[REQUEST] New Features - Please put all your requests in this thread

WD Legacy Products WD TV Live & Live Plus
1

I will be editing this post regularly to incorporate every request in this thread:

  1. In network shares, we should be able to browse folders sorted with DATE. Currently all folders are sorted in alphabetical order. This feature is VERY important when there are many folders to browse through and you have no idea which one is new.

  2. We should have an IP option to enter **bleep**, but also be able to access publicly shared folders on other networks. Therefore, IP option should be available!

  3. NFS should be supported!!! VERY VERY important. CIFS/SMB shares use a lot of CPU cycles and the throughput is less compared to NFS. Please support NFS!

  4. Have an option to replace the current wallpaper.

  5. Movie mode should have thumbnail + preview together.

  6. Ability to change subtitles option like text color, background color, font size, etc.

  7. VOLUME CONTROL!!! WHY IS THAT NOT EVEN INCLUDED??? Please incorporate that with the current remote, so that while atleast viewing video, we can control the volume with arrow keys (if possible) instead of finding another remote. Seriously, how can you guys forget such an important feature?

  8. Netflix streaming.

  9. Hulu access

  10. ISO / VOB menu support

  11. ability to automatically add “album art” to movies, music, etc.

  12. a full on web browser a la Opera on the Wii

  13. custom icons and/or more icon options

  14. maintain “options” selected when switching between consecutive VOB files (i.e. if zoomed in, stay zoomed when the next vob file starts)

  15. Support FLV / RMVB decode in software (maybe not HD, but CIF / SD resolutions, at least?) (We know that Sigma chip doesn’t support hardware decode of H263 Sorensen for FLV and RMVB)

  16. Support DTS-HD bitstreaming.

  17. Support TrueHD and DTS-HD bitstreaming from MKV container.

  18. Better navigation in files!

A way to skip forward and backward - your current FF/REW is very bad - in AVI’s its slow like an evil year, on DVD’s its almost too fast.

I suggest an option to use the arrow keys **bleep** and forth.

Suggestion: The arrow keys have certain jump intervals which works when you are playing the movie and the info bar is NOT visible.

If the info bar IS visible, they have another set of jump intervals.

Ie:

If you are just playing the video (and the info bar is NOT visible) the arrow keys skip this way:

RIGHT ARROW: Jumps **bleep** 10 seconds

UP ARROW: Jumps **bleep** 30 seconds.

IF you are showing the info bar - either from having pressed the ENTER key or, via the PAUSE key the arrow keys skip this way:

RIGHT ARROW: Jumps **bleep** 10 minutes

UP ARROW: Jumps **bleep** 30 minutes

Time amounts (ie 10 seconds etc) could be set via the options.

  1. Large font size for subtitles! Do you pay royalties by the pixel? Add a few more please

AND the ability to have a black semi transparent ribbon behind the subtitles - (like the KISS players did, and the countries in Scandinavia do)

  1. Abilily to read mymovies.xml and backdrop.jpg in movie **bleep**"> http://themetabrowser.com/) can organize movie folders, get IMDB stats and store them in mymovies.xml. This is then read by XBMC or MCE with Mediabrowser and all the information is parsed like IMDB rating, Genre, Cast, Runtime, etc. If this information can be displayed while previewing a folder, that will be great!

  2. compatibility with bluray’s subtitles (.pgs)

  3. compatibility with USB Keyboards in azerty and qwerty (ideal for search more easily in YouTube and for write the wireless password who have special characters).

  4. an internet browser (if yes, so don’t forget to have a compatibility with mouses lol)

  5. to can have the choice to add others internet radios. for example shoutcast.

  6. to have the possibility to get internet **bleep**"> [Choisissez une offre Fibre ou ADSL sans engagement - Free](http://www. bleep )

  7. compatibily with external USB DVD/BLURAY Drives

  8. Support Win Media Player v12 PlayTo command. It appears that music works, but video doesn’t. Haven’t tried pictures.

  9. ability to save **bleep** shares.

  10. I would also like the ability to output analog stereo audio at the same time as using HDMI. I would like to be able to set a Last.FM station and turn off my TV to listen to internet radio over my stereo.

  11. Many of us use the WDTV Live as part of a home theatre and therefore have a universal remote. It would be nice if we could have an extended list of IR commands available to get the fullest experience out of the the WDTV Live.

  12. Every time I wake/turn on the WDTV Live it takes a **bleep** connection yet.

  13. the ability to disable HDMI audio is vital for many people with a home theatre. I am surprised that this option is not already given.

  14. Allow users to disable the Music and Photos Options from the main screen

  15. Allow users to disable the Media Servers or Network Shares Icon’s within the Sub Menus, if they don’t have Media Servers or Network Shares in their home. Additional options that don’t do anything are just confusing to some people.

