Need help

WD Legacy Products WD TV Live Hub Discussions
1

Have a WD TV Live Hub and cant stream .mkv over the wifi as WD doesnt see the files.

I have them on a shared folder on the PC and can play .avi over the wifi so there is no problem with how sharing is set up.

I can play .mkv on the PC with WMP and WMC.

I have tried some .reg fixes and it did nothing so basically if I cannot stream .mkv over wifi the unit has to go back.

Any advice greatly received

2

It certainly can do that. 

Chances are you’re using a media server that doesn’t support MKV files.

You can either address that, or just just network shares instead.

3

I can stream MKV files all day long without issue. The only time I have a problem is with my Blu-Ray rips in full resolution. Too much data for any wireless network to handle. Forget what plays on the PC, no comparison to the lesser processing capability and codec support of the Live Hub. It has to be a sharing issue as the Hub is perfectly capable of playing MKV files.

4

Check folder permissions

Have you selected the right content source?

5

You’re running into the same problem I was. The 8GB+ full 1080p BD MKVs are just too **bleep** large for the Media Hub to handle with streaming. There must be a very puny cache. My solution was to copy them all to an external drive (WD 1TB Go) and hook it up direct. As long as the drive is recognized by the hub once, it will continually try to add new files to the Media Library. So, you can disconnect it, copy new files over and then reconnect it. Just remember to give it enough time to recognize the new files and acquire the meta data before attempting to play.

6

DevlshOne wrote:

You’re running into the same problem I was. The 8GB+ full 1080p BD MKVs are just too **bleep** large for the Media Hub to handle with streaming. 

That’s just not true at all.  I have 20GB+ files (one I think is about 36G) that play just fine.

And no, he’s not having the same problem.   His Hub isn’t even SEEING the files.  

You’re having problems PLAYING them reliably.

7

Tony… you may be an “Honored Contributor” but I doubt that gives you any special rights to bash people or their opinions. It is my opinion that the devices have a difficult time with SOME files over 8GB. On my system, and from the many threads I have read, this seems to be the rule rather than the exception. If it’s working great for you… fantastic… but instead of telling others how wrong they are, perhaps you should share some tweaks that keep your system running smooth.

Yes, I misread the OP’s problem and my problems are not similar.

Try to remember that there is a difference between constructive criticism and opposition.

Thanks

8

 I doubt that gives you any special rights to bash people or their opinions.

You didn’t state an opinion.  You made a comment as fact:  "The 8GB+ full 1080p BD MKVs are just too **bleep** large… "

That’s what you said before, now you say “It is my opinion that the devices have a difficult time with SOME files over 8GB.”

Countering such a statement is not “bashing.”  If that’s how you read it, then you need to grow a thicker skin…

Filesize has absolutely nothing to do with the performance of the Hub.   Size is meaningless.  I was countering your statement with truth.

It’s all about bitrate and video format compatibility.    An 8G file with a playback duration of 10 minutes is not likely to play well because it exceeds the maximum allowed bitrate.   An 8G file with a playback duration of an hour will play fine because the bitrate is below the maximum.   Likewise, any 80G file with a playback duration of 10 hours will play equally well because the bitrate is the same.

 On my system, and from the many threads I have read, this seems to be the rule rather than the exception.

See?  There’s another blanket un-truth.   You’ve not read ANY threads that suggest that’s the rule – at least, not any threads that held water…

 perhaps you should share some tweaks that keep your system running smooth.

No tweaks at all.   It just works.

 Try to remember that there is a difference between constructive criticism and opposition.

I know very well the difference between constructive criticism and opposition.   I was not trying to constructively criticise… I was deliberately opposing your comment.

9

Actually, Tony, there is some truth to what he said. He originally referred to streaming those high bitrate files, which I took to mean over a network. I have also had this issue with my full-bitrate BD rips, wired or wireless. Fortunately, as you noted, they play absolutely fine from a local drive, either the internal or an external USB drive.

10

He never said anything about bitrate. :wink:  He just said files over 8 Gigabytes.

11

Do files over 8GB typically have low bitrates? The few I just checked have bitrates of 8Mbps+, that’s pretty high considering the original standard for 10Base-T ethernet (802.3) is only 10Mbps.

So, rather than slamming folks for sematics, why not address the actual issue?

12

Raw DVDs have higher bitrate than 8 Mbps.

Unrecompressed BDs can easily have bitrates in excess of 30-40 Mbps.

