Please help....at wits end

I bought a WD Live Hub about 2 years ago and it was working flawlessly until about 2 weeks ago. All of a sudden files just wouldnt play anymore, The yellow arrow would spin forever. Sometimes it would play but if you went back later on to watch something else the same thing would happen…the yellow arrow would spin forever…I tried all the tips and stuff mentioned here but had no luck.

The other day I unhooked the Live Hub and bought the WD TV Live and an external HD. I put all my files on the HD, hooked it all up and it worked perfectly for about an hour. I started about 15 movies just to see if they would play and they all did, and now its doing the same thing. The yellow arrow just spins and spins…

I have no idea what do now…we love the WD Live when it works…but it doesnt and I’m about to fire this thing into the yard.

Please can someone help me?

Thanks!

Given that this happens on two different players I would say there was something wrong with some of your files. The players tend to display the spinning arrow on every file if it encounters what it considers a bad file.

What I dont understand is that it worked flawlessly until about 3 weeks ago…

If I were to go back and delete all the files I’ve put on the hard drive since it started acting wacky would that fix the problem? Is there a way to somehow locate the bad file or files??

Thanks!

I too struggled with the " now it is working, now it stopped, what did I do" syndrome. I have positively identified one source of this operation stoppage. I believe copyright codes or anti-copy codes stop music and video files from initiating. My new WD LiveTV was functioning without fault. I wished to view a video file I had purchased and downloaded to my computer on our home theatre. I could view all menus and thumbnails, but it would not open, and after the attempt, no other video or music files would open until I reset the box. I repeated the fault and correction many times to confirm.

I then re-“produced” the video on my editing software, and it transmitted and ran. I did the same for all 24 units of this video lesson. Everything operates unless I try to use one of the original files.

The purchased video probably has valid and justified embedded code. I cannot find any forum where Western Digital has an opportunity that this functional interference can be found and corrected.

I had been using a Diamond Media HD for several years, and became frustrated with what seemed to be random failures. I bought the WD unit which had a far better user interface, and was stumped by its failures. I took it back to Future Shop and got a replacement, which exhibited the same failures. I had already “fixed” every setting on my Win7x64, Cisco DPC3825 gateway etc. I put copies of MP3, JPEG, and mpeg2 files on a USB stick, eliminating my ethernet as a problem. WD LiveTV would work until I picked one of those videos, and until “reset” only photos and internet live would work.

I am replying to you because I can’t find anywhere that I can simply post a “cause & effect” story. Meanwhile, thousands are frustrated because their box stops, the lines to support are clogged, and dealers are getting all sorts of equipment returned! Must cost a bundle! 

elderone1 wrote:

I wished to view a video file I had purchased and downloaded to my computer on our home theatre. I could view all menus and thumbnails, but it would not open, and after the attempt, no other video or music files would open until I reset the box.

The LIVE does not play DRM’ed files (streams are a different matter) and it’s a known bug that one unplayable file messes up playback for each working file played afterwards.

elderone1 wrote:

Meanwhile, thousands are frustrated because their box stops, the lines to support are clogged, and dealers are getting all sorts of equipment returned! Must cost a bundle! 

 [citation needed]

Folks,  TechFlaws is right – if there is any music, or video files you have that are protected in any way, they are not going to be playable with any WD unit.  If the unit freezes, and spins arrows, you have to turn off power, and in some cases unplug your unit.for a few moments.

I have nothing on my HDDs that is copy protected and of course, it all plays.  Every once in a while something can still go wrong and a freeze-up can occur when playing anything, but it should not happen very often if everything is a-ok otherwise. 

If your problems began after a firmware update, that could possibly be a reason for freeze-up as well.