*Official* WD TV Live Streaming Media Player Thread - Page 68

The WDTV, in all views except "TV Show" sorts titles ALPHABETICALLY. Thus it will go 1, 10, 11 ... 19, 2, 20, 21, 22,23, 3, 4,5,6 etc.

That's an ALPHABETICAL sort.

In the TV Show filter, it GROUPS by SERIES, then by SEASON, then sorts by EPISODE_ID --- REGARDLESS of "Title".

If you want to see BOTH MOVIES and TV at the same time, you're stuck with the alphabetical sorting by TITLE.

A large number people skip the Auto- and Manual- content collection altogether and just use third-party scrapers like Thumbgen, The XML Fetcher, HubGen, etc which offer a LOT more flexibility than the in-built content scraper.

But if you want to keep using the in-built scraper, you can use programs like "TextCrawler" to batch-convert all your XML to the "correct" format so that it "sorts" correctly in all views.

i want to buy this player but first i wish to know if this player is able to play smoothly 720p x264 mkv files riped from bluray with high ref frames number(12-16) level 4.1, sometimes 5.1. DTS, DTS-HDMA, True.HD

And what is the bitrate limitations for a 720p in this player. I won`t use 1080p for now, but in the future some remuxes could be good...

TIA

This player played all my 4.1 level M2TS files without any issues. However, it did have lip sync and sound lost with BD MKVs. DVD MKVs were fine. Furthermore, this player doesnt play HD sound. It will do DTS.

Thanks for answering, but are you talking about the gen 3 WD Tv Live SMP player??

I don't think anyone can guarantee that any player will play all MKV files perfectly. There is too much variation in MKV from the various apps that create them and when you download them from torrents, who knows what you are getting. Every player thread will have posters asking about problems playing some MKV they made/acquired when all their others play "just fine". Furthermore you are compounding the issue if you have "720p x264 mkv files riped from bluray" which means the original 1080p title has already been chewed up and spit out by who-knows-what app.

The WD Live-SMP bitstreams 5.1, DTS and True-HD but not DTS-HD. Using a wired network it has the chops to play high bitrate 1080p BluRay rips perfectly. I use native 1080p BD.m2ts files and my highest bitrate titles are 42 Mbps.
Edited by Kelson - 9/20/12 at 5:59am

I have always been curious why you chose to go the MKV route for your DVDs. Especially since the WD Live players play DVD.iso so flawlessly with full menu support.

I use a combination of DVD Fab and DVD Shrink to do full disk DVD rips of my TV series (using Shrink to eliminate unwanted audio and subtitle tracks) to DVD.iso retaining the menus so I can select the episodes. I use the same Fab/Shrink combination to rip just the main title of my DVD movies to DVD.iso (which retains chapter skip points).

When I started ripping BluRay I considered and experimented with MKV, but it never entered my mind to use it for DVD. What prompted you to go down the MKV path for DVD?

That's a loaded question. The Maximum Reframes supported for any given profile is given in the h.264 standard. I don't know why people insist on creating videos that are NOT standards-compliant.

Just stick to the standards and be done with it. And just so you know, the highest number of ReFrames allowed in the standard for 1280x720p in the 4.1 profile is 9, not 12-16.

And yes, the Gen 3 does ALLOW HD audio, and with Dolby, it *DOES* play HD audio.

Dolby True-HD -- Direct Passthrough is supported, and if your AVR supports it, you will be presented Dolby True HD audio.
DTS HD (MA) -- It is playable, but you'll only be presented DTS 5.1 "Core" audio, not the HD/MA extensions.

There are limitations to both if you expect the WD to further down-mix these to Stereo.

IIRC, the maximum supported bitrate for HD video is 40 megabits per second.

Yes, but who plays just video.
Max bitrate for Video + Audio = 48 Mbps

I don't care for menus for DVD movies. I liked MakeMKV because it is easy to use and saves me a little bit of space, and it works for both my Dune D1 and PCH-A210. MakeMKV keeps chapters as well. The only thing I do ISO's of are my DVD TV SHOWS, and I use AnyDVD HD for that.

Thanks for answering, you seem to know what you are talking. Do u mind to answer another question?

About .m2ts files, so in a m2ts extension there is no stutter with VC1 and AVC untouched BDs? and can a m2ts file have external srt subtitles?

I don't either, which is why I use Shrink to extract the main title into a DVD.iso which plays immediately upon loading.

Yes ( I also have no stutter from MKV) and yes.

Today I finally upgraded to the WDTV live player, I have had the original WDTV player for years. I have a desktop and a netbook on my home network that both run Windows XP. I share files between the two all of the time. I hooked up my new WDTV live today, and as I try to search for Windows Shares, the unit locks up after about 5 minutes of trying to load.

Any ideas on what may be causing this would fully be appreciated. The new unit plays fine from a usb drive, and I was able to stream MLB.TV so I know the wifi is working properly. Please help!



Thank you,



Aaron.

The SMP must be in the same workgroup (no, it makes no sense).

> level 4.1, sometimes 5.1.

It will handle high@4.1 but not high@5.1.

