*Official* WD TV Live Streaming Media Player Thread - Page 70

Perhaps a stupid question...

Hello,

I am trying to cut the cord with cable. I am wondering if this is possible.
Media room with a TIVO Premiere DVR for OTA capture hooked up to ethernet line and HDMI to projector

Den with WDTV Live SMP on ethernet and a bedroom with the WDTV Live HD on ethernet.

Is it possible to access the TIVO's harddisk via the WDTV network capabilities to play back a recorded TV show in another room?

I have done this with Windows 7 computer using the WMC and a USB tuner and antennae as the DVR.

The reason for this is that the media room has the projector, and I am trying to kill two birds with one stone, get an OTA tuner for the projector plus the DVR aspect (without the need for a HTPC)

I know that the channel master has a similar device, and when you include the lifetime cost, it is cheaper (BUT smaller hard drive, no netflix, etc)(also hard to find is chanelmaster going out of business?)

Any thoughts on this? Or will I have to manually transfer the files, in that case a HTPC would be best?

No, it is not possible.
Only another TiVo on your network can directly access the recordings on your first TiVo. In order to access the recordings on the WD Live, they would have to be transferred off the TiVo onto network storage (NAS or media-PC). The WD Live cannot play a .tivo file so the TiVo wrapper would have to be stripped off to leave a standard .mpg file. Even if you go that far, there is the matter of commercials -- the WD Live doesn't have a commercial skip feature like TiVo so you either have to FF through them (which is usable but not terribly satisfying) or edit them out in advance with something like Video ReDo.

For what you want to do, the better choices would be either multiple TiVo's or a HTPC running DVR software other than WMC. The WD Live does not play WMC recording files directly so you would be in the same boat as with TiVo. Other DVR software for OTA recording will record to .ts files which are directly playable on the WD Live.

Thanks
That is what I thought. What I was doing in the past was just right clicking on the WMC recorded file and converting it to the old format, and then the WDTV would play it.
I don't mind forwarding the commercials, the key is doing the least amount of work possible at either end
The new Boxee box was supposed to solve this issue, but they have made cloud storage mandatory, and frankly, it was a stupid idea.

What other DVR software do you recommend?

[/quote]

That's impressive. I was just trying to get some thumbnails. I take it the WD is not capable of this? You've got to have a better player like Dune?

That's impressive. I was just trying to get some thumbnails. I take it the WD is not capable of this? You've got to have a better player like Dune?[/quote]

No you can use that movie wall for the WD media players. You just have to set up ThumgGen correctly to output the correct files.

This is how my Zappiti looks like:

Right, I'm just saying. Since the filebrowser shows only the movie file itself, I don't mind having crowded dirs.

Awesome, as that price it is worth trying it out! For 99 bucks anyone can use them.

Ok, I really want to get one. Just a few more questions.

1. Can someone post a screenshot of the Netflix movie navigating interface? I have a Roku and I like what it offers. I also have a Sony blu-ray player and its netflix interface IMHO is not as good (thumbnails a bit small)... It's not a deal breaker, just like to see what it offers.
2. I have movies on network share. Can it scrape movie info for network share locations?
3. How does resolution switching work? ie, If the device is set to 1080p 60hz, will everything be output at this resolution? or native resolution of the media file? If set resolution, will it automatically switch to 24p mode for 24p content (1080p/24). Also, If I have a 720/24p MKV file, will it scale it up to 1080/24p? or?
4. Reading this thread, it seems I can use ThumbGen to generate all the movie info using the PC, and the WDTV will use it and throw up some fancy UI based off it? I am curious how exactly it works. What does ThumbGen generate in each folder? some .jpg files that the WDTV will display through? Is this info/file compatible with other media players? Or is it generated for the WDTV as it depends on some behavior from this device?

1: If you look at PS3 or Sony BDP-Sx90 series, it's the same interface. Basically, it's the stock 'enhanced' Netflix interface used on many newer devices. Much nicer than some of the older Sony interfaces (like on my Sony EX700 and BD-S370) that is basically just a grid of tiny pictures. There is an annoying 'normal or kids' interface selection at the beginning. If you are watching something like a TV series, and you let it run to the end, it will auto-start the next episode after a few seconds, after displaying a notice and giving you an out.

I find the WD-SMP to be very inconsistent when playing blu-rays. Here is the mediainfo for one of the many blu-rays that freeze - this one freezes about half way through. Anyone have any ideas on what I'm doing wrong?
FYI, I run the Blu-ray disk through DVDFab to get 'movie only', then run the resulting file through clown_bd to get the audio down to only the DTS core because my A/V receiver doesn't support DTS-Master audio. The video is in a Blu-ray structure and I am playing it from a WD hard drive that is attached to the front USB port on the WD-SMP. I am running the latest firmware.

Here's the mediainfo - and thanks for any help!



