Western Digital - WD TV Live Media Player (WDTV2) - Page 105

I watch lots of 25 fps PAL material on my NTSC HDTV connected at 1920x1080p60. I don't get stutters every 2 seconds. I only see normal 3:2:3:2:2 frame repeat judder, not too different from 3:2 judder.

Optical cable issue with WD TV Live

Pardon me if someone else has already faced this problem and asked it in this thread. I did do some search but did not encounter any such post, may be my search string wasn't good enough.

Anyway, coming to problem I faced: The optical cable that I am using does not seem to be a snug fit on my WD TV Live. It comes loose after a little while and stops streaming any audio to my receiver. The same cable works fine with my Panny G15 TV and Panny DMP-BD60K Blu-ray player for hours (has never come loose). I have to manually push the cable again and I do hear a gentle click when the audio streaming to my receiver is restored from the WD TV Live. The problem might be with my cable, its a optical cable made by Cables Unlimited that I picked up locally from Frys. Since I do not have any other optical cable, I am not able to test it out.

Just wanted to know if anyone else over here has encountered this problem with the toslink port in the WD TV Live and the solution thereof. Any optical cable recommendations?

Can someone please help me? In my movies folder (the folder that ALL of my .avi movies are in) there are 2 files for each movie - the movie itself, and then a poster that has the exact same name as the movie. Whenever I browse to the movies folder through the WD Live TV (videos > shares > movies folder), I can see all the thumbnails, life is good. BUT, when I click to play any of the movies it just displays the poster...it doesn't actually play the movie.

PLEASE HELP ME!

nope.. dns is the same as gateway for my home network. after 30 min on hold. level two came on at WD. Nice guy went through couple of steps. Looked at home network config ect. now off to BB to exchange for new unit. I told him I had both the seagate and WD. comparing two and seagate had no problems seeing the router and getting on network.

Hope it was just the unit.. time will tell.
thanks for the posts.

This is getting out of hand. I put the WD and my laptop WIRED into the same switch, boot up the WD, and it can see the network shares. Connect, everything looks good. Go back to home screen, then try to go back to shares again and it just times out...I have never been so frustrated before in my life.

Seems like the only way I can get the wd live tv to KEEP working is to plug/unplug it into the switch EVERYTIME I go back to the home screen. Seriously?


Please post back and let us know if your unit was defective - I'm starting to think mine might be as well.

WD seemingly has abandoned the community on this product. When the RMA for my bricked unit arrives, I'm selling it for whatever I can get. Yeah, I'm going to cut my losses. The thing is just cheap.

I've already purchased a PCH C-200 that I'll be waiting for. Sure, it's twice the price of the WD + TAX + SHIPPING TO RETURN BRICKED UNIT WD MADE FOR ME, but that extra $150 is well, WELL worth it. The PCH C-200 has more features and MUCH, MUCH, MUCH better support. Plus, holy crap, everything works out of the box... plus movie sheets, all the codecs I need, usb hubs work, dvd menus, HD sound format support...Why did I ever waste my time with the WDTV Live when so many people on here were warning me not to?

I like my unit a lot and got it for just $100. I don't think you can get any better than that. This was just a bad mistake on WD's end but I mean come on .. mistakes happen. I am sure if the Popcorn Hour released a bad firmware for the C200 and caused it to brick you would say the same.

Watch closely in images pan... you will clearly notice hicups... this happens in ALL TV's!

From wiki:

Telecine judder
See also: Motion interpolation

The “2:3 pulldown” telecine process creates a slight error in the video signal compared to the original film frames that can be seen in the above image. This is one reason why films viewed on typical NTSC home equipment may not appear as smooth as when viewed in a cinema. The phenomenon is particularly apparent during slow, steady camera movements which appear slightly jerky when telecined. This process is commonly referred to as telecine judder. Reversing the 2-3 pulldown telecine is discussed below.

PAL material in which 2:3 pulldown has been applied, suffers from a similar lack of smoothness, though this effect is not usually called “telecine judder”. Effectively, every 12th film frame is displayed for the duration of three PAL fields (60 milliseconds), whereas the other 11 frames are all displayed for the duration of two PAL fields (40 milliseconds). This causes a slight “hiccup” in the video about twice a second. Increasingly being referred to as Euro pulldown as it largely affects European territories.


