AVS › AVS Forum › Gaming & Content Streaming › Networking, Media Servers & Content Streaming › *Official* WD TV Live Streaming Media Player Thread
New Posts  All Forums:Forum Nav:

*Official* WD TV Live Streaming Media Player Thread - Page 7

post #181 of 2865
10/12/11 at 5:24am
Quote:
Originally Posted by treefrog100 View Post

Wow, you're really dating yourself now. I guess you can say the same thing about the Buck Rogers pilot, which was also shown in theaters. . . . . which I saw. . . . . . at the theater. . . . . .

Hehe, I saw StarWars on first showing as well
But its ok, people think I'm a teenager when I post online, so they'll forget the history soon enough


Quote:
Originally Posted by raphaelwd View Post

I have another trick up my sleeve for metadata. If your movie filenames don't return a direct match on TMDB, you can still get a correct result by putting a .nfo file in the same directory that contains a link to that movie's IMDB page. For example:

The_Matrix.mkv would return multiple results, however if I have The_Matrix.nfo in that folder, and it has a link to http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0133093/ somewhere in it, then the WD TV will fetch the correct result.

Will it ever do TV series (which are available on DVD too you know ) - or does one have to do the nfo trick?

And is there any sort of syntax required for that, or is it enough to simply add the URL to a text file and call it name.nfo?
Reply
Reply

Gear mentioned in this thread:

post #182 of 2865
10/12/11 at 5:58am
Quote:
Originally Posted by jakmal View Post

I just finished testing the local streaming capabilities of the unit, and we seem to have taken a few steps backward. Amongst other things, 1080p60 MTS files no longer play properly (they were OK in the Live Hub) and the 16 reframe Planet Earth sample stutters (again, that was OK in the Live Hub). PGS subs in MKVs also don't seem to work.. Not sure why people haven't started complaining about these yet!!

On the 1080p60 MTS, it's probably not a decode issue, it's a network issue.

I noticed that last week when I was streaming my AVATAR rip; my rip is about 12 megabits per second, but the NETWORK was consuming 70 megabits per second.

I opened a case with WD and they said they were aware of the issue and are working it.

But, 1080p60 is NOT supported according to the specs. (Nor is it on the Hub.) So it's going to be luck of the draw anyway...

16 ReFrames is most definately out of spec for anything most players claim. for 16 ReFrames the resolution would have to be TINY to still comply with High Profile @L4.2... 3 is the max allowed for 1920x1080 in HP@L4.2...

That's a STANDARDS compliance requirement, not a hardware dependency.

Now, as to why the Hub supports it and the Live doesn't, that could again be due to the Network issue described above, but who knows...

About the best that can be said right now is "The live has problems playing unsupported or out of spec media."
Reply
Reply
post #183 of 2865
10/12/11 at 6:30am
Quote:
Originally Posted by sgvroadster View Post

I agree... Gbe is ONLY beneficial if the media player/server has an internal HDD capability for file transfers, file sharing, and streaming to other devices...

In this case the WDTV Live Streaming Media Player does not support or does not have an internal HDD - having Gbe would've been a waste of money/hardware feature and may have priced it out of the catagory it is trying to compete in... 10/100 Ethernet is more than enough for it to function primarily as just a streamer...

Your view is far too narrow. The Live+, while not having an internal HDD, has two USB ports for attached local storage that support GUID partitions for large volumes (>2TB) -- I would assume the Live-S supports GUID as well. I had 2 x 2TB HDD's in a Rosewill USB external enclosure configured as a single 4TB volume attached to my Live+. I could have easily put a 4-bay enclosure there instead. The Live+ has simple NAS capability that allowed the volume to be accessed by my PC for file transfers and management. According to the Live-S manual it does the same thing. So why would anyone pay an additional $100 (2X the price) for the Hub to add a meager 1TB internal drive when you can easily add massive external storage to the Live-S.

Well, one reason could be that the downside of this configuration was the 10/100 ethernet port of the Live+. Transferring large media files over 10/100 to the Live+ local storage was so much slower than GigE transfers to my NAS so I abandoned the local storage. Putting a GigE port on the Live-S would have once again made that an attractive option -- and made the Hub irrelevant. Hence my disappointment with the lack of GigE.

