New Firmware Update

I’m still thinking whether I want to upgrade, but like reading reviews of products on Amazon, there seems to be no  real consensus as to it’s worth-some think it’s the second coming of Christ, others the work of the Devil.

It seems that most issues are custom theme related. I hate the default interface and use Mojo.

One thing I hate when using ThumbGen or one of the other scrapers, the file names with extensions show and the only way to get rid of them is to do “Get Info”, which clears the custom thumbs and xml. I can put the custom thumbs and xml back in, but if I have to do a clear library or complete shut down, it wipes out the info and I’m back to square one. I think I read with the new firmware, you can do batch Get Info. Is that correct? If so, I wouldn’t mind pasting the custom thumbs back in. But then I’m stuck with the default interface.

So, I guess I have to decide, do I hate the default interface more than the file names for titles? 

Anyone have an opinion?

Hi,

Good questions. I also ask myself how much potential pain am I willing to inflict on myself (or allow WD to inflict on me) if I go with any given update.

After reading the release notes of what was added/fixed in a new release, I usually wait a day or two and watch the forum for comments about other people’s pain before updating for myself.  I kind of treat the forum and other people’s experience as an addendum for the missing portion of the release notes - you know - the section that should document what they broke intentionally or unintentionally in order to add some frivolous functionality that very few care about.

I use the device to play audio (MP3) and video (ISO) files from both the internal drive and a NAS. I have each movie in its own folder on the NAS. I use the supplied user interface because none of the themers are willing to keep revising their themes over and over again with each new faulty release. And rightfully so.

I’ve had to roll back once or twice to get back functionality I needed and giving up new or supposedly fixed things I didn’t need.

This release appears to have fixed for me the audtio sync problems when movies are paused or resumed. It also supposedly allows multiple NAS devices/shares to be added to the media library. It allows me to create my own thumbnails and xml files for movies and such that aren’t in the tmdb or tvdb databases and also allows me to edit xml files and thumbnails for “Bonus” disks to differentiate the main disk from the extras. It allows me to edit the xml files for tv series to permit the episodes to be displayed in the correct order. I use Gallery View and the Media Library. And all of my edits appear in the library once things have been rebuilt or rebooted or cleared or some combination thereof.

What I wish worked as expected (and was working at some point in the past before it was “fixed”):

  1. Allow seamless use of multiple devices accessing NAS devices without collision or jumping through hoops.

  2. Fix the annoyances that stop the theme creaters in their tracks, preventing theme use on later FW versions so I can take advantage of their truly creative efforts.

  3. Somehow allow filtering of TV episodes vs movies within the Gallery View to eliminate a lot of “clutter” in the display. (Okay - that one was never there but it would be nice if it was ever possible.)

There are probably more items for my wish list but I think my real wish list could be distilled to this:

Make the device function to the reasonable expectations of a generally knowledgeable and reasonable user community. And as advertised…

Take care,

“Not Richard”

P.S. Oh yeah - and fix the forum so that my real given name isn’t censored as a naughty word - I thought I outgrew that in grade school!!  lol

Well, I spoke too soon about the audio sync problem being fixed - it’s not.  First movie viewed tonight, after several pauses resulted in seriously out of sync audio. I was able to get it back in sync by rewinding a bit a couple of times and it came back into sync. All “potty breaks” were then postponed until the end of the movie! :dizzy_face:

“Not Richard”

dfrench wrote:

Well, I spoke too soon about the audio sync problem being fixed - it’s not.  First movie viewed tonight, after several pauses resulted in seriously out of sync audio. I was able to get it back in sync by rewinding a bit a couple of times and it came back into sync. All “potty breaks” were then postponed until the end of the movie! :dizzy_face:

 

“Not Richard”

**bleep**. I’m still on 2.08 and lately have been having issues with losing sync that I never had before. I noticed it getting worse with any pause of the movie, but last night I was watching one of my BD to MKV rips and it went out of sync without my having paused the movie. These rips have been working great for me for almost a year. I’ve just about had it with this device. Been replaced under warranty 4 times and every firmware update is an exercise in frustration. The last 2 or 3 have made me feel more like an unpaid beta tester than a consumer.:angry:

I was in a holiday mood, so I upgraded to 3. whatever. My first disappointment was the batch get info. I thought I could be selective with which ones I wanted to get info, but it’s all or nothing when you  turn it on. I’m not interested in the pay services, so those additions meant nothing. There were a couple things that were nice though.

As far as it messing up the custom theme (Mojo 2. something or other) I didn’t see any problems with that, EXCEPT none of my TV series thumbs show. The movie thumbs are all fine. So I decided the new features weren’t worth it so I backpeddled to 2.07. Unfortunately, I still can’t see any of the thumbs. I have a feeling this is that issue of firmware updates leaving little turds despite rolling back. I saw a post on the file naming conventions of 3.08 for TV that I will try tonight. Is there no way to set the hub back to factory default? If the hub can retain new pieces like that, then there must be a way to reset it to it’s default settings.

As far as my annoyance with showing file names in all but the Gallery, I vacilate between it and the screen that shows the larger number of files with no backdrops (sorry, don’t know the terminology for all the screen views). I prefer this view because I like to see as many videos on one screen rather than arrow through all the files to see what’s there.  I’m going to live with the file names, but clean them up. Maybe some day, that will be fixed.

Cosber wrote:

I was in a holiday mood, so I upgraded to 3. whatever. My first disappointment was the batch get info. I thought I could be selective with which ones I wanted to get info, but it’s all or nothing when you  turn it on. I’m not interested in the pay services, so those additions meant nothing. There were a couple things that were nice though.

 

As far as it messing up the custom theme (Mojo 2. something or other) I didn’t see any problems with that, EXCEPT none of my TV series thumbs show. The movie thumbs are all fine. So I decided the new features weren’t worth it so I backpeddled to 2.07. Unfortunately, I still can’t see any of the thumbs. I have a feeling this is that issue of firmware updates leaving little turds despite rolling back. I saw a post on the file naming conventions of 3.08 for TV that I will try tonight. Is there no way to set the hub back to factory default? If the hub can retain new pieces like that, then there must be a way to reset it to it’s default settings.

As far as my annoyance with showing file names in all but the Gallery, I vacilate between it and the screen that shows the larger number of files with no backdrops (sorry, don’t know the terminology for all the screen views). I prefer this view because I like to see as many videos on one screen rather than arrow through all the files to see what’s there.  I’m going to live with the file names, but clean them up. Maybe some day, that will be fixed.

Have you tried resetting the Hub to factory defaults? Everytime I have done a FW upgrade or a rollback, I have used the reset button on the bottom of the unit after the update.

Works for me…just sayin’ :slight_smile:

No, I didn’t know there was a reset button on the bottom. I thought the reset was done from the Settings menu. I read that people do that after updating the firmware, since it isn’t really a “factory” reset.

But, I discovered yesterday that my problem was operator error. When I hit the B button, I get 3 choices: Internal, Network, and Shared. If I choose Network, (I think that was the one-sorry, the Alzhemiers is setting in) I don’t get the graphics, but chosing the other option, I get them. I don’t know why it would make a difference but it does. So, now I’m wondering-do I want to upgrade again knowing I’ll get the graphics or be happy with what I’ve got. If I do, I’ll be sure to do the reset if I do. Thanks for the tip.