When

Community Archives WD TV Live Firmware
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When you plan to implement any of the WD TV Live Ideas

in the next firmvare because so far I have not seen any

of these ideas as

  1. Full Menu support of BluRay or DVD disc           396 votes

  2. IDEA: Better navigation  IN  files                            256 votes
    3.  Netflix streaming support                                       215 votes

  3. Auto detect frame rate (24/60 etc.)                         208 votes

  4. Get movie information from IMDB                          194 votes

  5. Open API for Plugin Support                                   188 votes

  6. Support for general internet radio streams          178 votes

and so on.

3 Likes
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Would be nice to have an answer to this one. At least a target

3

I think when the next model is coming out, so they can earn more money from us…

Many of those ideas are 2-3 months or older, and none of them have been fixed, even if there’s been firmware updates lately.

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100 views and only 2 replies, nice forum…

Vote or make a comment please, no wonder the WD support is dead.

Its like downloading but doesnt seed, just hit and run…

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It would be nice to say your ideas are nice but we can not or will be but the next firmwre.

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WD don’t give a .,';]\*± about upgrades all they want is your cash then expect you to buy the latest model LOL:angry: never again had nothing but probs since i bought it and support is a joke even when phone support was still covered was told its not the player its the file even after all the posts on forum about mp4 jpeg mkv  the list goes on

1 Like
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+1

I’ll never buy another WD product again (including HDD)… additionally I will make sure I relate my experience of how poor WD products and support are every opportunity I get.

IMHO all WD wants is your money and they couldn’t care less that the product does not perform as advertised. 

1 Like
8

sasha70 wrote:

When you plan to implement any of the WD TV Live Ideas

in the next firmvare because so far I have not seen any

of these ideas as

  1. Full Menu support of BluRay or DVD disc           396 votes
  2. IDEA: Better navigation  IN  files                            256 votes
    3.  Netflix streaming support                                       215 votes
  1. Auto detect frame rate (24/60 etc.)                         208 votes
  1. Get movie information from IMDB                          194 votes
  1. Open API for Plugin Support                                   188 votes
  1. Support for general internet radio streams          178 votes

 

and so on.

 

 

I believe WD prioritises updates and fixes based on how much demand there is within the forums (e.g. number of votes within the Ideas Lab).  There’s no official timeline, it seems that they want to make the product better and will add new features as fast as they can.  Unfortunately, their pace is not fast enough for some.  ;)

WD can’t add a bunch of new features all at once.  Even when they change one seemingly small thing within the firmware, there’s the potential for that one change to break several other things.  

Look at the latest official release; many forum members participated in testing prerelease firmwares (culminating in 1.02.19 that ultimately became 0.21) and everything seemed fine, yet now we have threads dedicated to how 1.02.21 has “broken [insert feature]”.

Regarding some of the top ideas…

There’s a problem with “Full Meu support of BluRay or DVD disc” in that BluRay menus require Java.  For some reason, WD are unable to implement BD menus because of the Java dependency.  

DVD menus still seem to be on track, it’s simply a case of being patient.

Hopefully we’ll also be seeing better navigation / jump-to-time support within future firmwares soon.  I’d really like to see this as it’d make skipping opening credits sooo much easier.

Try to stay positive.

People seem to forget that when they lash out on these forums, they’re only reaching the front line of WD staff who are already trying their hardest to make the product better. 

9

Not fast enough for some?

You have got to be kidding.  It’s been almost half a year and we have seen little progress.

A bit of transparency from WD Techs would be nice.  Let us know what is going on with the ideas.

2 Likes
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traxstar7 wrote:

100 views and only 2 replies, nice forum…

 

Vote or make a comment please, no wonder the WD support is dead.

Its like downloading but doesnt seed, just hit and run…

What exactly do you expect? I look at the post and nod my head, why do I have to comment. These ideas have been talked out over the past months,there is nothing more to say. Most of these are not ‘fixes’ they are improvements which would make the WDTV better.

When you have made more posts you will have earned the right to criticize the rest of us.

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Have ya’ll seen the new Popcorn Hour A-200, that released this year?

That have already updated twice, just look at the changelog, its more than the WD will improve in 20 years.

http://www.popcornhour.com/download/A200/02-02-100208-19-POP-411.html

And more improvements are coming from them.

But I dont want a mediaplayer with harddrive or with a noisy fan or so.

Its bigger in size and more expensive than the WD Live but they are giving back the customer supports.

The chipset is better too, with the Sigma SMP8643 (667 MHz) against WD TV Live Sigma EM8655 (500MHz).

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traxstar7 wrote:

Have ya’ll seen the new Popcorn Hour A-200, that released this year?

 

That have already updated twice, just look at the changelog, its more than the WD will improve in 20 years.

http://www.popcornhour.com/download/A200/02-02-100208-19-POP-411.html

And more improvements are coming from them.

 

But I dont want a mediaplayer with harddrive or with a noisy fan or so.

Its bigger in size and more expensive than the WD Live but they are giving back the customer supports.

The chipset is better too, with the Sigma SMP8643 (667 MHz) against WD TV Live Sigma EM8655 (500MHz).

 

 

All that changelog shows to me is that the device was not ready for release. You also have made the correct point that it is more expensive - you get what you pay for.

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Seems like none of these things called “mediaplayer” are ready to be released, everyone of them are so buggy.

They dont know what the customer are using kind of videofiles or whatever.

