General usage of WD TV live Hub

I just got the product, but i must say i’m very disappointed with my purchase.

I have WD TV Live Hub Media Center with firmware v 3.07.14

These are the some big issues that will prevent me to use it. and here they are:

1- There are no possibilities to make different playlists and use them. I can only add to queue what i want, but that’s it. Do i want a new playlist? i must rebuild all my queue.

2- There are surely isses with the firmware. If i select (for example for videos) repeat+shuffle in the setup, it won’t work. To make it work i must start to play a video, and after go to options re-select the playlist method i want, and then it will work.

3- If i set to make automatically play the queue i build at the startup of the WD TV Live Hub Media Center it won’t do anything else than play videos in normal order. i can’t make it shuffle. and also, there are no controls available during this playback, no FF, no REW, NOTHING!! i can only go back to menu and start to use in normal way.

4- Probably the hardware or the processor choosed by WD to build this devise is quite poor. Time between a video an another in the playlist take even seconds. The playback between one and another should istantaneous. We’re not talking about a device of 10€ with the hardware from last century.

I will get information with the dealer that sold me the product because i will have to return it.

I’m in Italy, the WD TV Live Hub Media Center is quite expensive, but the firmware is very bad and has big issues.

I’m very disappointed in this WD Product. i really thought i bought a great one, but i just spent a lot of money for a not-ready-to-sell.

This is my experience. If there is a way to fix all my problems, i’ll be so very glad to do somethig about this, and keep my very desired (well working) device.

  1.  You can use any number of playlist creator programs to do it; I created my own scripts to automatically generate about 40-50 different playlists for both Music and Video.

  2.  Not sure about that because I use playlists for shuffling videos, so I’ve not tried that.

  3. ??

  4. Actually, no, it’s not.   It’s a Sigma SoC, and was the top-of-the-line STB SoC when the product was introduced.   Does ANY device you have start video playback “instantaneousy?”  Even my iPad 3 doesn’t…  It takes a second or two.

1- ok. that can be good. what kind of playlist should i use? m3u or pls? and what kind of software/script can i use to generate them?

2- how do you shuffle videos using playlists? changing playlist every time?

3- there is the option to make the WD TV live hub start the queue automatically at the startup. You just turn it on and it start to play videos. but then you can’t do anything. no FF/REW, pause, advance or go back in the queue. you can only go “BACK” to the main menu.

4- shouldn’t be good to make the software preload the next video once the one is ending? so it can start at once without lag? it should be able to do it with a firmware implementation.

0- Thank you very much for your help. I need it so very much!

  1. Everything I do is M3U – It’s just a simple ordered list of file paths (relative, of course.)

  2. The playlists themselves are created in shuffle order – Yep, my scripts redo the playlists on demand – The video ones are done in about 10 seconds, the audio ones take about 20 minutes to sift through the 60,000 some-odd tracks…

  3. What you’re describing is “Autoplay.”  That’s different than using playlists.

  4. Sure, I suppose that’s feasible…  But there’s always going to be lag with video.  The playback engine will have to reset the renderer because of different codec usage, audio types, resolution scaling, etc. etc…  

Thank you very much. Probably we’re getting closer to the solution i really need.

please, allow me to use again your precious help.

1- for m3u i’ll find the way to do it.

Probably is better i tell you what i need to do, so you can help me and tell me your ideas.

I need to make the box able to play videos (probably some hundreds) in random order.

Possibly in autoplay, so, that it can be turned on and start automatically the playlist. but everytime it start, must play videos in different order.

would be even so good if i can choose to use for example list01.m3u at the startup, and with a scheduler at a time i decide it skips to list02.m3u.

and of course, everytime they start, they should be a re-shuffled list.

do you think is it possible to do it?

I don’t see why not… As long as you have something else in control of the “schedule…”

i’m sorry… but i’m a newby with this device

can you tell me how can i fulfill my entire project.

or, where i can find a guide or tutorial to give me the tools to make me able to do it?

i’m trying to work on it. but now i have still some problems.

m3u files are listed as files only, and opening them you can just see the list of the files.

it’s ok, you can start one, and with shuffle option on, it will shuffle the entire list.

That’s already a good point.

but…

is there a way to put the m3u file in the dashboard? i can’t make it as “favourite”.

also, i can’t make it play with autoplay.

if i select the folder that need to autoplay with only the m3u file in it, when the WD TV start it says “The auto play content could not be accessed”

i set up to make it play automatically both video or photos, it says the same error message.

can i put the m3u somewhere in dashboard or even better, to make it play as autorun?

Any file or folder can be added to the dashboard.  You probably need to set your content source to Media Library, set the Filter to Playlists, then you can add it.

BigGym wrote:

I just got the product, but i must say i’m very disappointed with my purchase.

 

I have WD TV Live Hub Media Center with firmware v 3.07.14

 

These are the some big issues that will prevent me to use it. and here they are:

1- There are no possibilities to make different playlists and use them. I can only add to queue what i want, but that’s it. Do i want a new playlist? i must rebuild all my queue.

 

2- There are surely isses with the firmware. If i select (for example for videos) repeat+shuffle in the setup, it won’t work. To make it work i must start to play a video, and after go to options re-select the playlist method i want, and then it will work.

 

3- If i set to make automatically play the queue i build at the startup of the WD TV Live Hub Media Center it won’t do anything else than play videos in normal order. i can’t make it shuffle. and also, there are no controls available during this playback, no FF, no REW, NOTHING!! i can only go back to menu and start to use in normal way.

 

4- Probably the hardware or the processor choosed by WD to build this devise is quite poor. Time between a video an another in the playlist take even seconds. The playback between one and another should istantaneous. We’re not talking about a device of 10€ with the hardware from last century.

 

I will get information with the dealer that sold me the product because i will have to return it.

I’m in Italy, the WD TV Live Hub Media Center is quite expensive, but the firmware is very bad and has big issues.

 

I’m very disappointed in this WD Product. i really thought i bought a great one, but i just spent a lot of money for a not-ready-to-sell.

 

This is my experience. If there is a way to fix all my problems, i’ll be so very glad to do somethig about this, and keep my very desired (well working) device.

2 - Repeat or shuffle will always work if you press the PLAY button to play the video instead of the OK button.