*Official* WD TV Live Streaming Media Player Thread - Page 13

I haven't seen this in our lab. Could you post the MediaInfo log for these examples?

Please, I would appreciate any feedback on this, especially from raphaelwd.

I only refer to blu-ray’s (full HD). I only rip via mkv.remux , or m2ts passthrough (IE no compression / re-encode), to maintain the best possible quality with no compromise. I never re-encode in any way preserving the original AVC or VC-1 transfer. I only play via a WD HDD directly connected via USB.

I prefer ripping to MKV as the WD media player (current & previous devices) is smoother to FF, or RW a MKV, & additionally I have more success when forced subs are required in the rip (ripping just the forced subs to external file) with MKV.

For some time now I have noticed some (normally minor) skipping, or stutter when watching some MKV’s. This is not a regular timed event (not a frame mismatch), & just intermittent, dependant on the scene in the transfer. I think I mostly see it on VC-1, & I read this can happen if the bit rate is too high.

My friend has this exact same issue too hence it occurs on his set up & mine which totally differ (IE we have different TV’s, & rip via different computers, & view via our own separate USB connected HDD’s. We both have our media library function disabled). Naturally he has WD media players too.

Following are some facts I have noticed-

1/ MKV stutter occurs on New WD Live on latest firmware (again, only minor, & dependant on the scene & only on some rips)
2/ If I rip to m2ts stutter does not occur
3/ MKV stutter WILL NOT occur on Old WD live on FW 1.04.17 & all earlier firmware’s
4/ Similar point to above, but MKV stutter WILL NOT occur on older WD HD TV player
5/ Interestingly, or coincidentally, this issue started when WD FW introduced “auto, match FPS”
6/ MKV stutter WILL NOT occur via my Seagate GoFlex media player (Realtek chipset)
7/ As a further test i ripped a VC-1 blu-ray to MKV H.264 (which takes forever to perform compared to straigh remux), & the stutter disapeared.

I will not pretend to know half as much as most people on these forums. But points 1 to 7 are known facts to me (& validated by a second “tester”). And, I only raise this as WD Old Live 1.04.17 & prior was fine. This minor bug has just crept in with 1.04.22 (Old Live), & still remains in New Live player on latest firmware, still today.

QUESTION - – Are WD aware of this?? Can it be rectified considering earlier firmware’s / devices were immune to this ??

Many thanks, Wayne.

Autoframe has been and is an issue in both the original LIVE and the LIVE-S. Apparently people from PAL countries are affected more (I know I am). Apart from that I have no micro stutters with MKVs. BTW, why not add the sub to the MKV so it's all in one file?

Also, my own Xvid rips (AutoGK) look just fine, no pixelation but of course blurry due to less details on interpolation.

RE MKV subs. maybe lack of knowledge, but more just lazy. When rip to MKV (via DVDFAB) that is how their software does it with MKV. It works, so never really worried about it.......

@raphaelwd - here's the info for one of the files. Thanks.
General
Format : AVI
Format/Info : Audio Video Interleave
File size : 350 MiB
Duration : 38mn 28s
Overall bit rate mode : Variable
Overall bit rate : 1 272 Kbps
Writing application : Some super fast AVI muxer

Video
ID : 0
Format : MPEG-4 Visual
Format profile : Advanced Simple@L5
Format settings, BVOP : 2
Format settings, QPel : No
Format settings, GMC : No warppoints
Format settings, Matrix : Default (H.263)
Codec ID : XVID
Codec ID/Hint : XviD
Duration : 38mn 28s
Bit rate : 1 121 Kbps
Width : 624 pixels
Height : 352 pixels
Display aspect ratio : 16:9
Frame rate : 23.976 fps
Color space : YUV
Chroma subsampling : 4:2:0
Bit depth : 8 bits
Scan type : Progressive
Compression mode : Lossy
Bits/(Pixel*Frame) : 0.213
Stream size : 309 MiB (88%)
Writing library : XviD 70

Audio
ID : 1
Format : MPEG Audio
Format version : Version 1
Format profile : Layer 3
Codec ID : 55
Codec ID/Hint : MP3
Duration : 38mn 28s
Bit rate mode : Variable
Bit rate : 138 Kbps
Channel(s) : 2 channels
Sampling rate : 48.0 KHz
Compression mode : Lossy
Stream size : 37.9 MiB (11%)
Alignment : Aligned on interleaves
Interleave, duration : 24 ms (0.58 video frame)
Interleave, preload duration : 11 ms

Sure not related, as you have a different issue to me & on a different format (I have mentioned MKV full HD stutter), but my issue is more likley to show in a darker scene too as you elude to as well.........

If anyone is thinking about “trading up” to the new WD TV Streaming player then you may want to read about my experience with the device.

I purchased the new WD TV Streaming player to replace my old WD TV Live device. I liked the Live device as it played almost every file in my library but it lacked media scraping and the interface was quite out-dated. The new WD TV Streaming player promised a more modern interface and the capability to identify media using information accumulated from on-line databases. I've only had the new Streaming player for a week but I have to admit that I'm quite disappointed.

