*New* Western Digital - WD TV HD Media Player

[hcour]

Originally Posted by sremmaz

WOW - that is very helpful..

That guide recommends using CQ - but doesn't say at what setting. It just says "you can adjust the CRF, lower CRF=better quality but bigger file size"

What is CRF? What is a decent one?

Or if you set it to 2-Pass what is a good kbps to have it set at?

I'm not an expert, at all, but as I understand it, the lower the better CRF. I set mine at 18.

But I don't know if that's going to compress your file much. To compress I use 2-Pass and leave the kbps at the default, usually 1024 and then set the lock size to the size I want the file.

[Papaaj]

Originally Posted by OzzieP

I am using DVDFab Platinum, don't know if that is the same as DVDFab 5, but I can not find the 5.1 output. Where is it? I am using DVD to Mobile, select generic, then under conversion I see all of the mkv options, but none specify 2.0 nor 5.1. Maybe I am looking in the wrong place or we have different software versions.

I did try hand brake, but 20 hours of encode time for a standard DVD is a bit long for me.

I tried Handbrake as well and it took about 8 hours to encode to MKV. Way too long! DVDFab is faster, but even that takes about 3 hours to encode to MKV. I can rip DVD's using DVDShrink and encode them to VOB or ISO files in about 15 minutes. Maybe I have the settings wrong on the other programs.

[OzzieP]

Papaaj

I can Do DVDFab to vob in about 15 also, but DVDFab to mkv only took 42 minutes. The problem it is not a 5.1 audio, but stereo 2 channel. I can't seem to find how to switch it to 5.1. I can live with 40 minutes, but 20 hours on handbrake is insane.

[frankyH]

Originally Posted by zAndy12

Just a quick question, is there any reason (hardware wise) this can't passthrough TrueHD and DTS-MA audio? It's HDMI 1.3 and the Popcorn hour A110 can do it so am I correct in assuming this can as well and it's just a case of the firmware allowing it?

This is where you go wrong..... 't's HDMI 1.2

[johnifehr]

Can confirm samsung 1t works perfect inside nexstar case, transferred 700 gigs of movies and only about 2 movies have issues due to their high bitrate.

[davids30]

Originally Posted by jblack94530

Did you activate the HDMI input selection in your TV using the TV remote control?
Assumming you put the HDMI cable to HDMI 1, then you will need to press the Input button on the TV remote control and scroll down until you select the HDMI 1.

yes i did but as it turns out my hdmi connection is broken along with some motherboard (i think) and i am returning the tv and getting a FULL HD samsung on monday.

[Tut_Ank]

