WD Live to SDTV thru A / V Out

WD Legacy Products WD TV Live & Live Plus
1

This is a 3.5 mm jack, correct?

Will it work conntecting to an SDTV using the TV’s red/yellow/white ports or will I need some sort of converter?

The unit I have is - Western Digital WD TV Live Plus built in WI-FI Streaming HD Media Player 1080P

Thanks in advance

kris

2

You’ll only need the cable that came with the WDTV which is the 3.5mm to RED/WHITE/YELLOW plugs.

3

Interesting… I didn’t get such a cable but I got the WDLive from Ebay as a refurb so that’s probably why.

I’m sure I can find one somewhere.

Thanks!

4

Check out the wiring for the lead at the link below. Its not standard!
See section 1H
http://community.wdc.com/t5/WD-TV-Live-General-Discussions/WDTV-FAQ/td-p/32135

5

Rats… this one probably won’t work then. :frowning:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/300812689107?ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1497.l2649

3.5mm RCA Audio Video TV Out Cable for Samsung Galaxy S i9000 WAVE S8500 T959 4G

Hmm…

6

This is a very specific cable for the task.  I know, because I wanted to use a longer A/V cable on my Live Plus, and none of them worked.  There apparently is no standard wiring for these things.  I tested all my other A/V cables with a meter, and all three were wired differently – and different than the original WD cable!  I ended up using female-to-female connectors and attaching a standard RCA cable to the other end to make my longer cable.

My suggestion is to get over to this eBay link and buy the exact cable for five bucks before they are all gone!

Western Digital TV Live Plus Composite AV Cable 

WD part number for cable is:  503AK0400191000001

(I think this is the same seller I bought a new Live Plus remote from for five bucks last year.  The remote is not listed any more)

And, if you or anyone else needs a remote for the Live/Live Plus units, WD is closing them out in their online store for $15:  http://store.westerndigital.com/store/wdus/en_US/DisplayAccesoryProductDetailsPage/ThemeID.21986300/productID.108411300/categoryId.13096500

7

Well, I bought one of these… it displays a picture but it’s not readable.  I’m guessing the WD isn’t detecting the right mHz or something.

Do I need to make some kind of settings change while it’s hooked up to my HDTV before changing over to my old CRT-SDTV? 

That’s one thing that the ROKU does well is auto-detect what kind of TV it’s connected to and changes over automatically.

Thanks

8

It may be that the TV standard is set incorrectly. Press the reset button for at least 10 seconds and then release with the player fully booted up, the player should change standard from PAL to NTSC or vice versa.

9

Thanks… I did this and it restarted… I got the splash screen for a few seconds and it looked fine.

Then the frequency or whatever it is when crazy and started rolling vertially.

I’m guessing I’ll need to hook it back up to my HDTV thru the HDMI and then switch it to standard instead of HDTV and then move it again.

I can live with this as I don’t need to move it very often. 

Thanks again.

10

You are plugging the lead into the AV socket on the player and not the other component video socket.

11

There is no other component.

There’s A/V Out, optical, ethernet, HDMI, USB, and power.  That’s it.

12

Sorry… that’s power on the left and A/V out on the right.

13

@KrisR

You defintely bought the correct cable I recommended you buy, because that same day I ordered one, too.  For five bucks, it made sense to have myself a spare.  It had the right WD part number on the attached tag.

I am beginning to think you might have a defective used Live Plus.  Let’s check more for that.  If you plug this cable into the single A/V plug in the back of the WD, stick it into your TV A/V composite inputs, you should get a good picture.  You should also be able to tell if your WD is set to the NTSC or PAL from looking at the WD settings for Audio/Video/ Video Output .if you are not in HTML setting, and are in Composite setting and the cable is all plugged in.  You can then switch between them using the remote (use PAL for Europe, NTSC for US and Canada)

As Rich said, if you use the reset button on the side to switch, you have to hold the button in for 10 seconds, at least.  Never hold it in this long to just use the button to reset player to defaults – that is basicly just a one second click in/out).

Maybe I missed something here – why can’t you just use HTML for your video output?

