An issue with Latest Firmware

WD Legacy Products WD TV Live Streaming
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I have had an unusual problem with the latest firmware release. I have resolved the issue (for me at least) so I am posting this just for information sake. I will try to be brief so bear with the clipped timeline.

I just today updated the WD box to the latest firmware v. 1.11.14. No problems or interruptions with the download or install.

Tried to watch a movie housed on a locally attached 3TB WD Mybook Essential drive. Unit froze for a second and rebooted.

Attempted to play the movie again, same thing.

Attempted to watch a different movie, one that I watched completely through without error 4 days ago, same problem.

Ejected the 4 drives attached and shut the player down and unplugged it for about a minute.

Restarted the unit and after the second WDTV screen, the screen went black with a red null sign with the statement: “Insert a USB drive with firmware to recover your WDTV” in 9 languages.

Downloaded the last stable (for me) firmware v. 1.10.13 and followed the rollback process.

Once completed, the device restarted and was once again working as it should.

To confirm it was a firmware issue, I again let the WD box connect and apply the latest firmware v. 1.11.14. The process completed with without a hitch as before.

Went to try to play the same movie I had successfully watched before (mkv) and the problem I described above repeated. I tried 2 other movie files (iso, avi) and was met with the same rebooting result.

I followed the same eject and unplug route I had taken before and again was met with the black screen with the red null sign and recover statement.

I again reinstalled the older firmware v. 1.10.13 and the player again works as it should.

This is the first time there has been a problem here on my end from a firmware release. I firmly believe it is a firmware glitch (at least on my machine) as it was fully repeatable.

I will be staying with the older version for now and will update the firmware when the next one comes out. And like I said at the start, I just wanted to let people know of the issue that I had with this newest firmware release.

My system consists of:

(4) 3TB Wd MyBook Essential Drives connect via a Belkin powered USB hub.

WD TV Live SMP

Connection to Samsung 55" LED TV via HDMI

Audio via optical to an Onkyo A/V receiver

Wireless keyboard

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Thanks for the information

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In the past, I’ve had some issues when upgrading to a new firmware release and (at least for me) I’ve found that if I perform the following steps, I either then have no problems, or at worse, one or two minor issues that I eventually get resolved with no effort whatsoever.

When a new firmware is released by WD, I now do the following (Im writing this from memory and I hope that I don’t leave anything out).

    I download the new firmware.  I’ve personally never had a problem downloading nor installing any new firmware release.  I don’t rush it and patiently wait for everything to finish.

    2.  Before doing anything else, I RESET the unit to factory default.  I wait for it to boot up and then I RESET the unit to factory default again.  Why, do I do this?  Maybe I’m wrong, but in my estimation, it clears all of the memory from the unit and it starts from scratch.

    3.  I again enter in all of the settings, such as location, tv resolution, Internet connection, network shares and all of the rest of the stuff, etc., until I’ve checked everything and have reset all of my settings the way I want them.

    4.  I relog onto Netflix, and other services - yeah, I know that it’s a pain and I know that I have to relog these services again, but I find it worth the effort.

    5.  I make sure the Media Library is set to OFF at first and then I make sure that the media library compiling is set to manual, NOT auto.  I realize that it shouldn’t start compiling if the ML is set to off, but I set it to manual anyway, just to make sure.

Once I’ve done this, I go ahead and do a manual RESTART of the unit (restart, not factory reset) and I then go ahead and start watching a movie or start streaming a service over the internet.  By setting the ML off at first and then setting the compiling to manual, it stops the unit from slowing down and being sluggish so that I can watch either a transcribed movie on my network share or a movie from a service like Netflix without any slow down or any problems.

Then, when I get ready to go to bed, I turn ON the Media Library and add my network shares, etc., to it and set the compiling to AUTO.  I then turn off the unit (it goes to standby) and voila, the next day, everything has been compiled and everything works well with NO problems.

To me, it’s worth the time to clear the unit ram memory, do the factory reset and the rest of these steps above, because then, I really don’t have any lag or other problems and it all works fine …

This has worked for me everytime for the last 3 + firmware updates.

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To sbasile:

Thank you so much for sharing your approach.  It kept me from returning mine just days after receiving it.  Now I’m getting everything out of it that I was looking for.