with the network connection loss. All of a sudden audio out of sync problems popped up recently where I really hadn't noticed any before. Would be great if we were saved by some magical firmware update, but right now I would not recommend this device to anyone.

jbarm

12-31-09, 11:19 AM

Wanted to report on some success with my WD Live and networking.

I've had the unit since introduction and I'm running it in conjunction with a XP PC. I'm also using a powerline networking device to connect them (more reliable than wifi IMO).

Since day 1 the network share function was buggy. Streaming would work for a while and then I couldn't see my network shares.

Saw the proposed solution of changing the workgroup name to WORKGROUP from another name quite a while ago and figured it was too simple to work. Finally tried changing my name from MSHOME to WORKGROUP about a week ago and have had zero issues since.

Not sure why this works for some and not others but it worked for me.

jb

astph

12-31-09, 08:01 PM

Hi! I'm having slow transfer rate (copying files from laptop to WDTV Live HDD), my set up is WRT54G router and BUFFALO MINI USB Wireless-N, streaming is a bit flakey, how do i go about it?

TIA!

Mike_Stuewe

01-02-10, 07:49 AM

mr_jbloggs

01-02-10, 07:42 PM

I need help. I recently purchased the wDTV live and connected it to home network via Powerline Adapters (Netgear 200mbps rated) the PC is connected to WRT54G as well as the other powerline adapter via the port on the WRT54G.

I can't even stream SD video which always stutters. Youtube is fine and playing via usb drive connected directly to WDTV Live is fine. Could it be that the Ethernet port on the WRT54G is the bottleneck? or something else?

Any help is appreciated.

Nogib

01-09-10, 08:13 PM

Derelict_Drvr

01-09-10, 08:33 PM

Nogib, I agree. The most I can get out of my powerline setup is 20Mb/s. I get higher bitrate thru my N wireless.

Namnuta

01-14-10, 12:15 AM

Just purchased a WD HDTV Live and wanted to share my experiences.

First i am using netgear powerline ethernet to the device from my router. I get 25 - 30Mb/s which is pleanty to stream a MKV or WMVPRO HD encode. I am running the latest firmware on the WD HDTV Live.

First try. (PC is running Windows 7 Ultimate 64)

Shared some MKV HD content from my PC connected to my router. Most media would freeze about 5 minutes in or in any high bit rate action part; then it would come back playing with no sound. Very frustrating. I know its not a bottle neck problem becasue i stream WMVHD files to the 360 flawlessly.

Second try. (D-Link 343 Nas with latest 1.03 Firmware)

I use a DLink 343 Nas as my backup and media server. (I just used shares above as a quick test) Everything seems to stream perfect when streaming from my NAS. MKV HD material didnt shutter, or freeze and lose sound. All SD material also worked great.

My conclusion so far is that the network dropouts and freezing issues i had must be related to using network shares on a windows machine vs using a Upnp on a linux based NAS. I will test the NAS more with higher bitrate material, crosses fingers.

droht

01-14-10, 08:22 AM

Planning to pick up a Live at BB today, but after reading this thread my conclusion is basically that the device does not work for what I would use it for (streaming AVCHD content, pics and music from Vista-based PC). I guess it works for some people, and maybe kind of works for others, but in general I don't understand why there isn't a louder cry of "this thing does not work!"

Plenty of folks seem to consider this the best media player with wi-fi, at least for the money it costs. How can that be? Is it a best of the worst kind of thing? Or am I missing something? :confused:

Derelict_Drvr

01-14-10, 09:12 PM

...I don't understand why there isn't a louder cry of "this thing does not work!

Because it _does_ work for the majority of people. Inveriably the issue with it not working on a certain network is because there is some kind of non-standard setting on the network. The biggest issues are with Win 7 machines.

On Vista, if you have your network settings properly configured, then the WDTV is plug and play.

SoNic67

01-14-10, 09:53 PM

I can confirm - Vista 32 bit shares conection was a no brainer.
Windows 7 x64 was a pain till somebody stumbled over the incompatibilty described above with Windows Live Sign In Assistant. I did uninstall it and all was fine.

droht

01-14-10, 10:03 PM

Thanks guys. It seems like more than a few posts go in the opposite direction, but I'm not going through this thread again to find them. I guess I'll try it for myself. It really does need to be plug and play for me though. I just don't have the patience with this stuff to screw around endlessly trying to make something work.

You have given me the confidence boost I was seeking. I'll report back as to my success, or otherwise...

logic88

01-14-10, 11:06 PM

bsktvm

01-16-10, 12:18 PM

Because it _does_ work for the majority of people. Inveriably the issue with it not working on a certain network is because there is some kind of non-standard setting on the network. The biggest issues are with Win 7 machines.

