*Official* WD TV Live Streaming Media Player Thread - Page 32

Analyze with MediaInfo and post results. There might be limits on audio and video bitrates (due to processing power). I don't recall WDC advertising it could play a full bitrate 1080p Blu-Ray (that has only been converted to a MKV container ... without any additional compression and/or re-encode).

Also, surely you tried more than just one?

Interested to hear if it plays better from local storage.

Be sure you are running on the latest SMP firmware. Also, do a Restart (reboot) before testing.

See my post again, I editted it. I tried PS3 Media server on my win7 box, and didnt use windows share on WDTV live. Stutter is gone. Wondering why, and Id prefer to use just a share like my old WDTV could do no problem. It works 100% using PS3 media server...

Yes I tried 10 different MKVs, all work on PS3 MS, none work on windows "share". I also confirmed they worked with local USB HD>


...



eneral
Unique ID : 176220038523763032479981014315018774162 (0x8492BEB1BA1C709E9E1E833EC1606692)
Complete name : F:\\MKV\\TRANSFORMERS_3_AC.Title800.mkv
Format : Matroska
Format version : Version 2
File size : 35.1 GiB
Duration : 2h 34mn
Overall bit rate mode : Variable
Overall bit rate : 32.5 Mbps
Encoded date : UTC 2011-10-04 01:33:00
Writing application : DVDFab
Writing library : libebml v0.7.8 + libmatroska v0.8.1

Video
ID : 1
Format : AVC
Format/Info : Advanced Video Codec
Format profile : High@L4.1
Format settings, CABAC : Yes
Format settings, ReFrames : 4 frames
Codec ID : V_MPEG4/ISO/AVC
Duration : 2h 34mn
Bit rate mode : Variable
Maximum bit rate : 34.0 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
Scan type : Progressive
Default : Yes
Forced : No

Audio #1
ID : 2
Format : TrueHD
Codec ID : A_TRUEHD
Duration : 2h 34mn
Bit rate mode : Variable
Maximum bit rate : 6 048 Kbps
Channel(s) : 8 channels
Channel positions : Front: L C R, Side: L R, Back: L R, LFE
Sampling rate : 48.0 KHz
Compression mode : Lossless
Language : English
Default : Yes
Forced : No

Audio #2
ID : 3
Format : AC-3
Format/Info : Audio Coding 3
Mode extension : CM (complete main)
Codec ID : A_AC3
Duration : 2h 34mn
Bit rate mode : Constant
Bit rate : 640 Kbps
Channel(s) : 6 channels
Channel positions : Front: L C R, Side: L R, LFE
Sampling rate : 48.0 KHz
Bit depth : 16 bits
Compression mode : Lossy
Stream size : 707 MiB (2%)
Language : English
Default : No
Forced : No

Menu
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My Netgear router (N900) has four gigabit switches. I will be wiring the network as soon as the monoprice Cat 6 cables arrive. They should have been here by now, but tis the season. Still, the fact that .avi audio once worked over wifi but doesn't now is annoying.

You aren't the only one this is happening to. It's the hottest thread at the WD community forum. Bascially, for most of us, network shares (samba) on the WDTV SMP totally sucks, but, for others, it's golden. It seems like all the people who just got their SMP's like us are having issues, and none of the people who've been posting for a while have any problems whatsoever. hmm

http://community.wdc.com/t5/WD-TV-Li...ng_discussions

Well, a couple of things...

First, this looks like a straight BluRay rip with no compression... not sure the SMP can handle all that at the same time (audio and video).

The Overall and Video Bitrates are about 3 times what I'm seeing on some 1080p MKVs I have here.

The Max bitrate on the TrueHD is 10 times normal AC3 or DTS.

Assuming it can handle the video (that's a big leap), but the audio is pushing it over the edge... Have you tried using the AC3 soundtrack? You might have to run it through MKVmerge-GUI and remove the TrueHD as a test.

Also, I found something interesting on page 205 in the PDF manual ... it doesn't show Dolby-TrueHD or DTS-HD as available in the MKV container ... Could this be right?

That should work fine for now.

However, as your network grows ... consider adding the Gigabit switch. It adds another box (with it's own processor) to the mix ... it will take some of the pressure off of your router (so it can just mainly do Internet sharing and WiFi).

Do you go from the cable modem>gigabit switch>router?

I may order this little guy. It seems like it would play nice with my Netgear router.

http://www.amazon.com/NETGEAR-GS105-.../dp/B0000BVYT3

I can confirm the SMP will playback full bitrate BD's from a MKV container on a wired network, could be different wirelessly. It will also play a BD ISO rip. I use MakeMKV and rip the movie, primary audio and secondary audio. These rips are from BD folders and disc's. I've used my Win 7 server, ReadyNas NV, and currently using a 3TB My Book Live NAD with network sharing.

I had stuttering issue when using HDMI pass-through straight to a TV, changed to stereo and no problem. Using my Onkyo 705 with HDMI pass-through there is no problem.