  16. Allow users to specify which network shares they want displayed, instead of displaying everything found.

  17. WMA Pro 10 6 channels decoding support.

  18. I’d like to see Configurable Shares I don’t want to see all shares why would I want to specify music twice It would be sweet if it worked like XBMC being able to add sources so you see only what you want to see, including which internet based media you want to see or not. Pandora is only available in the US so why should everybody have to see it, be great if you could turn on and off stuff you want or don’t want, and as stuff is added people can select which they want

  19. maybe even somekind of plugin system for more regional stuff

  20. Also gapless audio, smart playlists, coming from using my old xbox running XBMC, WDTV is a HUGE step down in the music player department, it’s open source share and share alike. At least adapt the same kind of user friendliness and features seen in XBMC

  21. Please add support for Win7 Media Center .wtv file format. This is the new format MS is using for recorded TV.

  22. What about virtualization when playing music? Watching the WD logo bounce around my screen while cool for the first few hours, gets old fast. Also what about the ability to watch a video while listening to audio (obviously with the videos audio disabled)? This way we can listen to our playlists and at least have some kind of visual effect.

  23. Downcode wmapro to something we can hear if we don’t have digital

  24. Being able to show subtitles in the DVB-T/C format (embedded mp2/4 broadcast streams) - this is the digital format used in all of europe, many countires in Asia/Australasia even some in the americas - so there is a huge potential user base for this.

  25. Onscreen info showing current bitrates of video and sound and any other interesting info about current state of wdtv

Will keep updating till WD guys do something about their product! Waiting for a new firmware release now :slight_smile:

Post by Bill_S:

I want to make sure everyone knows that we’ve got a dedicated space called the Idea Exchange for submitting ideas like these – and voting on ideas others have submitted.   The Idea Exchange is intended to give great ideas more visibility and help Western Digital understand what our customers really need.   It’s new – try it out.   We’ll read all ideas submitted there, and let you know our plans for addressing the ideas that get the most votes.

To add your idea, click the New Idea button on the Idea Exchange page (example shown below).

4 Likes
2

8.  Netflix streaming.

1 Like
3

All the above requests are probably done by b-rad already in his homebrew firmware.

What I am looking forward to from WD is updating the core software which b-rad can’t touch because of Sigma SDK restrictions / NDAs:

  1. Support FLV / RMVB decode in software (maybe not HD, but CIF / SD resolutions, at least?) (We know that Sigma chip doesn’t support hardware decode of H263 Sorensen for FLV and RMVB)

  2. Support DTS-HD bitstreaming.

  3. Support TrueHD and DTS-HD bitstreaming from MKV container.

1 Like
4

ganeshts - Its clear you have not used B-rad’s homebrew firmware yet!

5

* Better navigation in files!

A way to skip forward and backward - your current FF/REW is very bad - in AVI’s its slow like an evil year, on DVD’s its almost too fast.

I suggest an option to use the arrow keys for skipping back and forth.

Suggestion: The arrow keys have certain jump intervals which works when you are playing the movie and the info bar is NOT visible.

If the info bar IS visible, they have another set of jump intervals.

Ie:

If you are just playing the video (and the info bar is NOT visible) the arrow keys skip this way:

RIGHT ARROW: Jumps forward 10 seconds
LEFT ARROW: Jumps back 10 seconds

UP ARROW: Jumps forward 30 seconds
DOWN ARROW: Jumps back 30 seconds.

IF you are showing the info bar - either from having pressed the ENTER key or, via the PAUSE key the arrow keys skip this way:

RIGHT ARROW: Jumps forward 10 minutes
LEFT ARROW: Jumps back 10 minutes

UP ARROW: Jumps forward 30 minutes
DOWN ARROW: Jumps back 30 minutes

Time amounts (ie 10 seconds etc) could be set via the options.

6

Feature Requests in no particular order:

  1. Definitely Netflix “Watch Instantly” access - this could/would really raise the profile of this already great device

  2. Hulu access

  3. ISO / VOB menu support

  4. custom wallpaper

  5. ability to automatically add “album art” to movies, music, etc.

  6. a full on web browser a la Opera on the Wii

  7. custom icons and/or more icon options

  8. maintain “options” selected when switching between consecutive VOB files (i.e. if zoomed in, stay zoomed when the next vob file starts)

7

* Large font size for subtitles! Do you pay royalties by the pixel? Add a few more please :slight_smile:

AND the ability to have a black semi transparent ribbon behind the subtitles - (like the KISS players did, and the countries in Scandinavia do)

8

Not sure, but I thinke that these items should be int he section called “Idea Lab” on the main forum page - it looks like they are collecting ideas for furture producks there.