Hi, I bought a couple of WD TV HD 10 days ago, one for me and one as a present for my bro.
First thing I did was to upgrade to 1.01.02.
So far is looking great, only a few issues that I hope they will fix in the next firmware. My be on a later post ill post my issues/suggestions because I’m not done reading yours.
I've just got an account created to post in this forum, It's taken me a while to read the first 115 pages and now it looks I still have 15 more to read...
I just found something that might explain the stuttering of DTS audio files.
I downloaded a backup of one of the movies I own as I'm to lazy to encode all my BR disks and is faster to download a mkv from the net (and where I live, if for personal use and as long as you don't profit geting money out of it IT is LEGAL to download any copyrighted video or audio files even if you don't own a copy anyway).
Anyway… The file had 2 Audio tracks, one on my mother language and the original English track, Track one was AC3 and the MKV was PAL (That is 25fps), the second track (English) was DTS, so I decided to convert to AC3 for better compatibility when I cannot use the DTS decoder and I did it manually (not using AudioConverterTools) but demuxing with MKVextractGUI and then using “eac3to .\Track3.dts .\Track3.ac3” to convert. Then I noticed that the DTS and AC3 had both the same duration, but was different to the .mkv length and that the difference was exactly in the 25/23.976 ratio when converted to seconds.
So looks like the person that had done that back up had taken some shortcuts, He or She had taken a ripped MKV in English (NTSC 23.976 fps) changed the fps by loading a text file in the timecodes section of mkvmerge GUI with the text “assume 25.000” and left the original DTS audio untouched then added the AC3 audio from a PAL DVD copy of the film and mux everything together. The resulting file played great on PC both in ENG and on the AC3 track. So looks like the PC is ignoring the tag for fps in the mkv and playing the movie at the speed that matches the duration of the audio file (23.976 fps for the ENG track and 25 when playing the dubbed audio track). They should have converted the dubbed track to play correctly at NTSC Speed using the –speeddown option and then leave the fps rate untouched, or I could have done that to fix it, but as I said before I’m lazy and to do that I had to demux the dubbed track also, then resample to slow it down, convert the DTS to AC3 create a text file with “assume 23.976” and mux it back again… What I did instead is remove the AC3 track I had created and recreate it with “eac3to .\Track3.dts .\Track3.ac3 -speedup”; after muxing all together I got a 25 fps mkv that plays perfectly both on PC and WD HD.
But that helped me understand what’s happening with the DTS. It stutters only sometimes with some files that I bet people had obtained by downloading their backups and not creating them themselves. This is what happens: The PC takes the right approach: change the reproduction rate to whatever matches the audio. That way Video is always fine and audio is in sync with the audio track it plays, so ignores the fps written on the mkv. WD HD TV on the other hand respects the fps tagging on the MKV and that’s when it gets into big trouble, because then is forced to either loose the audio/video Sync (which does not happen ) or has to cut the reproduction of the audio frequently to catch up/wait for the video producing the stuttering.
This does not happen using other containers as it looks it behaves different maybe the unit when reproducing other containers used to fix this problem it responds correctly adjusting the fps speed to the audio track as the PC player does.
If this is the case the WD can easily fix it by ignoring the fps tag on .mkv also and adjust video speed. Anyway is always easier to change the fps in video that resampling the audio on the fly or breaking up the audio to follow the video (The other option will be to cut the video but the you get the cadencing judder which is the equivalent to the audio stuttering)

Sorry for my first long post, and I hope it discourages whiners to read it and complying.

[zAndy12]

Originally Posted by frankyH

This is where you go wrong..... 't's HDMI 1.2

Really, I thought WD had confirmed it was HDMI 1.3?

[lzrs21lz]

Hi everyone.
This is is my first post. Being an audiovisual newbie I know I'll sound naive in asking the following, so please bear with me.
I was wondering if there might be a way of connecting WD player with my Pioneer DV-600AV dvd-player so as to get some sort of sound on the tv out of mkv/dts files which now are silent movies. Pioneer DV-600AV is dts compatible. Here's what the manual says:
Pioneer DV-600AV

• Built-in Dolby Digital and DTS
decoding with multichannel outputs
This player features multichannel analog
outputs for connection to an AV amplifier to
give you stunning surround sound from Dolby
Digital, DTS and multichannel DVD-Audio
discs.
...
The HDMI connection is compatible with Dolby Digital, DTS, MPEG audio bitstream, multi channel DSD, and multi channel linear PCM signals, (5.1 channel signals up to 96 kHz, 16 bit/20 bit/24 bit).
Attached is the inputs photo in the manual.
So can I somehow connect TV + WD player + Pioneer dvdplayer ?

[wdmediaplayerfan]

Originally Posted by brewster201

Hi there I apologize for not reading the complete thread. when I transfer/update my hard drive with additional movies they (the different movie files) will not show up on the screen unless I reset the WD media player. I do believe I tried ejecting the drive first but no difference.

Thanks
Bruce

Try turning on Media Library, then see if the new files are present. Folder view has some bugs with not showing all the files. I prefer folder view but found that my new files won't show up 50% of the time (after I load a lot of files on the drive) unless I use the Media Library.

[DanDaMan069]

Originally Posted by JayAllan

Can you output AVI files from Roxio?

I edit in Premiere and then output my master file as an AVI.

