Western Digital - WD TV Live Media Player (WDTV2) - Page 104

Hey there everyone,

I have not found this issue covered in the forums or on the web, but perhaps someone has encountered this problem and found a solution for it:

I received a new WD Live, plugged it into a Panasonic plasma and for some reason all the icons are corrupted. For example on the home screen, when shifting up/down through movies/music/settings it seems like the images are not displayed correctly. I updated to the current .11 firmware but no change. Even more troubling is the options screen while watching a movie: none of the icons display (for sound, subtitles etc.), they're just black placeholders - it seems as if those images that should be there are somehow corrupted. :/

I do own a WD TV "classic" and none of these issues came up there. Changing the resolution did not help either. Is my new WD Live semi-dead on arrival?

Any help is greatly appreciated, thanks!

PS: I know, 2 posts in 7 years... let's just say I was busy. :P

Hi Summerwine,

Your post count not withstanding, this is a non-standard problem. Thank you for bringing it up. I don't recall seeing this issue in this thread or on any related forums.

Not that it'll necessarily cure your issues, but have you tried an alternate cable, or an alternate output method / resolution? You might do so, as these would be quick and relatively painless methods to eliminate some variables. For instance, if HDMI, try a different cable, then a different resolution, or route directly to the TV and not through a receiver. Then try a component cable and go through the same process.

Your device may well have slipped through the QA process. If you can't satisfactorily resolve the issue with simple cabling switches and such recommended above, I would say exchange it for a new one if at all possible. I don't know if that's an easy thing for you to do. However, I recommend this because attempting to track down the issue may take a lot of your time, and time is money - don't waste it!

Excellent response.

Hi Nube, and thank you for your input!

I switched HDMI cables, used different HDMI inputs and adjusted resolutions - to no avail. I will follow your advice and send it back. :/ What an odd bug... . Let's hope the new one will not have the same issue, otherwise I guess something would be funky on my end... . (whistling)

Again, thank you.

cool it please: or you will be asked to leave the thread

posts deleted

Hey guys, I'm not afraid to admit that I am a huge noob when it comes to this stuff. I'm trying my best to look up as much information as possible but i'm not finding any answers to my questions. So i just recently purchased a WD TV live media player and have begun to convert my blu-rays to MKV's. I've been using anydvd to rip and ripbot to convert. My issue is with the audio encoding. What is the best option to pick? I get a list of the following:

5.1 CT AAC-HE 192kps [abr]
5.1 CT AAC-LC 256kps [abr]
5.1 CT AAC-LC 320kps [abr]
5.1 Aften AC3 384kps [cbr]
5.1 Aften AC3 448kps [cbr]
5.1 Aften AC3 640kps [cbr]

There was no copy stream option so I choose the last option (5.1 Aften AC3 640kps) but I am only getting sound from 2 speakers in my 5.1 speaker system. The WD TV live is set on digital so thats not the issue. I was wondering if A) i choose the right encoding options in ripbot, and B) if i need to use tsmuxer to get the optimal 5.1 audio. Also, if there is a copy stream option, would that work with mkv and subsequently my wd tv live? I know there are a lot of questions here but i would really be glad if someone could help me out. Thanks!

What are PGS subtitles? I thought that was DVD - which is already supported?

here is the crazy thing.. you are all complaining about getting drops ect. I cant even get into my network or out into internet world for utube. ip addreess wrong.. will not do it auto ect. did manual maybe some suggestions out there''

1.. first the settings are wrong for the factory so i looked at my iphone and it shows... default gateway.. 192.168.0.1 and dns 192.168.0.1 sub net 255.255.255.0 so i matched those and then assigned a ip address of 192.168.0.150 and then tried others with the last three digits of lets say. 195 or 191... my other compnents are fine in this range..

called costomer service and they could not help .. said call for level two service in california on monday..

i also got the seagete/.. now that had no problem conecting to the internet and network but the thing is its just not as nice user friendly.

help
thabj==nks sorry cant spell today or type..

now says.. dns server incorrect.. i have it as 192.169.0.1` what is going on here..

arg....

DNS server settings are NOT the same as your Gateway address! Your Gateway (which is your router) may very well be 192.168.0.1, but that's not also your DNS server. Find out what ones are set on your router, for your particular ISP, set it to them, and you'll be all set.