Thus it will not do ReFrames:12-16 frames, high@5.1, 10-bit Anime you would need to recode it or use a HTPC with XBMC or something.

thanks for answering

So 11 ref frames + level 4.1 will do, or it needs to be always 9 ref frames maximum?

And how do i know it not handles, only by bad playback? sometimes we didnt notice if we can`t compare with same file with less ref frames...

TIA

The maximum number of Reframes is based on the resolution of the video.

There is no absolute number which represents an overall maximum, unless you just assume the maximum resolution. In which case, the maximum for L4.1 is 4 (1920x1080).

I ripped many of my blu-ray collection with bytecopy to mkv (lossless), but one movie is encoded in vc-1 (the movie is 17 again) and I can see micro judder. The frame rate is automatic, I have a wdtv gen 3. I tried first from my nas, but I tried it from an external hd plugged via usb and same thing, always see it each time I see the same scene.

for me the wd have difficult with high bittrate from mkv with video encoded vc-1, what can I do ? re-encode to h264 ?

I have posted about this issue, as well. VC-1 files within MKV containers seem to stutter / judder on the WDTV SMP (in my experience). The amount of stuttering seems to vary from movie to movie, but it's definitely enough to be a problem, IMHO. This issue was not present on my older WDTV Live Plus. My workaround for now is to remux VC-1 MKVs into M2TS files, which play flawlessly. (AVC files in MKV containers play just fine without needing to be remuxed.)

As for a fix from WD, I am not counting on it at this point.

I'm actually looking for a reliable alternative to my WDTV due to this issue. I might just go for a Dune Smart H1 and be done with it.

Not in mine. You could use BDInfo or Bitrate Viewer to scan bitrates and see if it's ~50 mbit which seems to be rate the SMP can't handle.

Here is a two year old post:



"Anyone know how to refresh the items mounted on my other NAS drives. My WDTV Live Hub doesn't recognize when there are new files there, or if I have moved files to a different location (in this case, to the WDTV Live Hub)?

Refreshing the whole thing (e.g. mounting a different NAS, then coming back to it will probably work) but that took a long time the first time I did it (many seasons of LOTS of TV shows). Do I have an alternative that anyone has noticed?

And while I am on this topic, is there a way to access my NAS drives without always having to navigate down from the root? I am able to do this, but it doesn't work so well when my wife tries it...."



These are the two questions I would like to know. It's two years later, I hope there is an answer now..... Help!

I bought it

i have the same problem with some VC1 untouched video in mkv and not in m2ts, same everything, only the container change, and even mkv without any extra stupid compression settings...

VC-1 untouched ~13Mbps + TrueHD ~2Mbps + MKV = constant stutter
same thing with .m2ts extension/container = no stutter



I guess mkv problems in this gen3 (i`ve tested all firmwares already )

Just stick with .m2ts. As I told you above:

"I don't think anyone can guarantee that any player will play all MKV files perfectly. There is too much variation in MKV from the various apps that create them and when you download them from torrents, who knows what you are getting. Every player thread will have posters asking about problems playing some MKV they made/acquired when all their others play "just fine"."

That is the nature and reality of MKV on media players.

How can I modify the xml? Is the xml a different file from the video file? I'm completely clueless about these things.

Go here....

http://community.wdc.com/t5/WD-TV-Live-Hub-General/WDTV-Live-Hub-XML-Editor-Version-1-0-0-1-Released/td-p/176892

Playback from USB, wired, wireless?

Thank you so much, that's exactly what I want.

Jumping on the WD TV Live bandwagon here..

Was looking to purchase the WD TV Live Streaming Media Player. It runs about $90 on Amazon for a brand new one.

Decided to go with a Refurbished one from wdc.com.

Any thoughts on refurbished units?

The warranty is probably the key point.

I have extensive experience with WD disk warranties in my computer business.
For example, a five year warranty on a disk is essentially useless.
If the drive dies early in the 5 years, they expediently replace the drive.
The replacement comes with a 90 day warranty, and that is the end of your 5 year warranty.

For drives such as the Caviar Green, they simply do not survive past their warranty period, which is now 3 years, IIRC.

Many times, "Refurbished" translates to "no clue what is wrong, it works now, put it back out for sale".
It is pointless for WD to spend labor hours replacing the board in a TV Live, when it is cheaper to throw it out.
I doubt you will get a clear/honest answer as to what "refurbished" really means.
The cynic in me leans toward the "NTF, back to stock".

If my new TV Live dies outside of warranty, I toss out $90 and rationalize the cost as "rental".
This doesn't fly with an expensive piece like a Dune, so I opted away from the Dune for this reason.
The skimpy warranty and no returns, soured me on the Dune at its price point.

My TV Live does everything I require: DVD .ISO and BD .M2TS, both with subtitles when wanted.

I doubt it is anything more than someone's returned unit for which they made sure the power cord and remote were present and re-taped the box. When you receive it, check to see if the batteries are already in the remote and if the latest firmware has already been installed. There is probably absolutely nothing wrong with it. A lot of people are in the habit of buying stuff to try it out and returning it because they either didn't like some aspect about it or liked something else they bought to try better.

Often a store will try to make it look like a newly packaged unit so they can return it back on the shelf at full price. When they can't it goes into the "refurb' or "open box" bin.