Since the Live-S chip is capable of GigE, I suspect the decision to not include GigE was one of marketing -- they have to leave something for the Hub other than an unimpressive 1TB internal drive to justify the $200 price tag. The Hub is a tough sell now as it is, but GigE on the Live-S would have all but killed it. Hopefully the Hub will be updated soon to the Hub-S with at least a 2TB internal HDD.
Reply
Reply
post #184 of 2865
10/12/11 at 6:39am
Quote:
Originally Posted by raphaelwd View Post

Quote:


Originally Posted by Harrypt
Could anyone confirm will this new version spin up/down a usb drive?

Yes it should. As should the older players. Were you having a problem with a particular model? If you give me more detail, I can look into it. All of our players should spin any attached USB drives down after 10 minutes of inactivity.

Hmmm. I'm not seeing this. I have a WD Elements Portable USB 3.0 disk that won't spin down... even when ejected. The LED stays on SOLID; not blinking (so it's not being accessed).
Reply
Reply
post #185 of 2865
10/12/11 at 6:46am
Quote:
Originally Posted by jakmal View Post

I just finished testing the local streaming capabilities of the unit, and we seem to have taken a few steps backward. Amongst other things, 1080p60 MTS files no longer play properly (they were OK in the Live Hub) and the 16 reframe Planet Earth sample stutters (again, that was OK in the Live Hub). PGS subs in MKVs also don't seem to work.. Not sure why people haven't started complaining about these yet!!

Quote:
Originally Posted by WDFan1970 View Post

On the 1080p60 MTS, it's probably not a decode issue, it's a network issue.

I noticed that last week when I was streaming my AVATAR rip; my rip is about 12 megabits per second, but the NETWORK was consuming 70 megabits per second.

I opened a case with WD and they said they were aware of the issue and are working it.

Thanks, these are the things I was waiting to read -- the little problems that usually accompany a release. I have confidence in WD addressing the issues. To date, they have released 11 FW updates for the old Live and 8 for the Live+ -- the first for the Live-S is already posted. I didn't buy my Live+ until the 4th or 5th FW update had been released. By that time it was a pretty solid device with just a few annoyances that were mostly corrected in the later updates.
Reply
Reply
post #186 of 2865
10/12/11 at 7:05am
Question to people who have put attached USB storage on the Live-S. If you wouldn't mind taking a look at this.

According to what I've seen written, the Live-S does not power down when the button is pushed but goes into "standby" mode, just cutting HDMI and audio outputs. In contrast, when I power down my Live+ it is completely dead -- even the network lights on the switch port are out. It also caused an attached Rosewill USB enclosure to power down -- however that enclosure never powered down after 10 min or at all if the Live+ was on but idle.

So, when the Live-S goes into standby:
  1. Does it spin-down/power-down the attached USB drive(s)
  2. Is the Live-S still showing a presence on the network (can be seen by PC)
  3. If 1 & 2 are true, does accessing the Live-S in standby on the network wake up the USB drives and bring them on-line?
Obviously, what I'm getting at is does the Live-S still act as a NAS when it is in standby mode so one doesn't have to turn it on to do remote file transfers/management.
Reply
Reply
post #187 of 2865
10/12/11 at 8:42am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Kelson View Post

So, when the Live-S goes into standby:
  1. Does it spin-down/power-down the attached USB drive(s)
  2. Is the Live-S still showing a presence on the network (can be seen by PC)
  3. If 1 & 2 are true, does accessing the Live-S in standby on the network wake up the USB drives and bring them on-line?
Obviously, what I'm getting at is does the Live-S still act as a NAS when it is in standby mode so one doesn't have to turn it on to do remote file transfers/management.

1- It doesn't appear to (which I think is a bug. If it's IDLE, it should spin it down into sleep mode until it needs access.)
2- YES, it is still on the network, and disks are available, when it's in Standby.
3- Simple answer is YES since #1 indicates that they don't spin down (for me) at all.
Reply
Reply
post #188 of 2865
10/12/11 at 9:11am
Quote:
Originally Posted by WDFan1970 View Post

1- It doesn't appear to (which I think is a bug. If it's IDLE, it should spin it down into sleep mode until it needs access.)
2- YES, it is still on the network, and disks are available, when it's in Standby.
3- Simple answer is YES since #1 indicates that they don't spin down (for me) at all.

