WD now stands for Worthless Device. I’ve tried to load a movie on Netflix 3 times today with no luck, doesn’t work. I’ve been through three of these devices now, none successfully work. Troubleshooting has contacted me to fix these issues, tried their suggestions, nothing. This thing is a headache and I’m done.
I urge those looking for streaming players to please scratch this item off their list. This device is falsely advertised as it does not work properly.
For you… I suppose. For untold thousands of others, it works great.
To other readers: as a test, I started a NetFlix stream on five different devices in my house… Including:
- One Wifi Hub
- One wired SMP
- one Powerline WDTV Live Plus
- iPad
- PC
All started normally and are streaming fine…simultaneously.
So just take posts like these with a grain of salt…
Ditto, Tony. I have done similar “stress tests” via wired and wireless concurrent streaming of ISO & MKV, Netflix movies, from same number of devices.with my single Live Plus No problemo, and this was with my slower Linksys g-router. Today, with my gigabit router and network, running second Live Plus, iPad, etc.; even better!
It’s all about quality of: media, components, modem/router, network setup/installation and excellent internet bandwidth.
Try pausing a Netflix movie for more than a couple minutes and hitting play again. Have fun with that.
Ok… Starting now.
Well, after pausing 20+ minutes (Frasier, S02E21) – It restarted instantly when pressing PLAY – so no issues here.
I let it play a few minutes and paused it again.
The TV won’t be used for the next few hours, so I’ll leave it paused for that long and see what happens.
While we’re waiting, Christian1, I’ve gone through most of your post history and didn’t see answers to these questions anywhere. If you have answered them already, well, bear with me.
-
Which DEVICE are you using? (Are you sure it’s the “Gen3?”)
-
Which firmware are you using?
-
Have you done the full factory restore thing yet?
-
Who’s your ISP? (I read in one post you have 25 meg Ethernet service, so I’m guessing you’re not in the US as there are very VERY few ethernet providers in the US) – If you ARE in the US, what region? (City is fine, don’t need addresses)
-
What brand/model of router do you have?
-
How’s your network set up? (I saw in a post that you’re using wired, not wireless, but is your WD plugged directly into the main router, or are their intermediate devices?)
-
Can you plug the same ethernet cable you use on the WD (assuming WIRED WD) into a laptop or desktop? If so, do that and go to www.speedtest.net and tell us what you get.
I guess the NetFlix app doesn’t allow it to be paused for that long.
When I got back home, the NetFlix app was waiting back at the episode selection list. But it was still working, and I could restart the episode with no problem
Well your pretty lucky Tony.
Guess I got three bad boxes.
Yes you are a very unlucky person with WD players so get rid of them and move on with your life.
christian1 wrote:
Well your pretty lucky Tony.
Guess I got three bad boxes.
No, I’m not “lucky” at all. Not only have mine all worked fine, ALWAYS (except for one bug a long time ago), numerous people that I work with have WD’s and they all work fine as well.
You’re hearing the hoofbeats, but instead of thinking “Horse!” You insist on thinking “Zebra!” You’re ignoring the obvious: The problem is in your environment – pure and simple. The fact that you’ve had the same issue on not one or two, but THREE different boxes would indicate this.
If a bug of this magnitude were present, *MANY* more people would be reporting it. The fact that only a handful report it means the difference is OUTSIDE the box.
Could be:
- Weird incompatibility with the TV (This accounts for issues with HDCP)
- ISP that’s filtering or throttling NetFlix (Yes, there are several ISPs that are doing that, and NetFlix is also being suspected of providing lower service to some service providers because of arguments over Net Neutrality – Read THISfor an example involving Comcast)
- Any number of network issues in the home network
- etc.
And that you refuse to troubleshoot anything (as evidenced by the fact that you ignore people’s questions on almost all of your posts) just indicates you’re more interested in vilifying WD than addressing the problem.
Yes, there MIGHT be a firmware issue – but it’s an issue with something in your equipment or network – thus your constant harp that the app is bad for EVERYONE is now simply just a troll’s lie.
1 Like
You said:
Could be:
- Weird incompatibility with the TV (This accounts for issues with HDCP)
- ISP that’s filtering or throttling NetFlix (Yes, there are several ISPs that are doing that, and NetFlix is also being suspected of providing lower service to some service providers because of arguments over Net Neutrality – Read THISfor an example involving Comcast)
I have verizon fios. Can’t imagine I’m the only who has that.
- Any number of network issues in the home network
- etc.
And that you refuse to troubleshoot anything (as evidenced by the fact that you ignore people’s questions on almost all of your posts) just indicates you’re more interested in vilifying WD than addressing the problem.
I’ve tried tweaking every setting with my home network and router, you name it. Cables, firewall settings, disabling other devices, static IP, dynamic IP, give it top QOS, disable IGMP.
It’s just unacceptable that this thing performs so poorly with Netflix. Nothing else in my house has any problem with Netflix.
Yes, there MIGHT be a firmware issue – but it’s an issue with something in your equipment or network – thus your constant harp that the app is bad for EVERYONE is now simply just a troll’s lie.
Well, that’s just like your opinion, man.
I agree.
Considering it works perfectly fine for many people and you seem unlikely to try any of the suggestion.
And the fact its know what games some isp have been playing its foolish to blame a device that know to play hd fine.