General
Complete name : E:\Video\Movies\I Robot - BD
Format : Blu-ray movie
Duration : 1h 54mn
Overall bit rate mode : Variable
Overall bit rate : 1 bps

Video
ID : 4113 (0x1011)
Menu ID : 1 (0x1)
Format : AVC
Format/Info : Advanced Video Codec
Format profile : High@L4.1
Format settings, CABAC : Yes
Format settings, ReFrames : 3 frames
Codec ID : 27
Duration : 1h 54mn
Bit rate mode : Variable
Bit rate : 25.6 Mbps
Maximum bit rate : 40.0 Mbps
Width : 1 920 pixels
Height : 1 080 pixels
Display aspect ratio : 16:9
Frame rate : 23.976 fps
Color space : YUV
Chroma subsampling : 4:2:0
Bit depth : 8 bits
Stream size : 20.5 GiB (91%)
Source : 00000.m2ts

Audio
ID : 4352 (0x1100)
Menu ID : 1 (0x1)
Format : DTS
Format/Info : Digital Theater Systems
Codec ID : 130
Duration : 1h 54mn
Bit rate mode : Constant
Bit rate : 1 510 Kbps
Channel(s) : 6 channels
Channel positions : Front: L C R, Side: L R, LFE
Sampling rate : 48.0 KHz
Bit depth : 24 bits
Compression mode : Lossy
Stream size : 1.21 GiB (5%)
Language : English / English
Source : 00000.m2ts

Text #1
ID : 4608 (0x1200)
Menu ID : 1 (0x1)
Format : PGS
Codec ID : 144
Duration : 1h 54mn
Language : English / English
Source : 00000.m2ts

Text #2
ID : 4609 (0x1201)
Menu ID : 1 (0x1)
Format : PGS
Codec ID : 144
Duration : 1h 54mn
Delay relative to video : 3s 837ms
Language : English / English
Source : 00000.m2ts

Menu
00:00:00.000 : Chapter 1
00:01:46.315 : Chapter 2
00:03:29.626 : Chapter 3
00:06:17.919 : Chapter 4
00:07:56.893 : Chapter 5
00:10:19.077 : Chapter 6
00:12:10.605 : Chapter 7
00:15:34.684 : Chapter 8
00:17:47.358 : Chapter 9
00:22:51.244 : Chapter 10
00:26:13.405 : Chapter 11
00:26:58.617 : Chapter 12
00:33:22.542 : Chapter 13
00:36:02.952 : Chapter 14
00:41:22.897 : Chapter 15
00:46:07.264 : Chapter 16
00:49:05.401 : Chapter 17
00:52:13.881 : Chapter 18
00:55:21.652 : Chapter 19
00:58:31.091 : Chapter 20
01:00:06.144 : Chapter 21
01:01:08.039 : Chapter 22
01:07:55.488 : Chapter 23
01:08:17.468 : Chapter 24
01:10:23.678 : Chapter 25
01:13:16.600 : Chapter 26
01:16:53.192 : Chapter 27
01:18:38.839 : Chapter 28
01:20:13.600 : Chapter 29
01:21:17.664 : Chapter 30
01:21:56.828 : Chapter 31
01:27:28.910 : Chapter 32
01:28:57.040 : Chapter 33
01:32:59.032 : Chapter 34
01:34:44.512 : Chapter 35
01:38:08.841 : Chapter 36
01:41:10.272 : Chapter 37
01:44:14.790 : Chapter 38
01:45:02.129 : Chapter 39

No you can use that movie wall for the WD media players. You just have to set up ThumgGen correctly to output the correct files.[/quote]

Is there a guide out for changing the wall? I have two WD Live Hubs that stream to two TVs. I also have Plex setup on my WHS 2011 box so I can watch on computers, iPads and iPhones. Any confilict with Plex?

got it thnx
Edited by DWhite - 10/19/12 at 4:56pm

No need for Clown_BD. Click 'Full Disc' in DVDFab, check 'Remove HD Audio', click 'main Movie' to rip the movie.

I have read in this and other forums that the WD, in getting and displaying info for the Media Library, will get a poster/thumbnail image from themoviedb.org, or, if you put a jpg in the same folder with the same name as the movie, use that instead. This doesn't work for me. WD uses whatever lousy image, including in another language, it decides to download, rather than the one I provide. What could I be doing wrong?

Second, I have read that if you put an image called "folder.jpg", WD will use that when displaying the folder. Again, no dice, it is using the thumbnail associated with the first movie in the folder, not folder.jpg. What gives?

Jim

Edit:

Thank to Tinwarble at WD Community for helping me understand this. If you use the internal scraper as I do it really wants to use images that have the .metathumb extension. It ignores your jpg and will download a movie image if it can find one, and gives it a .metathumb extension. So if the movie is in the database, you have to give your image a .metathumb extension to use it. If the movie is not in the database, it will reluctantly use your jpg.