On Vista, if you have your network settings properly configured, then the WDTV is plug and play.

I have vista ulitmate. I never used to have network drops first with firmware .11. From the day .17 was released it keeps dropping. Not sure whether these were related but it started happening after the new firmware.

Can you please let me know what the 'correct' network setting for vista is. I will check whether my configuration is correct. Thanks

Btw, i have uverse and it is a wired connection for the entire house

bsktvm

01-18-10, 05:25 PM

bsktvm

01-18-10, 07:04 PM

mystiky

01-21-10, 08:56 AM

It's quite incredible, but I am so lost here... spent 6 hours with WD and Linksys tech support online... and still no answers.

Running Windows 7 Ultimate (64-bit) with WD TV Live, which has the Linksys WUSB600 dual-band wireless-N USB adapter plugged in. My PC has no user accounts / passwords so there are ni profiles.

I followed the setup / installation instructions from this link:

http://community.wdc.com/t5/Networking/Enable-Network-Shares-on-WD-TV-Live-amp-Windows-7-amp-Vista-32/m-p/6842#M557

Worked like a charm - for 4 days.

Earlier today, I decided to "upgrade" my old Linksys WRT300N router to the WRT610N new one, so that I can have better streaming with the dual-band. Here is the bottom line: When I now go to "shared networks", I only see the router itself listed. There are no more network shares foldere/directories that were working perfectly with WRT300N. So I decided to "go back" to the WRT300N, and guess what, the network shares dissapeared there also. The WRT300N router is not shown.

I have tried (and not limited to the following):

Factory reset my WD HD Live and re-setup from scratch
re-created the network share folders on the PC
re-set advanced sharing settings / media streaming / sharing parameters, etc...
Uninstalled / re-installed the ETHERNET drivers on my PC
REPLACED the WRT610N router with another one (swaped at the store I bought yesterday)
Disabled Windows 7 firewall/ Kaspersky 2010 antivirus and buit-in firewall of WRT610N
tried Auto login to network share > On / Off, cleared cache...
and many other things and still no go

I do know that the WRT610N is seen by WD HD Live because I am able to stream Youtube videos without a problem and I am able to ping 192.168.0.103 (WD HD Live) from my PC. Also, . the WDTV Live icon is displayed under Network / Media Devices. My Linksys WRT610N is displayed under Network / Network Infrastructure.

I am at a loss of words.... why would it work fine for 4 days, then when I try to change the router.... it breaks everything.

P.S. Neither Windows Live Assitant nor MSN is installed on this machine.

Any other ideas?!?!?

animal99

01-21-10, 01:14 PM

I've found on my WDTV Live, the solution to dropped network Shares is in one of TWO places AND will stay connected just fine once I've done one of two things:

1)REBOOT the wdtv LIVe unit by UNPLUGGING it for about 15 seconds, then reconnecting it... reconnect to file, etc.

2) Go to the machine you're loosing the connection from, and TURN OFF all Power Saving modes. Apparently Network Cards power saving can not be reversed if you're using WDTV Live to view video through it.

I learned this the other night when I kept loosing the Network Share on my "P4" machine after 5 minutes. I forgot that I'd been using that machine to do some file maintenance and had changed the WINDOWS POWER Management feature to Go-To-Sleep in less time than usual. (Mostly to make it power down by itself when I left it alone for too long).

IF that was your problem, then after changing your time limits - do a hard reboot on the WDTV Live to be sure it's erased any corrupted data and you'll be good to go.

bsktvm

01-21-10, 08:28 PM

After a lot of working around, I think I figured out when the network drops for me (I have att uverse and the entire house is wired; I run vista ultimate). Basically it drops as soon as a new computer in the house connects to the home network. for example, if I turn on my laptop, then when it is finally connected, the network drops. If I connect to the vpn (which maybe equivalent to a new connection), again the network share disapears. Any idea on how to get around this; thanks

More experimentation results. It loses connection only when I connect to the vpn. When I turned off the internet on the desktop, the connection to vpn did not affect the network share. This is just driving me crazy. any experts out there who can figure it out. I know it will work if I dont make a vpn connection (on another computer mind you), but still I want to to know what is going on

Thanks

pixeltricks

01-21-10, 08:33 PM

One thing to consider when you see lots of posts about problems with anything is that most people that are not having problems and like a device do not post about it, only the ones having problems. So it is really hard to judge how bad some products are.

