Western Digital - WD TV Live Media Player (WDTV2) - Page 220

You are welcome and thanks for the tip. I was waiting for them to go down in price again to pick up another one. TigerDirect now has them for $80, -$20 rebate and only $5 S/H. That's an end cost of only $65. As much as I would like a 4-bay NAS, it doesn't seem like you can touch a decent one for under $300.

Doggone! They dropped the price $10 the day after I ordered.

I paid what you paid ($70+$8 S/H = $78) for my first DNS-321. The rebate card came pretty quickly, just a couple weeks. After I installed it and saw how much I liked it, the price was already back above $100 and the rebate gone.

This is much sweeter to get a second one for $10 less. I just ordered it. I'll be taking the pair of 2 TB drives out of the USB enclosure that is currently attached to the Live+ and putting them in the new DNS-321. Ever since I discovered I could stream BD.m2ts to the Live+ over powerline adapters using DLNA, I haven't bothered using the attached USB drive anyway.

I do wish the DNS-321 had a USB port. It would make it easier to copy a large amount of video files to it but for it cost, I can deal with it.

Checking WDTV live settings last night I found I had a firmware update. Swallowing hard I pushed the update button and it installed OK. I think it's 3.41 or something like that, can't check now, family is watching something.

Not sure what it did, but one MAJOR thing I notice is that the WD home/selection screens now seem washed out losing much color.

Once I tab through into my selections, and pick a movie for instance, right before it loads, the color jumps back to it's "deep rich" tone. The movie color gamut seems OK. Just the selection screens are affected.

It's like the RGB/high/low is set wrong by default now, delivering the washed out screen the wrong setting would apply. Weird how it switches back just before the movie loads.

Anybody else seeing this?

I haven't installed the update yet. I always wait to see the reaction from the guinea pigs other users. I've decided to wait for the next update.

So the DNS-321 has a firmware update to allow it to handle 2TB drives?

I'd be interested in running a RAID-1 mirror with two 2TB drives, but would want some evidence that rebuilding from a drive failure can be done easily (I don't want to find out gotcha's only after a drive dies). Are you aware of any forums where many DNS-321 users hang out? For example, Synology's own forums are chock full of good info, so I'm confident restores are clean with their boxes. Would like to gain the same confidence for Dlink. It would be nice to have an under $100 small NAS.

I have installed it.
The colorspace must be set manually on "RGB High" to look OK.
The audio digital out resampling bug was made even worse (if that was possible). On previous firmwares (all of them), the 88.2 or 176.4kHz was downsampled to 44.1kHz and 96 or 192kHz was downsampled to 48kHz.
Now... 88.2 and 176.4kHz won't play at all via digital. At least 44.1kHz is still there and still bitperfect (passes HDCD).
Still testing.

At least WD didn't give up, still posting new firmwares

My Avi's (encoded both Divx and Xvid) will not play with the last 2 updates. The frame rate drops to almost nothing and most of the time the video just freezes. All .mkv content plays fine. Can someone else please check that out on thier box? I would really appreciate it.

Thanks,

Darren

I guess. There was no newer firmware than what I received with the box. I put in a pair of 2TB drives and they formatted without issue -- just took a while.

Looks like the DNS-321 is on clearance because the new models are coming out -- the DNS-320/325. At $65 after rebate from TigerDirect it is a steal and an impulse buy -- they won't last for long. The new models will be a lot more expensive.

The new DNS-320 has one but it starts at $115.

Compared to other NAS devices, that isn't a bad price. I knew it would soon be released in the US and considered holding off on the 321 in favor of the 320 but decided the 321 would be fine for my purposes. And the savings basically paid for one of the 2tb drives.

I have no delusions about the 321 being the best NAS on the market but it may be the best bang for the buck. For what other 2-bay NAS boxes cost, you can buy 2 321's.

I've actually always been the kind a guy that buys older generation technology. My needs are seldom cutting edge and that saves a lot of money.

My new DNS-321 is scheduled for delivery on Monday 4/11. I've got a spot and a socket for it on the power strip all ready.

Word of advice when you get yours. Stay away from the WD 2TB EARS drives ($80). They use a new formatting WD calls Advanced Format drive, or something like that -- I believe it's 4K sectors. D-Link specifically says they don't support the new Advanced Format drives in their NAS units and WD says they don't support using their new drives in any NAS unit. If you really like WD drives, the D-Link FAQ for the DNS-321 shows the WD 2TB EADS ($100) drive has been tested and is on their approved list. The old Seagate 5900 rpm drives work just fine. I have 4 of them but it looks like they are being discontinued for their newer 5900 rpm drive that is SATA 3. I don't know about their newer drive because that is also listed as being "Advanced Format" so I would tend to stay away from that also.