If...I use a media server. It doesn't work as well through windows network shares...but if I use the built-in media server in my laptop (Windows 7 64 bit) or a third party media server (such as Serviio), I have been able to watch countless movies in full HD.

Modem>router>switch

Just to keep things straight, CIFS and SAMBA are functionally the same thing.

CIFS is Microsoft's implementation of the SMB protocol.
SAMBA is the GPL implementation of the SMB protocol.

So anyone serving their WD from a Windows box means:

They're using a CIFS server to serve a SAMBA client. Both the Client and Server are using SMB.

amazon delivery came a day early! wuhuuu!

updating firmware now....

was hoping for a better wifi signal....can't wait!

I bought one of these units for my folks last week.

Our unit worked really well for about a week but then mysteriously stopped recognizing ALL video file formats.

Yeah, I updated the firmware, reset the unit, etc. etc.

I was tempted to exchange it for a new unit but instead I just returned it and decided to come here and read up on what is happening with everyone else. So far it doesn't look like anyone's having the same sort of problem that we've been experiencing.

I've had the Live+ since about its fourth update and it still is my main media player. Now granted the media types I play are limited to DVD.iso and BD.m2ts, but even so I was happy enough with its performance that I bought the Live-S very early in its release (knowing it would have bugs). I have had them hooked up side-by-side to compare and can see that although playback of the Live-S is comparable (and good) there are some glitches in the Live-S that are not in the Live+. But I'm also willing to accept that the Live-S firmware is not mature yet -- but it will get there. The Live-S does have some distinct advantages over the Live+ such as the fast startup from standby. The new UI looks like it holds the promise of integrating the content on my several NAS units.

I will probably keep the Live-S in my test setup while it matures with a couple more firmware updates before making it the main player. If only WD would implement DTS-HD pass-through, nothing could touch this player in the $100-150 price range.

The two main glitches I'm having with the Live-S that are not in the Live+ when run side-by-side are:

• Subtle but noticeable video stuttering when Video Output is set to HDMI Auto (doesn't matter if framerate match is on or off). I have to set it to 1080p/60 in order to get a stable picture. Not an issue except when the power is pulled from the unit -- it loses the Video Output setting and sets it to 720p.
• Video chokes (unwatchable stuttering) and no audio when high bitrate BD.m2ts is played back over SMB/CIFS using a wired connection. Problem has been traced to connecting both the Live-S and the NAS units to a gigabit switch (Netgear GS108). Apparently the Live-S with its 10/100 port has a problem connecting with some GigE switches, at least the Netgear GS108. If the Live-S and the NAS are connected to a 10/100 switch the SMB/CIFS playback problems disappear. The Live+ has no such problem and is happy playing back anything while connected to the GS108.

My second issue above may relate to your problem. Try putting your media source and your Live-S on a 10/100 switch and see what happens. Let me know if you do.

cable modem > router > gigabit switch

That should work fine, but I've been installing these (small networks with no rack)

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16833156251

Yes, I should have mentioned that in my post to you above -- although I did report on this fully a couple months ago in this thread.

As I understand it, the PS3 media server is a DLNA server. Although using an SMB/CIFS share fails miserably when everything is connected on a GigE switch, if I stream the same BD.m2ts files using the DLNA server on my NAS they play perfectly -- all while being connected through GigE.

The Live-S firmware has a problem with it's network stack when connected to a GigE switch. It is not uncommon for 10/100 devices to have problems integrating into a GigE network. The Live+ with its mature firmware has no such problem and I'm sure as the Live-S firmware matures this issue will be corrected. One can only be patient.

Techflaws has reported he does not see this problem, but he is using a higher end Netgear managed switch. It was his information that prompted me to make some network configuration changes that allowed me to trace the problem to the GigE switch. If I needed a new switch I would be tempted to buy one of the managed switches -- but I don't and I'm not about to buy another switch to fix a firmware issue.

Yes, it can indeed handle it all. The WD Live+ and Live-S can handle the highest bitrate uncompressed BD rips out there with full HD audio without issue. Avatar, StarTrek 2009, Transformers etc. all pushing 40Mbps average bitrate. In the case of the Live-S, it plays all these titles and more over SMB/CIFS when connected via 10/100 switch to the NAS and over DLNA when connected via 10/100 or GigE to the NAS.

Thanks!

So ... I haven't actually used it yet, but it looks like MakeMKV just copies the whole (main movie) of the BluRay and all the HD audios and puts it into a MKV container (with no changes to audio or video). So that works fine, huh? Good to know.

I did my first one yesterday.
I ripped the whole disc to a HDD folder with DVDFab BluRay Copy
Then I ran the main movie through Handbrake at 1080p (HighProfile - Quality 20)
The DTS "5.1 core" was extracted from DTS-HD. A perfect unchanged DTS 5.1 track.
Took about 4 hours on a Intel-i7. Resulting file is 6.5gb

I'm guessing an ISO of a BluRay would have all the menus and extras intact. What tool or work-flow do you like to use to create these?

Thanks for this confirmation ...