For PAL, chose 1080p 50Hz... and you will have the perfect refresh rate for PAL content.

Well, I have the WD Live going. Works well. Anything USB connected works fine. Over the network, it finds UPnP servers. Plays all the files I have, although there is a little stutter in the h.264 streams. I tested on USB and plays fine. I can stream a regular DVD ISO over the network, so it's most likely the WD Live cpu has a problem handling the h.264 decode and wireless processing at the same time. It could be the network adapter, but I doubt it.

I have dual band 2.4ghz (g) and 5ghz (n) router. The TrendNet TEW-664UB is an odd adapter. Plugged into a Windows laptop, it will work 2.4ghz g mode fine, but will not find the 5ghz N band unless you turn on "SmartScan" in the advanced properties. Even when you do this, the xfer speeds are horrible. Conneciton says 270 mbps, but xfer speed is maybe 700K/sec. Weird.

In use on the WD Live, I the N is a bit faster than G, but not to the level it should be. This may be due to the adapter. I am going to try a different adapter that is full N compliant (Linksys?)

Really, WD, would it have killed ya to build the networking into the device? I would have paid a little more.

Maybe I need to buy a 802.11N bridge instead....geez, it cost almost as much as the WD Live itself...

On the plus side, it plays all the formats I need. Also, it recognizes the PlayOn server software if it's installed on another computer. Netflix does not work though this (you can browse, but can't play; just hangs and returns to menu). Other things play okay. Hulu works very nicely, although there is a very long pause while it starts up (blank screen). I think this a long buffer. Way longer than watching on PC. But once it starts, looks great. Again, this is not a fault of the WD Live, but I think the PlayOn software is still buggy.

It is a really tiny device, which I think is great.

Has this happened to ANYONE else??

Nothing, I simply mixed up quotes. So, proper reading does help


Exactly, and as long as WD doesn't bother to comment on this I stand by my inital comment on this topic.

RELAX - we are not your paid servants, sitting here 24 hours ready to sort out everything for you.



If it shows the poster is because you clicked on the poster, click on the other image of the same type - as you said, it shows them twice.


You can NOT disagree with my statement - since I said I DON'T HAVE PROBLEMS. Disagreeing with that would be accusing me of lying.
The problems such as they are is when it doesn't support the format, such as not playing wmapro in wmvs (seems a hell of a bother trying to remux this - nobody seems to support the format)


I'm assuming it is network setup, this is yet another 'problem' I've never had. If you are running DHCP the normal procedure is to refresh IP's every hour, perhaps that's your problem? I've set my router to assign the same IP to the device every time and only refresh once a week. Never lost a connection.



I'm a european customer, and I'm seeing no stutters.


I agree stuff should simply work - this is yet another indication of digital really being rubbish - you never had any of these problems with analog.


No idea what it is.


No.


Never seen it. Perhaps you are over sensitive?


I'm a European. And if it makes you feel better, I just had a problem with the live!


Not sure I would



Sure you are doing it right? I read someone else claiming it worked (I have neither myself)

That is talking about playing 24 fps sources on 50 fps displays. You were talking about playing 25 fps material on 60 Hz displays. The HDTV Live uses 3:2:3:2:2 repeats to create 60 fps from 25 fps sources. The judder from this looks almost the same as the judder from 3:2 repeats from 24 fps sources.


Obviously.

I have no doubt that 24 or 25 fps material converted to 60 fps with 3:2 or 3:2:3:2:2 frame repeats and viewed on a 50 Hz TV via decimation looks bad.

Are you aware that the WDTV (for network shares) sorts by file extension first? So if you have a folder with two files for each movie, say a JPG image and an AVI file for each, you will see all the JPG files listed first, then all the AVI files. Scroll down the list until you see the AVI files.

Yes, it's a stupid decision on WD's part.