How do you know what I’ve tried and not tried?
…because you don’t answer people’s questions about what you’ve tried, and ignore people’s suggestions.
I’ve tried every suggestion posed to me and more, way more.
So you tried it at other locations on different networks and it still doesn’t work?
I concur with Christian. This is a home media device meant to be plugged in and just work (after some basic setup.) It should’nt take a degree in technology to try and troubleshoot. Most home environments consist of a broadband connection with devices behind a home router made by a large, common manufacturer. I myself, have programmed, built and modified computers since the Commodore VIC-20 and actually do have a technical degree - cannot get the Netflix app to work properly. Yet, as Christian says, the service works perfectly on every other device in the SAME environment. Go figure that.
So when a certain app is reported by a number of people, more than handful on these very forums, and WD has acknowldged the issue as “in review”, I hardly think this is user error as the few of you who laud the device want to infer.
So your mileage may vary - but this a very real and repeatable issue by many people. As I’ve stated in my thread, it’s caused me to order HTPC parts and sell my SMP second-hand.
So for those who may be doing research. Take the non-critical fanboy posts with a grain of salt the same as you would bashers without reason. This original poster is not one of those. There are very real issues with this box - not just this one, simply read through a few pages of this forum and come to your own conclusions. At the very least, I recommend you purchase the box from a retailer with a lenient return policy. Simply try it for yourself then report on these forums - good or bad.
mrvander wrote:
…
So when a certain app is reported by a number of people, more than handful on these very forums, and WD has acknowldged the issue as “in review”, I hardly think this is user error as the few of you who laud the device want to infer.
…
From the status list: “Moderators confirm that the issue is in the correct board and in line with community guidelines.”
One cannot infer from that status that WD is saying it’s a known issue. They haven’t acknowledged the issue, they’ve acknowledged the issue REPORT. Very different things.
mrvander wrote:
…Take the non-critical fanboy posts with a grain of salt the same as you would bashers without reason…
I don’t have any issues with people reporting bugs.
I have no qualms with people that have legitimate gripes.
I have no argument with people who recommend going a different brand because of issues that they’ve had.
The only reason I chimed into this thread is because Christian1 insists in multiple rants that Netflix is broken for EVERYONE, and that is patently false.
I really think if you try, you’d be hard pressed to find more than a couple dozen users that have reported signifcant NetFlix issues since the last few firmware updates…
If NetFlix were broken for everyone, or even a large number of people, there’d be a heck of a lot more issue reports on it. But a quick search finds very few.
Final word: VIC-20? Awesome. Somewhere around here I have an old Popular Electronics magazine with a VIC-20 advertisement featuring William Shatner touting its “Impressive 8-color display, amazing 4KB of BASIC RAM …” That was my first computer as well. Learned BASIC and 6502 assembler on it. :)
Blaming a device for a failure when it already has a proven track record of working correctly in that area by a massive degree is foolishness.
Its got nothing to do with being a fan boy but rather simply pointing out a rather glaring fact of both the box working in that area and his response to peoples posts.
Yes the device is suppose to be plug and play like many other media box’s but a simple fact seems to have gotten totally ignored here.
There are always going to be outside factors that the box has no control over.
The network its on.The ISP its running on.The area its in and the experience of the person who is trouble shooting these possible issues.
Considering the box has a proven track record of doing that job fine its very likely the problem is outside of it.
There always a possibility however unlikely he got a box’s with a hardware flaw since this does happen with any electronic device.
The most important thing here is people can’t help if there no feedback from the person they are trying to help.
In this case its been more whine and blame then feedback which doesn’t help at all.
There also known areas where netflicks has issues do the isp messing with things on purpose or not taking care of thier network.
Case in point…bell dsl in my area for quite some time couldn’t do netflicks work **bleep** due to what they were doing and i had to change to a different provider.
It had nothing to do with any of my different boxes and everything to do with the isp.
TonyPh12345 wrote> From the status list: “Moderators confirm that the issue is in the correct board and in line with community guidelines.”
One cannot infer from that status that WD is saying it’s a known issue. They haven’t acknowledged the issue, they’ve acknowledged the issue REPORT. Very different things.
The only reason I chimed into this thread is because Christian1 insists in multiple rants that Netflix is broken for EVERYONE, and that is patently false.
The only reason I say it’s an acknowledged issue is that, as mentioned in my thread, a WD representative did reach out to me via private message to try and resolve the issue. However, they were requesting my Netflix account credentials which, color me skeptical, I did not provide. They were understanding and instead just asked for my username to pass along to Netflix. I provided that and suddenly, the next day - my Netflix app was different. New interface, new functionality - and it worked. The issue had gone away - or so I thought. Alas, now it’s back and it’s been consistently frustrating. So to me, the frustration is real and my experience is that of an acknowledged issue (and attempted resolution) by WD. This is all due to the “issue” I created under the issues forum which they have marked as “in review”.
I agree with you nobody ever has any idea to claim enough omnipotence to know if something affects every user, but anyone reading the complaint (with an ounce of common sense) can read into that and understand the true meaning of the complaint and obvious frustration.
(and to a fellow original Commodore kid: wow, assembler - I never got that involved that early on. I moved quickly onto the Commodore 64 when it was out and I migrated from BASIC to all the games that were coming out. I eventually moved on from the 64 to PASCAL on an Apple IIE.)