All your recent posts have been very informative.

Ya, it's strange they didn't include a 10/100/Half-Full Duplex/Auto setting for when the "Auto" fails to pick correctly.

A person would be better off with a cheap 10/100 switch like you can get from monoprice for 8 bucks?

I think you'd be better off getting it from Newegg. It looks exactly like the zonet switch they are selling for 9.99 with free shipping.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16833130067

If you install a Gigabit switch, and the file server has a gigabit interface and is connected to it ... it can serve-up many 100 speed clients at full speed to each. And, all that traffic stays on that switch.

@ TheVolumnus,

Your router has a built-in 4-port Gigabit switch, so you are all set already.

because I'll be connecting to a gigabit switch as opposed to a 10/100 switch. It's so much more convenient to connect via network shares than having to use a media server. Moreover, I want to stream from one WDTV with an external HDD attached to the other WDTV. Since the WDTV doesn't have a media server, it's network shares only. I can do this now, but .avi's and dolby digital have no audio since I can't use a media server.

Just adding my 2 cents. I had set up my Harmony One remote for the Live SMP around the 2nd week of the Live SMP's US release date, using the Live Hub configuration (under Media PC on the Logitech database). When I power down the Live SMP, it goes into Standby mode and not Off/Shutdown.

I doubt you have your Harmony remote set up such that it would do a 5 sec IR blast for the power-off function, so it's likely that the Logitech database has been overriden since the time I set mine up.


Yes, it's not mentioned in the existing User Manual because this "feature" was added-on in the 3rd firmware update. WD should update their User Manual accordingly to lessen the confusion for those joining the party late.

Correct. AnyDVD HD for ISO's or Folders. The SMP will only play the main movie from ISO's though. So use MakeMKV, it's the only thing you really need to make an MKV from a disc with no compression. Keep it simple and use the full bitrate for your collection.

I've had the WDTV Live Streaming for about 4 days now. Was a bit of a pain to setup but I've got it working now. I couldn't get full high res bluray mkv's to play without stuttering, but I tried re-ripping a few as m2ts and they play flawlessly so I'm redoing em as m2ts to avoid issue. So far I like it, have had a few issues of it rebuilding my damn library everytime I turn it on, but I think it's due to my harmony remote hard powering down every time.

- Jon

From the manual:

Probably the annoying bug that's been known since several firmware revisions. Apparently some files mess up the system badly enough that each file played afterwards does not work either so a powercycle is required.


No, you're confusing me with someone else who joined our discussion later on. I reported that high bitrate MKVs worked flawlessly over network for me. At that point I didn't know that your Region A rip of Avatar has a much higher average bitrate than my Region B rip. I always thought the studios would use only one master to keep down costs.

So I downloaded test files which go up to 90 mbit/s and stuttering started at 50 mbit/s as you reported. I'm still on 100mbit (Fritzbox 7170) so gigabit switches might make a difference. However, the LIVE has 100mbit as well and the CPU is not fast enough for gigabit anyway so probably not.


No, it's not. When I engaged him he hadn't been specific enough but only spoke of AVI/Samba issues which worked just fine for me. When our debate got more heated however, he went from Samba to Samba wireless and finally to Samba totally wireless. And that's the key word as I just verified with a laptop I borrowed yesterday evening. When your setup looks like this:

PC/laptop <--wireless--> router <--wireless--> LIVE-S (1.05.18)

any AVI you play back drops sound after a few seconds! I hadn't realized this previously cause I'd tested a wireless LIVE-S against a wired PC all along. Thevolumnus is correct, I am man enough to admit it when I'm wrong. I'm not gonna apologize though, cause his accusations were uncalled for.

I have gone from...


WDTVS <-> Airport Extreme Base Station <-> Desktop PC

to

WDTVs <-> Dumb 10/100 switch <-> PC


My HBR BD MKV with True HD audio play flawlessly now. Seems the AEBS/GBE was causing the issues with the WDTV. Im going to try to hook the WDTV live to the switch, and the PC to the AEBS, and report back. I want the PC on the AEBS for its GBE.


EDIT:
Just confirmed the PC/WD must both be on the dumb switch. So ill just run the internet into the AEBS, an eth cable to the switch to spread the net, and both PC/WD on the switch for now. I dont have a need for gig speeds seeing as I only have the one pc, and the WDTV. The issue is with the WDTV latest firmware, 1.5 something. Im assuming they may fix eventually, but for now, my HW meets my SW needs.

Yeah , make sure, techflaws, you don't apologize for accusing me and most other WD consumers of being too ignorant to set up our networks correctly and of having "crap" video files. From the beginning I said the network was wireless. Now I'm being derided for not saying "completely" wireless, so the misdirection campaigne you ran is in essence my fault. We see how you operate.

Now this is geting interesting.

Were you using a wireless g or a wireless n network?
How long did the avi files play before the sound dropped out?

Regards,

Lt. Dang

Netgear wireless N. One or two seconds and then no sound at all. Almost everyone reporting this issue seems to be on a Netgear wireless router.