Well... I finally got my WD live player a few days ago. I was able to connect (bridge) two routers (Trendnet 671 N) via WSP Dual band 5 GHz. All I can say its awesome! It feel's like I'm connected hard wire. Excellent product, would recommend to any one looking for a nice media player.

I will try this, but after reading all 100+ pages of this thread surely you cant sit here and tell me no one else has network problems. There are countless other people who are having the exact same problem as me, so it's not just an isolated issue. Thanks for the tip, I'll try assigning an IP from the router...although before now I had given the wdtvlive it's own IP through its settings, and given the laptop with the shared drives a static through its own settings - does this have to be done through the router too?


This is absolutely silly on their part. Is there ANYWAY around this?

Edit: Okay, removed .jpg from all of the poster files, works for now. Hopefully next FW they fix this issue?

If you mean "worked" as in it is still showing the thumbnail poster for the files even though you removed the jpgs, it will only work until you have to unplug the unit or do a hard reset for some reason. Apparently the WDTV holds the relationship of the jpg to the video file in its onboard memory until it is cleared by a reset. So, if you have to unplug/reset for some reason, be prepared for the default icons to reappear. This definitely needs to be fixed soon.

It happens to me every time. I have not figured out a way to display the poster, click on the poster (folder) and have it play the movie. It will only play the movie without me going into the folder where the movie file resides if I don't have a poster for the movie.

I use VOB files, by the way. I see a lot of folks use the MKV files but the only advantage I am aware of is file size. I don't care about that and I assume by compressing the file I am taking away from quality, so I don't do that. I also assume it takes longer than the 12-15 minutes it takes me to create a VOB file.

I would change and go the MKV route if it meant no quality lost and that the poster files would work properly. I seem to have rambled....

UPS just delivered WD TV Live, which I ordered from Dell for $108.50. I knew the unit was small, but this thing is tiny, cool!

I have searched thousands of posts from this thread and can't seem to find an answer to a question, so I am hoping someone can explain it to me.

Here is my setup:
WD TV Live -> Component -> Dell Monitor
WD TV Live -> USB HD (Seagate Free Agent)
WD TV Live -> Ethernet (LAN)

Turning the unit on for first time, it immediately prompts me to upgrade firmware, click, click done. Very nice and fast. Okay, so now if move through the menu as follows:

From Home->Video->Local Drives->Folders->USB2->Movies

Here I see about 50 thumbnails based on a file called folders.jpg (all lowercase) I found that FOLDERS.jpg will NOT show up. I click on say Aladdin, then I need to move through more folder structure: ->VIDEO_TS and finally click onVTS_01_1.VOB/1014.00MB, which plays the movie fine.

As far as the structure on the USB HD, it is as follows:

USB HD->Movies->[MOVIE NAME]->VIDEO_TS->multiple vob files are here.

Here is the question: How do I set this up for my kids, which basically can't browse this deep and choose the correct VOB on their own. I want them to go into VIDEO and see thumbnails to choose a movie, which then plays. Is this possible? How can I change my setup so this is easier for kids (and me)?

Sorry if this was already addressed in previous post, and thanks in advance for any advice given.

Well, you could use MakeMKV to just "repackage" your VOB's into the MKV container. It does not compress (no space saving - just puts everything into one file) or re-encode so there is not quality lost. It only takes as long as it would take to copy the files from one location to another (~3 min. for me on average) to repackage into an MKV.
Then you just mate the mkv with a jpg of same name and posters show up (Transformers.mkv, Transformers.jpg). That way you only have 2 files for each movie (mkv and jpg).
This is how I do it and it works great for me.

how do we set output to 1920x1080x24Hz??

also what should the settings be if im playing an 23.976fps 1080p mkv file??

Any advantage of creating an MKV over an ISO file, assuming one has the tools? Just wondering. I create the latter.

I don't know of any advantage but I can't really compare since I've never tried an ISO. I do know you can use chapters with MKV. So if you can't do that with ISO files then that may be a reason to switch if that matters to you.

If you click play (instead of enter) on VIDEO_TS folder, it will play the movie without the need to actually enter/display the content of the folder.