9

Very true. I got hold of my own WDTV Live only 3 days back. That is why I used the word ‘probably’. This means not everything, but many of the things are already in there from what you asked.

However, I have been following b-rad’s posts and his website for quite some time now, and I am sure he has NFS mounting and wallpaper change in his custom firmware

http://b-rad.cc/1041/wdlxtv-live-tips-1-mounting-nfs-under-network-shares/

His initial release also had the following in the release notes:

Custom background and screen saver images can be supplied at boot

10

Hello_World - We dont want to give them ideas to make new products, but improve what we already own! I hope you get the idea :slight_smile:

Ganeshts - I think you should really use that firmware to understand what is really possible. Mounting NFS shares is done in a very tricky way. Basically, first you need to make sure that WDTV “detects” a network drive first. If it doesnt then NFS mounting doesnt work. That is why I requested for the IP / host entering option. Other way is to stick a thumb drive permanently in order to mount NFS shares using net.mount. It’s a very stupid idea to leave something connected if all I want is to watch my shares outside my network! As far as wallpapers/screensavers are concerned. That is not really a big advantage of upgrading to brad’s homebrew firmware. I’d rather have that feature with official firmware. It’s not a big feature requirement, but something that is obviously done by someone outside WD, so this can be incorporated in the official firmware as well.

11

I ordered mine a few days ago.

Agree


  • Netflix - Can it be done with a firmware update

  • ISO title reading

  • Connect to an IP could be very handy if using something like Tversity/ORB/Many others

12

Here’s one more request:

Abilily to read mymovies.xml and backdrop.jpg in movie folder as used by MCE with XBMC or Mediabrowser. meta ( http://themetabrowser.com/) can organize movie folders, get IMDB stats and store them in mymovies.xml. This is then read by XBMC or MCE with Mediabrowser and all the information is parsed like IMDB rating, Genre, Cast, Runtime, etc. If this information can be displayed while previewing a folder, that will be great!

13

That will be great if they include in a next firmware for the WD LIVE :

1 - compatibility with bluray’s subtitles (.pgs)

2 - compatibility with USB Keyboards in azerty and qwerty  (ideal for search more easily in YouTube and for write the wireless password who have special characters)

3 - an internet browser (if yes, so don’t forget to have a compatibility with mouses lol)

4 - to can have the choice to add others internet radios

5 - to have the possibility to get internet flux TV of our Internet Providers with the WD Live.  In France, our providers (the name of mine is “Free”) give us the possibility to get internet TV in our computers, we call this “Multiposte” ! For exemple, we use software like 'ADSLTV" and “VLC” for get it in our computers. That will be great if you can add this flux to the WD LIVE. For have more informations (it’s only in french, sorry), you can check here for exemple : http://www.free.fr/adsl/pages/television/multiposte.html

6 - compatibily with external USB DVD/BLURAY Drives

7 - to can have the Marseillaise’s song (french national anthem) when WD LIVE turn on and turn off  (joking :stuck_out_tongue:)

Edit :  to " OMDDB-PiLoT ", can you add all the new requests in your first message ? That will be more clear for the WD Staff because i don’t think they will check all the pages here if there are a hundred of request soon :slight_smile:

14

Ya, shoutcast addition will be nice. Also an internet browser :smiley:

15

subtitle added encoding support for Eastern Europe characters.

16

Support Win Media Player v12 PlayTo command. It appears that music works, but video doesn’t. Haven’t tried pictures.

17

__SD__ - I would love to edit the first post and organize everything, but apparently we dont have that option. I guess no permission to edit posts in this forum :frowning: LOL, here’s another request!

18

To " OMDDB-PiLoT ", i can edit mine, so i guess you can too, just clic on “Options” to the right side of the message and clic after on “Edit Reply” :wink:

19

My one request is jumping forward/backward easier (I think this is already mentioned above).

RIGHT ARROW: forward 30 sec
LEFT ARROW: backward 7 sec
UP ARROW: forward 3 mins
DOWN ARROW: backward 1 min

It would be IDEAL if the times above are user configurable too.

20

OMDB-PiLoT- your not entirely correct (or wrong at that). Your lumping three different features together as one.

  1. You could mount non NFS shares by IP without having a USB drive connected automatically by net.mounts inside /conf/ (will supposedly you could, I’ve had more luck doing it inside S00user-scripts inside /conf/ )

  2. You could mount NFS shares by IP automatically while having a USB stick in using the above mentioned method

  3. You could mount NFS shares by IP automatically without having a USB stick plugged in using the cifs-interceptor method described at  http://b-rad.cc/1041/wdlxtv-live-tips-1-mounting-nfs-under-network-shares/ (which I think you mean by being very tricky)