Is the WD TV Media Player device right for me?

Hi I have an extensive Music Video (MP4) & Music Library
stored on my home network storage devices i.e. WD Personal Cloud & External
Hard Drives.

I have several computers connected hooked into my home
network via wired connections i.e. W8.1, W10, OSX Mavericks as well as a W7 LT
and 2 Android devices connecting via Wi-Fi.

My home network is connected to my Home Theatre via a wired (Ethernet)
connection.

The Music & Video content I have stored on my storage
devices is categorised and sorted into playlists folders comprising about 25
vids/tracks each and I wish to stream the content of folders in continuous play mode rather
than have to select the next Vid/Track separately.

95% of my requirement is to play / watch content I have on
my storage devices I very rarely have a need to stream content direct from the
internet to my home theatre and if this were to change my Smart TV has a wired
connection via my router and would be first choice.

Being technically challenged I would appreciate feedback on
whether the WD TV Media Player device is right for me; reading the blurb about
this device it would seem to be fit for purpose; reading about a device cannot
always beat information and feedback from those with experience i.e. SME’s.

Thanks brnn69

I’ll just do the easy little one, hoping others come along. To play the contents of a file continuously, one after another, is as simple as; have the cursor over the first one and press the “play” button on the remote. Not the “okay” button, which if pressed, just plays the one.

Tks for that tip it may seem little; but a biggie for me appreciate the feedback

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Fine. I had to ask on here!

@brnn69

Yes, a WDTV could be right for you or anyone ( I have two working right now, and a new one I bought for a spare, still new in a sealed box, if I ever need it – sorry, it’s not for sale).

BUT, the problem you face right now is availability, because WD quit making them well over a year ago and there are not any new ones to be found except from resellers like eBay, etc. I do see it is still listed as available at WD main website, which links you to the company Digital River that processes orders from other sites. Two sellers are listed there, Staples and Insight. Staples says out of stock, Insight did not mention stock availability, and it let me put item in my cart. Beyond that point, I emptied the cart as I did not want to go further. I suppose you could order one from Insight and see if the transaction would actually go through. If so, it would be the only place I would know of that actually still sells the WDTV last model.

BTW, are you located in US or elsewhere, because it could help or hurt your search for one?

Some other questions:

How are you accessing your stored media right now to view and listen to it?
You seem to have a lot of gadgets already, so what encourages you to seek out the WDTV now?

One point about the WDTV I can tell you is before there were Smart TV’s, the purpose of the WDTV was to make a TV smarter; perhaps even smarter than today’s Smart TVs are The WDTV can play from Playlists be they music or videos.

All for now; how about a reply from you now.

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hello mike, it sure sounds like you might be able to answer a question I posted earlier. I already own a smart tv but the Vizio only plays a couple of video formats. I have spent countless hours on ebay and amazon trying to find a WD Media Player but there are so many makes and models it is very confusing to say the least. If I am only purchasing the WD media player to play my media library is the make and model number that important? Do you know one you would recommend?
I would appreciate any input or advise.
Thanks,
LD

Hi Mike thanks for your feedback

Prior to yesterday I had a PS3 in the mix and this tended to be temperamental at times. I used media server SW from Tversity this was not reliable enough, I then used a D-Link DB wireless AC1750 ADSL2+ Router PS3 recognized this device as a MS that worked very well. I then switched to the UFB fibre being rolled out in NZ and needed a New Router for the UFB i.e. VDSL at the same time I sourced a WD Personal Cloud device and this also worked fine until about a month ago getting support for PS3 can be a challenge. The stress-less solution was to check out the WD TV Media device I had been aware of it for a few years and peers were pushing Apple TV. So here I am checking out soon to be a collectors item hardware. If it is hasslefree and works I am all for it.

Thanks also for that heads up Mike I managed to race out and scrounge one up down here in NZ for around $150 NZD that was with a $40 discount. I have had some initial teething problems in the set up with issues around the wired network i.e. connecting via the WD My Cloud device, it connected OK but kept losing the connection. The device is working fine with an attached HD and pretty neat interface and easy to set up.

