I mainly bought this device so I could play back my converted DVD and BD discs because my Linksys Media Center extender chokes on them. I use PavTube Ultimate for converting (it reads BD discs that most other software won’t), but the WD TV Live Plus has been having issues with playback on some of them, so I decided to do some testing to find out the best format for video and audio for my conversions. Here’s some of the results.
I used a clip from Avatar on Blu-Ray for all my tests. The WD TV Live Plus is connected to a 46" LCD via HDMI (direct) with its optical audio going to a Sherwood 5.1 receiver. Audio playback was determined by the indicator lights on the receiver (Stereo, Dolby Pro Logic, Dolby Digital, DTS).
Clip 1 - H.264 in an MP4 container. Audio in AAC 5.1 format.
Result=Video plays fine, no audio.
Clip 2 - H.264 in an MKV container. Audio in AAC 5.1 format.
Result=Video plays fine, no audio.
Clip 3 - H.264 in an MKV container. Audio in AC3 5.1 format.
Result=Video plays fine, audio plays in digital 5.1.
Clip 4 - Xvid in an MP4 container. Audio in AAC 5.1 format.
Result=Video plays fine, no audio.
Clip 5 - Xvid in an MP4 container. Audio in AC3 5.1 format.
Result=Video plays fine, audio plays in Dolby Pro Logic format (surround only, no subwoofer out).
Clip 6 - H.264 in a TS container. Audio in AAC 5.1 format.
Result=Video is slow to load, but plays fine. Audio plays in Dolby Pro Logic format (surround only, no subwoofer out).
Clip 7 - H.264 in a TS container. Audio in AC3 5.1 format.
Result=Video is slow to load, but plays fine. Audio plays in digital 5.1.
Clip 8 - MPG2 format. Audio in AC3 5.1 format.
Result=Video plays fine, audio plays in digital 5.1.
Considering that the WD TV is marketed as being AAC compatible, I’m at a loss to understand why it does not handle 5.1 AAC streams. It does support AAC stereo, but what is the point of downsampling a 5.1 movie to a stereo or Dolby Pro Logic soundtrack? Hopefully, this will be fixed in a new firmware. I’m also surprised that even though AC3 is not listed as being supported, it correctly outputs true 5.1 AC3 audio on the conversions that have it. All videos played smoothly and audio (sampled at 384kbps) was rich and room-filling. I wish the PavTube software would allow me to preserve the DTS soundtracks, but for less than $40 I might be asking too much.