Terrific, thanks. Now it is even more of a disappointment that they didn't enable the GigE speed. Network access from standby is great, but if it doesn't spin down the attached USB drives when in standby, that's not good at all.
Reply
Reply
post #189 of 2865
10/12/11 at 9:25am
I see from the user manual (pp 27, 29) that the Live-S supports NFS. That's a very nice addition over the Live+ which only did samba for network shares.
Reply
Reply
post #190 of 2865
10/12/11 at 10:12am
Quote:
Originally Posted by WDFan1970 View Post

Well, the Hub DOES have Gig, and people cursed the performance... So they probably didn't wanna go there again...

No, the hub does not have true GigE. It uses the 8654 chip which is only 10/100. Claims for otherwise are just not in reality (similar to the claims made by the PCH A200/210/C200), which is why people cursed the performance.

Quote:


On the 1080p60 MTS, it's probably not a decode issue, it's a network issue.

I noticed that last week when I was streaming my AVATAR rip; my rip is about 12 megabits per second, but the NETWORK was consuming 70 megabits per second.

Another reason for my dismay of lack of GigE. It would arguably alleviate the possible bottleneck of the 10/100 by high bit-rate 1080p60 network requirements.

Quote:


About the best that can be said right now is "The live has problems playing unsupported or out of spec media."

I agree with you here. Can't really complain about something it never claimed to do or have. It just would have been nice to have GigE implemented given its 8670 SoC supports it.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Kelson View Post

Well, one reason could be that the downside of this configuration was the 10/100 ethernet port of the Live+. Transferring large media files over 10/100 to the Live+ local storage was so much slower than GigE transfers to my NAS so I abandoned the local storage. Putting a GigE port on the Live-S would have once again made that an attractive option -- and made the Hub irrelevant. Hence my disappointment with the lack of GigE.

Thank you for seeing the bigger picture and potential here. This is the exact reason why I was hoping for GigE on the new Live.
Reply
Reply
post #191 of 2865
10/12/11 at 10:26am
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by WDFan1970 View Post

On the 1080p60 MTS, it's probably not a decode issue, it's a network issue.

I was running the streams out of a USB drive.. there are other inconsistencies also (like player lockup after playing an offending stream). Will try to work with raphaelwd to root cause this further.

PS: I also believe that multi-channel AAC is being decoded to 2 channel PCM (from what my receiver tells me). Would be nice if I can get some independent confirmation

Not to sound all nit-picky, I did find that this was the first player I tested to bitstream WMA9 Pro audio without issues (Didn't have a capable receiver for the earlier test candidates )
Reply
Reply
post #192 of 2865
10/12/11 at 11:42am
Quote:
Originally Posted by jakmal View Post

I was running the streams out of a USB drive.. there are other inconsistencies also (like player lockup after playing an offending stream). Will try to work with raphaelwd to root cause this further.

PS: I also believe that multi-channel AAC is being decoded to 2 channel PCM (from what my receiver tells me). Would be nice if I can get some independent confirmation

Not to sound all nit-picky, I did find that this was the first player I tested to bitstream WMA9 Pro audio without issues (Didn't have a capable receiver for the earlier test candidates )

Actually, no, multichannel AAC isn't being decoded to 2 channel PCM (if it works at all). It's only outputting the front L+R channels. It should properly output multichannel AAC as PCM to all appropriate channels (at least from the folks at WD I've spoken to).

Hopefully they are working on getting multichannel FLAC working properly too- that just chokes the device completely in most cases.

And yes, I have a Pioneer receiver capable of decoding WMA9 audio, and this device bitstreams it properly- the newer Realtek based players can also bitstream WMA9 properly- (not that anyone actually uses the format anymore anyways).

