Noob here with a Live which came with the 1.2.21 firmware. When I connected the Live to the network I was surprised that it only prompted me with the 1.3.49 update and not the latest (1.4.17 in Jan 2011). Do I have to upgrade the firmware incrementally ( 2.21 → 3.49 → 4.10 → 4.17) or can I download 1.4.17 and update via usb stick immediately?
That out of the way, I am wondering what is the best firmware for my situation? Currently hooked up to a SDTV with stereo sound at least until summer. Playback is mainly DVR-MS files from Vista Media Center with some avi (xvid,mp3) and mkv (h264/ac3) currently via USB drive but moving to cat5e or a Powerline 500mbps in coming months. I am looking at moving to a HDTV and an ac3/DD capable av receiver down the road but I can change my firmware then to better suit my needs.
Also where there any problems with MKVs with AAC audio in older firmwares? I tried ripping a DVD but got no sound. Maybe it is just the header compression issue than would be fixed with a firmware update.
If you use the internet method of updating the firmware, then it will be done incrementally. If you use the USB method, you can go immediately to the latest version,. However, a lot of folks had trouble with USB upgrading not working with the latest firmware…they were stuck in an infinite loop. WD released a Beta firmware that was supposed to fix that issue. Given the problems, I would take the safe route and use the internet method for now.
I am using version 1.03.49 because of VOB stuttering issues and audio dropouts with the newer firmwares. A lot of people also reported mkv stuttering issues with the newer firmwares. The funny thing is that some people do not experience any issues with the newer firmwares. I would suggest that you try the newest firmware. If it works, leave it alone. If not, downgrade. It is pretty easy to change the firmware. As I said, a lot of us are using 1.03.49 because it has a lot less problems.
This will never happen. Many people try to play videos that they downloaded from dubious sources, made by people who don’t know what they do, using dubious software tools. I have just read a complaint from someone saying that a mkv file does not play decently. The video resolution is 1920x800. 800, no joke! As long as people don’t know the basics and produce videos that don’t comply to any standard, we’ll always see complaints about the firmware.
1920x800 could be a 2.35:1 film with the black bars on the top and bottom cropped off; nothing unusual about that. If you use HandBrake to encode, it crops the black bars off by default.
