Hi all,
So I do really like the “idea” of the WDTV Live but I have run into so many little problems that I see other people have got that just aren’t getting fixed with a firmware update.
You would except WD to be watching these forums and fixing problems as soon as they arise.
My main problems that I assume are quite simple fixes are these:
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Sound levels need to be normalised. The music and SFX are so much louder then the speech its almost unwatchable. I keep having to ride the levels with the remote for the TV. (these files play fine on my computer)
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Introduce a skip forward 5 or so minutes option. Maybe pressing next quickly could skip forward a bit in the current video then when you hold it down it can skip to next video? (Even if this means bringing out a new remote to buy separately I would pay the extra money!)
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They need to add an upgraded codec pack. Even footage I’ve taken from my handycam and put into an avi wont play on this thing and I’m always getting MP4’s that can’t play. It gets so time consuming to convert each video.
That’s pretty much my problems at the moment but its been like 6 months since a firmware update. Come on guys! Pick up your game
I’m assuming you intended to post in the “LIVE” forum instead of the “WDTV” Forum.
- Other people agree; many disagree. I’m one of the latter; it’s really not the job of the decoder to play with signal levels. It really should just output what is in the stream. In my case, I use my AVR’s automatic gain control to avoid that issue. It’s that exact “issue” as to why DVD Producers often include 5.1 channel (with wide dynamic range) and a separate 2.0 channel mix (with much lower dynamic range.) If you’re ripping things, it’s a good idea to include ALL audio tracks (except language tracks, for me) just to have that flexibility when you play them back.
Most good transcoding software (such as Handbrake) has the option to do “Dynamic Range Compression” to “normalize” the audio levels. There’s quite a few other tools that can take EXISTING rips and re-do the audio.
Either way you approach it, this tends to delve in the “Religious Debate” territory… ;) Such a request is already in the Ideas Lab, so you might want to go vote for it.
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That feature is there. In video with CHAPTERS, you can go to the chapter menu and pick what you want. In DVDs (using DVD mode) you can press the |<< and >>| to skip back and forth one chapter at a time. In NON-DVD movies, you can click << or >> to enter 2x REW or FF mode, then click |<< or >>| respectively to skip 10 minutes per click.
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Perhaps; but there’s no way they will satisfy every single condition. They’ve settled on the “Most Common” forms of files. AVI and MP4 are just containers by the way, not codecs, and are both supported. What codec is your camera using?
Firmware on the Live+ is a little over two months old. Firmware on the Live (if you include Betas) is just a few weeks old; the last “Public” release was, as you say, about five months ago (March 30).
Hi,
Thanks for the reply. FIrstly yes I have posted this in the wrong spot I didnt realise there were seperate forums so thanks for pointing that out, sorry about that. Secondly thanks for the helpful suggestions. I will try them out and see how they go.
Can I ask what is the best format to export a video for the WDTV. I understand all about the differences between formats and codecs etc as I am a film editor but I was just wondering is there a preferred format for the WDTV. My camera (Sony EX3) makes mp4’s but i convert them into mxf’s for editing and I can really export what ever format I want from there. Thanks
I don’t have much experience with the WDTV HD, but the Live’s at least tend to have the best luck with h.264 video in an MKV container.
joel1234 wrote:
Can I ask what is the best format to export a video for the WDTV. I understand all about the differences between formats and codecs etc as I am a film editor but I was just wondering is there a preferred format for the WDTV. My camera (Sony EX3) makes mp4’s but i convert them into mxf’s for editing and I can really export what ever format I want from there. Thanks
There’s not really a “preferred” format, per se – a format is either supported or it isn’t. As Tony mentioned, I’ve never run into any problems with .mkv on a Gen1 (until header compression came around 
).
Most of my .mkv containers have h.264 video and AC3 audio, but I’ve not encountered issues with x.264 video or AVC or MPEG video in a .mkv.
I even re-muxed an old .avi that was Xvid and MP3 into a .mkv container, and I have no issue playing it back but I wouldn’t get too far away from what is known to work – buyer beware.
I do run into the occasional .avi and the occasional .wmv that aren’t coded with the WDTV’s supported set, but they’ve tended to be rare.
Even if it isn’t technically listed as being supported, I’ve even had success with the WDTV playing back an .iso image of a DVD… obviously the DVD menuing structure isn’t supported, but the main movie itself played back without a hitch.
So, as long as it’s a supported codec in a supported container, the “preferred” format for you would be whatever’s easiest/preferable for you to encode/export.
I do believe, however, that there can be sync issues between the audio and the video if there is AAC audio in an .mkv container, so you’re probably best to avoid that combination.
