Very disappointed in new firmware release

For a mature device bug fixes is probably all any manufacturer would provide. Some manufacturers don’t even do that. They put their R&D into new money earning products. Only in the early stages of release do new features get considered

They did spend the time to add more streaming video providers, and added a bunch of screen savers, so there is interest in keeping this an attractive product.

I’m just disappointed that so little effort was spent improving the playback of local content vs. streaming from the Web content.  That’s the reason I bought this box - it was the best local playback box I could find.

If the story doesn’t improve with local playback, I’m going to have to build a small Android box using XBMC.  They’ve surpassed the WDTV now, significantly, in this area, though you have to deal with a “computer” that has to be maintained rather than an appliance that just works.

menkalos wrote: an appliance that just works.

The WD has since the day it came out has never been that.

Except of course for the majority of people which is why the device is still selling as sliced bread.

Techflaws wrote:

Except of course for the majority of people which is why the device is still selling as sliced bread.

Care to share any links that support that?  Everything I see has WDTV Live as a bit player or not even mentioned.

You first.

Well over here in Australia they seem to have grabbed a big market share. I got mine based on word of mouth . I then have seen them in many other households. Most of the people I know with them are non technical. They use them with usb sticks to allow them to play downloaded files. Many don’t even join them to their networks. Yes they miss many features. But they don’t care. Does what they want with no fuss

These devices are good for basic watching, but if you are a power user, stay away. If you plan to use the Media Library and Get Content Info features, stay away.

With their attitude towards bug fixing, no one will remember WD players in a few years. Amazon review average is going down fast as people give up hope that the annoying bugs will ever be fixed. Even b-rad seems to give up on the custom firmware, partly because of the encryption but probably also got tired of fixing WD’s bugs.

I gave mine to my granny, (she’s not really a power user) and built a HTPC, my life is much happier since.

The bugs are so ‘cleverly designed’ against workarounds that sometimes I think a programmer from the competition is working for WD. For example, in my case, I just wanted to turn on the device and play a movie or episode but instead I had to

  1. Cold start the device (otherwise my NAS won’t sleep), wait for a minute to boot

  2. Wait for media library to update for new files (it doesn’t, it just displays ‘Updating Media Library’ to mess with you)

  3. Go to Media Library mode to rescan or Setup/Clear Media Library (can’t stay there because of the tv series sorting bug)

  4. Go back to Network Share mode so episode sorting is correct

  5. Start what I want to watch (if I still remember what it was) :slight_smile:

swamprat96 wrote:
Well over here in Australia they seem to have grabbed a big market share. I got mine based on word of mouth . I then have seen them in many other households. Most of the people I know with them are non technical. They use them with usb sticks to allow them to play downloaded files. Many don’t even join them to their networks. Yes they miss many features. But they don’t care. Does what they want with no fuss

I would agree, if all you are going to use this for is connecting a USB flash it generally will just work, albeit a bit slowly.  Trying to play a share is where this device becomes a problem for so many.

No device is perfect but for most part the smp and this firmware does the job.

As mentioned this device is not really meant for power users but rather for simple ease of use.

Also its gotten long in the tooth and the hardware old so no 4k on it…lol.

If you want power user control its best to look at one of the new andriod devices which gives you major control on the devices.

Does it give you autoframe too?

JamesBond007 wrote:

These devices are good for basic watching, but if you are a power user, stay away. If you plan to use the Media Library and Get Content Info features, stay away.

 …

I gave mine to my granny, (she’s not really a power user) and built a HTPC, my life is much happier since.

 

The bugs are so ‘cleverly designed’ against workarounds that sometimes I think a programmer from the competition is working for WD. For example, in my case, I just wanted to turn on the device and play a movie or episode but instead I had to

 …

I guess your idea of a “power user” is quite different from mine.  I have none of the problems you mentioned, because I am able to work around every one of them very quickly.  That is what I would term a power user.  Issues playing from SMB shares?  Never have had a one in several years of use.  Not a one!  But then, I have my shares setup properly (which I learned how to do from previous applications).  The TV episode sorting issue?  Five or ten minutes writing a trivially simple shell script and it is gone forever.  That is a power user.

I had an HTPC and got tired of all the fussing being on the front end.  I much prefer to move that stuff to the back end, and just be able to sit and have stuff instantly and perfectly play–which is exactly what happens for me–and very importantly, for my wife as well.  These days, the HTPC is in a closet, serving the two SMPs.  I am much happier.

Wife factor is always very important:laughing:

Look, I don’t want to start this argument with you again, you are clearly either a WD employee or someone who gets paid to protect their ignorance. If WD removed the H.264 decoder and the device displayed hex characters only, you would probably happily defend that too and explain that everyone should learn to decode H.264 in their heads.

But one last time… it is not acceptable that users are expected to write their own scripts to fix firmware bugs. I don’t do that with my car, washing machine or coffee maker; and I don’t want to do it with my media player either.

BTW, the low quality of WD’s work can be seen very well on things like this bug. There are two places where this sorting should work - they fix one. They add a new clock screensaver setting, but it does not work during a paused movie, only on the opening screen. See the pattern? Seen that before. Low quality copy-paste programming combined by bad QA.

JamesBond007 wrote:

Look, I don’t want to start this argument with you again, you are clearly either a WD employee or someone who gets paid to protect their ignorance.

Not even remotely close.  Typical response from the complainers though.  You just continue to ignore the fact that so many people have no trouble at all with the WD units and even actually like them.  Get over it!

Look, you did not like the way the WD unit works and could not figure out how to get it to do what you wanted so you got rid of it and found a solution you are happy with.  That is fine with me.  I don’t think there is any single “media solution” that will be perfect for every person.  Certainly an HTPC is not a viable solution for the vast majority of people.  Though it was incredibly flexible, I got tired of dealing with it (and having wife unable to figure out what state it might be in).  I personally like most of the way the SMPs work, they are extremely reliable for me, and the few things I didn’t like I could fix with a few minutes work.  They have saved me time and spouse frustration as opposed to using an HTPC.  Obviously YMMV, but still, anyone who cannot get the WD units to work is hardly what I would term a power user.

Hello,

Please keep this professional. We are all here to help each others and remember that this is a user to user Community.

Lets rember this is just a peice of hardware and arguing about it is pointless.

Everyone going to have a different view on it and we shouldn’t try to beat that view into others.

If i can type this with one hand after surgery others should be able to agree to disagree without going nuts in the forum.

I belive its time this thread gets closed.

It become more about  personal attacks, additude an insulting each other then it does about actually disscussion.

The forums here to help those with probelms and to give ideas for improving things.

It not for battles to prove who correct or who shouts louder.

There are people here with reall problems and this just distracts from that.

Hello, 

The thread has gone off topic once again.

I have removed any post that were not related to the OP’s question.

Thanks!  I never intended to start a flame war, I only wanted WD to know the features that are frustrating me in the hopes that they someday fix them.  I realize it’s a low probability, but it won’t happen if I we don’t let them know what we need. Even if not in this product, maybe in it’s successor?