The media scraping is only available on locally attached drives. The main draw of this device is that it can stream media over a network. The inability to use the media scraping on networked drives diminishes the value of this device. I understand the WD is working to get scraping on NAS devices but that fix could be months from release.

I wanted to use the media scraping feature so I moved some of my media on to an external hard drive and attached it directly to the WD device. Here are some of my findings:

The naming structure of the online database (www.TVDB.com) omits the numeral 0 (Show Name 1-5 - Title) and the result is that TV episodes are listed out of order. In a season made up of 24 episodes the alphabetical listing will be as such: 1,10,11,12,13,14,15,16,17,18,19,2,20,21,22,23,24,3,4,5,6,7,8 ,9. The device does allow one to sort the episodes by date but for some reason it only lists them backwards (24,23,22...).

The scraping is very subjective. I've listed all of the TV episodes in my library using the correct format (showname.S01E1 or showname - S01E01) but the scraping only works about 60% of the time. The scraping will miss certain episodes within a season while all others are identified correctly. It will occasionally omit background images, cover art or descriptions from random shows.

Once a program is scraped it is impossible to completely remove the information from the WD database. It mistakenly identified a particular episode of Louie as a French children's program. I deleted the information (using the command in the "Options" menu) and manually rescanned the episode. The result was a display which consisted of cover art from the kid's show and the description from Louie (and no background art). I could not completely remove the information without manually deleting the database files on the locally connected hard drive. I tried the media scraping again but I received the same result.

Media scraping of music is a complete disaster. I've tried it on several CD rips. Some are identified correctly, some are partially correct...most are not.

I am also experiencing issues with MP4/ACC files in which the video will freeze after about 20 seconds. If I restart the player the remaining files will no longer play until I reset the device. All of these MP4 files played without incident on my old WD TV Live.

Several of my high bit-rate MKV files are displaying minor stutters during playback. All of these MKV files played without incident on my old WD TV Live.

I have noticed that several of my video files (MKV and Xvid) are displaying lip-sync errors. This occurs on locally attached and networked drives. I have to adjust the lip-sync correction by -300 milliseconds to fix this problem. All of these files played without lip-sync issues on my old WD TV Live.

I am hoping that WD works out these issue in the next firmware. If not then this device is going back to the store. Unfortunately, I gave away my WD TV Live so I may have to look elsewhere for a media streamer.

Stiggs, i have also mentioned MKV stutter earlier today (& assume is a high bit rate issue as well). One of my mates has the same issue too. I see it on the New Live player (in both out of box & latest firmware), & on the Old Live player on all firware from & including 1.04.22 onwards. So for me 1.04.17 & before only then play smooth (I rest on 1.04.10 presently).

I am curious, you state your Old Live played MKV's smoothly, what firware do you use??

Wayne.

Are 1080p/60 camcorder files still a no-go on this w/the latest firmware?

I used the latest official WD firmware on my WD TV Live. I did not observe stuttering on any files.

Could someone take another screenie of the scraping if it isn't too much trouble, and how is looks like with multiple films. That would be great. I'm still waiting to pick up my unit.

Huh? There's not much to see when it's scraping. It just says "Getting content info" on the top of the screen.

I'm a SageTV refugee, looking for a replacement. The SageTV HD300 plays Blu Ray folders without menus. However, if it starts the wrong stream, there is an option to pick another one.

With the WD, I don't see such an option. If it picks the wrong stream, is there a way to change it?

I have ripped one of my "The Pacific" disks -- two episodes per disk -- using AnyDVD to folders. The SageTV HD300 can play it fine using the "change movie" option, but I can't get the WD to change which episode it shows.

The WD starts "Bad Teacher" in the middle, and there doesn't seem to be any way to tell the WD to pick a different stream. I used ClownBD to put Bad Teacher in a .iso, and it plays fine, but that's extra steps I'd rather not have to do.

I've noticed the WD TV Live is dog slow compared to the SageTV HD300. Why oh why did Google have to shut them down?

I'm playing from an Unraid NAS -- Samba(?) share.

How is the quality of this version compared to the very first generation WD TV?

I was always impressed with the upscaling of the original WD TV. I have a large DVD library, and would definately love the added features of online content in addition to being a capable player for my DVD collection.

Quality of DVD playback is excellent.

IMHO, it could do better with interlaced content, but with progressive, it's fantastic.

You probably are aware that with blu-ray rips some movies are all in 1 m2ts file, & others make the movie up with many seperate m2ts files (called seamless branching). With anyDVD HD, it is just ripping, & preserving how the blu-ray was constructed (either split files, or 1 file - for the movie).

I assume Bad Teacher has seamless branching from what you post. I believe with WD it will just go to & play the largest file in this case, & not be able to "patch" the movie together as we would like. So no, WD gives you no option to solve this.

Options -

1/ rip to ISO (which you know) but anyDVD HD will do this in one step for you. (to save the 2 step process you used...)

