Sorry excuse my french. I’ve bookmarked the update page and i’ve been checking numerous times a day for what seems like an eternity. Does anyone out there have any idea when its due to land. (and when it does i hope to god its actually useable)
Dunk
WD does not announce when future firmwares will be released. It’s one of the things of “you’ll get it, when you get it”.
Checking several time a day to see if a new version is out yet is probably a waste of your time, like the rest of us you’ll just have to be patient.
Man, that’s like watching water boil…it takes longer when you watch it.
Yeah - I am rather surprised it is taking this long. I have a WD TV Live Hub set to stereo because of all of the problems with passing 5.1 sound on certain file types. Seems to me that having one of the core features of the unit broken would be an all hands fix ASAP. But like the movie art image resolution problem we have had for the last what 6 firmware revs (?), this is apparently not the case.
However, keep in mind - this is somewhat par for the course. I have a Popocorn Hour C-200 and during the development of the follow-on product (the C-300), we have not had a firmware update there since June of last year, despite being promised.
I wonder if WD is working something new?
Since it has been a little over 2 months since the last update (which seems a little longer than the spacing between other past updates) I believe* that WD is busily trying to fix as many lingering bugs as possible while not introducing more. And perhaps in reaction to the hammering they’ve received on faulty releases, is doing more rigorous beta testing to assure positive results and community reception.
So I have high hopes** that the next release will be a big step forward with no steps backward.
“Not Richard”
* I believe in the tooth fairy too so your mileage may vary.
** I have unfulfilled high hopes for winning the lottery so your mileage may vary.
I hope you are right, but a new “power system” would be nice too.
USB 3.0, a faster processor, real Gb LAN connection, and wireless too, add Amazon Prime, and a
Themes Library, meta data manager built in via TonyPH12345, and an
Optional TV tuner, or connection to network tuners ( like Ceton or HDHomeRunPrime)
basically a HTPC, in a box. =)
the hub is almost there already, a few additions and improvements, and this thing could really rock
You’re talking about a new device. All I want is to have the *current* device work as expected/advertised before having development work abandoned in favor of yet another device (which based on past history will have its own set of birth pains).
“Not Richard”
1 Like
/agree.
Looks like the new update came out today 
ddayton: I am willing to bet that WD making “Newer, Better” Hardware will not change a thing for the better. They will simply introduce MORE problems.
I am also willing to bet that a complete scrutinizing rewrite of some of the buggy code will yield better results than simply coming out with new hardware.
Its the code that runs the hardware that needs fixing. Please dont wish for this and that, you might want to be careful what you wish for.
WD is too busy adding useless “apps” but in reality they need to focus on many many other more important thing such as Audio/Video and Networking issues, and test the product under ALL circumstances, for ALL users, and make each function available without breaking another. Its already a mess and too complicated.
I really hope companies like Sigma and Realtek start providing their OWN code to run underneath the WD created GUI and take full control of the hardware. I am not sure if this is already the case because I am not sure exactly how this SoC works.
UnhappyCamper wrote:
I really hope companies like Sigma and Realtek start providing their OWN code to run underneath the WD created GUI and take full control of the hardware. I am not sure if this is already the case because I am not sure exactly how this SoC works.
This is already the case. Sigma provides the entirety of the SoC API source to the OEMs.
UnhappyCamper,
I was simply suggesting some fixes to known hardware limitations, (slow processor, slow “gigabit” ethernet, etc.)
i probably got carried away with a wish list. - but i am a geek, so i wished for geeky things. 
Yes, their firmware is buggy, and I don’t understand how / if they test it before release. If they were serious about fixing the issues, I would suggest a beta test group of users. I work in SQA, and understand a standard software release QA cycle.
I don know that other products similar to this have very similar issues / growing pains. For the features and services it offers WD is still one of the best out there, ( it’s not just me saying that, check out the review here http://www.maximumpc.com/article/features/wd_tv_live_vs_netgear_neotv_streamer_showdown
and if you are truely desperate to take control of the device yourself, maybe hack it. http://b-rad.cc/wdlxtv/
i haven’t tried that, i have been pretty happy with WDTV doing what i bought it for.
hope this helps, and I don’t think it hurts to Wish big… =)
and now that you know they do supply source code… will you hack it?
d
There has been some beta testing done in the past but I dont think it went well for WD. I did not bother reading all about it. I even made a suggestion in the WD TV Live Hub Idea back on 09-02-2011 and the status was changed on 10-05-2011 and nothing after that. Still being listed as “New”. So I would not hope much when it come to beta testing anything here.
http://community.wdc.com/t5/WD-TV-Live-Hub-Ideas/Beta-testing-of-new-firmware/idi-p/250566
http://community.wdc.com/t5/WD-TV-Live-Hub-Ideas/Beta-Testers/idi-p/106954
As for hacking this box, you might read some more from the link you posted. But in a few words, try to hack it and you will most likely brick it.
TheCoolDude,
you are correct… you very well might brick it if you hack it.
Anytime you hack something, that is part of the risk.
that said, i do have a friend who hacked the older version, WDTV live ( version 2) and it works well for him.
d
So far as I know the Live Hub is not hackable by B-rad firmware. Also, B-rad seems more focused on Networking than anything else where as there are various other issues…The problem with this WDTV Live Hub is that it doesn’t do some of the most basic things its competitors are doing. Let alone all the rest of the junk (apps) that I don’t bother with.
If they can get their Audio/Video issues resolved, I would be happy. I am not a geek but I know what I want and how I want it to work. My fight right now is to get WD to recognize that HDMI connected to LCD in Stereo mode, will Disable entirely the optical Output’s abilitiy to send DTS or DD stream. This is ridiculous. I am trying to raise this issue for those people who do not have HDMI AVRs and do not want to use their AVR everytime they want to watch basic AVI/DivX 2 Channel TV shows and have their WDTV hooked up directly to their LCD with HDMI.
This issue is posted in many other forums so its not just me. There are some people in here who don’t think this is an issue and that its a limit and its done for a reason. They have their opinion, because they are not affected so they come in here talking down on others who have a need for this. This alienates people such as myself. There are good people at WD who KNOW this issue, but they don’t know what to do about it. This is a software/OS limitation because no Engineers would design a product that would be crippled. The software team has crippled it and they are not giving us a fix. The Sigma chip has the ability to handle this, and I think WD knows their Live Hub is too resource hungry.
There was a glitch in my unit that happned about 2 weeks ago when It was sending DTS/DD over optical, and stereo on HDMI, I couldn’t believe it. But Video played in Slideshow. Then the Unit rebooted itself, before I had a chance to see what was wrong, and after that No more. It was a bug/glitch in the system that allowed it to happen. I mentioned this to support and they can’t verify it.