There are a lot of solutions to problems people are having with networking from windows settings, to routers to installing things like tversity or playon.

My personal recommendation is to get an external hard drive , attach it to the WDTV Live and use windows to put the files on the drive. It will show up in the shares on every windows pc as a network drive. Then you don't have to worry about network streaming problems or moving a drive around.

FF/Rewind also works much better locally than over the network.

I just installed windows 7 x64 with nothing changed other than the default install and my WDTV box external drive is showing under networking. With me having to change nothing :)

Derelict_Drvr

01-21-10, 09:16 PM

More experimentation results. It loses connection only when I connect to the vpn. When I turned off the internet on the desktop, the connection to vpn did not affect the network share. This is just driving me crazy. any experts out there who can figure it out. I know it will work if I dont make a vpn connection (on another computer mind you), but still I want to to know what is going on

Thanks

Have you gone into your router and changed the WDTV Live from a DHCP connection to a static one? When another computer connects, it (router) searches for an IP address for that machine. It might be knocking the WDTV off when it scans.

mystiky

01-22-10, 10:52 AM

Out of desperation, I once again tried to reconnect the WRT300N router back on the system, and guess what? Everything is working like a charm again. I did not have to touch any settings on Windows 7 ...

So this tells me that WD TV Live has incompatibility with the Linksys WRT610N v2 router and therefore, I am returning it back to the store.

Funny enough, I watched 45 minutes of 1080i video yesterday without any "skipping" from my WRT300N, on a mixed signal using 20Mhz.

ajburgh

01-22-10, 12:02 PM

More experimentation results. It loses connection only when I connect to the vpn. When I turned off the internet on the desktop, the connection to vpn did not affect the network share. This is just driving me crazy. any experts out there who can figure it out. I know it will work if I dont make a vpn connection (on another computer mind you), but still I want to to know what is going on

Thanks

When you're on VPN with your computer, do all your network connections go through the VPN gateway? Some VPN software requires that all connections go through the VPN for security reasons. In that case the VPN administrator would have to set it up so the VPN virtual adapter does not become the default gateway for all network connections. If you want to know what gateway is used for IP address ranges, open a command prompt and do a "route PRINT" to get a list of the routing table.

mr_jbloggs

01-22-10, 06:22 PM

mystiky

01-23-10, 11:59 AM

Are you using Windows 7 Ultimate x64 edition?

My WRT300N is working like a rock with the HD TV live for 2+ days now.

mr_jbloggs

01-23-10, 06:07 PM

No, I'm using Win XP (sp3)

logic88

01-23-10, 06:18 PM

Well, I'm one of the ones in the other camp. My WDTV Live just won't stay connected to the shared volume. It initially connects fine but after 4 or 5 minutes, it drops the connection.

It's a pretty vanilla XP-SP3 simple shared volume that my ASUS O!Play can stream from just fine, which makes the WDTV Live's problem a bit of a head scratcher.

It turns out my WDTV was suffering from the "Not-WORKGROUP" problem. Switched from "MSHOME" to "WORKGROUP" and the WDTV stays connected now.

Seems fairly stable now though I did see a weird problem where the WDTV refused to grab a IP from my router until I powercycled the router (everything else, including the O!Play, worked fine before and after the powercycling).

bsktvm

01-25-10, 09:32 PM

Have you gone into your router and changed the WDTV Live from a DHCP connection to a static one? When another computer connects, it (router) searches for an IP address for that machine. It might be knocking the WDTV off when it scans.

I went to the router settings but couldn't find a way to make it static. I however could make the ip address a fixed one (maybe that is what you meant), but beside the address it still says dhcp. Long story short, it still didnt help :(

bsktvm

01-25-10, 09:36 PM

When you're on VPN with your computer, do all your network connections go through the VPN gateway? Some VPN software requires that all connections go through the VPN for security reasons. In that case the VPN administrator would have to set it up so the VPN virtual adapter does not become the default gateway for all network connections. If you want to know what gateway is used for IP address ranges, open a command prompt and do a "route PRINT" to get a list of the routing table.