If I were going to buy this box for anything, I would buy it for its Netflix support. If, (as Dave Zatz says) the WD TV Live can output 1080p Netflix like the PS3/Roku2, then it's the only device out there right now that can output Netflix 1080p/24 w/DD+ bitstreaming. 1080p/24 for Netflix makes a difference because almost so many of the encodes on Netflix are 24p.
Reply
Reply
post #193 of 2865
10/12/11 at 11:58am
Quote:
Originally Posted by WDFan1970 View Post

On the 1080p60 MTS, it's probably not a decode issue, it's a network issue.

I noticed that last week when I was streaming my AVATAR rip; my rip is about 12 megabits per second, but the NETWORK was consuming 70 megabits per second.

I opened a case with WD and they said they were aware of the issue and are working it.

But, 1080p60 is NOT supported according to the specs. (Nor is it on the Hub.) So it's going to be luck of the draw anyway...

16 ReFrames is most definately out of spec for anything most players claim. for 16 ReFrames the resolution would have to be TINY to still comply with High Profile @L4.2... 3 is the max allowed for 1920x1080 in HP@L4.2...

That's a STANDARDS compliance requirement, not a hardware dependency.

Now, as to why the Hub supports it and the Live doesn't, that could again be due to the Network issue described above, but who knows...

About the best that can be said right now is "The live has problems playing unsupported or out of spec media."

Have you tested 1080p60 MTS files from attached USB port? I'm interested in this feature because I want to play my video straight out of my Sony camcorder. (1080p60 MTS files at 28mbps.)
Reply
Reply
post #194 of 2865
10/12/11 at 12:28pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by ddwalker View Post

Have you tested 1080p60 MTS files from attached USB port? I'm interested in this feature because I want to play my video straight out of my Sony camcorder. (1080p60 MTS files at 28mbps.)

Currently, such files play from USB port with dropped frames and A/V sync issues.
Reply
Reply
post #195 of 2865
10/12/11 at 6:46pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by raphaelwd View Post

I have another trick up my sleeve for metadata. If your movie filenames don't return a direct match on TMDB, you can still get a correct result by putting a .nfo file in the same directory that contains a link to that movie's IMDB page. For example:

The_Matrix.mkv would return multiple results, however if I have The_Matrix.nfo in that folder, and it has a link to http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0133093/ somewhere in it, then the WD TV will fetch the correct result.

Uh, hold on a sec.

Are you saying that if I put an NFO file in my folder (same name as move) with a URL to IMDB entry, that the Live-S will scrape IMDBs data?

Or are you saying it will use [EDIT:] IMDB's data as an indirect reference to TMDB's database?

If it's the former: Woot!
If it's the latter: Meh...
Reply
Reply
post #196 of 2865
10/12/11 at 8:25pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by WDFan1970 View Post

Uh, hold on a sec.

Are you saying that if I put an NFO file in my folder (same name as move) with a URL to NetFlix entry, that the Live-S will scrape IMDBs data?

Or are you saying it will use NetFlix's data as an indirect reference to TMDB's database?

If it's the former: Woot!
If it's the latter: Meh...

Sorry but where was Netflix mentioned?
Reply
Reply
post #197 of 2865
10/12/11 at 10:50pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Ive View Post

Another reason for my dismay of lack of GigE. It would arguably alleviate the possible bottleneck of the 10/100 by high bit-rate 1080p60 network requirements.

What bottleneck with a 54 Mb/s max Blu-Ray on a 100 Mb/s network? Untouched Avatar streamed and searched flawlessly on my network and the original LIVE.
Reply
Reply
post #198 of 2865
10/12/11 at 11:17pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by kingpcgeek View Post

Sorry but where was Netflix mentioned?

Ooopsie! Edited.
Reply
Reply
post #199 of 2865
10/12/11 at 11:19pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by techflaws View Post

What bottleneck with a 54 Mb/s max Blu-Ray on a 100 Mb/s network? Untouched Avatar streamed and searched flawlessly on my network and the original LIVE.

1080p60 is much higher bitrate than 1080p24.