For instance:

IP: 192.168.0.154
Subnet mask: 255.255.255.0
Gateway: 192.168.0.1
DNS: 24.197.160.17 (Charter)

Proper reading helps a lot. You are supposed to pay the firmware modder to add a feature WD is unable to release (DVD menu support).


And why is that? The firmware is downloaded completely, unpacked in RAM and crc checked before getting flashed. So there's difference to updating from USB.


Which means you don't need it.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Nausicaa View Post
The DVD menu licensing costs cannot be that expensive - you can buy a standalone DVD player for tens of dollars at retail and it can read menus.


I don't mean to start a fight here (honestly!), but I'm wondering... My favorite freeware / open source media player supports DVD menus in .ISO files. How can they afford the licensing? Or are they circumventing the laws and including menus illegally?

What?

What that has to do with the post I was responding to?

Well here's some good news , I installed Playon on my HP mediaSmart WHS and couldn't be more pleased that my WDTV live can see the Playon server and plays all its offering with no hassles. Just that feature alone makes it a worth while device for me.

Hi,

I have setup my Video output to "HDMI auto", the problem is the frequency stays at 1080p/60Hz all the time, even if I play 50Hz ir 24Hz content. Why does the WDTV Live not set it to the correct settings for each file I play?

Because WDTV doesnt have autodectect framerate! You have to change it manually everytime you change from PAL to NTSC or 23,976/24fps movies...

It might be. My router is also my DNS for the network (it does the 'real' dns and caches information and services the network)



Wasn't he talking about having to pay to send the unit back to get a new one.


Because it pops up a sign saying "You wanna update" and people who would never have updated before (or not for weeks) just hit yes - and could potentially be in trouble.




And I don't want to say something getting me in trouble. But I would guess that some freeware adaptions are just using the information (or have done some reverse engineering)


What I'm wondering is what is that a problem for you? When it isn't for most of us.
Is it because you have crap tv's? Different power, something evil in NTSC tvs in general?
I have never had to change anything manually and nothing has so far been wrong at all.

I'm thinking this is because the devices that freeware media player software runs on have all licensed support for DVD menus and, by extension, support for those menus in ISOs. Some have built-in DVD drives, as is the case with the XBOX and most HTPCs, while others clearly licensed the tech for their base software. That's not fact, but I suspect that's where the distinction lies.

You don't have to change anything. You can just watch jerky video. If you have a smart 120 Hz TV it should recognize the 3:2 repeats of 23.976 fps film sources playing at 60 fps, decimate back down to 23.976 fps, and display each frame 5 times. 10 times on a 240 Hz TV.

Ok, so I FINALLY got the thing to see my shared drives, but now whenever I go to videos > shared drive > and choose a video, it just 'plays' the poster. WTF? This is so much of a hassle, why does this have to be so complicated? I have the movies, and the posters in the same folder...but I am in the VIDEOS section right now, so WHY is it 'playing' the poster?! Ugh...

When I said "media player" I should have specified a SOFTWARE media player, not a hardware device. Does Microsoft have a "blanket" license for this for any software player that runs under Windows? Just trying to understand.

Thanks,
Jack

I cannot agree with these statements. When the HD file has a native frame rate of 23.97 Hz having the WDTV Live process to add 2:3 pulldown then forceing the HDTV to do inverse pulldown before increase the frame rate for display is introducing needless additional video processing and openning the door for additional digital artifacts. Also there are very few HDTVs currently in the homes of consumers that actually will handle a 1080p/60 input ideally when the original source if at 1080p/24. I know my Epson 6500UB 1080p front projector by default will display a 1080p/60 input at 60Hz while I can configure it to display 1080p/24 inputs at either 1080p/96 (using 4:4 pulldown) or to apply frame insertion. All that really is needed on the WDTV live to offer the option to output the video at its native resolution and frame rate or upconvert to a user selected fixed resolution/frame rate. The current auto setting simply uses the HDMI handshake to determine the highest resolution and frame rate supported by both the display and the WDTV Live (i.e., 1080p and 60Hz) then fixes the output to those values for everthing going via HDMI.

Cool, 1/2 through watching a video on my network drive the connection just drops and now I cant connect to any of the shares that I could before...what is the f***ing deal with this thing?

Here are my current problems:

1) Constantly dropping the connection, which in turn means I cant connect to shares anymore

2) For some reason, when browsing my movie library and choosing a movie it plays the JPG POSTER instead of the actual movie

Extremely frustrated at this point...