Then, if I need to save space a convert the AVI to an MKV with MeGUI.

i think roxio is kids play when compared to Cyberlink Power Director 7 Ultra Edition... which now has the newest bluray technology support and uses brand new h264 HD encoding that is supposed to be faster than ANY other h264 encoder?? I have power director 6 ultra right now, but will be upgrading to 7 ultra soon... and I will let you know how it works.. but i know the output files from editing in this software are very nice quality... especially when you output at 1080p
some of the files supported are..
HD MPEG-2, DVR-MS, DV-AVI, DAT, MPEG-1, MPEG-2, VOB, VRO with Dolby Digital 5.1/2.1, WMV, WMV-HD, MOV, MOD, live capture, TOD, AVCHD (M2T), MPEG-4 AVC (H.264)

Originally Posted by lzrs21lz

Hi everyone.
This is is my first post. Being an audiovisual newbie I know I'll sound naive in asking the following, so please bear with me.
I was wondering if there might be a way of connecting WD player with my Pioneer DV-600AV dvd-player so as to get some sort of sound on the tv out of mkv/dts files which now are silent movies. Pioneer DV-600AV is dts compatible. Here's what the manual says:
Pioneer DV-600AV

• Built-in Dolby Digital and DTS
decoding with multichannel outputs
This player features multichannel analog
outputs for connection to an AV amplifier to
give you stunning surround sound from Dolby
Digital, DTS and multichannel DVD-Audio
discs.
...
The HDMI connection is compatible with Dolby Digital, DTS, MPEG audio bitstream, multi channel DSD, and multi channel linear PCM signals, (5.1 channel signals up to 96 kHz, 16 bit/20 bit/24 bit).
Attached is the inputs photo in the manual.
So can I somehow connect TV + WD player + Pioneer dvdplayer ?

simply put...NO! read this part carefully..taken from the above description..
• Built-in Dolby Digital and DTS
decoding with multichannel outputs
This player features multichannel analog
outputs for connection to an AV amplifier to
give you stunning surround sound from Dolby
Digital, DTS and multichannel DVD-Audio
discs
your dvd player has a DTS decoder for the dvd/audio discs it reads... it does not have an AUDIO INPUT...it only has audio OUTPUTS...to go to your receiver. So unfortunately you cannot use your Pioneer with your WD to get DTS... you will need an audio receiver with DTS support in order to get DTS sound from the WD player... you only have 2 options... get a DTS receiver, or change your DTS audio streams to AC3 using popcornhour audio converter.. this will allow you to hear the audio on your TV.. But the difference in quality from DTS from audio receiver with 6 channel audio... to a TV's speakers... there is no comparison.. DTS sounds a million times better.. You can find theater in a box surround systems that support DTS for as little as $100 at walmart.. even a $100 RCA surround system with DTS support will sound a thousand times better than your TV speakers..

[lzrs21lz]

DanDaMan069 ,

thanx for immediate reply which makes things clear even for an ignorant like me. I'll have to make do with the converter option.

Thanx again

[Tut_Ank]

Originally Posted by ibitton

Very strange: this morning when I switched on my device I noticed that the settings had changed so I had a look and noticed that the device was set to NTSC when up until then it was PAL.
I'd prefer PAL as that is the norm here.
Should I care that it's changed? Should I set my res to 60Hz now instead of 50Hz?

It should not matter unless you are using the analog exit. if you are using HDMI it won't even allow you to suitch from NTSC to PAL. I you want to change it for any reason, like have it on PAL so when you plug it on a TV that has not HDMI you can connect using composite (RCA) output to your TV and then you can choose PAL...

[Tut_Ank]

Originally Posted by JayAllan

Thanks OzzieP !

I have DVDfab 5 and I never tried the divx (actually Xvid) MKVs before. This works best of anything I have tried so far! I am encoding at 2k.

