It strikes me that there’s an extremely simple solution, which would probably take WD a very small amount of time, a quick firmware upgrade, and might even save them money.
Simply ‘release’ two ‘versions’ of the SMP. This is not unheard of. Technically the NTSC and PAL versions are different machines. Many manufacturers release two version of all sort of kit, so that retailers can claim to have the lowest price (for price matching purposes).
So simply split the WDTV Live SMP into two versions/models - let’s call them an AV version and a TV version. The AV version passes DTS-MA but won’t decode DTS. The TV version will decode DTS but won’t pass DTS-MA.
Next firmware upgrade you’re asked which you want yours to become.
For future sales the units are pre-set to one of the other, and sold as two different models.
I don’t know if WD pay a flat licence to DTS or if it depends on the number of units sold. If it’s the latter they won’t have to pay DTS for a licence on all future sales of the AV version, they’ll please a lot of people and save money.
Even if this is not possible retrospecively, it’s certainly something WD could do with the next new WDTV Live.
While you are waiting for this miracle you can convert the DTS HD MA to FLAC using Makemkv and enjoy up to 7.1 in lossless perfection
I was vaguely aware that this can be done (though I’m unaware how exactly to do it).
I was also unaware I could do it using MakeMKV - I thought the MKV had to have the DTS-MA track extracted, converted, then re-inserted, or something similar.
Can I convert my current MKVs, or do I need to do it as I rip?
I’m certainly not going to re-rip all of my DTS-MA Blu-ray Discs, and I’m not sure I’d want to spend the time re-encoding, either, but it’d be nice to know so I could give it a go.
BTW, can I also convert Dolby True HD this way?
As for a ‘miracle’, it only takes a ‘miracle’ as big as the Play passing DTS-MA. Not the most difficult thing in the world.
At the moment they have the WDTV Live SMP with DTS but no DTS-MA and the WDTV Play with DTS-MA but no DTS.
If they were to release two new models, calling them say the WDTV Live SMP+ and the WDAV Live SMP+, they could licence the WDTV under the same licensing model as the current SMP and the AV under the same licence as the current Play.
The fact that they were effectively the same machine would make no difference. I’m sure the SMP and Play share many parts, too.
It may not prove possible to do with the current player, but would definitely be possible with two new models.
If they were to release two new models, calling them say the WDTV Live SMP+ and the WDAV Live SMP+, they could licence the WDTV under the same licensing model as the current SMP and the AV under the same licence as the current Play.
But you’re forgetting about the “People”-savvy aspect.
Many people around here can’t even figure out what device they bought, or post long, blasting diatribes about how the device they bought didn’t work the way they wanted it to work (despite the fact that it works exactly the way the documentation and packaging say.)
Doing something lile this would confuse the heII out of the marketplace and the number of people complaining here (because they bought the wrong one) would grow exponentially.
As a result, the retailers and WD’s return rate would skyrocket and increase WD’s cost burden.
But what about the Play? It’s cheaper and subsequently one would suspect aimed perhaps at a less tech-savvy market.
Do they get lots of returns because it won’t decode DTS ?
There are any number of ways you could do it. You could give the two units vastly different names, and even very different looks - certainly far more differenty than the SMP and the Play are - but keep the inner workings pretty much identical.
You’d effectively have the shame machine, costing next to nothing to do two different castings.
In short, you’d have two different machines, in the way the SMP and Play are two different machines, but other than the name, look and DTS/DTS-MA abilities they’d be identical in the internal wokings, parts, firmware (bar a couple of lines of code), thus saving WD a fortune in selling and designing two completely different models.
You’d even need only one manual - how many manuals do we all have at home which are for two different models, with the occasional note to say “On ‘X’ model only”?
If the files are .mkv just load them into MakeMKV, choose the FLAC profile and convert, its takes minutes, if its Dolby HD the SMP plays these fine with no conversion.
And by the way never ever reverse the plarity of an ocular flange it could disrupt the whole space time continuum!
Ah, cheers.
Thanks for the constructive and informative response, which both demonstrates a sense of humour, whilst simultaneously understanding that thiss is exactly the sort of thing people come to these forums to ask.
