Device doesn't see network content

WD Legacy Products WD TV Live Hub Discussions
21

ram1009 wrote:

OK, here we go.  I have power cycled the router (30 seconds off time) and restarted the hub as instructed.  Neither had any effect.  I cannot find any mention of a filter.  The folder I copied my video file to is called “.wd_tv”.  The folder I copied is called “VIDEO_TS”.  Something I noticed, there are two folders titled “Sample Media”.  One of them is in the root directory and has many sub folders with lots of files.  The other is in a sub folder of the “.wd_tv” folder called “thumb”.  This folder has only 3 files and is the only one visible to the hub.  I’m going to eat some dinner and then kill the firewall & AV.  I’ll check back later.

Well THEREs your problem… The .WD-tv folder is private. It’s hidden for a reason. Move your stuff OUTSIDE of that folder.

Just curious: what made you choose THAT folder to put your stuff in?

22

It’s not hidden on my computer.   As I said there are 2 folders inside one of which is the “thumb” folder and inside of it is a “sambles” folder with the 3 files that are visible to the hub.  WD didn’t do a great job of hiding it.    I’m copying to the root now.  It’s a big file.

23

It IS hidden. You must have turned on SHOW HIDDEN FILES. The files you see on the Hub are NOT IN THAT FOLDER. They are in the Sample MEDIA folder, and the cached THUMBNAILS for that folder are in the .WD-TV/thumbs/sample… folder. I didn’t say to copy it, I said MOVE it. Moves are instantaneous.

24

Moves may be instantaneous if you’re using the hub to do the move however since I am unable to see the source of the move from the hub I must re-copy the file from my PC.  If the sample media I’m seeing is in the other “samples” folder then why am I only able to view the 3 video files and not the music  or photos?  And yes, my hidden files are all visible.  I have no reason to hide files from myself. 

The copied file is now visible and playing in 1080p.  Looks great.  Now what?

25

No, moves are instantaneous regardless, as long as the source and destination are on the same volume (which they are I this case.).
There is only ONE Sample Media folder that actually has media. The Sample Media folder that is inside the hidden folder is created BY the WD itself, and as you noted, only contains THUMBNAILS. There are no thumbnails for the MUSIC and PHOTOS.
You first said the folder was not hidden. You said WD needs to hide things better. They did all they could, it was you that defeated the hiding by enabling that option to view hidden files. I don’t see the point of your argument to the contrary. So apparently it’s causing you all manner of confusion, so I would just suggest to you to avoid that folder altogether unless someone tells you explicitly to do something with it.

Now what?
go do all the other stuff that has been mentioned.

26

Apparently you didn’t read my edited post.  I’ve already done everything suggested with no joy.  I  wasn’t able to turn off Microsoft Security Essentials.  It’s the only AV I have.

27

Sorry, I don’t see the results of the IP swap I suggested. Also, you need to read the manual, as it describes the web interface, as well as the password.

28

The IP swap you suggested is with a device not in my possession.  As I said, my other WD player was RMAd because of choppy playback.   As you suggested, I did some reading and found the password for the WD Discovery tool “config”" option.  On that screen there is an option for “express support”.  The following is a direct quote from that option:

If you are experiencing difficulty, please click Express Support to automatically run a diagnostic report on your network device. When the report is complete, you will be directed to our customer support form with the diagnostic information already attached so that we can expedite your request.

I followed the instructions and none of what’s claimed happened.  No test was run and I was not directed to a support form.  I simply went to the support home page.  Anyway, it doesn’t appear I need anything available under “config”.

I sense I’ve irritated you I guess because I “unhid” my files in XP although I don’t know why that should bother you.  I do think WD could have done more to identify their “private” directory (as you called it).  It doesn’t seem especially difficult to me to anticipate that someone, somewhere doesn’t feel the need to hide files.  You asked why I chose that folder to copy to.  I guess the name made it seem appropriate.  I wish now I had made a new folder in the root as I considered doing.  The main thing  was that I didn’t want to mess with the existing file structure.

I just thought of something.  I have a ROKU player.  I think I can get the IP address from that and assign it to the WD Hub.  What do you think?

EDIT:  I just got to reading the WD Discovery tool help section and it talks about discovering and mapping all network drives.  The only network drive it discovered on my network is the WD Hub.  I don’t know the significance of this, do you?