This is what I got when I did route print; seems like the default gateway is connected to the vpn i use. Can this be the problem
============================================================ ===============
============================================================ ===============
Active Routes:
Network Destination Netmask Gateway Interface Metric
0.0.0.0 0.0.0.0 129.119.xx.18 129.119.xx.18 1
0.0.0.0 0.0.0.0 192.168.1.254 192.168.1.142 26
127.0.0.0 255.0.0.0 127.0.0.1 127.0.0.1 1
129.119.xx.2 255.255.255.255 192.168.1.254 192.168.1.142 25
129.119.xx.18 255.255.255.255 127.0.0.1 127.0.0.1 50
129.119.xxx.255 255.255.255.255 129.119.xx.18 129.119.xx.18 50
192.168.1.0 255.255.255.0 192.168.1.142 192.168.1.142 25
192.168.1.142 255.255.255.255 127.0.0.1 127.0.0.1 25
192.168.1.255 255.255.255.255 192.168.1.142 192.168.1.142 25
224.0.0.0 240.0.0.0 192.168.1.142 192.168.1.142 25
224.0.0.0 240.0.0.0 129.119.xx.18 129.119.xx.18 1
255.255.255.255 255.255.255.255 129.119.xx.18 129.119.xx.18 1
255.255.255.255 255.255.255.255 129.119.xx.18 3 1
255.255.255.255 255.255.255.255 129.119.xx.18 10005 1
255.255.255.255 255.255.255.255 192.168.1.142 192.168.1.142 1
Default Gateway: 129.119.xx.18
============================================================ ===============
Persistent Routes:
None

ajburgh

02-01-10, 04:18 PM

This is what I got when I did route print; seems like the default gateway is connected to the vpn i use. Can this be the problem
============================================================ ===============
============================================================ ===============
Active Routes:
Network Destination Netmask Gateway Interface Metric
0.0.0.0 0.0.0.0 129.119.xx.18 129.119.xx.18 1
0.0.0.0 0.0.0.0 192.168.1.254 192.168.1.142 26
127.0.0.0 255.0.0.0 127.0.0.1 127.0.0.1 1
129.119.xx.2 255.255.255.255 192.168.1.254 192.168.1.142 25
129.119.xx.18 255.255.255.255 127.0.0.1 127.0.0.1 50
129.119.xxx.255 255.255.255.255 129.119.xx.18 129.119.xx.18 50
192.168.1.0 255.255.255.0 192.168.1.142 192.168.1.142 25
192.168.1.142 255.255.255.255 127.0.0.1 127.0.0.1 25
192.168.1.255 255.255.255.255 192.168.1.142 192.168.1.142 25
224.0.0.0 240.0.0.0 192.168.1.142 192.168.1.142 25
224.0.0.0 240.0.0.0 129.119.xx.18 129.119.xx.18 1
255.255.255.255 255.255.255.255 129.119.xx.18 129.119.xx.18 1
255.255.255.255 255.255.255.255 129.119.xx.18 3 1
255.255.255.255 255.255.255.255 129.119.xx.18 10005 1
255.255.255.255 255.255.255.255 192.168.1.142 192.168.1.142 1
Default Gateway: 129.119.xx.18
============================================================ ===============
Persistent Routes:
None

Sorry for the late reply, been away from AVS access for about a week.

Yes, that could be the problem. As soon as you connect to your VPN you can essentially no longer access other computers and devices on your local network unless there is an explicit route. Originally the VPN software we use had the same problem, but our VPN administrator fixed that after a while. It may be company policy to not allow access around the VPN because it does form a potential security risk. So there may not be an easy way around it.

bsktvm

02-01-10, 11:16 PM

Sorry for the late reply, been away from AVS access for about a week.

Yes, that could be the problem. As soon as you connect to your VPN you can essentially no longer access other computers and devices on your local network unless there is an explicit route. Originally the VPN software we use had the same problem, but our VPN administrator fixed that after a while. It may be company policy to not allow access around the VPN because it does form a potential security risk. So there may not be an easy way around it.

Thanks for checking; I will see whether I can get the vpn to be changed. It is quite interesting that the connecting to vpn on a computer that I am not trying to access causes all connections to go off

EVT

02-02-10, 02:18 AM

Hi guys,

I'm running Windows 7 and I have a wired home network with CAT5e.

I'm trying to get the best possible setup for streaming blu-ray rips. I've tried network shares (essentially sharing a drive on my PC) but the WD doesn't seem to do to well with many blu-ray rips that have high bit rates, low bit rate stuff like the Hangover seems to do well but it seems to choke on larger files with higher bit rates such as Quantum of Solace.

Question:

Does anyone have any solutions for this?

I seem to have better luck with DLNA media servers, so if nobody has any suggestions for network shares some feedback on such servers would be great. My question is shich is best for my application, I'd like a server that can handle all three blu-ray video codes (VC1, MPEG2 and AVC).

So far I've tried Tversity, PS3 Media Server, and Windows Media Player.

Tversity:

Tversity seems to do okay but doesn't seem to support cover art - otherwise, the only thing I feel like I'm giving up is the ability to rip in ISO mode.