Just sorted the network issue it was a faulty or inferior Ethernet cable I had a similar issue early in the month where a PC connected to the router via Ethernet was not connecting after a reboot after checking a couple of chat rooms I noted a solution in one case was to replace the Ethernet cable. The one I was using was a nondescript cable made up where I used to work by our support team. I replaced it with a cat 5 cable and that fixed that problem. I was using the same type of cable WD TV to Router and have now changed it as well; it is all good now for the videos anyway have not tried the Music or Photos yet.

Yes, I can help you find a used WDTV from say eBay or Amazon, but it is a busy weekend, and so to prep me helping you, I need to ask a few more questions. Your say your Smart TV is a Visio, like as sold at Costco?

As I indicated, Smart TVs have a limited vocabulary. They can only play certain media files from media servers that stream media to the TV in DLNA format. Only certain devices are media servers. These devices have server capability built-in to them, Common examples are Windows PC and a WD My Cloud NAS is another.

A WDTV can play DLNA served media, too, but it can also access network shares; a common example is a network-shared drive attached to a computer, and also a Windows PC and a My Cloud have this ability, too. The WDTV can natively play more media formats than a Smart TV because it can access shares, and even a Windows PC can because it can access shared devices.

So, my question is what particular file types (file extensions) do you want to play on your TV?

Tell me about the WD Personal Cloud you mention you have. Is it a My Cloud or something else; product name, please.

Oh, do you have a Netflix account you can currently use on your TV, and also an Amazon Prime Video account?

Thanks, Mike

Hi the message above was started by me quite a few hours ago, and languished being completed until after you posted another. So, it may seem like I did not read your last posted message until after I posted mine, and you are right.

So, I take it you found a new WDTV there in NZ. Which model, the last current one made which is simply called WD TV Media Player?

BTW, stop using CAT 5 cables, be sure they are at least CAT 5e or CAT 6 as both handle gigabit signals which devices are moving to more and more. I basically have phased out all my CAT 5 cables.

OK, I will wait to hear back from you again.

Hi Mike tks for the feedback about the Ethernet Cables.

Maybe a not to distant shopping expedition to plan for! If they were colour coded the majority of my cables now should be the Cat 5 standard, those cables or 3 anyway were supplied with the most recent devices I obtained i.e. D-Link AS175 GB Cloud ADSL2+ M/R (I still have this router in my Network set up it is used as a Wi-Fi booster), Netcomm VDSL/ADSL AC1600 Wi-Fi GB M/R (IPv6) support, I obtained this router via my ISP previously they had leased me the earlier version (IPv4) after I switched to Fibre, WD My Cloud model WDBCTL0010HWT-AESN these devices all came with Cat 5 cable’s i.e. CC 24AWG 4P Cat 5. Being of the technically challenged breed to me one Ethernet cable was like another and I used what I already had in the NW rather than meddle with the spider web of cables, the digital concierge from my ISP has used a Cat 5 e when we set up my Wi-Fi booster.

I have now replaced the cables between the PC to Router & WD TV to Router. This appears to have resolved the NW drop out issues I had experienced between the Router-PS3-AV-TV initially and subsequently Router-WD TV-AV-TV; After installing the Cat 5 cable for the WDTV connectivity the WD TV is being the perfect middle man I had it running continuous for about 3 hours yesterday, the neighbours were delighted I bet!

It does seem odd to me that when this first started happening I switched the PS3 mode to Wi-Fi and had the same issue dropout issue i.e. video would start to play, stop, start a few seconds later etc. This made me rule out a network problem rather I associated the issue to coincide with a Firmware update installed on the PS3 via the wired connection early in March I was focused on the PS3 being the causal factor; prior to the FW update everything had been working fine for months via the wired connection. As mentioned early March I had issues with my W8.1 PC when rebooting the wired network was not connecting it went into ‘limited’ state and I needed to activate the windows troubleshoot function after each reboot which worked but annoyed me and as mentioned I spotted a comment via a chat room of similar nature corrected by changing the Ethernet cable which I did and no more lags when the PC rebooted.