When you encode divx or Xvid movies that are not cartoons (Those compress better and you can use a lower bitrate) you can use this rule not to waste space nor lower quiality: cropped image size in pixels (w x h) x framerate (ftps) x 0.2 = bps

for example 640 x 480 x 23.976 x 0.2 = 1473085.44 bps /1024 = 1438.56 (encode to 1440 Kbps) always (2 pass)

[ibitton]

Thanks for the explanation Tut_Ank

That said, I'm still a little confused as to the 2 refresh rates. Will originally PAL videos run smoother at 50Hz, etc? In other words: when and why would I change the refresh rates?

[Tut_Ank]

Originally Posted by sremmaz

WOW - that is very helpful..

That guide recommends using CQ - but doesn't say at what setting. It just says "you can adjust the CRF, lower CRF=better quality but bigger file size"

What is CRF? What is a decent one?

Or if you set it to 2-Pass what is a good kbps to have it set at?

I just posted a formula in my previous msg (thid is for divx/xvid not H264)

[Tut_Ank]

Originally Posted by ibitton

Thanks for the explanation Tut_Ank

That said, I'm still a little confused as to the 2 refresh rates. Will originally PAL videos run smoother at 50Hz, etc? In other words: when and why would I change the refresh rates?

I have mine set to Auto. But yes PAL material is to be played at 50 Hz (or 25 or 100 or 75 if that existed), but not affected by the PAL NTSC selection you make for RCA, is the setting that you select when selecting the resolution that matters (I'm assuming that you use HDMI). My tv also supports 24 fps so thats another setting to check when playing 24fps material. its a pitty that AUTO will not change the HDMI setting dynamically depending on the file being played, all my files are either 25 fps (PAL) if they wherent I converted them 24 fps or 23.976, I dont have 29.98fps files so 60 fps is a setting I don't use.

[AVS66]

Originally Posted by DanDaMan069

Where can I dl the 1.01.01 firmware?
i recommend you keep visiting the Western Digital firmware page...and always save all the firmwares you download..so you can always go back in case you dont like the update..
if there are several people who want the 1.01.01 firmware, i will put upload it to RS for you to download..

I think I am more clearer now. Thanks for explaination.

Question #1 I think I asked it wrong. I thought 1.01.01 IS the factory firmware and 1.01.02 is the first release. Checked back on my desk top and I have 1.01.01 down load before but haven't upgrade because I was hestitate. After reading your post I go to WD's site and see 1.01.02 and down load it (still not upgrade yet ). So my question really was can I go back to original firmware if I am not happy with new firmwares.

Now, I am ok with the original firmware. The only thing I want is I can pass forward faster the files

[piecutter]

zAndy12,
On one of my previous posts I disassembled the unit and examined the components. The PHY HDMI Transmitter chip on this unit only supports HDMI 1.2.
It's true that someone else got a statement from a WD rep. that it was 1.3, but the components speak for themselves. That individual must have been confused by the fact that the video processor itself has 1.3 support, but unfortunately, I assume, to cut costs WD cheaped out on the transmitter.

[ibitton]

Originally Posted by Tut_Ank

I have mine set to Auto. But yes PAL material is to be played at 50 Hz (or 25 or 100 or 75 if that existed), but not affected by the PAL NTSC selection you make for RCA, is the setting that you select when selecting the resolution that matters (I'm assuming that you use HDMI). My tv also supports 24 fps so thats another setting to check when playing 24fps material. its a pitty that AUSO will not change the HDMI setting dynamically depending on the file being played, all my files are either 25 fps (PAL) if they wherent I converted them 24 fps or 23.976, I dont have 29.98fps files so 60 fps is a setting I don't use.

Again, thanks for explaining all that.

Although it would seem that automatic changing of refresh rates for different sources would be the best solution, right? Hopefully this feature will pop up at some point.
I'll just leave at 50Hz for now.

[khkg]

Originally Posted by Tut_Ank

I've just got an account created to post in this forum, It's taken me a while to read the first 115 pages and now it looks I still have 15 more to read...
I just found something that might explain the stuttering of DTS audio files....

Thanks for the excellent explanation! Very helpful! Have you had an experience with .avi sync problems?

[DanDaMan069]

Originally Posted by AVS66

I think I am more clearer now. Thanks for explaination.