I almost ordered the EARs but discovered the problem in the FAQs and ordered the EADs. All set up and running like a top. Got the EADs for $80 each.

EDIT: I see Tiger Direct has raised the price on the DNS-321 to $120, $100 after the rebate. You did good ordering when you did.

Can someone post the release notes for the latest firmware? Can't seem to find it...

Here is a link for you.

http://support.wdc.com/download/note...s1_04_31_V.pdf

Here it is:

I've done all previous updates up to the current one and my AVIs (dual language) run just fine.


Hhm, I've bought one to use in an external case and by setting the jumper accordingly it works just fine.

I'm talking about it's use in a NAS unit.

I have a BluRay title ("Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix") which has neither a DTS-MA nor TrueHD sound track. It does have an LPCM/5.1 track which, from it's bitrate (4608 Kbps), appears to be the HD audio track.

Using separately, DVD Fab and clown_BD I did main_title.m2ts rips and included only the LPCM/5.1 audio track. When I stream the .m2ts file with the Live+ (HDMI into my Onkyo AVR) the only thing that comes out of the Live+ is 2.0 stereo. This is the same for both the DVD Fab and clown_BD rips.

This is the first time I've run across an LPCM track on a BluRay, so I haven't really paid any attention to how the Live+ handles LPCM. So, is this a limitation of the Live+? Does it down-convert 5.1 LPCM to 2.0? Or is it something with ripping the LPCM track that is the problem.

Anybody know how to convert LPCM into DTS? At least with DTS I can get 1.5Mbps instead of having to settle for the 640Kbps AC3 track.

I don't own the disc, but blu-ray.com and amazon.com claim the Order of the Phoenix disc has English tracks in both Dolby 5.1 and LPCM 5.1. If true, you could point DVDfab at the core track.

I recently found out AAC 5.1 is down-mixed to stereo in this thread:

http://community.wdc.com/t5/Live-Liv...-5-1/idi-p/717

Posts in the above thread imply LPCM 5.1 is supported. But I've not verified myself.

I assume you've also checked the WDTV's audio option didn't accidentally get set to 'stereo'.

Hey Darren,

I'm having similar issues with one of my WD boxes. The one connected to my basement TV is having stuttering/no audio issues with AVI files but plays MKV fine. My family room WD player, on the other hand, is fine. What type of TV do you have connected to your player?

Yes, the settings on the WD are proper for HDMI audio. I originally ripped the title with the DD/5.1 track and it plays fine on the WD Live+ with full surround sound. I was hoping to take advantage of the much higher bitrate PCM/5.1 audio track. But so far the Live+ will only output 2.0 stereo over HDMI to my Onkyo.

Does anyone have any experience playing a BD.m2ts rip with a PCM/5.1 audio track with their Live(+).

Which might work with the jumper set.

Its a 32" 720p LCD. Connected through HDMI.

Darren

Multi channel LPCM is not supported, it's in the specs. You can always generate TrueHD from LPCM with eac3 and rumux to .m2ts with TSRemux to play with HD audio.

Is there a consensus about the "Plus"'s firmware?

I have a non plus and am holding off on the latest firmware as it would do nothing for me and might cause issues.

I have just ordered a "plus" for another TV so I'd like to know which official firmware I should stick to and why if not the latest.

Or, do they use the same firmware?

I don't see where you can generate TrueHD using eac3to. You can generate AC3 and DTS using eac3to with external decoders but I don't see anything about generating HD formats.

** This post has incorrect info. Please disregard it **

I am unsure why multi channel LPCM is not supported…? For some reason, it is working in my setup. I have used 5.1 PCM a few/several times and just re-checked again using Spiderman 3.m2ts.

LPCM 4608kbps 5.1 48kHz 16-bit

I checked PCM 5.1 output using two methods;
(1) Optical Out to AVR (Note 5.1 does work via SPDIF but not 7.1 or higher –on all AV gear right?)
(2) HDMI Out to TV-> TV Digital Audio Coax Out -> to AVR

Both methods sound great and are 5.1. The AVR is not creating a (virtual) generated 5.1 effect, the PCM is unaltered.

Live+ running firmware version “x”, the version that came out about 3 weeks ago.

Isn't optical limited to 1500 Kbps?

In any case the WDTV Live will downmix multichannel LPCM (and FLAC and AAC) to 2.0.