Absolutely: YES
I had a WDTV Live (Gen 2) for about 2 years and some problems with the unit. Most of them mentioned here in the forum. I used the unit for watching Satellite (*.ts) streams or Blu-rays (*.iso), which are stored on a PC or elsewhere in my local network. The main problem was the missing ability of the box, to switch the sound mode correctly, depending on the cutting frame of the sat streams. I clean the streams of commercials etc. But it was very, very important where I placed the cut in/out frames. I. e. if there were only 1 or 2 frames left with DD 2.0 sound and then it changes to DD 5.1 sound, most of the time the box didn’t switch to DD 5.1, but instead remains in DD 2.0. So I had to place the cut in/out frames 1 or 2 frames ahead or behind, in order to hear the movie in 5.1 sound, even if I missed the first frame of the movie that way.
The latest WDTV Live (Gen 3) SMP has non of the problems of the Gen 2 unit and I’m extreme happy about having made the upgrade. Additionally the new unit has the ability to jump directly to a specific time while watching a movie, a feature the previous generation never had. I used the firmwares 1.14.09 and meanwhile 1.16.13 with no known problems; but 1.16.13 being a bit less responsive compared to 1.14.09. But that’s not a real problem. The latest version 2.01.86 is unusable for me, as it scrambles the picture at the commercial cuts for 720p and 1080i sat streams.
Kind regards,
Olaf.