Question #1 I think I asked it wrong. I thought 1.01.01 IS the factory firmware and 1.01.02 is the first release. Checked back on my desk top and I have 1.01.01 down load before but haven't upgrade because I was hestitate. After reading your post I go to WD's site and see 1.01.02 and down load it (still not upgrade yet ). So my question really was can I go back to original firmware if I am not happy with new firmwares.

Now, I am ok with the original firmware. The only thing I want is I can pass forward faster the files

you are on factory firmware....you cannot go back to factory firmware unless someone has been able to take this from the WD memory?..you can go back to the earliest firmware we have downloaded... which is 1.01.01
there is not much difference from 1.01.01 and 1.01.02 except for the large drive patch and some other minor changes.. I am still on 1.01.01 and i think it works just fine... the jump 10 minute feature works great! i dont know what you are scared of.. going from factory firmware to 1.01.01 was a great improvement... not only did it add 10 minute skip feature, it also moved the subtitles from being to high in the picture..

[toge]

Originally Posted by Tut_Ank

Hi, I bought a couple of WD TV HD 10 days ago, one for me and one as a present for my bro.
First thing I did was to upgrade to 1.01.02.
So far is looking great, only a few issues that I hope they will fix in the next firmware. My be on a later post ill post my issues/suggestions because I’m not done reading yours.
I've just got an account created to post in this forum, It's taken me a while to read the first 115 pages and now it looks I still have 15 more to read...
I just found something that might explain the stuttering of DTS audio files.
I downloaded a backup of one of the movies I own as I'm to lazy to encode all my BR disks and is faster to download a mkv from the net (and where I live, if for personal use and as long as you don't profit geting money out of it IT is LEGAL to download any copyrighted video or audio files even if you don't own a copy anyway).
Anyway… The file had 2 Audio tracks, one on my mother language and the original English track, Track one was AC3 and the MKV was PAL (That is 25fps), the second track (English) was DTS, so I decided to convert to AC3 for better compatibility when I cannot use the DTS decoder and I did it manually (not using AudioConverterTools) but demuxing with MKVextractGUI and then using “eac3to .\Track3.dts .\Track3.ac3” to convert. Then I noticed that the DTS and AC3 had both the same duration, but was different to the .mkv length and that the difference was exactly in the 25/23.976 ratio when converted to seconds.
So looks like the person that had done that back up had taken some shortcuts, He or She had taken a ripped MKV in English (NTSC 23.976 fps) changed the fps by loading a text file in the timecodes section of mkvmerge GUI with the text “assume 25.000” and left the original DTS audio untouched then added the AC3 audio from a PAL DVD copy of the film and mux everything together. The resulting file played great on PC both in ENG and on the AC3 track. So looks like the PC is ignoring the tag for fps in the mkv and playing the movie at the speed that matches the duration of the audio file (23.976 fps for the ENG track and 25 when playing the dubbed audio track). They should have converted the dubbed track to play correctly at NTSC Speed using the –speeddown option and then leave the fps rate untouched, or I could have done that to fix it, but as I said before I’m lazy and to do that I had to demux the dubbed track also, then resample to slow it down, convert the DTS to AC3 create a text file with “assume 23.976” and mux it back again… What I did instead is remove the AC3 track I had created and recreate it with “eac3to .\Track3.dts .\Track3.ac3 -speedup”; after muxing all together I got a 25 fps mkv that plays perfectly both on PC and WD HD.
But that helped me understand what’s happening with the DTS. It stutters only sometimes with some files that I bet people had obtained by downloading their backups and not creating them themselves. This is what happens: The PC takes the right approach: change the reproduction rate to whatever matches the audio. That way Video is always fine and audio is in sync with the audio track it plays, so ignores the fps written on the mkv. WD HD TV on the other hand respects the fps tagging on the MKV and that’s when it gets into big trouble, because then is forced to either loose the audio/video Sync (which does not happen ) or has to cut the reproduction of the audio frequently to catch up/wait for the video producing the stuttering.
This does not happen using other containers as it looks it behaves different maybe the unit when reproducing other containers used to fix this problem it responds correctly adjusting the fps speed to the audio track as the PC player does.
If this is the case the WD can easily fix it by ignoring the fps tag on .mkv also and adjust video speed. Anyway is always easier to change the fps in video that resampling the audio on the fly or breaking up the audio to follow the video (The other option will be to cut the video but the you get the cadencing judder which is the equivalent to the audio stuttering)

Sorry for my first long post, and I hope it discourages whiners to read it and complying.

great post!

