New SMP - which firmware to use?

WD Legacy Products WD TV Live Streaming
1

After using a WD TV HD Live Plus for several years, for Christmas this year I received a new Live SMP.

I’m used to the older unit where I ran the 1.04.x firmware for a loooong time before upgrading to 1.05.x and will probably never go to the current 1.06.x version because of all the issues I read about in these forums…(plus 1.05.x  pretty much plays everything I need without issue).

Anyway, I setup my SMP yesterday and see that it came with firmware 1.15.10 installed.  I ran it through it’s paces yesterday and so far haven’t noticed any issues affecting function or file playback from my NAS.  In reading the release notes I see no benefit in upgrading to 1.16.13 since it adds very little (I don’t care about MLB.TV), but 2.01.86 “seems” to have fixed a lot of issues (according to the release notes at least).  However, in reading the posts here it seems like 2.01.86 causes some (big) new issues too (and even when people rollback the issues seem to stay).  

So I guess I’d like some opinions - should I stay where I am for a while or go for the latest firmware upgrade? 

2

If you are happy and the player does everything that you require just stay on the firmware you have.

3

If it ain’t broke don’t fix it.

4

I can play MKVs and MP4s with over 10Gb in size through my home network using the WDLXTV root hack to allow linksheets through my 64 Gb thumbdrive.  http://forum.wdlxtv.com/viewtopic.php?f=23&t=7663

Media Library is not a good feature, due to its slow index building, so I would turn that off.

So, the 1.12.14 firmware hack works fine for me. It allows me to play my movies perfectly. I don’t want to use it for anything else except playing my movies, which it does without any problems. 

Thank you, thank you, thank you “b-rad.cc”.

This person saved this box from being returned. I should have bought the WDTV Hub, but I guess this way I do not have to worry about a hard drive crashing. 

Also, if you are going to use this for many many movies, back up everything, even the content on the USB flash drive.

This solution will last me for at least the next 5 to 7 years until something better comes along, which I don’t see in any other product. For $99 I have a customizable movie jukebox. I would like this type of jukebox to have animation and sounds when navigating, but it is the best thing out there for what it does and what it allows you to do.

Better than Ouya, XBMC, and any other Android unit. Its stable, its customizeable (even for the non-programmer), and it’s affordable.

It is the only unit that really plays your movies the best way possible. Its HD upconverter is also better than most HD upconverters too.

If you want a unit to for services, buy a Roku 3. If you do not want to customize anything and have a lot of money to spend, buy the fastest stand alone mini PC with a remote and install XBMC.

But when it comes to everything I said already and the fact this thing is small, uses very little power, connects to the internet and your home network - - you are never going to find anything better.

5

I agree with every one here. STAY ON THE FIRMWARE THAT CAME WITH THE UNIT.

Also, go into the settings and turn off the Firmare Update notification, then the firmware won’t be accidentally updated by any one.

Much better to watch the Forum here for news about new firmware and waiting a few weeks after that to see if any bugs appear.

Do NOT let the DTS-MA HD passthrough tempt you into updating the firmare, it isn’t worth the risk.

6

SLPopp wrote:

I agree with every one here. STAY ON THE FIRMWARE THAT CAME WITH THE UNIT.

 

Also, go into the settings and turn off the Firmare Update notification, then the firmware won’t be accidentally updated by any one.

 

Much better to watch the Forum here for news about new firmware and waiting a few weeks after that to see if any bugs appear.

 

Do NOT let the DTS-MA HD passthrough tempt you into updating the firmare, it isn’t worth the risk.

My many years with the older unit plus all these posts tend to agree - I will stay with what’s working for now. 

As far as turning off the “new firmware available” notice…that’s one of the first things I did.  On my old unit I had set the gateway to 127.0.0.1 so that I’d never get prompted for new firmware updates.  Of course that meant I couldn’t connect to the Internet, but I don’t care, I use the unit to exclusively stream movies/television shows from my Synology NAS.

Thanks everyone for confirming my thoughts…