All Media shows up, WHY?

[brucered]

Why does the WDTV LIVE show all available media files (and are playable) regardless of your initial selection from the main menu.

for instance, when i hit VIDEO, why do my AUDIO FOLDERS show up?

and when i’m in VIDEO, why do my .JPG’s show up?  you need a jpg to get the thumbnail to show an image, but i don’t need to see the .jpg.

when i hit AUDIO, why do my .jpg show up in the music folders containing my .flac files

is this something that WDTV is working on?  it would alleviate any on screen clutter as well as get rid of the double thumbnail issue

it should only show APPLICABLE media, so if i’m in VIDEO, just video files (.avi, .iso, .mkv etc) and when i’m in AUDIO, it should only show (.mp3, .wav, .flac etc).  we don’t need to see ALL media and we don’t need to see the .JPG files that we use for the icons and thumbnails.

[bhwsyd]

I hear your points, but is it the media player that sorts all this out, or the media server?

There are some media servers available that filter the shares for just video, picture and music content that alleviates some (if not most) of the problems you raise.

[brucered]

bhwsyd wrote:

I hear your points, but is it the media player that sorts all this out, or the media server?

 

There are some media servers available that filter the shares for just video, picture and music content that alleviates some (if not most) of the problems you raise.

yes, and the WDTV LIVE is one of those players that SHOULD sort it out.  i mean, why have a VIDEO section, if pics and music show up and can be played inside that section?

same for MUSIC, why have a MUSIC section if my VIDEOS are PIC’s are going to show up and play?

again, this would sort out the DOUBLE THUMBNAIL issue if you use thumbnails with attached pics

[awmr1]

@brucered -

I’m not having this problem, and i have jpg’s and mpg’s in the same folder.

tell me more about your setup and lets see if we can find the difference (file naming, folder structure, etc.)

[bhwsyd]

brucered wrote:

 

yes, and the WDTV LIVE is one of those players that SHOULD sort it out.  i mean, why have a VIDEO section, if pics and music show up and can be played inside that section?

 

same for MUSIC, why have a MUSIC section if my VIDEOS are PIC’s are going to show up and play?

 

Please do not get me wrong, as it would obviously be very nice if the box was able to perform the sort of media management you allude to. I think it is only fair that all aspects of the chip, memory, software and cost are considered in establishing clear expectations (for both WD and customers) as to what the box will do.

You ask why have a Video, Photo and Music section. Another reason is that it is to access the tailored services that some media servers deliver for these media streams, mainly in terms of folder structuring and ‘play’ behaviours.

[brucered]

awmr1 wrote:

@brucered -

 

I’m not having this problem, and i have jpg’s and mpg’s in the same folder.

 

tell me more about your setup and lets see if we can find the difference (file naming, folder structure, etc.)

i have a VIDEO folder named “DISTRICT9”, then inside i have a .mkv file with the movie and a .jpg both named DISTRICT9.jpg and DISTRICT9.mkv, so the image attatches itself to the .mkv and folder.  but when i click on the DISTRICT9 folder, i see the .mkv and the .jpg.

i should only see the video file (.mkv), but i see BOTH.

[PixelPower]

brucered wrote:

 

it should only show APPLICABLE media, so if i’m in VIDEO, just video files (.avi, .iso, .mkv etc) and when i’m in AUDIO, it should only show (.mp3, .wav, .flac etc).  we don’t need to see ALL media and we don’t need to see the .JPG files that we use for the icons and thumbnails.

This has been annoying me a little bit too.

I use simple network shares (no DLNA or media servers) and the Live shows every supported format instead of just relevant ones.

Seems like such a trivial thing to fix, hopefully it makes it into the next firmware update…

[brucered]

PixelPower wrote:

 

• • *>

This has been annoying me a little bit too.

 

I use simple network shares (no DLNA or media servers) and the Live shows every supported format instead of just relevant ones.

 

Seems like such a trivial thing to fix, hopefully it makes it into the next firmware update…

very trivial, very annoying and should be an easy fix.  it’s just a filter of some sorts they would have to add.  i mean, why have a VIDEO section if it shows my MUSIC

[awmr1]

OK, that’s different from what I’m doing - i set mine up this way for no real reasn, but i’m not having the problem your’re having.

I have one folder called “Movies” . . . inside that folder, I have all of my video files, and all of my jpegs that I use for covers . . . ex: District 9.mpg - District 9.jpg. There are no subfolders, just one big folder with loose video and image files.

A few of my covers don’t show up - but this may have more to do with the video and image file types - but I do not see seperate files for my jpgs when viewing through WDTV.

Some people may not like this setup - I only had it this way becasue I was previously using an Apple TV, which had arranged all my movies in one folder with no sub folders . . .

hope this helped.

[axeman1206]

I believe that this issue only shows up when using network storage. When I access an attached USB, the WDTV Live only shows files for the category I’m in. However, when I access my NAS, I can see EVERYTHING (including pdf, doc, etc) no matter what section I’m in. It sounds like the capability is there, they just need to apply it to network attached storage too.

[brucered]

axeman1206 wrote:

I believe that this issue only shows up when using network storage. When I access an attached USB, the WDTV Live only shows files for the category I’m in. However, when I access my NAS, I can see EVERYTHING (including pdf, doc, etc) no matter what section I’m in. It sounds like the capability is there, they just need to apply it to network attached storage too.

let’s hope it’s in the next firmware update.  it would get rid of a lot of headaches and grief, not to mention the thumbnail issue would then be resolved.