As for folders, the only time it will use a jpg as a folder image is if there are NO metathumb files in the folder. The first one it finds it will use. So to get it to use your own, name it 1.metathumb or A.metathumb.
Edited by Glorious Flower - 10/20/12 at 2:57pm

Sorry if this has been brought up already in the 70 page thread, but is this player easy to setup to see file on a PC running Windows 7. The specs say it can and primary I would want to stream 720p and\or 1080p MKV's from my Win7 PC to avoid having to attach another storage media to this device.. Thanks!

dja2k

MKVs over ethernet wire? ... sure no problem. 720p MKV with DD/DST 5.1 no problem. 1080p with DD/DST 5.1 ... yep, seen those work also.

 

However, if the 1080p are high-bandwidth (like maybe uncompressed directly from MakeMKV) I suggest your wired network be fast ... Gigabit backbone if possible. PC or NAS will need to be fast. Try some samples during your return period. Might want to buy from BestBuy for easy returns.

Thanks! its mainly always 720p MKV files cause I usually don't bother with larger 1080 MKV; I have my Blu-ray player for full HD video's anyways. I have all my computers liked via Homegroup, just wondering if the setup to add this player is easy and sorta like that?

dja2k

Yes, that's kinda how I look at it also. Use a real wire and you should be fine.

 

HomeGroup? Not sure. Use WorkGroup ... I know that works. I think there is some other dLNA stuff, but I just use standard Windows shares. So, yes ... very similar to what you are doing now.

Thanks again, will certainly give this player a try!

dja2k

I've had pretty good luck playing 720p files over wireless even. Obviously a wire is always better, but if you have a good wireless connection, even that works for say sub 10mbit files.

I want to take my SMP on a trip with me. I know the TV in my hotel will have at least composite inputs, but I'm not sure if it will have HDMI. At home, I use HDMI.

Do I need to adjust the resolution on the SMP before I leave home? Or if I hook it up via composite inputs at my hotel, will the device auto-detect and downres accordingly? I just don't want to be stuck with a device where I can't see anything because the resolution is set too high.

Thanks.

I got the device on Sat. Overall quite impressed by it. Feels quite a bit more polished than the original WDTV Live I had a while back. No problems with all the contents I throw at it.

I use SageTV DVR software (awesome btw) to record on my PC, and I share the record location so the WDTV can access it and play it back on my 2nd TV. I don't have to wait for the show to finish recording to start watching. If I start watching 5 minutes into the recording, it will continue to play until the show is finished and doesn't end after 5 minutes. Very nice. The total time display only shows 5 minutes, but that's not a big deal..

It's not quite as snappy as the Sage HD300, for which most operations (start movie, 30-second commercial skip, etc) is instantaneous. The WDTV's speed is quite reasonable for normal usage and feels a bit faster than my old WDTV Live. The only minor pain point was commercial skip, I use FF to get the job done, but it would be much better if there's a 30 second skip directly. (The Sage remote have 2 skip buttons, I set one to 30 second, the other to 10 second.. This makes skipping commercial a breeze with its instant response time).

Picture quality is also quite good. When I tested it on my main TV, a 60" Plasma. I almost wanted to say the WDTV has a slight edge over the Sage HD300 when playing back 1080i recordings.

Netflix was good, but not as good as I had hoped. It always starts out with really crappy picture quality, and gets better pretty fast. How come it doesn't buffer the HD stream from the start? Both my Roku and Sony BX18 bluray player plays the HD stream immediately.

The device does have an option to match the refresh rate of the media. If enabled, I presume it will output 24fps if the media is 24fps. (not sure if this setting will output 24fps on 720p media if resolution is set to 1080p. More testing needed..)

It does not have an option to change the output resolution to match the source content.

Is there a way for me to check what resolution the device is using for HDMI? ie, 720p, 1080p? 8bit, 12bit?

Overall I am quite pleased by it. Nice addition to my setup to enable my 2nd TV to access all the network contents.

I tried a search without any luck and I believe I have read varying reports so I'm wondering if the current firmware will play dvr-ms files? Those being the old WMC file format. I know it doesn't support the newer wtv format...

Has anyone ever bought a refurbished unit from Ebay to save a few bucks? They say it still comes a 6 Month WD warranty when you register it.

dja2k

Mine was refurbished. It's not a retail box, but everything looks new. Works well, no problems so far.

Thanks! I am getting a refurbished unit and hopefully it looks new and works fine too.

dja2k

Nope, it will autodect and change output settings. I've read of occasions where it did not so the reset "buton" below the device had to be pressed with a paperclip.

dvr-ms is not listed in the specs. for the Live-SMP (WMV9 is).
Is there any DRM associated with dvr-ms files? The Live players will not play protected content.

This is the latest update to the Netflix software. Playing whatever it can as quickly as possible reduces the initial buffering time. The PC version has done this for a while now... Personally, I'm willing to make that sacrifice, as it's a real pain to just sit there watching the buffering bar fill on my old LG BR, especially if it "guesses wrong" and has to start the buffering over.