The following was a cover letter I was intending to attach to my WD TV LIVE while returning it to FRY’s. Now I am not too sure whether this was a problem with my specific unit, or a general design/firmware flaw with the LIVE in general.
It is incumbent on WD to monitor this forum, and acknowledge problems like this, and give us some expectation of a problem resolution. Clearly I am not the only one with this problem.
Problem with WD TV LIVE
Saturday, March 20, 2010
David H. Straayer
xxxx
This appears to be a time-based intermittent. I can see why the item was re-stocked and put on the shelf for re-sale. A brief checkout would show no problems.
Here is my experience:
I hooked the WD TV LIVE into my network using a Fry’s 100’ Cat 5 cable.
The LIVE was able to find and be found by the network just fine.
I used the Video/Folders to navigate to a folder with VOB files in it. I selected the first VOB file and initiated play.
It played perfectly … for about 5 minutes. Then the LIVE put up a message indicating that the network connection was lost.
I recycled power on the LIVE, and it immediately regained network connection. I navigated to the same folder location and started play. I was offered the opportunity to resume play where I had left off; I chose to resume.
It played for about 5 minutes perfectly, resuming pretty much where it had left off. After about 5 minutes, it abruptly stopped and put up the message indicating that the network connection was lost.
I repeated this cycle about 6 or 7 times, timing the play time with my watch. All of the play times were between 5 and 6 minutes, except for the very last one, which stopped with the network connection message at about 3 ½ minutes.
Every time the network connection was lost, it was immediately regained after a power cycle on the LIVE. There was never any noticeable problem elsewhere on my home network.
I conclude that there is a hardware (or possibly firmware) problem with this unit. A quick check of it will never show any problem, since it takes between 5 and 6 minutes of playing time for it to lose network connection.
I expect Fry’s to honor “the full manufacturer’s warranty” by replacing the unit with a function unit at no extra cost to me.
Sincerely,
David H. Straayer