29

Ok, lets sort of start over a little, may something  has been missed. 

FIrst, lets be clear on what you are doing.  When you go to select your network files, you go to say “Movies” (it could be Music, Photos, Files too)  on the Hub, then press the “Storage Select” button on the remote (I don’t remember which color button it is since I’m using a Harmony), then the Storage Select Menu comes up.  You select Network Storage, then you PC, then a logon screen should come up (if you haven’t saved your logon settings). 

So, are you able to to login to your network?  If you are, then the Hub is not being block from your network and it is probably something to do with your share permissions or the media library hasn’t compiled or didn’t get compiled correctly.

You can try recompiling the library by going to Setup/System/Media Library and the Clear the Media Library on the HUB.

If that does nothing then there are a couple of other things you can try, which I’ll get into after you reply back.

Also, as for the .wd_tv folder, it doesn’t matter whether its a “Hidden Folder” or not.  The only thing the .wd_tv folder is for is the the HUB’s use & where you put any Themes that you want to use (there should be “theme” folder in it, or you have to create it).  For all your media, you will want to create your own folders at the root of the HUB’s HDD.

30

Your description of the navigation is (roughly) correct.  From the “home” page I select “video” and eventually arrive at a list where I can select “internal”, “media shares” or “media server”.  Since I copied some content to the HDD I am able to (eventually) play that content as well as the sample media by selecting “internal”.  When “internal” is selected from the list a huge green check mark is highlighted at the extreme right of the screen.  Pressing “ok” allows progress to the content.  Conversely, when either “media shares” or “media server” is selected a huge red X is highlighted at the extreme right of the screen.  Pressing “ok” now takes you back to the list for another choice.  There is simply no network for the device to see.  There are no choices I have missed.  It’s already been suggested (and tried) to recompile the library by restarting the device internally rather than pushing the on/off button or unplugging the power supply.  I agree with you that the hidden folder is irrelevant.  Now that I’ve managed to transfer content to the HDD, see & view that content on a network PC it seems obvious to me that two way communication exists over my LAN.  I really don’t see how forcing an IP address on the device will make a difference.  My router is the device that assigned the IP address in the first place and the fact that I can view content over the LAN tells me the network setup went OK.  I really think the device is malfunctioning.  As I said previously, I have been using a different model of WD media player for some time.  One without a HDD.  The network setup on it went perfectly and “network shares” were visible immediately.  I  wish I’d hear from WD tech support.  They shut down just about the time i get home from work so I may have to wait until Saturday to call them on the phone.

31

Ram, I’m not irritated that you unhid your folders.   What is frustrating is that you question every suggestion, you contradict the results, and then when logic bears out the error, you throw other things into the mix.   It took four rounds of messages to tell you that putting content in the .wd-tv folder was a BAD IDEA.   It slows things down.     I told you straight up that you CANNOT put stuff in the .wd-tv folder and expect the hub to find it, but then you argued for three more messages.

It’d be one thing if you try the suggestion and then question the results.   But when each suggestion is met with “Why should I do that?”…

Anyway.  Moving forward.

I can tell you from experience that 95% of the network issues I’ve helped people fix here on the forum have been due to something OTHER than the WD’s operation.   

Next step is to ensure that your WORKGROUP settings are configured correctly.

Go to a PC from which you are sharing video.

  1.  Issue the command

NET VIEW

You will be given a list of visible servers.

  1.  For EACH of the servers listed, issue the command

nbtstat -a [server name from step 1]

Post ALL of the output from EACH of those commands.

32

Ok, I found this, apparently there was (or is) a bug with the WDTV Live, which has been reported as having been carried over to the HUB.

This may work or may not, but the fix that some have reported as working is to take a blank USB thumbdrive then rebooting the HUB and for some reason the shares magicaly reappear. 

Don’t ask me why this works, as that I have never had that problem, and apparently no one who has used this fix knows either.  But it wouldn’t hurt to try.

If that doesn’t work, you can try a factory reset.  Take a straighted paper clip, & push the reset button on the bottom.  You want lose any data on the HDD, so don’t worry about that, it will just reset the HUB back to factory defaults & may clear anything in the network settings that maybe causing you not to be able to connect.

