.ISO/.VOB Playback stall/skip and other problems

WD Legacy Products WD TV Live & Live Plus
1

I have a WDTV Live, it is wired into my network with a static IP address.

I use AnyDVD and DVDShrink to back up my DVD to a single .VOB file.

I created a directory per movie on my buffalo NAS and turned on the media server.

When i play back my movies, on most of my movies i get a stall in video playback, i can hear the movie conitnuing to play in the background but the video stalls, then if left alone will catch up the audio.  This happens in the same spot EVERY time on the DVD.  This happens on most of my DVD’s.  Also, when i fast forward with a .VOB file, it behaves erraticly.  Without chapter support in the .VOB files and fast forwarding broken, i needed to flip formats not to mention video freezing.

So i decided to flip to .ISO format.  still no chapter support but fast forwarding works fine.  As media server is not supported by .ISO (or vice versa) i went to network share all my .ISO’s.  I get the same playback error.  It is in the same spot EVERY time.  The movie picks up again on its own but its ANNOYING. 

I gave the origional DVD to a friend and have him try the same process with his WDTV Live and we can repeat the results.  Now, this happens with most of my collection and all the DVD’s in my collection are in new condition.

I have tried different DVD drives, ripping raw from the disk to copying locally then ripping, new network cable, and i have also tried repairing the disk all with the same result.  Again, i have some movies that work fine and some that have this error.  When i play the raw DVD back on VLC media player, i see the spot where it skips, but the player seems to have no problem working through.

I don’t remember if i had the problem when i encoded them using handbrake to MKV files, but you get a big drop in quality when you do that.

To my knowledge if you want raw DVD quality, you need to rip in .VOB or .ISO is that correct?

Has anyone else run into this problem?  is this an indication that player in the WDTV Live is not as robust as VLC?

any help/insight would be appreciated.

2

Cygnus7 wrote:

I don’t remember if i had the problem when i encoded them using handbrake to MKV files, but you get a big drop in quality when you do that.

 

To my knowledge if you want raw DVD quality, you need to rip in .VOB or .ISO is that correct?

 

I encode all my DVDs and blu-rays using Handbrake, with the High Preset (and passing through the DTS or AC3 audio) to an MKV container.  At that quality setting you should see almost no difference in quality (indeed, I’ve done A/B tests and cannot tell which is which).  I’ve also never had an issue playing MKV files.

At the very least it would be interesting for you to try that problematic DVD, using the CURRENT Handbrake snapshot (not .94 but the current snapshot) with the High Preset, pass through the right audio track(s), and send to an MKV container.  The results might surprise you (even with blu-ray).

3

I have the same problem as you. I have contacted wd support and they first gave me the runaround on what file types the media player will suport. Long story short after I shoved the user manual in there face (quoting page numbers and FAQ numbers) all they could say is they would pass the info to the developers and “IF” they could duplicate and “IF” they could find a root cause it “MAY” be fixed in a future update. They also told me to reincode to .AVI or .MKV but I told them I have over 280 movies on my HDD and reincode was NOT an option because they state WDTV Live will play VOB (I did try AVI and MKV worked great but my PS3 wont play AVI or MKV). And I dont want 2 copys of the same movie 1 VOB and 1 MKV (thats just a waste of HDD space). They also told me if I cant wait to see if the issue will be fixed to return the players to the place of purchace (I am just going to call BS on that statement c’mon WD REALLY!!!) I am a big fan of WD HDD so I gave WDTV Live a shot and I am sorry I did I have 3 tv’s i want to streem to and I have 2 wd and 1 PS3 I really dont want to go buy another wdtv and redo 280 movies so after looking alot on the net about this problem and there are a few people I see have had this problem it is usless on the ISO and VOB side of things.

SADLY (sorry WD) I am going to look for another media player I hope WD will still make good HDD in the future but they still have a bit to figure out on the media player side of things.

4

I definitely think you’d be better off with another player (perhaps the Seagate Theater).  The Live is not for everyone.

5

Cygnus7 wrote:> To my knowledge if you want raw DVD quality, you need to rip in .VOB or .ISO is that correct?

Yes, but you can also convert it to MKV with MakeMKV which will take the same amout as copying over to another drive since no encoding is necessary. There’s no need to waste time encoding with Handbrake.

6

I will try the MakeMKV tonight and see how that works.  If it retains the same quality and no skipping that would be great! 

As for trying another solution, There are alot of things I like about the WD that make me not want to change to another brand, and then i just inherit their problems, i would rather just lock in with one manufacturer and get them to fix the issues.

But, if this MakeMKV program retains the same quality if the DVD and gets rid of the skipping then i am all set.  I have not digitized my entire collection yet so i am in a good position.  I am trying to develop the process.

7

Great Suggestion on that MakeMKV program.  I made an MKV and a ISO of the same movie and queued them up in VLC side by side and they are the same quality…and i got subtitles and chapters.

Next step is going to make an MKV of the movies i have the skipping problem with and see if they skip on the WDLive and if they dont then i am set.

I want to see if i can mimic the settings on MakeMKV on handbrake though, only because i like the queueing feature of handbrake.

thanks again for all the input, I want to take a sick day now and run home to try it :slight_smile:

8

MKVToolnix should offer queueing for making MKVs. You could also request that feature for MakeMKV, the tool seems to be in heavy development.