This is probably TMI my NW both Internet & Home Theatre is primarily wired I only a W7 Laptop, 2 Smart Phones, 1 Printer and a Tablet using Wi-Fi all my other gear i.e. TV, DVR, AV Receiver, WD TV / PS3, My Cloud, IMAC, W8.1 AIO, W10 LT all wired, I use 2 switches off the router to accommodate this set up, after your mention of the now / future cable standards I am concerned about the one I had installed in the ceiling to connect the main living area to the room I use as my computer area at the other end of the house.

the model of my WDTV (WDBPUF0000NBK-AESN) I presume the differential is it is PAL as opposed to NTSC, I also note on the sticker I get 30 days free support from the date of the first call I will look forward to that! First look and feel of the WDTV I am pretty happy with the ease of setup and the operation.

Cheers

Brian Andrews
[Deleted]

Brian,

Bottom line re: the Ethernet cables. If you have them all thrown in a drawer together, separate them into groups by their type, i.e. all CAT 5 together, all CAT 5e together and CAT 6 together. and keep them separate so you can find the exact one you need. I always try to use the cables that come with the products, but sometimes I need a different length (like shorter ones for connecting modem and router), so I always check the cable where the type is shown somewhere on cable and get the exact CAT cable for the replacement.

Good thing I did, because my newest PC did not come with an Ethernet cable, and none I had fit the PC plug which is too tight, and the only one that fit was the one that originally came with my router and that is what is being used!

I looked up your new WD TV (lucky you for finding one!) and it is the AU/NZ model, of course.

Check the WD forum posts regarding it, as there seems to be some issue with playing mp4 files with the current firmware, so it may be suggested by users in there to use the previous version. So, if you haven’t updated the firmware yet, resist doing so until you get the full story on the firmware issues. It is easier to go up in firmware updates than to go down, because a rollback version needs to used for going down.

Have fun with it all.

Thanks Mike I have seen chat dated back to 2014 about issues with a firmware update 2.02.32 and rolling back to 2.01.86 I will check where mine is at tomorrow I had no issues today with 4 hours continuous play.

Thanks also for the tip on the cables I have decided to upgrade them all to the same Cat level probably Cat6 and will retain the 5’s as spares and ditch the rest.

Thanks for your advice and feedback much appreciated

The firmware issues you referred to are for a different model than your new one, it’s called the WDTV Live Streaming Media Player (aka SMP) We are currently in the forum for your model. So don’t get confused as to the forum you are in when you read specific stuff about firmware and operation, etc. Search your models forum for mentions of any mp4 playing issues in regards to latest firmware, etc. I believe some users are rolling back to the previous one now, too, for the WD TV Media Player you have, But, don’t just take my word for it; check it out for accuracy of my comments. I read a lot of forums here and could be confused.

Cables: Keep only CAT5e and CAT6 cables; toss the CAT 5(no e) if you toss any out. I still have CAT5 cables in use on devices that are not gigabit speed devices.

Hi again Mike doing a search the current FW release for my hardware appears to be Release 1.02.17 (12/16/2014), this is the version running on my WD TV Media Player running the check no new version available! Set the auto update to No! Device still doing everything as i expected even advance to playing music as well a videos, photos next.

There was some chat about issues playing video and I did have initial issues which disappeared after swapping out the Ethernet cable I will keep an eye on it.

tks

Good news. Working well. DId you see this link at WD Support:

Hopefully, this shows the firmware info of your WD TV. If not, you can go into the main support for the device and click on downloads, etc. Bottom line, it says the current firmware is the one you have installed. It shows a list of the fixes made. It is the only firmware release other than the initial FW on the first made units.

Have fun with your new WDTV.

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