14

When you say HTML, I’m assuming you mean HDMI? :slight_smile:

The unit is connected to an old SDTV using the cable form the WD A/V out to the red/yellow/white ports on the front of the TV.  I don’t have a new HDTV in that bedroom. All i have is the old TV with the red/yellow/white ports on the front ( and TV coax cable in the back).  I usually have my Roku attached to this.

The reset hole is on the bottom of the unit.

I held it in for 10 seconds or so and it restarted.

When it restarted it said WDLive and looked ok for about 10 seconds and then went black.  After about 7 or 8 seconds the display came back on but was scrolling and unreadable.

I then unplugged it all and moved it back to my HDTV (connecting using the HDMI ports and HDMI cable).

When I booted it up, it gave me the WD Live logo screen and then went blank again, then the logo came up a little different and the TV went into 1080P mode.

It then finished booting up and I had to run the network setup again (detecting wireless network).  So I guess I reset it to defaults when I held the button in (no big deal).

I looked at the settings in the setup screen and it’s set to HDMI (Auto).  The choices are HDMI or Composite.  Then there’s a setting for widescreen or standard.  There’s also an HDMI CEC (on or off and it’s set to off).  Not sure what this is yet.

I haven’t tried setting it to standard instead of widescreen nor have I yet tried the composite, but it seems odd that the A/V out jack works with it set to HDMI.  One would think it would work or not at all.

15

OK I just did some more testing.

This time I connected the new cable to the A/V Out on the WDLive and went to the red/yellow/white ports on the HDTV (it’s a WestingHouse Digital 42inch LCB by the way).

This works fine.  It said Composite (PAL) so I switched it to Composite (NTSC).  The picture is not nearly as sharp and clear which would make sense since it’s the lower resolution connection.

I also changed it to Normal instead of Widescreen.

I then moved it to the old SDTV CRT again ( this is a Emerson 19in - it even says SDTV which means it’s one of the newer ones that came out after they started making HDTV’s).

Still the same thing, it doesn’t dispay anything that I can read.

So the new cable works… the ports seem to work ok (on the HDTV)… just not on the SDTV. 

I do have another one that I can try it on, so I give that a shot tomorrow.

If this doesn’t work, I’ll just keep my Roku on the SDTV since that works ok.

I can convert some of my DIVX AVI’s to MP4 and the Roku will play them, so it’s not the end of the world.

I still really like the WDTV Live very much!  :-)

16

you >>>   When you say HTML, I’m assuming you mean HDMI? :slight_smile:

Yea, duh!  Brain freeze.  Aw, what the HETMLL.

OK, I think I follow what you are doing; you’re trying to set the WD up before putting it on the SDTV, and if so, try this:

Set it all up with HDMI and also have the composite cables plugged into WD and hi-def TV.  Then, while still all hooked up, change video from HDMI to Composite, select correct NTSC or PAL for where you live.  Then, take a look at the screen, video, etc.  you still should have a good picture.  If not, then your Live Plus could be defective (I am assuming your hi-def isn’t.)

Now, disconnect it all and connect to the SDTV (whether you had a good picture or not).  Since your WD unit is set up for Composite out, still, then if you had a good picture before, you should have one now.  If you don’t it indicates your SDTV is likely having problems with the composite input signals.

BTW, it is normal for the WD Plus to come on briefly to announce itself, and the screen goes black for a moment until it finishes boot up with the on screen comment “loading” as it loads the attached drives.

Let us know how it goes, and BTW, do NOT let it install new firmware in the Live Plus.  Check in the Settings to find the current firmware version and let us know that, too.  There are issues with the most current firmware and we want to help you avoid that issue.  If you have a good, older one, that would be fine.

17

From the picture you linked to it seems that you have a WD Live Streaming player gen3 and not the old Live / Live plus which is the subject of this forum.
By the way there us no need to select composite as it is on all the time. You only need to select PAL or NTSC. I can only assume that there is some problem with your old TV as it seems that the composite output works OK with your new TV.

18

OK stand down everyone. 

It works now on my old SDTV.

For grins I thought I would hook it up one more time and see and it booted up just like on my HDTV.

I guess the last change I made the other day must have done it and I just needed to try it one more time.

Thanks for all the help guys!