Question:

Is there a way to get cover art working for Tversity?

PS3 Media Server:

PS3 Media Server supports cover art but for some reason I can't seem to playback any AVC files on my WDTV live even though I know it supports them, a message comes back that the WD doesn't support this type of file.

Question:

It is possible to playback AVC over PS3 media server? If so, setup instructions to do so would be greatly appreciated.

Windows Media Player

Windows Media Player seems to playback most files but dosn't seem to offer anything over Tversity and I personally prefer to use Tversity which I'm already quite familiar with.

Question:

If anyone has used this media server to achieve better results than the above programs it would be great to hear about your experiences.

Other Questions:

If anyone has had greater success with any other media servers it would be great to hear about them. Also, if anyone has found a media server that can handle HD ISO's it would expecially be great to hear about it.

ajburgh

02-02-10, 08:09 AM

Thanks for checking; I will see whether I can get the vpn to be changed. It is quite interesting that the connecting to vpn on a computer that I am not trying to access causes all connections to go off

Ah, I had missed the point that the VPN connection is not on the computer you're trying to access. That does seem weird. The only thing I can think of in that case is the the WDTV Live sees one computer 'drop off' the network and somehow resets all its connections. That does sound like a bug on the Live that just gets triggered more often in your situation.

ClemTiger0408

02-02-10, 09:07 AM

Someone posted a solution that worked for me perfectly regarding random network drops.

Simply go to your network configurations and copy down all the information that is currently configured.

Then, change your settings from Automatic to Manual and manually input all of the information that you put down.

No idea why this worked, but it did. I had drops 100% of the time, now I NEVER have since I did this.

dex38

02-02-10, 10:32 AM

Hi guys,

If anyone has had greater success with any other media servers it would be great to hear about them. Also, if anyone has found a media server that can handle HD ISO's it would expecially be great to hear about it.

On other forums some people are reporting good results with :

http://www.wildmediaserver.com/

Not tested myself as my NAS has it's own dlna media server but it seems this one very powerfull.

vmo23

02-10-10, 11:48 PM

This just started off with the wdtv live not being able to access my shared drive. "Device could not connect to network." Previously it had been accessing the network fine. After a reboot of the WDTV live, I could normally access the network. Unlike others, I haven't experienced it dropping out during playback. Started it up today, it just flat out would not connect. Every other time it would give me the could not connect message. The other times, nothing even happened when I selected my shared network.

After reading about the issue here for ten minutes I decided to try it out again. I had left the wdtv live on during this. Sure enough it connects without a problem. Can anyone explain what might be causing this, or what I could do to prevent or. Or is this just a wdtv live issue that has to be addressed with an official update.

Windows 7 ultimate.

Shadrackc

02-13-10, 03:45 AM

Joined the site to post a couple of answers.
Have had the device for about a week.
Tried wireless trendnet n usb as it is a recommended wireless usb stick. Network drops after a few minutes. Streaming from a Windows Home Server.
Changed to the Linksys 610. Had the same problems as the guy above. Solution to that one, by the way, is to look in the settings for place that lists "workgroup" and change it to your workgroup name. Mine had been changed. In that section there is also a place to add a user. One of those two things allows you to see past the router. Took the router back when I realized it wasn't the problem and went back to my dlink 655.
The story gets better.
Picked up a wireless dlink 1522 bridge/AP. Bridged the 1522 to my dl655 and then hardwired the WDTV to the bridge.
Disconnect after a few minutes playing a file off network share.
Gets better.
Bought and returned dlink powerline adapters.
Same problem.
Figured that I needed a true hardwire to my switch two floors away so I get out my drill and properly wire a cat 5e cable between the WDTV and my switch.
Guess what?
Same f'ing problem.
So tonight, I went and found my receipt to return the device and I thought to try what someone stated above....turn off the setting for sharing the WDTV on the network.
Problem gone so far.
Played 3 shows so far and no problem.
Think that when the WDTV is shared it broadcasts a default "workgroup" that conflicts with your network if you are running a non standard name, as I was.
Maybe my solution would have been to change my workgroup name to "workgroup"? Won't know as it is working great now and I won't be messing with anything.
Thank god the bridge could be switched to an AP as I beefed up my wireless in the basement with it.