Also, the reason for assigning a Static IP, is because it is more reliable.  Think of it like this, what you have now is a dynamic IP, which is sort of like trying to get your mail while living in an RV, you may not get it because your address may change.  With a static IP, it’s like getting your mail at your house, (you may still not get it), but your address is always the same, so you are more likely to get your mail.  Just make sure that if you assign a Static IP, that you chose one that is not being used by another device on your network.

Something else you can do is to check & make sure that your that your gateway, subnet mask & DNS are right.  Go to your HUB and select Setup / Network Settings / Network Setup, then write down the numbers of your Subnet Mask, Gateway & DNS.  Then go to your PC, click on the Start menu, then Run & in the run box type in “cmd.exe”, without the ".  When the command prompt comes up, type “ipconfig /all”, withouth the " (also there is a space between “ipconfig” and “/all”).  Then check to make sure that the numbers for the Subnet Mask, Gateway & DNS from the HUB corrospond to the number next to Subnet Mask, Default Gateway & DNS Server on your PC. They should, but it won’t hurt to check just to be sure.

33

Ram, I’m not irritated that you unhid your folders.   What is frustrating is that you question every suggestion, you contradict the results, and then when logic bears out the error, you throw other things into the mix.   It took four rounds of messages to tell you that putting content in the .wd-tv folder was a BAD IDEA.   It slows things down.     I told you straight up that you CANNOT put stuff in the .wd-tv folder and expect the hub to find it, but then you argued for three more messages.

It’d be one thing if you try the suggestion and then question the results.   But when each suggestion is met with “Why should I do that?”…

Well, if if a desire to learn is a fault then I plead guilty as charged.  I just went back and re-read both of our posts on the subject of hidden folders and I believe you’re exaggerating what happened.  On my first post after you told me about the hidden folder I was already re-copying to the root directory.    Your next post was, more or less to scold me for “unhiding” and for copying rather than moving the file.  (BTW, my OS doesn’t have a “move” command.)   My next post was to tell you that the copy had completed and was playing perfectly.  I really don’t know what part of that exchange you find argumentative.  Personally, I consider this a non-issue at this point and a diversion from the real problem.

34

Tinwarble wrote:

Ok, I found this, apparently there was (or is) a bug with the WDTV Live, which has been reported as having been carried over to the HUB.

 

This may work or may not, but the fix that some have reported as working is to take a blank USB thumbdrive then rebooting the HUB and for some reason the shares magicaly reappear. 

 

Don’t ask me why this works, as that I have never had that problem, and apparently no one who has used this fix knows either.  But it wouldn’t hurt to try.

 

If that doesn’t work, you can try a factory reset.  Take a straighted paper clip, & push the reset button on the bottom.  You want lose any data on the HDD, so don’t worry about that, it will just reset the HUB back to factory defaults & may clear anything in the network settings that maybe causing you not to be able to connect.

 

Also, the reason for assigning a Static IP, is because it is more reliable.  Think of it like this, what you have now is a dynamic IP, which is sort of like trying to get your mail while living in an RV, you may not get it because your address may change.  With a static IP, it’s like getting your mail at your house, (you may still not get it), but your address is always the same, so you are more likely to get your mail.  Just make sure that if you assign a Static IP, that you chose one that is not being used by another device on your network.

 

Something else you can do is to check & make sure that your that your gateway, subnet mask & DNS are right.  Go to your HUB and select Setup / Network Settings / Network Setup, then write down the numbers of your Subnet Mask, Gateway & DNS.  Then go to your PC, click on the Start menu, then Run & in the run box type in “cmd.exe”, without the ".  When the command prompt comes up, type “ipconfig /all”, withouth the " (also there is a space between “ipconfig” and “/all”).  Then check to make sure that the numbers for the Subnet Mask, Gateway & DNS from the HUB corrospond to the number next to Subnet Mask, Default Gateway & DNS Server on your PC. They should, but it won’t hurt to check just to be sure.

That’s a strange work around for sure.  I’ll try it tonight when I get home.  Where did you find it?

35

ram1009 wrote:

 (BTW, my OS doesn’t have a “move” command.)  

You said Windows, right?

COPY and paste = Copy. 

CUT and paste = Move.  Sorry, I should have been more explicit.   On WINDOWS,   Usually just dragging a folder from one place to another (again, if the source and destination are on the same volume) will MOVE it instead of COPYING it.