[brucered]

again, i posted this in another thread as the same question that everyone wants an answer to was asked by someone else.

here’s the official response when i opened up a question with WD’s support team.  appears to be a known issue they are not trying to fix and expect us to purchase external HD’s, no thanks.  whey would i purchase an external drive it it can access my PC, where all my media is stored already:

Dear bruce,

Thank you for contacting Western Digital Customer Service and Support. My name is Carlos R.

I apologize for this inconvenience.

This feature doesn’t work in the network.
It should work, though, if you are accessing the files in your external hard drive.
The problem is that the network access doesn’t allow the WDTV to interact with the files the same way it does with a direct connection.


I hope that we have met your expectations today and that you are satisfied with our service. If you have any further questions, please reply to this email and we will be happy to assist you further. 

Sincerely,
Carlos R.
Western Digital Service and Support
http://support.wdc.com

[PixelPower]

So filtering a list based on file extension is beyond the abilities of WD’s firmware developers?  :(

Yunno, I just don’t see Netflix support (or anything else significant) happening if this is the level they’re at…

[brucered]

PixelPower wrote:

So filtering a list based on file extension is beyond the abilities of WD’s firmware developers?  :(

 

Yunno, I just don’t see Netflix support (or anything else significant) happening if this is the level they’re at…

i guess so.  anyway, i replied back as i was not happy with the response either.  there are most likely a few options to filter it either permanently or toggle it for those who want to see all media.

here was the 2nd reply i got back:

Dear bruce,

Thank you for your reply.

I’m sorry for this inconvenience.

The reason for that is that when you are accessing the files through a network, you are not searching by categories.
For example, locally, you go to the Music menu, and you get access only to all the music in the hard drive. But when you are accessing the network, you are looking for any file.
That’s why, it cannot show a picture as a movie cover, but only as a regular picture file.

Right now, we don’t have information about any new firmware update changing this configuration.

However, I will send this as a suggestion to our engineering department, for consideration.


I hope that we have met your expectations today and that you are satisfied with our service. If you have any further questions, please reply to this email and we will be happy to assist you further. 

Sincerely,
Carlos R.
Western Digital Service and Support

but if we are not able to search by catatgory, why when i access my WDTV LIVE and select NETWORK SHARES, does it even give me the option for VIDEO, MUSIC etc.

if it can’t sort it, then why are there separate categories to click on?  why not just ALL MEDIA or MEDIA or something else.  i find it hard to believe that the minds at WD cannot come up with an easy firmware updatable solution to a really really, i mean REALLY annoying problem, and that’s what it is, a problem.

[PixelPower]

It sounds like they’re approaching it from the wrong angle.

Sure, we don’t expect a simple network share to categorise the files before sending the list to the Live.

But it’s not unreasonable to take the complete file list from the network share and filter / categorise it before displaying it to screen.

[brucered]

of if they would just filter out HIDDEN FILES, then they would be attached to the .mkv or folder and not be seen on the tv when using the WDTV.

simple, doable and cheap and easy.

[fcwilt]

Hmm…

The player knows what category you selected (music, pictures, videos) - it knows what formats it supports and what they are (music, pictures, videos) - it knows all the associated file extensions, etc.

So it should be simple to show only that content which is relative.

I noticed that “media compilation” as thet call it only works on an attached drive, ostensibly because they have to write additional information to that drive. Fine, if they don’t want to write to (or try to write to) the network drives, require an attached drive which can store the metadata for network content. That would be way better then having to keep ALL content on an attached drive.

I have messed with three different brands of media players and I keep wondering when they are going to make one that allows something as simple as CD ripping is now.  I stick a CD in, the ripping program goes out and finds the metadata, saves that along with the ripped content and I’m done. Then when I browse the collection it’s very simple and clean - I can browse by categories, see the cover art - it works just fine even for non-tech types.

It would seem that somehow that should be possible with DVD/BDs. I would even settle for having to enter the metadata by hand if it was as easy as editing the tags on, say, an MP3 file.

I am impressed with the ability of the WD unit to play a wide range of video content but to get network browsing to be family friendly, I am going to have to do a lot of messing with ripped content to get things into a form that is clear and simple. File/program/chapter names (whatever) of 00007 are not going to cut it.

Any body have a scheme that works?

Thanks!

[Psykbe]

It’s also annoying for me this network share browser that displays the thumbnail and video.

Though it should be possible to filter imo because the starting point is Video > Network share and also I do not see the difference with USB drive and Samba share with writting permission?

The solution to store on external drive can work only for small amount of data but I wouldn’t know how to replace my nas 6Tb with an external drive of the same size; is not really possible.

Everything is possible (or almost) but it just needs to do some effort.

Rgds,

Psyk

[Buzzatronic]

Just got a WD TV Live Plus this week and started to clean up my movies network share and ran into this.

I really hope they fix this soon, having to choose between no DVD cover art and duplicate art is no choice at all.

[Psykbe]

I know that it’s a pain; i just stop to make this cover art setup because I have to make that choice and I have choosen not to do effort for such a result.

It loooks so easy to fix; just filter on displays with or an hardcoded list of media type or with parameter to setup.