Presume your Avatar is 1080p24, not p60?
Reply
Reply
post #200 of 2865
10/13/11 at 8:35am
Ugh.
I had been waiting for the Live-S to show up on NewEgg so I could combine it with some other things I needed to order from them -- and really I was expecting it to be a little cheaper than the BB list price.

Well, it showed up on NewEgg but for $10 over list and a hefty $8 s/h charge .
Whoever thought BestBuy would actually be the best buy.
Reply
Reply
post #201 of 2865
10/13/11 at 10:11am
amazon.com has it listed for $99.
Reply
Reply
post #202 of 2865
10/13/11 at 10:25am
Quote:
Originally Posted by terranova View Post

amazon.com has it listed for $99.

With an estimated ship time of 1 to 2 months.
Reply
Reply
post #203 of 2865
10/13/11 at 11:15am
Went on Amazon to order it and just before I hit submit, saw that my local Best Buy had it for the exact same price. The BB tax was cheaper than the shipping price on Amazon by a couple of bucks, plus being able to go down and get it right away made it an easy decision to make.

Came stock with firmware 1.01.43 and took two firmware stages to update to the current latest 1.03.10.
Reply
Reply
post #204 of 2865
10/13/11 at 11:45am
Quote:
Originally Posted by WDFan1970 View Post

Uh, hold on a sec.

Are you saying that if I put an NFO file in my folder (same name as move) with a URL to IMDB entry, that the Live-S will scrape IMDBs data?

Or are you saying it will use [EDIT:] IMDB's data as an indirect reference to TMDB's database?

If it's the former: Woot!
If it's the latter: Meh...

The TMDB API allows referencing a movie directly by its IMDB ID. The metadata information is still coming from TMDB.
Reply
Reply
post #205 of 2865
10/13/11 at 4:35pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Kelson View Post

Ugh.
I had been waiting for the Live-S to show up on NewEgg so I could combine it with some other things I needed to order from them -- and really I was expecting it to be a little cheaper than the BB list price.

Well, it showed up on NewEgg but for $10 over list and a hefty $8 s/h charge .
Whoever thought BestBuy would actually be the best buy.

It used to be that Newegg was the cheapest of anyone... but I don't know what changed with them, but now they are one of the most expensive stores to buy from, unless its some special sale on an item.
Reply
Reply
post #206 of 2865
10/13/11 at 9:36pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by kingpcgeek View Post

With an estimated ship time of 1 to 2 months.

Sorry didn't realise that till you posted. When I ordered mine about 48 hrs ago, it was shipped within 24hrs of placing the order. Guess amazon must have sold these out pretty quick.
Reply
Reply
post #207 of 2865
10/13/11 at 10:24pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by WDFan1970 View Post

1080p60 is much higher bitrate than 1080p24.

Right, and mine is, as ripped from the official BD. So what bitrate does 1080p60 need on a BD that according to specs has a max bitrate of 54 Mb/s?
Reply
Reply
post #208 of 2865
10/14/11 at 3:07am
Quote:
Originally Posted by WDFan1970 View Post

They must have upgraded the proc. The old one is too big for this tiny footprint.

I'll bet they're using the 867x series, which is smaller and faster.

The US version has the 8670 processor - does anyone know if it is the same for other regions or do they have the 8671? ie the live plus in PAL regions had the non-Macrovision chip.
Reply
Reply
post #209 of 2865
10/14/11 at 4:35am
Some people here in the UK may be interested in this:

http://www.wdc.com/wdproducts/librar...879-705193.doc

Note on the bottom line of the keywords section it says "BBC iPlayer".

Steve W.
Reply
Reply
post #210 of 2865
10/14/11 at 5:15am
Quote:
Originally Posted by treefrog100 View Post

Wow, you're really dating yourself now. I guess you can say the same thing about the Buck Rogers pilot, which was also shown in theaters. . . . . which I saw. . . . . . at the theater. . . . . .

I saw the Buck Rogers pilot/movie at a Drive In!

Tim
Reply
Reply
New Posts  All Forums:Forum Nav:
  Return Home

Gear mentioned in this thread:

AVS › AVS Forum › Gaming & Content Streaming › Networking, Media Servers & Content Streaming › *Official* WD TV Live Streaming Media Player Thread