Thanks. Not sure if I can do chapters with ISO and never tried it. Chapters don't matter at the moment but in case they do in the future, can I go from DVD->VOB->MKV (or DVD->ISO->VOB->MKV) or can it be DVD/ISO->MKV? Most but not all of my ISO files are movie only so may not have chapters to begin with.

From the open file dialog it shows you can open files of type ISO so you probably can do either of the following: DVD->MKV or ISO->MKV or VOB->MKV.

I generally decrypt with DVDFab to VOB, then use MakeMKV to VOB->MKV. MakeMKV does have the ability built in to decrypt so you can use it to simply go DVD->MKV if you choose to do so. I just find it easier to pick out stuff I want to keep (such as main movie and specific audio tracks) with DVD Fab than with MakeMKV (it's not that intuitive for this purpose). That may change as MakeMKV matures.

I suggest you read my comment again. I wasn't disagreeing that you were are not having problems with the WDTV Live converting everything to 1080p/60 for output. What I was disagreeing with was your apparent assumption that most other forum members have HDTVs that can display native 1080p/24 material, that has first been converted to 1080p/60 by the WDTV Live before it is output, and then still have the HDTV provide results the same as having had the native 1080p/24 rate directly output from the WDTV to the HDTV display. Many "modern" HDTVs do not automatically display video input at 1080p/24 in the same mode as video input at 1080p/60 even when the latter is sourced from 24Hz and uses 2:3 pulldown. I've trying to avoid having to go into the menu of either the WDTV or the HDTV to get optimum results when switching between playing video files sourced at 24Hz. vs. 30Hz (or 60) and other forum members have posted as to having the same concern. When set for a fixed output of 24Hz (or 23.97), the WDTV2 cannot handle sources, such as ripped DVDs, which are recorded at a 30Hz frame rate with pulldown from an original 24Hz film rate (i.e., the WDTV2 cannot do the inverse pulldown that would be necessary to provide a correct 24Hz output). Thus the best upconverted output format for the WDTV in this case is 1080p/60. However, for ripped BDs with a 1080p/24 native resolution/rate many modern HDTVs provide the optimum results in the displayed image when the WDTV uses the native 1080p/24 as the output format. Some BD players let the user configure the player for what upconversion and output resolution are to be applied to standard definition source videos as compared to how to output HD video from BD's. Such a feature would be welcome as a future upgrade to the WDTV2.

It looks like I still have options with my ISO files. My guess is the MKV files appear under Media shares whereas ISO files do not except under Network Shares.

I do the same with DVDFAB, pick out the movie and soundtracks, etc., and create an ISO file.

Thanks.

I was also shocked and dismayed by cable length, If I wanted to replace this cable, would something like this work?

http://www.monoprice.com

Am I correct in thinking the WD Live uses 3.5 MM for the RCA audio/video output? The cable that comes with the WD Live has RCA audio AND video as one wire, plugging into the "AV output". Is replacing this cable with a much longer "PREMIUM 10FT 3.5mm Stereo Male to 2RCA Male" but that has (no video) cable, going to cause any issues?

Ok, few questions as to the future of the wd live tv firmware...

1) The popcorn hour players have so many hacks/plugins that completely expand what they're capable of. What are the changes that the WD Live TV will ever have support for things like this? I would love to be able to have an interface like YAMJ. Would be awesome for it to support meta data/be able to pull descriptions, IMDB ratings, stuff like that. How possible is it that the custom firmwares will ever make it this far?

2) More web services. The popcorn hour/other media devices support TONS more web services than the wd live tv. It would make my day to have support for revision3, twit, cnet, podcasts, last.fm, etc. I dont even care about hulu/netflix...but web services can be so powerful. Or even the ability to add custom web services (if possible). Would this ever be possible through b-rad's custom FW? Along the same lines, being able to stream trailers from apple.com would also be nice.

Is there any chance that either of those 2 things will be possible through b-rad's FW?

Also, 2 actual questions...

1) If I want a folder to have a certain thumbnail, what do I name the jpeg? Just 'folder.jpg' inside the folder?

2) Can the Logitech harmony remotes control the WD Live TV? Would make life easier if I could use that instead of the clunky small remote...