Has this bug been recognized?

“What codec changes are that? The WDTV still plays all codecs it was advertized for, just no H.265 (HEVC) or 10bit.”

Take for example the H.264 codec, there are currently 20 revisions of the H.264 codec between 2003 and current and to make it worse there are numerous ‘profiles’ and ‘levels’ within those 20 revisions…

The same with the MPEG-4 codec, there are currently 31 ‘parts’ of said codec between 1999 and current…

Generally only the newest of the newest firmward and software (and sometimes hardware) support all parts of these still evolving codecs…

Simply saying a device palys MPEG-4 or H.264 or whatever is really not qualitative, unless it’s ‘up to date’ on the latest revision and employes all additional standards…

This means if the file you are trying to play was encoded with the latested and greatest codec revision and the hardware/software you are trying to play it on only impliments a legacy revision of the codec, it very well might not play properly or at all…

And last but not least, not all encoding software is the same even if it’s advertised to be this or that compliant many consumer grade encoders are not as compliant as they claim many times…  There is a reason pro-grade encoders like Squeeze cost up to $800 and Episode cost up to $6K while consumer grade encoders are free or significantly less…

Awesome, on top of my total frustration with clearly an abandoned product by WD, I am now getting lectured on technology.

I was really more interested in possible solutions to my issues, and quite frankly an issue that many people have reported.

Every single movie I have works flawlessly on media players on my PC’s or laptops so why can WD not make a codec update the way these players seem to. There has been no updates from WD for quite some time, I must assume they have new products coming out and do not want to look after people who have already spent hard earned money on their legacy hardware. Quite surprising to me as I have been a loyal WD customer for many years and respected the brand, this situation will have me re-consider my brand dedication.

Please no more lectures!

Best Regards,

Anthony

Isurrender wrote:

…so why can WD not make a codec update the way these players seem to…

Please no more lectures!

The answer is already given:   *ALL* media players are HARDWARE-BASED decoders.   They can’t just be “updated” to enable new codecs.   The decoders are BUILT IN to the GPU – PERMANENTLY.

Software-based players are different and rely on *MUCH* more powerful CPUs and memory capacity.  If you want that, spend three or four times more money and buy that.

Now, that’s the answer.  If you can’t take the answers without feeling “lectured,” that’s your own issue.

Isurrender I was not lecturing you I was explaining the issue that arises as codecs are revised and updated over time…

As  TonyPh12345 has further explained, the WD units use hardware based codecs chips, a firmware upgrade isn’t going to change the hardware the unit is built with…

The short answer if you don’t want an explanation is that the WD box will never play ‘new’ codecs, if you would like to watch files encoded with a new and incompatible codec, you are going to have to transcode or re-encoding those files…  Just like you can’t expect your VHS or DVD player to play Bluray…

One solution (the one I use) is a computer based media server with a transcode option that if needed converts the file in real time into a compadible format before serving it up to the WD box…

If anyone is really curious here is a list of the hardware codecs and their revision levels that reside on the Sigma DSP chip used in these WD units, newer codec revisions or higher codec levels will likely will not function properly if at all…

• MPEG-4.10 (H.264) BP@L3, MP@L4.0, HP@L4.2 MVC HP@L4.2

• SMPTE 421M (VC-1) MP@HL, AP@L3

• WMV9 MP@HL

• MPEG-2 MP@HL

• MPEG-4.2 ASP@L5 (up to HD, 1-point GMC)

• AVS Jizhun profile@L2.0, 4.0*, 6.0*

• RMVB v9, v10

• 3D video support - Generic side-by-side, top-bottom, MVC - RealD (side-by-side output) - Generic side-by-side, top-bottom, frame packed output

* 20 Mbps for L4.0; 40 Mbps for L6.0

Thanks for your reply, this is new territory to me and quite frankly I am just over the top frustrated, I do appreciate the feedback!

Best,

Anthony

Thanks, this is a great idea I will try as I am using a commercial Synology server as my NAS. I actually had tried it as a media player but I did not really understand the transcode aspects, I will give that a shot to be sure!

Best,

Anthony

Good luck with the media player, I used to use the free PS3 media server (don’t let the name fool you, it supports the WD units) and loved the easy transcode feature as it mirrors all the files in a virtual ‘Transcode folder’ so if the original doesn’t work you can just open the transcode mirror…   But I now use the commerical Playon media server, as I wanted the ability to stream more online channels, and record content for later viewing…

Meep_Beep wrote:

This means if the file you are trying to play was encoded with the latested and greatest codec revision and the hardware/software you are trying to play it on only impliments a legacy revision of the codec, it very well might not play properly or at all…

I’m currently using Staxrip, Hybrid, Handbrake for 1080p encodes with H.264 profiles supported by the WDTV, all of which still play just fine.

Isurrender wrote:

I was really more interested in possible solutions to my issues, and quite frankly an issue that many people have reported.

What part of ‘don’t download **bleep** from the Internet’ did you not understand?

It’s especially funny since all the movie/TV show relase groups adhere to their own set of standard encoding rulez which are tuned for maximum standalone compatibility. And yes, that includes the WDTV.

Meep_Beep wrote:

Good luck with the media player

Again, the WDTV still plays all relevant formats just fine (if you’re no anime freak who needs High10P).

“I’m currently using Staxrip, Hybrid, Handbrake for 1080p encodes with H.264 profiles supported by the WDTV, all of which still play just fine.”

That would because you are using a compadible H.264 codec level when you encoded, that does not mean everyone else does the same…  Your argument is based upon an Anecdotal Fallacy…

“Again, the WDTV still plays all relevant formats just fine (if you’re no anime freak who needs High10P).”

WDTV plays all the codecs at the levels the decoder chip supports, it does not play all ‘relevant formats’ by any stretch it plays only those relavent formats at the relavent levels it supports, not all…  And it doesn’t take the use of a High10 profile to be incompadible, even a Baseline profile above level 3 is incompadible with the WDTV’s decoder chip…

In general as you suggest most established release groups encode using lower codec levels for broader compadibility but that doesn’t mean everyone does, there are no shortage of one hit wonder encoders that unknownly encode as levels not as compadible…

At the end of the day the WDTV box does gobble up and play far more video formats than most other stand alone devices and for that reason I still deal with it’s quirks…  But it’s trivial to encode a fully compliant H.264 video that is at a higher level that they won’t play on the WDTV but will play on other devices just fine that support that higher level…

Meep_Beep wrote:

WDTV plays all the codecs at the levels the decoder chip supports, it does not play all ‘relevant formats’ by any stretch it plays only those relavent formats at the relavent levels it supports, not all… 

Which is what I meant and what is enough for the majority of users that know nothing of the intricacies of encoding parameters (heck, most even don’t know the difference between codec and container). What I meant by ‘relevant’ is Bluray rips, DVD rips, old AVIs (people had in their collection),YT videos and scene releases, all of which still play just fine. So if that was your reason to buy the WDTV in 2011, it STILL plays all of those formats in 2015.

If some geniuses feel the need to use extra fancy parameters for an imagined improvement in picture quality, fine by me. My guess is, though, they’ve done the switch to High10P or h.265 already.

Well this thread certainly went far afield.

The “pause” bug as reported by Isurrender is quite different than the bug I reported at post 1 of this thread.

My bug is that when you resume a movie and start watching, very often the FF,REW, and Pause keys no longer work.  Also you can no longer “skip to”.

Happens on all kinds of files.

If you want to use those functions you have to exit, restart the movie without resuming, and skip to where you left off.  Then those keys will work again.

But I’m guessing I’m alone in this, since no one else is talking about it.