Suddenly, after 5 years that I have the player, I have the same problem with the other colleagues. Some MKV files play fine, while some other do not play when selected. i.e the time bar shows as 00:00:00/00:00:00, and fails.
After the WD fails to play a file, it does not play any other file (that used to play before) unless I do a factory reset.
I reed in FAQ 4 (Playback Issues) H & I that firmware 1.03.49 solves the problem. But I have wd tv hd media player (generation 1), so I cannot download firmware 1.03.49. The last firmware I can download is 1.03.01 and I have downloaded it already but the problem is still here. What else can I do?
The files probably have ‘header removal compression’ which your player cannot cope with. You need to run them through mkvmerge with the compression turned off. It’s very easy and it does not take long.
When running mkvmerge, go to file / options and tick box at bottom of list which says Disable header removal compression etc. Add your mkv and then press remux, within seconds or minutes a new file will be made without header removal compression.