Dunbar

02-14-10, 03:08 PM

The problem I have is my WD Live (wired) seeing the network shares on desktop (wired; Vista) and laptop (wireless; XP.) It has no problem seeing the same machines under media servers. I don't know if it's my network b/c it seems to coincide with not being able to see the other devices under "view workgroup computers" so I usually just click away until I can see all the devices. Strangely though it seems to see my wireless laptop more reliably than my wired desktop. Frustrating as hell though, I bought this device primarily to stream videos over the network. Along with lackluster interface I'm tempted to sell this thing when the Popbox is released.

Yemble

02-15-10, 05:50 AM

I bought my WD HD Live simply to be a purely digital MP3 player, direct into my Denon AVR via HDMI, without any dependency upon a PC. I host my MP3s on a WD Elements 1.5Tb USB drive which is plugged directly into my LinkSys WRT610N router, which acts as a crude media server. The WD HD Live is also cabled direct into the router via Ethernet.

The cabling is about a direct as it could be and yet the WD HD Live will still drop its network connection when playing MP3s. Sometimes it takes hours, sometime it takes minutes.

From previous posts I figure it could be one, or more, of the following:

1) LAN setting are automatic rather than fixed
2) Network sharing is on
3) Media server enabled (on WD TV Live)
4) The workgroup name is YembleNET

I have just tried turning network sharing off and the MP3 playback lasted about 15 minutes before the connection dropped.

My next step is to disable the WD TV Live media server...

Shadrackc

02-19-10, 03:04 PM

The problem seems to happen to those with non standard workgroup names.
Once I stopped the wd live from being shared, my problems went away.

tonyjg

02-19-10, 11:50 PM

Just wishing to add my 'displeasure' at the WDTV Live (note - long time user of the original WDTV !!)

I didn't realise, until purchasing this unit the other day, THAT network connectivity was such a pain in the butt.

My system is as simple as probably everyone elses :

1 - 2 PCs, both using Windows XP HOME editions
2 - 1 Modem / Router and a Switch hooking up the PCs and the WDTV Live. (All WIRED)

As with most people, the WDTV Live is set up AND the connections are checked as working, has updated its firmware, and can access YouTube (not that I will be using it that at all).

I tried 'sharing' some files, 'changed' the group to WORKGROUP, can see the WDTV Live in the Workgroup under Networks.... BUT NOTHING in the NETWORK SHARES. I am using TVersity - BUT - its the the solution that I specifically believed that the WDTV was meant to provide. I have a Vista Notebook - and of course... the WDTV can 'see it' on its Media Drives.

That Western Digital have not provided (as far as I can find) any suitable response to 'fixing' up these Network issues makes me believe that this product is not fit for sale. I am dissappointed that I have bought this model. Having spent the last few days going thru various sites / wikis / forums - there is NO answer to how to get XP HOME to connect to the WDTV.

(** note - those service changes haven't fixed anything either)

any solutions ????

caycarem

02-20-10, 12:28 AM

i used to have problems seeing network shares every other day. haven't got a problem for months now. my setup: 2 dual band wrt320n routers, 1 of them runs wireless bridge dd-wrt & hook to wd tv live.
what i did was, on the main router, assign an IP for the MAC address of my vista 64 PC & assign the PC that IP as static. i had no more problems after this. see if it works for you.

mystiky

04-28-10, 02:23 PM

BatKing

05-04-10, 05:59 PM

HI everyone,

I am facing some network issue for streaming Bluray ISO. My WDTV live (latest official firmware) is hard wired into a gigabit switch which connect to my Linksys 320N Gigabit router.

Everything is working fine. I don't have a network dropping issue. my share is on my WHS machine and I can stream a 35GB MKV file without any shutter at all during the 2.5 hr movie time. and I have also stream a 25GB .ts file without any problem. Since thenI thought I was the lucky one without any network issues which other people are facing (it just simply works from the 1st try)

not until I got some Bluray ISO files. the ISO is a direct rip without any compression or re-encoding or restructure was done. it is about 40GB. However the shutter is coming after 1 mins to 2 mins into the movie. and especially during a high bitrate explosion scene, I would lose sound (my AVR shows no audio signal) and the whole screen will be blocking.........

If I connect the ISO file from External USB, then the problem is greatly improved (sometime still have a bit shutter for .5 sec but acceptable)

my question is if the Network speed of WDTV live enough for streaming huge ISO? I am thinking it is the network issue but why my 35GB MKV file is working fine? is it because it is a ISO file, the WDTV needs to work harder? or 35GB is at the limit and anything bigger will cause problem? (before Blu-ray iso, 35GB is my biggest media file)

Do I need to use the WDXLTV firmward with NFS file share to make it work? I can do that but I just want to know if I am facing the WDTV live network/CPU limitation on regular windows share and NFS is going to solve the problem.