[JayAllan]

Originally Posted by OzzieP

I am using DVDFab Platinum, don't know if that is the same as DVDFab 5, but I can not find the 5.1 output. Where is it? I am using DVD to Mobile, select generic, then under conversion I see all of the mkv options, but none specify 2.0 nor 5.1. Maybe I am looking in the wrong place or we have different software versions.
:

I am using DVDfab platinum 5 build 5.0.9.0

When you select generic in DVD to Mobile there are 3 boxes with selections. The first lists the DVD titles and playtimes. Here you select the main movie or whatever you want to rip.
The second lists all the available audio tracks: Eng 5.1, Spanish 5.1, Eng 2.0 etc. You have to select the audio tracks you want here.

The third box has the subpicture. This is where you select any subtitles.

Select 5.1 ac3 or 5.1 DTS from the second box and you are good to go.

OF COURSE this will NOT work if you don't have the original dvd in the drive or if you are going from a .vob that you (or someone else) ripped before, and only grabbed to 2.0. You obviously can't select something that is no longer there.

[toge]

Can someone please post up old firmware? I'd like to collect everyone for my wiki. Thank you

[OzzieP]

Originally Posted by JayAllan

I am using DVDfab platinum 5 build 5.0.9.0

When you select generic in DVD to Mobile there are 3 boxes with selections. The first lists the DVD titles and playtimes. Here you select the main movie or whatever you want to rip.
The second lists all the available audio tracks: Eng 5.1, Spanish 5.1, Eng 2.0 etc. You have to select the audio tracks you want here.

The third box has the subpicture. This is where you select any subtitles.

Select 5.1 ac3 or 5.1 DTS from the second box and you are good to go.

OF COURSE this will NOT work if you don't have the original dvd in the drive or if you are going from a .vob that you (or someone else) ripped before, and only grabbed to 2.0. You obviously can't select something that is no longer there.

I do have a different DVDFab Platiinum (5.2.3.0) than yours, however the options are the same. I do select 5.1 ac3. However that is not what comes out in the end product. After you have done those selections you click on next. The next page has a button on the lower right that says "Conversion" or something like that. From there you can adjust the file name and select the output file type at the top as well as audio bit rate and video bit rate. All of the options however converts your selected 5.1 AC3 to a e channel audio. There are no 5.1 options in any of those mkv containers.

[DanDaMan069]

Originally Posted by toge

Can someone please post up old firmware? I'd like to collect everyone for my wiki. Thank you

here is first firmware 1.01.01 exactly as downloaded from WD site..with release notes and all..




WD Firmware 1.01.01

[r8chL]

hxxp://support.wdc.com/download/wdtv/WDTV_FW_1_01_01.zip

from the WD site

[aldy402]

you guys think buying a premium toslink cable will cure some of the DTS audio skipping issues? I'm currently using a 3 dollar monoprice toslink

[JayAllan]

Originally Posted by OzzieP

I do have a different DVDFab Platiinum (5.2.3.0) than yours, however the options are the same. I do select 5.1 ac3. However that is not what comes out in the end product. After you have done those selections you click on next. The next page has a button on the lower right that says "Conversion" or something like that. From there you can adjust the file name and select the output file type at the top as well as audio bit rate and video bit rate. All of the options however converts your selected 5.1 AC3 to a e channel audio. There are no 5.1 options in any of those mkv containers.

I think I know what your problem is then. You have to, under conversion settings, select generic.mkv.xvid.audiocopy That will keep the audio the same. Hopefully you have that on your version.