Just making the thing and sell it, then wait to se whats need to be improved…

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The question was only to say when it will be nothing else just a little

more communication with those who buy your product there is nothing

negative.
Let’s stay positive:smileyvery-happy:

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I think one could reasonably say that the Live was/is not ready for release either.

I am all for patience, but from my own particular experience-- none of these firmware updates has improved my viewing experience or added any value to it. And considering, one of those updates bricked my original Live; I’d my aggregate experience has been less than zero.

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I can only agree with radio1…

In my experience every new formware update brought some more trouble… and the last one “finally” is making me regret to ever buy The WDTV Live ( after 10 min. all videos eventually will slow down in frame rate with no audio until they won’t play anymore).

But still I think The Live is the best media player out there (at least the one with higest potentials)… if it only had a valid support beahind it.

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DonFede wrote: after 10 min. all videos eventually will slow down in frame rate with no audio until they won’t play anymore).

Yipes.  What video container, what video and audio codec, and what is the max bit rate (look at it in VLC because the average bit rate doesn’t mean anything if it’s VBR).

I actually just upgraded my Live (against my better judgment, but I was having issues with it hardwired that I had never experienced with it wirelessly) and am playing my highest bit rate movie (my “test bed” that reaches 30mbps and runs for over 2 1/2 hours with a total size of 15GB) and  (as the man said as he jumped out of the Empire State building to prove he could fly and his friend on the 20th floor asked him how it was going) so far so good (I’m about 45 minutes into the mkv H264 AC3 5.1 flic).   I mention this only to point out that everyone’s experience is different, which probably drives the programming and testing staff crazy.

Like probably nearly everyone else here, I’ve looked at other media players and still not found anything that meets my own needs like the Live.  And, like everyone else, I’m frustrated by things that don’t work (or don’t work as they should).  If there was a better player out there I’d buy it (I don’t own any WD stock :>) but I haven’t found anything even close (some things LOOK good like the Brite-View Cinema Tube, and then you find a deal breaker like it only does stereo and not surround sound). 

If I had to summarize the biggest problem of the Live I’d say it was too ambitious – if they had simply scaled it back and put more restrictions on it (fewer supported formats, perhaps no wireless option, etc.) they might have been able to produce something that would please nearly all who bought it.  But something which tries to be all things to all people just can’t make it.  Elsewhere I’ve mentioned my Apple TV, and even with ALL the restrictions (and they are onnerous) Apple places on that device it still doesn’t work very well.  Apple has a HUGE development team, probably at least 50 to 100 times as many programmers as WD has (or more) and they still can’t get it right.  So folks here had better scale back their expectations, or go elsewhere (and they are likely to be just as frustrated and/or disappointed elsewhere).

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mkelley Wrote:  So folks here had better scale back their expectations, or go elsewhere (and they are likely to be just as frustrated and/or disappointed elsewhere).

Is it a BIG expectation to wish that what was working in previous firmware keeps working  ?

I have the WDTV HD 1gen, since dec 2008 , and since november 2009 the WDTV LIVE .

All my movies could be played flowlessly after every single firmware update.

THE SAME MOVIES with the same NETWORK CONFIGURATION just wont work  anymore.

And now that I have downgraded to 1.01.24 everithig is back to normal (meaning: network connection problems are back there ecc.) but all mkv play fluently… … and all “movie.jpg” are displayed as Folder art (function that was there since the beginning!)

So is clear and simple The LIve with the firmware 1.02.21 is worst than before !

And yes I EXPECT the people at WD not to make it worst …

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But if you’re happy with the previous firmware I don’t understand your point.  Don’t upgrade, plain and simple.

(A good rule of thumb is to not fix what isn’t broken).

Conversely, the new firmware fixed a lot of issues other people had, so they had a good reason to do so.  That’s what happens in programming as complex a piece of hardware as this – you fix some things, you break others.  Hopefully the beta is extensive enough to reveal all of this, but with literally tens of thousands of combinations of things it IS asking too much to expect it not to break some things.

Now, if you couldn’t downgrade to the previous version I’d say you had a point, but as you say, that’s not the case.  And, once again, I’ll point out this experience is not unique to WD.  Apple (with a much bigger programming team) screwed the pooch on an iPhone firmware release in much the same way (added things, broke things). 

I’m not an apologist for WD – I still expect them to keep working on this and fix everything they can.  But I enjoy the Live for what it does for me now and live with the things it doesn’t do, and that’s what really everyone needs to do (at least everyone whose Live units are at least working well enough for them to play what they need – obviously if it doesn’t work then that’s a whole different ballgame).

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Dont get me wrong I’m just mad at the fact that instead of solving problems you get more and more …

I have already mentioned it in some previous post: I still belive in the WDTV I own 2 (the 1gen nad the Live). Every device may have some bugs but  to enjoy something so “buggy” can be very hard.

Previous firmwares are full of bugs and problems… with older firmwares I have to reset the Live twice a day to have a stable network connection  and my network is Very well perfoming and I assure you no other device have any problem.  That’s why i update !.. but of course network is better with the new firmware… only one little problem: movies stop playing after 10-20min …bla bla bla … (I have already sayd that…) so I have to choose between faulty connectivity or no movies at all.

do you understend why " to enjoy something so “buggy” can be very hard."

I’m happy that you have not so many problems with your unit but most of us on this forum are really fed up…

I am a reasonable person an I have alot of patience… I’ll stay confident and wait for improvements but I need to express my disappointment… and that is also what forums are about.