Love its potential - hopes for future firmware updates!

This product is sooooo close to satisfying my media center needs!  I really hope these remaining capabilities (in order of priority to me) will come soon in future firmware updates:

[REVISED after installing hard line for network (vs WD LiveWire) and configuring custom theme (resolved no initial audio/subtitles window, no folder listing aspect ratio issue, etc.]

A1. [Videos - Audio Track] pass through “DTS-HD Master” audio tracks (not the DTS downmix) with “digital pass through via HTMI”.

A2. [Videos - Audio Track] pass through “PCM 5.1” audio tracks (not the stereo downmix) with “digital pass through via HTMI”.

A3. [Videos - Blu-ray Menus] support Blu-rays like DVD’s - with full menu support.  As a temporary solution, at least provide access to the other titles on the disc (versus only the first title which is played).


B1. [Media Library] support consistent, much faster incremental updates.

B2. [Keyboard Access] enable the “text box submit” on the web access page (“http://:80/wdtvlivehub/remote/#”), so the iPad/iPhone can be used as a keyboard by accessing the page.

B3. [Videos - Listing] support re-entering where last left off in folder structure

B4. [Network Shares] for Videos, Music and Photos, allow “Folders” view to begin at a certain folder - not always the root.


C1. [Videos - MKV Support] provide better MKV support like MP4 using embedded artwork and the embedded content title. However, as long as the xml/jpg content design is the only mechanism for this content data, display the content title from the XML file (not the filename) in views (e.g., “Folder” view).

C2. [Videos - Picture Size]  provide quick option to display at original size.


D1. [Videos - Content Info] provide mechanism to display disc-related info (disc cover, disc back, disc inserts) as opposed to the source-related info (e.g., general movie info).

D2. [Music - Listing] support “Album Artist” filter/sort

D3. [Videos - Favorites] support organizable links to video segments within bigger titles/chapters


Keep up the awesome work!

Steve

  1.  The hub has no known issues with large files of any sort.   I have 15GB MKV files served from my NAS that are fine; and most of my library is DVD, and I’ve never had that issue.

  2.  Yeah, that’d be nice.   There are workarounds though, if you’re interested.

  3.  Yes, we’ve been BEGGING for that since the thing was released. 

  4.  I think it DOES do that;  at least what I’ve seen gives the correct NAME for the track.  a) right;  WD has said that DTS refuses to license them to support DTS-MA.    Tru-HD, though IS supported in specific containers (like M2TS and VOB for example.

  5.  As opposed to what?  What exactly is “Original Size”?    Pixel-to-Pixel? 

  6.  It’s as fast as it’s going to be.   If your PC was doing the same thing the WD is doing, it wouldn’t be all that much faster.

  7.  Interesting Idea.

  8.  Agreed.

  9. Some international characters are supported.   Is your Encoding set up correctly?

… agreed with the rest.

I would suggest that you search the Ideas Lab and if they’re not there, post the Ideas.

Thanks for the feedback, Tony :slight_smile:

  1. Hmmm, number 1 is a biggie for me!

Are your MKV’s stored exactly as they came from the DVD? I use MakeMKV and they have no additional compression nor bandwidth loss.  And every one has this problem :frowning:

The same is true for full discs (either DVD folders or BD-ROM folders).  Do you access disc folders from your NAS?

Do you have a wired connection from your WD Live Media Hub to your intranet?

  1. I am interested in any work-arounds. Where will I find them outlined?

  2. Hmm, I saw the WD status dialog show DTS-HD when it only output “DTS” to my a/v receiver.  Side Question: If DTS-MA is not supported, then what is it outputting for the DTS-MA tracks that it shows as “DTS” in my a/v receiver?

  3. For smaller video file resolutions (e.g., 640 x 480) that I do not necessarily want to expand to my 1080p screen, I would like to be able to quickly choose “pixel-to-pixel”.  To accomplish this now, I have to go to Video Options - > Zoom and then keep selecting until I get the 1.0x viewing scale.

  4. I have tried all the Encoding settings (although in the end, I left it on the default “Western Europe”), but the Music tab does not display the accented characters (only blanks).  However, on the Files tab, they display perfectly.

I will check out the Ideas Lab.

  1.  All of my MKVs are converted to h.264 video, so the compression is quite a bit better than raw MP2 .  But my DVD ISOs are NOT compressed.   They’re original images;  average around 7 to 8.5 gigabytes each.   EVERYTHING is on my NAS.   I don’t use the local HD for much of anything.

  2.  Basically all I do is use BDInfo to find which Playlist is the movie I want, then I use tsMuxerGui to pull that Playlist into its own M2TS file.  

  3.  It’s outputting the DTS “Core” that MA builds on.

I use Makemkv. All my blu-rays disks average 25-45GB. I have NO issues with playback from my network server.

thelangs, do you have a wired connection between your WD TV Live Hub box and your intranet?  I do not, and I am wondering if the WD LiveWire is a constraint.  However, based on testing the same content from a slow USB drive connected to the WD TV Live Hub, the WD LiveWire should provide more than enough bandwidth to play the same content across the intranet.  I was just assuming that the WD TV LIve Hub is a little more inefficient across a network share compared to a slow USB drive, and that this could be corrected in a firmware update. 

yes, I have a gigagit wired connection between the HUB and my server (WHS).

Just an FYI, I just had a gigabit CAT6 hard-wired connection installed from the WD TV Live Hub to my router, and I was able to do various tests.  I seem to have validated my theory that the WD Live Hub is currently MUCH more inefficient with network share access than it is with USB flash drive access. The same content via a fairly slow USB flash drive (24 Mbps max) played with no issue compared to via a network share with 3 times greater bandwidth (90 Mbps - confirmed in various tests) which slowed to a halt within 10 seconds. The network share gave no problems with the gigabit (1000 Mbps) connection. I would hope a firmware update could make network share access more efficient :slight_smile:

Do the mkv’s you have problems with have a Dolby True HD track?  All of my mkv’s that do not have Dolby True HD as an available audio track stream fine but ones with a Dolby True HD track do not, although they play if saved on the internal drive.  This is over a wired gigabit connection.  I wouldn’t even attempt to stream HD over wireless.

I have both mkv’s and exact copies of disc folders (with m2ts’s for BD and vob’s for DVD) with a variety of audio tracks that I have tested: Stereo, Dolby Digital, DTS, DTS-HD Master, Dolby TrueHD, etc… With the gigabit connection, I have no problems with any of them.  My problems were only with the WD LiveWire “semi-wired” connection. FYI, it involves one unit connected to your router and another unit at your destination (providing 4 ethernet ports) - with both units plugged into your A/C outlets to utilize your A/C wiring (not wireless) to obtain anywhere from 100 Mbps (1/10 gigabit) to 200 Mbps (1/5 gigabit) … much better than wireless.