2/ Use DVDFAB (as another option). Use their blu-ray ripper module. It can rip the "movie only" for you, & if the rip has multiple files (to make up the movie) it will join them together, & provide you with just 1 m2ts file, which is fine for WD. The advantage here (as apposed to an ISO) is you have a smaller file in size to store. With DVDFAB you can also to this same procedure but to many other formats (to suite different devices) which include MKV, & TS + maybe 10 others.

I take options 2 as A/ is quicker (smaller rip) & B/ less storage. I am sure there are people who love their ISO's, for other reasons.

Sorry WDFan, maybe I used the wrong terminology. Earlier in the thread somebody attached a picture of the menu system where you could see information on the film - genre, plot, actors etc. As well as a picture/poster of it.

I was hoping to see another photo which included more than one film to see how it looked.

I don't understand why but I still can't get any video from the WD RSS feeds. Anyways, assuming I could see the video is there any way to get it to play full screen?

I just watched a .ts tv recording (MPEG2) recorded by my PC. When I watch it on the Live player there is a significant red tint to the video (evident in the skin on faces). When I watch the same recording on the PC there are normal skin tones. Has anyone else noticed this and is there any video output controls on the Live player that might affect this?

Ahh! Ok, I follow you now. See the attachment; the icons on the LEFT show they are "FOLDERs," and the ones on the RIGHT are individual movies. You cannot view the "Information" for folders; you need to go INTO the folder to do that.


Yep; it works just like the "Video" preview view. When the video plays, cursor over to the PIP window and hit OK to maximize it.


Nope.. Sounds like the "Color Profile" in the video is not what the WD expects. You might try over at the WD community to see if anyone else has seen it there...

WDFan, many thanks amigo

edit,

Looks fantastic.

Alternatively use either

Clown_BD
BluRip
MakeMKV
TSMuxer

to rip the movie which will yield 1 MKV or M2TS.

After further testing I now believe it is full HD MKV files only with a VC-1 video stream that will micro stutter. I believe bit rate is irrelevant in this issue (after testing smaller & larger bit rate VC-1 MKV's).

Till now the MKV's have been ripped via DVDFAB "remux" which preserves the same video & audio stream, with no compression.

I still lean towards this as a WD issue with VC-1, within MKV as -

1/ Old Live does not have this issue on & before 1.04.17 (& does since 1.04.22, as does New Live does todate)
2/ Seagate GoFlex does not have this issue
3/ I have verified this same issue via a 3rd party with his New Live with his separately ripped movies on his own different set up to mine
4/ If I rip a Blu-ray with a VC-1 video via remux to H.264 (MKV) micro stutter disappears

Thank you all very much for your comments so far, you have given me options to try.

Unfortunately not. I've seen it on some files that are encoded to x.264 and 720p. Haven't yet ruled out the TV though.

My RSS feeds option has disappeared....this happen to anyone else? I only used it once, was it under "Services" or on the main menu? I can login to my WDTV unit via LAN/IP and see all my subscriptions still there but nothing in menu

thx

Scott

It's still in the main menu...

Are you talking about the "Ticker?" If so, that's enabled via the Setup / Appearance menu I believe...

@WD -nah I figured it out, thx...but this kinda sucked: I had to default the settings. I had it on another theme and then noticed using that theme, "Games" and "RSS" disappeared from my main menu....SO I wanted to put it back to factory theme, but it was gone -UNLESS the factory one is "Legacy"? If thats the case it would not kick back on, Legacy will not work on mine. ANYWHO -like I said I defaulted settings and that was a little more of a pain than I thought it would be because it messed up my DVD VOB file names....I fixed that too -don't worry about that. ANYWAY, all is pretty much good except for the following million dollar questions:

- in my video folder, I only have little thumbs for SOME of my movies, like 10 of 40 movies? Most are ones I did ISO from DVD Decyrpter BUT some are ones I have moved over from my old HTPC setup (from a NAS) that I made with DVD Fab (just VIDEO_TS VOB files). Why would some of them show but not others? Is there is easy way to just create a "thumb" or "metathumb"? ALL other info is OK but would just like to see a bunch of little DVD covers on all.
- NEXT (somewhat related): I see these totally cool "moviesheets" on the WDTVForum.com site...are all these for the GEN2 WDTV units OR will they work on this latest GEN3 unit? Check out this link:

http://wdtvforum.com/main/index.php?topic=5306.0

Would love to be able to do this...I guess the more I type the more I figure out I need to be posting this question on THAT site! -lol....but oh well....any help, go for it...thx!

Scott

I'm sorry if this question has been answered, but I just read all 13 pages of this forum and couldn't find a definitive answer.

Does the new WDTV box support Blu ray menu's?

If not, is there an aftermarket firmware or "hack" available that will allow you to add that as a feature?

I have the WDTV Live Plus and for the most part, it's worked flawless for me. It plays 99% of the blu ray .iso's I have...it just skips right to the movie without allowing the menus (or special features) to be accessed.

For me, blu ray menu support is the only feature that's missing from my WDTV.

No. None of the Live players ever have.

The player goes into the BDMV\\STREAM folder and picks and plays the largest .m2ts file it finds. That will work as long as your movie is not authored with seamless branching. Using full-disk BD.iso with a WD player is just a waste of disk space.