I bought a WDTV Live box on black friday and I LOVE it! I don’t have the same problems as I did with my PBO box, which had to be booted about 12 times in a row before it would stay on, nor do I have any of the problems I had with my AIOS box, which could not play my 1080p .mkv collection. This little box just WORKS! I am only having one issue with it that I hope someone can help me out with. I have a Netgear JNR 3210 router with Gigabit ethernet LAN ports. I know that the WDTV box can stream files from my pc to my tv at gigabit speeds, but when I plug my WDTV box into my router, the connection light is amber instead of green, which indicates that the router is detecting it as a 10/100 speed device, and on some of my larger 1080p .mkv movie files, every 15 minutes or so, the picture will freeze and the circular arrow will come on to show that the stream is catching up. This is common if the device is a 10/100 speed device, but since the WDTV box is supposed to have a gigabit ethernet wired port, this shouldn’t be an issue. Can someone tell me how to get my router to recognize the WDTV ethernet port as a true gigabit port? I would really appreciate any help on the issue!
Check the specs again
Its not advertised as a gigE port
Its 10/100
Not only wdtv smp is not GigE, but picture freezes are not due to the port/device speed since 100Mbps is plenty for properly ripped video file, regardless of the size
Just to let you know, your issues are not because the WDTV is, or is not, gigabit speed. Before I had a gigabit system I had a 10/100. Videos basically streamed fine either way using wired. Sometime BD files could be a problem at 10/100, but not at gigabit. Wireless can be a different story, depending upon wireless conditions in home; unless they are “perfect”, problems can occur. Videos stream fine at speeds much less than gigabit. Gigabit speed helps in copying files to and fro, but not for streaming – 10/100 is plenty fast enough for video streaming.
Your problems are from elsewhere; but not enough info here to help you determine the cause.
mike27oct wrote:
Just to let you know, your issues are not because the WDTV is, or is not, gigabit speed. Before I had a gigabit system I had a 10/100. Videos basically streamed fine either way using wired. Sometime BD files could be a problem at 10/100, but not at gigabit. Wireless can be a different story, depending upon wireless conditions in home; unless they are “perfect”, problems can occur. Videos stream fine at speeds much less than gigabit. Gigabit speed helps in copying files to and fro, but not for streaming – 10/100 is plenty fast enough for video streaming.
Your problems are from elsewhere; but not enough info here to help you determine the cause.
What other info do you need? I would be happy to provide you with any info that could help this problem get solved !
As others have said, the SMP is not GigE. As long as the connection to your router is negotiated as 100Mbps full-duplex there shouldn’t be a network problem. The maximum bitrate of Blu-ray sourced files is around 50 Mbps ( my highest is 42Mbps), and Ethernet can achieve throughput very close to its standard. Bad Ethernet cables can obviously cause problems (I have a cable that causes GigE devices to negotiate only 100Mbps).
You don’t say where your videos are sourced from, or how that source is connected to the router. If there are any Wifi links involved, then that explains your problem. Wifi (even “n”) can be very unreliable for streaming Blu-ray sourced video. I gave up on it, as I could never get it to sustain Blu-ray bitrates.
If all connections are wired, then make sure cables are good as a first step. There can be unlikely issues with Ethernet involving “jumbo frames” but generally Ethernet connections should work unless cables are bad.
The next place to look is the file server. If it is a WIndows machine, well then try defragging the drive that contains the videos. NTFS filesystems can definitely get fragmented to the point that you will get occasional pauses in streaming a high bitrate video! Also, if the file server is doing other things (perhaps automatically) that require the harddrive, that could also interrupt your video streams.
You might use software to look at maximum and average bitrates of various video files, and then run tests with different files to try to see if there is a correlation. If you have a general bandwidth problem, then DVD-sourced files or low bitrate files should work fine, while high bitrate Blurays may not.
Get back to us with more info and we might have more suggestions.
ncarver wrote:
As others have said, the SMP is not GigE. As long as the connection to your router is negotiated as 100Mbps full-duplex there shouldn’t be a network problem. The maximum bitrate of Blu-ray sourced files is around 50 Mbps ( my highest is 42Mbps), and Ethernet can achieve throughput very close to its standard. Bad Ethernet cables can obviously cause problems (I have a cable that causes GigE devices to negotiate only 100Mbps).
You don’t say where your videos are sourced from, or how that source is connected to the router. If there are any Wifi links involved, then that explains your problem. Wifi (even “n”) can be very unreliable for streaming Blu-ray sourced video. I gave up on it, as I could never get it to sustain Blu-ray bitrates.
If all connections are wired, then make sure cables are good as a first step. There can be unlikely issues with Ethernet involving “jumbo frames” but generally Ethernet connections should work unless cables are bad.