Thanks.

Stormpvp

05-05-10, 02:13 PM

Every now and then my player will no longer see my WHS under network shares. To fix this, I go into network settings and choose the clear login info for network share, and it reappears no problem. It took me awhile to try that since I have it logging in as a guest with no login info at all.

Stormpvp

05-05-10, 02:15 PM

I decided to try using the new Linksys E3000 Router with the WDTV HD Live. I am using the latest firmware for both devices. The result is that the WDTV HD Live is able to “see” the Linksys Router under “Network Shares”, but when I click on accessing it (so I am able to see the drive / shared directories under it), I get the following error “This network share cannot be accessed”.

I have cleared the login cache and reset all I could think of, but it just won’t go.

When I re-connect my old WRT300N router (without changing a thing either on the PC or the WDTV HD Live), it works like a charm.

Any ideas? Has anyone gotten this combo to work?

I had that error a couple of times. To get around it, I unplugged the power to my WDLIVE (powering off doesn't work) and rebooted my WHS, then plugged the power back in. I don't remember if I cleared the network login info after that for that particular error, but the power recycling worked for me.

mystiky

05-08-10, 01:40 PM

I just saw that a NEW FIRMWARE was just released for the E3000 router:

05/04/2010 - Ver.1.0.01 (build 6)

I installed it and unfortunately it does NOT fix the problem that I am having with the WDTV HD Live.

C'mon WD + Linksys - wake up and smell the coffee!
.

mystiky

05-11-10, 11:37 AM

Let me clarify as to what I have:

One desktop PC, running Windows 7 x64, with the E3000 connected to it via Ethernet connection. Within my PC, I have created a Shared Folder (C:\TRANSFER), in which I have photos, avi, mp3 files. About 50 feet away, I have my Sony HD TV, to which there is WDTV HD Live connected, via the HDMI. I have attached a Linksys WUSB600N Adapter into the WDTV HD Live's USB port, so that I can wirelessly connect back to my PC, access the Shared Folder and play anything from there directly onto my PC. There is nothing connected to the E3000 via the USB port.

When I try this with the E3000 router connected, I have no problems accessing the internet from within the WDTV HD Live because I can go to Video / Youtube and play (stream) any videos on my TV -- as this is coming from the internet connection. However, when I go to Video / Network Shares - I see an icon for the E3000 router (called Cisco07519), and when I try clicking on it (with the idea that it would then show me the Shared Folder) , I get the following error “This network share cannot be accessed”. And that's as far as I can get.

Now, using the exactt same setup, without changing anything except "swapping" the routers, from E3000 back to WRT300N, when I click on Video / Network Shares - Without even seeing any router names, I am automatically shown the C: drive volume name (MYSTYKIY and when I click on it, I am immediately taken to the \TRANSFER directory and can see all files there and of course they all play.

So somehow, WDTV HD Live is not getting access past the E3000 so it can then allow access to my desktop PC. And it seems that WDTV HD Live tech support folks are correct. Since this baby plays fine with WRT300N, but not with the E3000, it must be a Linksys issue.

I have tried disabling any and all built-in firewalls in the E3000, thinking that somehow that is the issue, but the result is the same. The new updated firmware, about which I wrote a couple of days ago, does not change my situation in any way.

I hope I have explained this as clear as I can.

mym6

05-11-10, 05:37 PM

My WDTV Live has just decided that none of the shares it was able to access before have any content. I've had nothing but issues with the WDTV Live including networking crapouts to poor playback. The exact same file will play differently depending on if it has a .m4v or .mp4 extension. Wrap that file into an mkv and it might play the video without stuttering but it's hit or miss if it'll play the audio in sync or lock up completely.

mystiky

07-06-10, 09:13 PM

sgvZ4roadster

07-07-10, 03:23 AM

mystiky

07-07-10, 05:52 AM

I have experienced network share issues with both the Cisco Linksys E1000 and E3000... I know the permissions and settings are correct for my PCs, Laptops, PS3, and two media players because they work perfectly with my 7 Year old Linksys WRT54G and 5 year old DLink wifi G... I tried all kinds of solutions with the Linksys E1000 got tired and switched to the Linksys E3000 and got even more issues... I returned the E3000 and finally got a Netgear WNDR3700 - which works perfectly with all my shared devices... finally I can move into my next phase - upgrading and getting more media players for the house...:D

Exactly! And those Linksys/Cisco guys are just playing dumb in my opinion. As in my original post, I also stated that my WRT300N worked without problems but since I wanted more bandwidth for my streaming, I just ran out of options.