Seriously? Why can't the WD device detect it and set it up properly? My HTPC can, I wanted the WDTV to be used without having to hazzle around with refreshrate stuff at all, but if you need to know the exact framerate of every videofile and set it up manually, what's this device worth at all? This is a major flaw, and I wonder why you don't read about it in all those reviews around

What about the other media players around (Popcorn Hour, Asus OPlay, etc.), do they lack the automatic framerateswitching as well?

Most only display at 60p anyway. So whether the WDTV or the TV does the frame repeat the result is exactly the same.


But TVs that can do that are a small (but growing) minority. Most NTSC TVs support only 480i, 480p, 720p60 and 1080i30 input then display at their native resolution at 60p.


It already does the latter, of course. What would you have it do with 320x240 15 fps AVI files from digital cameras? Right now I'm working with a 320x240 29.042 fps AVI file? Should that be output at 320x240 29.042 fps? How many TVs do you thing would sync to that? What about Youtube and other online videos with odd frame rates and sizes? It would simply be a huge support headache for WD. What they might do is add the ability to select multiple output options from a small list of standard sizes/rates supported by an assortment of TVs. Then it would use the closest matching rate for any particular video. My cable box does this. But even that is probably more of a support headache than WD wants to deal with -- just to support a small number of users who have TVs that can accept 24p input and display it at 24p or an integer multiple thereof.

I would much rather see WD fix all the other problems with the WDTV before addressing this. Or add Netflix and Hulu streaming. Of coures, my HDTV only supports 60p display, so my opinion is biased. LOL

You are forgetting the european customers such as myself. I bought both my TV set (Samsung LE40F86BD), and the WDTV in Germany, where we have 50Hz TV by default. But of course the Samsung is capable of 60Hz, 50Hz and 24Hz, and the WDTV uses 60Hz even for my recorded TV shows that are 50Hz, so guess what it looks like? Right, totally crappy, so for an unexperienced user, this device is causing trouble that could be prevented if the firmware developers where only a little smarter than a piece of bread.

Of course, noone expects support for every odd resolution and/or refreshrate, but as it turns out there are some very common resolutions and freuqencies, and via HDMI, the output device can report which of these it supports. So it shouldn't be too hard to find out the refreshrate of the videofile, the capabilities of the attached TV set, and find the best matching solution for an output instead of simply using the highest available setting when the user selects "auto".

Guess we have to wait for Apple making a device and showing the competition how easy it can be to design stuff that simply works?

Anyone else notice that when the WDTV is set to 1080p 23.976 fps the menu system gets sluggish?

I have a Pionner Kuro, last gen... do you find it bad?!

Probably you only watch NTSC content... so 1080p 60Hz is ok for you!


If you have the WD at 1080 60Hz and watch 25fps movies (PAL), you will have sutter every 2 seconds... this is unaceptable for me!

All NMT have autodetect framerate... as all the blueray or DVD players...

23,976fps movies - 1080p 23.976Hz or 1080/720 60Hz
24fps movies - 1080p 24Hz or 1080/720 60Hz
25fps movies - 1080/720 50Hz
29,97/20 movies fps - 1080/720 60Hz

That above is the rule... you will have the best image with that configuration! And that is what WDTV should choose automaticaly...


Popcorn, Egreat and other NMT's have autodetect framerate! All ION can be configured to do that also! I believe that Asus dont have that feature... not sure about other Realtek players...

Autodetect framerate is very important for people who watch lots of PAL and NTSC content... like Europeans for example!

Just got my WDTV Live! Better late than never I guess


I'm hoping you guys can help me with a serious issue I'm having.

I've set my WDTV Live to output Digital Audio and hooked it, via Optical cable, to my receiver. Video is through HDMI connected directly to my TV.

Problem is this: When I play an mkv file, with DTS audio, I get perfect digital sound through my receiver. But there is EXTREME static noise, through HDMI, on my TV. It is unbearable and I have to mute the TV. Never had this issue with my WDTV classic. Is there a solution for this?

Also a question about Video output. My TV supports 24p. In auto I assume it defaults to 1080p60. While watching Blu-Ray rips, what should I be using? 24p or 23.976p? Also when I choose the resolution Manually, I get four Color Space options: Auto, RGB High, RGB Low & YCbCr. Which one should I be choosing?

Any help would be appreciated. Thanks guys.

i had the same question on what to set resolution on the wdtv for watching bluray rips and i set it at 23.976 and looks good to me. so i left it there. color space option i have it at auto.