The next place to look is the file server. If it is a WIndows machine, well then try defragging the drive that contains the videos. NTFS filesystems can definitely get fragmented to the point that you will get occasional pauses in streaming a high bitrate video! Also, if the file server is doing other things (perhaps automatically) that require the harddrive, that could also interrupt your video streams.
You might use software to look at maximum and average bitrates of various video files, and then run tests with different files to try to see if there is a correlation. If you have a general bandwidth problem, then DVD-sourced files or low bitrate files should work fine, while high bitrate Blurays may not.
Get back to us with more info and we might have more suggestions.
I have tried 3 different cat5e cables. They all give the same result. Every 10 minutes, the loading circle comes on and the screen pauses till it reloads. This only happens when I play 1080p .mkv files that are OVER 10 gigs. If the files are under 10 gigs, this does not happen. The video streams smoothly till the end. The files are on a dedicated western digital 2 tb drive. It is not connected as a external nas, The hard drive is plugged up in the computer. It’s spin rate is 7,200 rpm. It is not my main drive. It is used only to store and play video files, nothing more. The connection I use is wired ethernet, not wifi. The ethernet cable goes from my computer to the router. The the WD box is also plugged into the router via ethernet. The router’s amber indicator light confirms that the WD box is a 100mbps device. My ethernet controlller in the computer is built in. It is realtek PCIe. The internal realtek’s settings that most people tinker with involing this problem are currently set at:
flow control = enabled
green ethernet = disabled
jumbo frames = disabled
speed & duplex = auto negotiation
I have already defragmented the hard dive that the movies are on. My internet service is ADSL, but that shouldn’t matter when talking about LAN usage, or so I’m gueesing. I think I’ve told you everything you asked of me. I will be waiting for your reply…
It sounds like you are approaching this pretty scientifically…can’t be the cable, so the next thing I would test would be the hard drive. Throw a movie onto a different hard drive on your computer and play it and see if it still screws up. One variable at a time until you identify it.
What kind of router are you using? There is a possibility we might have to look into it to see if there are settings screwing you up.
well first thing I see,
flow control - go ahead and disable this,
might not be the issue, be certainly will not hurt, and might help
I assume the cable from computer to router is fine (shows as gige)?
I would also try disabling the flow control, as suggested, though I have never had any issues from it (it is enabled by default on my server’s NIC).
OS and type of computer (desktop/laptop)? Computer doing anything else?
What I would try next is copy one of the problem files from the external drive to an internal drive on the computer, share out from that internal drive, and then try playing from that internal drive/share. If it plays OK, then there is some issue with the external drive or its connection to the computer. If it still doesn’t play OK, then there is a computer or network problem to be tracked down.
I would also try plugging the external drive directly into the SMP and seeing if files will play OK. If they play OK then there is some issue with your computer or network to be tracked down. If not then drive is the problem.
Hope these suggestions help. I have no issues playing high bitrate Bluray-sourced MKV files from my server to my two SMPs. My connections are all Ethernet and go through 2-3 switches between server and SMPs. GigE, except for the final leg from switch to SMP, obviously. My videos are on external USB2 drives connected to the server. Server is desktop PC running Linux, using SMB (“WIndows”) shares.
BlackDragon24 wrote:
It sounds like you are approaching this pretty scientifically…can’t be the cable, so the next thing I would test would be the hard drive. Throw a movie onto a different hard drive on your computer and play it and see if it still screws up. One variable at a time until you identify it.
What kind of router are you using? There is a possibility we might have to look into it to see if there are settings screwing you up.
THere are only 2 drivs in my computer. The main one and the movie storage one. I tried your suggestion and put a movie file on the C: drive, and the result was WORSE. It froze every 2 or 3 minutes. I’m guessing because it’s the c: drive, it’s doing other stuff in the background. The router I’m using is the Netgear N300 JNR3210.
KAD79 wrote:
well first thing I see,
flow control - go ahead and disable this,
might not be the issue, be certainly will not hurt, and might help
Tried it, had no effect. mkv videos that are larger than 10 gb are still reloading every 15 minutes.
the_desolate_1 wrote:
THere are only 2 drivs in my computer. The main one and the movie storage one. I tried your suggestion and put a movie file on the C: drive, and the result was WORSE. It froze every 2 or 3 minutes. I’m guessing because it’s the c: drive, it’s doing other stuff in the background. The router I’m using is the Netgear N300 JNR3210.
Try defragging your C drive and retry your test. What is the computer and OS? This result begins to point to your computer as being the bottleneck rather than the network. Try plugging the external drive directly into the SMP.
ncarver wrote:
I assume the cable from computer to router is fine (shows as gige)?
I would also try disabling the flow control, as suggested, though I have never had any issues from it (it is enabled by default on my server’s NIC).
