Recently I upgraded the firmware on my WD TV Live box to 1.15.10 and it in affect has broken the ability for the box to play any network files reliably. This manifests itself in several ways:
a) If you are streaming (for say 30 mins) and try to pause the content the WD immediately complains that there is nothing in the playback folder. However, you can still hear the film being played and if you go [back] it continues to play, but with the busy rotating arrow continually in the center of the screen.
b) After this point it will not play any further files, responding to requests with the message “unable to play selected the selected file Please see user manual for a list of supported files.” MKV, MP4, AVI etc all fail.
c) The only way back is to power cycle the box.
I am convinced this is a serious issue with what (for the past 9 months) has been a reliable unit. I actually though it was the box itself rather than firmware so I decided to buy a WD TV Live Hub to replace it - and this worked fine - until I stupidly upgraded the firmware - and once again the problems returned. So I returned it back to the original seller and was easily able to reproduce the issue in the shop. The guy there then got a new WD TV Live out of the box, performed an upgrade, and tried it again - guess what - same issue. He returned my money.
This is without doubt an issue with the WD - I also have a Cyclone MKV player - plays all the files the WD cannot with no issue. I tried a friends Sony Media Player using DLNA access to the same files - no issues again. I am streaming off a gigabit network (cat 6 cable), using netgear switches to a QNAP with 4TB mirrored and striped (access tested via both NFS and SMB to the WD). Using wireshark to watch for unusual traffic showed a 6% usage of the net and nothing untoward. And finally, using VLC on a Macbook via NFS mounts from the QNAP again plays all files with no issues whatsoever. And BTW downgrading the firmware made no difference.
I’d be interested to hear if anyone has found a way round this massive bug.
Thanks for your response and apologies if I was a little vague in my description. So to expand a bit:
a) I rolled back the firmware to 1.14.09, then 1.13.18 and finally to 1.12.14 - firmware downgraded successfully each time but problem persisted.
b) I tried accessing via Windows shares (I presume SMB), the Linux shares (NFS probably) then tried DLNA - all resulted in the same problem (when I say accessing I mean I chose the different server options from the WD menu).
c) I have a colleague who also bought a WD TV Live at the same time *BUT* importantly he has not upgraded his firmware - so I borrowed his player and it was just like old times - worked fine on all my MKV’s - obviously he will not be doing the upgrade so I cannot test this further on his player without possibly bricking it.
To be honest at the moment it is useless in it’s current state (fast forwarding through 60 mins of film to get back to the place where you left off from became rather tedious) so I’m def game to try any new firmware - if you have a location I’ll download and try it.
OK, many thanks - I shall download and try this release and post an update. I only use the WD for streaming from hard disc so it’s no problem re: the online services.
I have found that through a network, I can easily play m2ts files, which requires bandwith. But for VOB files I cannot play VOB files if they are on a Linux based server or device.
To verify, I found that the VOB files become very choppy from a FreeNAS server or from another WDTV Live media player unit with an attached drive.
On the other hand I can play those same VOB files in a Windows media player from the FreeNAS server or the WDTV Live media player.
I also can play the same VOB files in the WD TV Live media player from a Windows 8 box.
m2ts files play fine in all scenarios. I’m trying to migrate all files to a FreeNAS server because I had some problems earlier with running from a Windows 8 machine. I will look a rolling back the WDTV Live firmware to see if that helps.
I forgot to mention one more thing. Often, when I try to play the VOB file from either the FreeNAS server or WDTV LIve w/ attached drive, the WDTV Live device automatically reboots itself. Also, I have replicated the issue on two WDTV Live units to discount the player having an issue. I believe the issue is related to a bug in the firmware.
Recently I upgraded the firmware on my WD TV Live box to 1.15.10 and it in affect has broken the ability for the box to play any network files reliably. This manifests itself in several ways:
a) If you are streaming (for say 30 mins) and try to pause the content the WD immediately complains that there is nothing in the playback folder. However, you can still hear the film being played and if you go [back] it continues to play, but with the busy rotating arrow continually in the center of the screen.
b) After this point it will not play any further files, responding to requests with the message “unable to play selected the selected file Please see user manual for a list of supported files.” MKV, MP4, AVI etc all fail.
c) The only way back is to power cycle the box.
…
I’d be interested to hear if anyone has found a way round this massive bug.
I often pause MKV blu-ray rips while playing and have not encountered the issues you note. Is there some minimum time you must have been playing a file before this happens? Or some other particulars you have noticed? How long do you pause for before this happens? Or do you mean that the SMP won’t even let you pause? Certainly I can play such a file right now for ten minutes, pause it for a few minutes, and start it up without any issues.
Like ive mentioned before i have upgraded fw so many times and have not reset once this is going back almost 16 months i have had no issues ever with playback with losing services for me if its not broke then dont try to fix it.