Netgear is the smart choice nowadays. I wish I saved myself all that time wasted on trying to figure out what was wrong and done this much earlier.

Elpee

07-07-10, 02:47 PM

wevowva

08-05-10, 01:30 PM

This weird workaround is worth the read!...

I've had a bandwidth problem from my HP laptop (Vista Ultimate 64) wired through a d-link 655 router to my WDTV Live Plus. Playback runs for less than a minute, then chokes off. However, playing video from my Dell (XP-home) also wired thru the d-link is healthy. All file transfers initiated by either the HP or the Dell to a USB drive attached to the WDTV run smooth and fast. However, copying a file from the HP to the attached USB drive, initiated from WDTV using its file management section, exhibits the same halted throughput as playing video through the WDTV. Copying initiated by the WDTV of files on the Dell run smooth though.

Here's the weird... because I had exhausted every other possible source of the issue (turn router gig off, duplex, cables, buffer sizes, unique IP addresses, subnet, group name, QOS, WDTV reset, firmware, firewalls, myriad settings of the 655 and laptop NIC), I wanted to take a look at weather opening a healthy cpu-initiated file transfer would affect throughput of a WDTV-initiated HP-sourced video stream. JOY JOY JOY. Whenever a cpu-initiated file transfer to the WDTV's USB drive is taking place, streaming video to the WDTV from files on the HP is HEALTHY! In fact, even a Dell-initiated file transfer to WDTV fixes the bandwidth choke.

It looks to me like the router is stopping the WDTV from opening up wide portal to the HP to stream video for some reason. But when either networked cpu initiates a path to the WDTV, it allows the video stream to sneak through.

Can anybody point me to a permanent fix? Is setting up port forwarding what I need?

BrianD73

08-05-10, 05:15 PM

I had something similar going on with a gigabit NIC on my Windows2000 machine and a different brand gigabit NIC on my Vista machine. Nothing I did could make playback smooth from the Vista PC...except forcing the NIC to be 100mbit...which I wasn't happy about. After trying all kinds of stuff, I finally bought a new NIC for the Vista PC to match the NIC in the Win2k PC. All of my problems went away completely.

Apparently some gigabit NICs just don't communicate properly with 100mbit NICs and negotiate their flow control. You may want to look at replacing the NIC in your HP.

mooksmilez

08-07-10, 02:35 PM

does anybody know if and how you can connect samsung led tv wirelessly to a wdtv live in another room?

I'd like to see if i can stream the videos to my samsung tv from the videos on my usb drive connected to my wdtv live

jojow77

11-08-10, 11:35 PM

After two months of waiting for "fixes" and getting a run-around from WD and Cisco/Linksys folks about my previosly talked about problem of not seeing any network shares with the E3000 model, I found a perfect fix:

I returned my E3000 (Target has a 90 day return period) and got myself a Netgear WNDR3700 Dual-Band Router.

Within 10 minutes of installation, EVERYTHING was working. All I had to do was to update the router firmware, setup the SSID / passwords, choose 2.4mhz band for PC/Data and 5mhz for TV Stream, reboot windows 7, unplug WDTV Live and everything works like a charm.

I streamed a BlueRay "rip" in 1080 without one hickup or flicker for 2+hours.

Bye bye Linksys, and hello Netgear!

Man I might have to get a new router too. I have a Linksys and I have tried every hack, solution, fix in the book and my WDTV will still drop network connection. It can't be anything else but the damn router! Grrr I really hate having to spend another 100+ dollars on a new router just for this though.

519audiofan

11-09-10, 12:22 PM

My WDTV worked flawlessly since last December until I applied some windows patches to my PC. After I patched, every 15 min. I would get the "cannot connect to network" message. I just turned the "share WDTV" property off and the unit has worked perfectly since.

Peter_Z

10-07-11, 09:01 AM

More experimentation results. It loses connection only when I connect to the VPN...... I know it will work if I don't make a VPN connection (on another computer mind you)....

I know this is a very old thread, but felt it was important to reiterate as a lot of people to this day are having networking problems with the WDTV Live.

It never occurred to me that making a VPN connection was the cause of my problems.

I have a Windows7, 64bit PC with public network shares for music, videos and pictures. I use these shares to play media on my WDTV Live. As mentioned by 'bsktvm', I too was experiencing the WDTV Live loosing connection to network shares whenever I made a VPN connection for work. Simply killing the VPN connection and turning the WDTV off and on again fixed my problem, I could browse the file shares again.

Although not a cure for all the networking problems out there with the WDTV Live, at least this one fixed mine :)