OS and type of computer (desktop/laptop)? Computer doing anything else?
What I would try next is copy one of the problem files from the external drive to an internal drive on the computer, share out from that internal drive, and then try playing from that internal drive/share. If it plays OK, then there is some issue with the external drive or its connection to the computer. If it still doesn’t play OK, then there is a computer or network problem to be tracked down.
I would also try plugging the external drive directly into the SMP and seeing if files will play OK. If they play OK then there is some issue with your computer or network to be tracked down. If not then drive is the problem.
Hope these suggestions help. I have no issues playing high bitrate Bluray-sourced MKV files from my server to my two SMPs. My connections are all Ethernet and go through 2-3 switches between server and SMPs. GigE, except for the final leg from switch to SMP, obviously. My videos are on external USB2 drives connected to the server. Server is desktop PC running Linux, using SMB (“WIndows”) shares.
Well, yes…the connection indicator light on the router from the computer connection is green, which means it’s at gigabit speed. The flow control disabling didn’t work. Op system is Windows xp home. Computer is a desktop. Cpu is an Intel quad core @2500mhz., 4 gigs of ram. 2 internal hard drives. C: is a Maxtor 300mb running at 7,200 rpm. D: is the Seagate 2tb running at 7,200 rpm. D: is the drive with the videos on it. Other than this issue, I have no problems with the pc. It is quite fast actually. You made a mistake about the external drive. I don’t have one, only the 2 internal drives.
ncarver wrote:
the_desolate_1 wrote:
THere are only 2 drivs in my computer. The main one and the movie storage one. I tried your suggestion and put a movie file on the C: drive, and the result was WORSE. It froze every 2 or 3 minutes. I’m guessing because it’s the c: drive, it’s doing other stuff in the background. The router I’m using is the Netgear N300 JNR3210.
Try defragging your C drive and retry your test. What is the computer and OS? This result begins to point to your computer as being the bottleneck rather than the network. Try plugging the external drive directly into the SMP.
I have no external drive, only 2 internal drives. I have not tried defragging C:, as I figured it has nothing to do with the files being streamed from D:, which is my video storage drive. May I ask, how would the C: drive being defragmented affect the videos playing if they’re being streamed off of D:?
the_desolate_1 wrote:
I have no external drive, only 2 internal drives. I have not tried defragging C:, as I figured it has nothing to do with the files being streamed from D:, which is my video storage drive. May I ask, how would the C: drive being defragmented affect the videos playing if they’re being streamed off of D:?
Sorry about external drive confusion. People generally give drive info only for external drives as internal drive specs don’t vary enough to be an issue typically. An NAS is different from an external drive. Rereading I see that I misunderstood your “plugged up in” as meaning USB. Again, people don’t usually talk about plugging in internal drives, as that is pretty much a given. 
I suggested defragging the C drive to try to diagnose why the performance from the C drive was so much worse than from the D drive. Rebuffering every 2-3 minutes means horrible performance from a PC.
What sort of bitrate are we talking about for the problem videos? You can check this from the SMP in one of the views (use yellow button to change views). Or use some software on the PC, like mediainfo.
Do you have a second computer device in the house that you could use to check speed of transferring files from your XP machine? At this point, the computer looks like a more likely culprit than your network.
Edit/Adds:
With an XP machine, I would be very concerned about malware or tons of **bleep** autostart software dragging the performance of the machine down.
I can move files between two of my machines from/to internal drives at 45-55MBps, meaning 360-440Mbps. Streaming a “high bitrate” video file (40Mbps) takes little of the machine or disk.
the_desolate_1 wrote:
KAD79 wrote:
well first thing I see,
flow control - go ahead and disable this,
might not be the issue, be certainly will not hurt, and might help
Tried it, had no effect. mkv videos that are larger than 10 gb are still reloading every 15 minutes.
well, initially you said it was 10 minutes
so disabled flow control it’s now 15 minutes
that’s an improvement
anyways just so other idea’s
any QOS setup/enabled on router
flow control on router
what the MTU on the router switch
does router have STP enabled
I agree with the above, it would be nice if there was another PC to test
that could confirm if the problem is network or PC
I’m in agreement with others here that the culprit is most likely your computer at this point,
I can stream 1080p to three places in my house off of one hard drive at once and don’t experience buffering.
Your issues could be caused by the media file itself, meaning it may not be properly created, and if it is from a torrent or something like that, who knows how good a file it might be. I make all my own video files – they all work.
Are you trying to stream via wired or wireless? If there is any wireless transfer anywhere in the process, consider the whole thing as transferring wirelessly.
The kind of problems you experience are usually due to a slow down occurring between Point A to Point B. Definitely NOT due to the speed of a WDTV; either in file transfer or internal CPU…
I don’t know how else to help; maybe someone else does.
