Had Live got Plus now have a problem

WD Legacy Products WD TV Live & Live Plus
1

I just picked up a Live Plus so my wife can stream her Hindi flicks on Netflix and my True-HD M2TS in BDMV (Blu-Ray) rips stutter like crazy! With the Live all True HD played fine.

Any one no why? Did they change something firmware related.

BTW: The Live Plus came preloaded with  1.03.29_B. My Live had 1.02xxx.

Thanks

2

How are you playing these – local drive, wired network, or wireless network?

3

Wired Cat6 straight from my NAS server/router.  DTS and AC3 related material plays fine. True HD played fine with the exact same setup using the standard Live not plus. PCM audio is also fine and I know that uses more bandwidth since its 7 full uncompressed channles of audio.

I was curious if anyone else has run into this issue?

4

Hmmmm – I haven’t tried playing any high bandwidth files with my Plus (using it nearly exclusively for Netflix).  So I assume these are M2TS files (the only TrueHD supported file format for the Live), correct?  Part of the problem is that not many folks even use these, let alone have a Plus to use them with.  While I’m not sure why the Plus would be different in this regard, it DOES use different firmware.

I also assume you haven’t tried the beta version of the new firmware for your older Live unit, right?  Because it would be good to know if it broke this function or if it’s something specific to the Live.  If I get the time (no promises here) I’ll try out both with such a file (but I’ll have to create one since I always use MKV containers and just downmix the TrueHD to AC3 5.1).

5

Thanks!

No, I never tried the Beta software with the live because of all the reported network issues.

I will try calling one of the morons at WD.

6

Interesting. I use m2ts native from my Sony Camcorder. When I have HD playback I get stuttering and complete lose of audio. This is the first time today I have used the plus as opposed to the live to play to play this particular file. Previously it was fine.

Can you do mediainfo so we can see the details of your file. here is my problem filoe. Obviously not a BD rip.

ID                               : FF
Complete name                    : \DISKSTATION\video\Home vids\Home\chelsea stdium.m2t
Format                           : MPEG-TS
File size                        : 1.48 GiB
Duration                         : 8mn 5s
Start time                       : UTC 165-25-45 45:85:85
Overall bit rate                 : 26.2 Mbps
Maximum Overall bit rate         : 33.0 Mbps
Encoded date                     : UTC 165-25-45 45:85:85

Video
ID                               : 2064 (0x810)
Menu ID                          : 100 (0x64)
Format                           : MPEG Video
Format version                   : Version 2
Format profile                   : Main@High 1440
Format settings, BVOP            : Yes
Format settings, Matrix          : Default
Format_Settings_GOP              : M=3, N=12
Duration                         : 8mn 5s
Bit rate mode                    : Constant
Bit rate                         : 24.0 Mbps
Nominal bit rate                 : 25.0 Mbps
Width                            : 1 440 pixels
Height                           : 1 080 pixels
Display aspect ratio             : 16:9
Frame rate                       : 25.000 fps
Standard                         : Component
Resolution                       : 8 bits
Colorimetry                      : 4:2:0
Scan type                        : Interlaced
Scan order                       : Top Field First
Bits/(Pixel*Frame)               : 0.617
Stream size                      : 1.36 GiB (91%)

Audio
ID                               : 2068 (0x814)
Menu ID                          : 100 (0x64)
Format                           : MPEG Audio
Format version                   : Version 1
Format profile                   : Layer 2
Duration                         : 8mn 5s
Bit rate mode                    : Constant
Bit rate                         : 384 Kbps
Channel(s)                       : 2 channels
Sampling rate                    : 48.0 KHz
Video delay                      : -80ms
Stream size                      : 22.2 MiB (1%)

Menu
ID                               : 129 (0x81)
Menu ID                          : 100 (0x64)
List                             : 2064 (0x810) (MPEG Video) / 2065 (0x811) () / 2068 (0x814) (MPEG Audio) / 2069 (0x815) ()
Language                         :  /  /  /
Maximum bit rate                 : 26190000

7

ID                               : 1
Complete name                    : Y:\Blu-Ray Rips\Matrix Trilogy\The Matrix 1080P TrueHD\BDMV\STREAM\00000.m2ts
Format                           : BDAV
Format/Info                      : Blu-ray Video
File size                        : 9.48 GiB
Duration                         : 2h 16mn
Overall bit rate                 : 9 958 Kbps
Maximum Overall bit rate         : 35.5 Mbps

Video
ID                               : 4113 (0x1011)
Menu ID                          : 1 (0x1)
Format                           : AVC
Format/Info                      : Advanced Video Codec
Format profile                   : High@L4.0
Format settings, CABAC           : Yes
Format settings, ReFrames        : 3 frames
Duration                         : 2h 16mn
Bit rate mode                    : Variable
Maximum bit rate                 : 40.0 Mbps
Width                            : 1 920 pixels
Height                           : 796 pixels
Display aspect ratio             : 2.40:1
Frame rate                       : 23.976 fps
Resolution                       : 8 bits
Colorimetry                      : 4:2:0
Scan type                        : Progressive
Writing library                  : x264 core 94 r1583 7608d73
Encoding settings                : cabac=1 / ref=3 / deblock=1:0:0 / analyse=0x3:0x113 / me=hex / subme=7 / psy=1 / psy_rd=1.00:0.00 / mixed_ref=1 / me_range=16 / chroma_me=1 / trellis=1 / 8x8dct=1 / cqm=0 / deadzone=21,11 / fast_pskip=1 / chroma_qp_offset=-2 / threads=12 / sliced_threads=0 / nr=0 / decimate=1 / interlaced=0 / constrained_intra=0 / bframes=3 / b_pyramid=0 / b_adapt=2 / b_bias=0 / direct=1 / weightb=1 / weightp=2 / keyint=240 / keyint_min=24 / scenecut=40 / intra_refresh=0 / rc_lookahead=50 / rc=crf / mbtree=1 / crf=20.0 / qcomp=0.60 / qpmin=10 / qpmax=51 / qpstep=4 / ip_ratio=1.40 / aq=1:1.0
Language                         : English
Color primaries                  : BT.709-5, BT.1361, IEC 61966-2-4, SMPTE RP177
Transfer characteristics         : BT.709-5, BT.1361
Matrix coefficients              : BT.709-5, BT.1361, IEC 61966-2-4 709, SMPTE RP177

Audio
ID                               : 4352 (0x1100)
Menu ID                          : 1 (0x1)
Format                           : AC-3
Format/Info                      : Audio Coding 3
Format profile                   : TrueHD / Core
Format_Settings_ModeExtension    : CM (complete main)
Muxing mode                      : Stream extension
Duration                         : 2h 16mn
Bit rate mode                    : Variable / Constant
Bit rate                         : Variable / 640 Kbps
Maximum bit rate                 : 3 345 Kbps / 640 Kbps
Channel(s)                       : 6 channels
Channel positions                : Front: L C R, Side: L R, LFE
Sampling rate                    : 48.0 KHz
Language                         : English

8

Swapped the Plus out for another Plus and True-HD audio still stutters. called WD on Friday and all I get was they are aware of some problems with the Plus.

I would have never in my wildest dreams thought they would be different in this regard.

9

I think the Plus firmware uses a new Sigma SDK (makes sense, given the new chipset and new features like DVD menus, etc.).

The Plus obviously has an immature firmware, which is a shame.  Keep your fingers crossed for the next firmware update.  I think WD are aware of the TrueHD issues.

Hopefully the next Live update (also based on the newer SDK?) won’t similarly break TrueHD support.