Alrighty, now that I’ve slept, I agree with TW’s idea.  I’ve seen that posted in a few other forums. and for the life of me, I cannot find a single one of them right now.   Like he and the original author, I have no clue as to how that changes anything, but it does seem to be working for some people.

His will only take a few minutes to try; if that is not successful, then try my tests.

BTW, what you are looking for on those commands is the 

GROUP ID…

           NetBIOS Remote Machine Name Table

       Name               Type         Status

    ---------------------------------------------

    TONY    <00>  UNIQUE      Registered

    TONY     <20>  UNIQUE      Registered

   WORKGROUP            <00>  GROUP       Registered

(in my case the GROUP ID is “WORKGROUP”.)   EVERY device must have the same GROUP ID.

36

I guess I never thought of cut/paste as move but it is, you’re right.  I wouldn’t have done it anyway because I want to retain the original file where it was/is.  I still feel like I will wind up returningt this thing to Best Buy and I would prefer to just delete any altered content I create.  I will get on these suggestions ASAP, meaning tonight.  Win XP Pro sp 3.

TonyPh12345 wrote:

 

ram1009 wrote:

 (BTW, my OS doesn’t have a “move” command.)  

You said Windows, right?

 

COPY and paste = Copy. 

CUT and paste = Move.  Sorry, I should have been more explicit.   On WINDOWS,   Usually just dragging a folder from one place to another (again, if the source and destination are on the same volume) will MOVE it instead of COPYING it.

 

Alrighty, now that I’ve slept, I agree with TW’s idea.  I’ve seen that posted in a few other forums. and for the life of me, I cannot find a single one of them right now.   Like he and the original author, I have no clue as to how that changes anything, but it does seem to be working for some people.

 

His will only take a few minutes to try; if that is not successful, then try my tests.

 

BTW, what you are looking for on those commands is the 

 

GROUP ID…

 

 

           NetBIOS Remote Machine Name Table

       Name               Type         Status

    ---------------------------------------------

    TONY    <00>  UNIQUE      Registered

    TONY     <20>  UNIQUE      Registered

   WORKGROUP            <00>  GROUP       Registered

(in my case the GROUP ID is “WORKGROUP”.)   EVERY device must have the same GROUP ID.

 

 

 

37

TonyPh12345 wrote:

Ram, I’m not irritated that you unhid your folders.   What is frustrating is that you question every suggestion, you contradict the results, and then when logic bears out the error, you throw other things into the mix.   It took four rounds of messages to tell you that putting content in the .wd-tv folder was a BAD IDEA.   It slows things down.     I told you straight up that you CANNOT put stuff in the .wd-tv folder and expect the hub to find it, but then you argued for three more messages.

 

It’d be one thing if you try the suggestion and then question the results.   But when each suggestion is met with “Why should I do that?”…

 

Anyway.  Moving forward.

 

I can tell you from experience that 95% of the network issues I’ve helped people fix here on the forum have been due to something OTHER than the WD’s operation.   

 

Next step is to ensure that your WORKGROUP settings are configured correctly.

 

Go to a PC from which you are sharing video.

 

  1.  Issue the command

 

NET VIEW

 

You will be given a list of visible servers.

 

  1.  For EACH of the servers listed, issue the command

 

nbtstat -a [server name from step 1]

 

Post ALL of the output from EACH of those commands.

 

The thumb drive idea didn’t work.    Here’s what I did.  I plugged in a blank drive to the vacant USB port on the front while the unit was powered down.  I started the device using the remote and navigated to the “system settings” page and selected “restart”.  Upon restarting I looked for network content where it should be and no joy.  I have a question about the next test.  You say to “issue the command NETVIEW” .  Where do I do this?  I tried the run line and got an error message.  I tried again with NET VIEW and a DOS window flashed on for about a millisecond and disappeared.  What am I doing wrong?

38

Execute the command CMD first to open a window. Run the other commands there.

39

TonyPh12345 wrote:
Execute the command CMD first to open a window. Run the other commands there.

They all had the same Node IpAddress  and on the next line the comment “no host found”.    I hope you don’t need the exact screen.  It will take some time to type.

40

No, don’t type it, Do the commands like this. “net view >> c:\myfile.txt” and “nbtstat -a [name] >> c:\myfile.txt” and it will put all the output in that file called myfile.txt in the root of your c drive. Open it in notepad and copy paste.