And I gotta ask, what does 10BaseT have to do with it?

13

Unrecompressed BDs also have a delivery system (a BD player and HDMI) designed especially for them to handle those high bitrates properly. I think the question here is “do the WD Media hub’s network interface and the logic programmed by the firmware also have these capabiltiies?” From my personal experience with BD’s converted to MKV or AVCHD, the answer is clearly “no”.

I performed a brief experiment last night…

The file: Battleship, 2 hours 11 seconds, Total bitrate 16308kbps, 23 fps, H264 (High @L4.1) compression, 5.1 audio @ 48kHz sample rate

Setup 1

File source: WHS2011x64 box; Network nodes in use: 1GB PCIe NIC, DGS-2208 8-port Gigabit switch, WGR314v10 wirelessly bridged to another WGR314v10, 75’ shielded CAT6 cable, FS608 8-port 10/100Mbps switch; Renderer: VLC Media Player on Toshiba L875D-S7210 (Built-In Display)

Setup 2

File source: WD TV Live Media Hub (f/w 3.0.6.14) box; Network nodes in use: FS608 8-port 10/100Mbps switch; Renderer: VLC Media Player on Toshiba L875D-S7210 (Built-In Display)

Results

Setup 1 completes after 2:12, zero stutter or buffering.

Setup 2 completes after 2:18, several bouts with stutter, jitter and buffering around the 2:00 mark, increasing in frequency as the end of the file is nearer.

Questions? Comments? Evaluations?

I will perform a similar experiment with the WD box as the renderer…

14

TonyPh12345 wrote:

 

And I gotta ask, what does 10BaseT have to do with it?

It may have been thirty years ago, but its still astonishing to think that today’s compression bitrates far exceed the original 10BaseT design.

15 
General
ID : 1 (0x1)
Complete name : Apollo 13
Format : MPEG-TS
File size : 29.3 GiB
Duration : 2h 19mn
Overall bit rate mode : Variable
Overall bit rate : 30.0 Mbps
Maximum Overall bit rate : 35.5 Mbps

I watched Apollo 13 Bluray rip a couple of weekends ago.

My BD rip has original video, three audio tracks (One DTS-HD MA, two Dolby Digital) and four PGS subtitle tracks.

Average bitrate 30 Mbps.   No stuttering at all.

16

Ooops:  I just noticed:   WGR314v10? 

What’s that?   I can’t find any info on it on Google.

But if I had to guess, it’s a Netgear 802.11g device.

17

TonyPh12345 wrote:

Ooops:  I just noticed:   WGR314v10? 

 

What’s that?   I can’t find any info on it on Google.

 

But if I had to guess, it’s a Netgear 802.11g device.

 

Yeah, typo. That should have been WGR614v10.

18

That’s also an 802.11g device.   802.11g maximum theoretical bandwidth is 54 mbps.  Maximum practical bandwidth is around 35.   Running them in BRIDGE mode can cut that in half (since two devices are occupying the same channel) reducing maximum practical bandwidth to around 18-20.  

Add protocol overhead and decrease the bandwidth due to possible channel interference, and it’s quite possible that WiFi bridge-link just isn’t going to cut it for higher bandwidth rips.

In “General” (meaning, take it with a grain of salt) one almost always needs a pure 802.11n WiFi environment which supports much faster bandwidths and channel controls to stream higher bitrate videos.

And by “Pure,” I mean, not mixed-mode a/b/g/n on 2.4 Ghz, it means n-only on 5.0 GHz.

19

You missed the main point of my experiment. The WHS2011 server that used the bridge flawlessly streamed the file. The WD Hub, which was wireless-free, had the issues.

Regradless, I’m running the routers in 150Mbps mode on 5.0GHz channel 9. According to TamoSoft’s Throughput Test software package, I’m averaging 69 Mbps effective throughput. It’s not a network issue.

20

DevlshOne wrote:

 I’m running the routers in 150Mbps mode on 5.0GHz channel 9. According to TamoSoft’s Throughput Test software package, I’m averaging 69 Mbps effective throughput. It’s not a network issue.

I don’t understand how that’s possible.   The WGR614 is only 802.11g; no support for 5Ghz or 150Mbps…

Is it not this:   http://www.netgear.com/home/products/wirelessrouters/simplesharing/wgr614.aspx  ?

So your Setup Test 2 is saying that the Hub is acting as the Server?   Which type of server?  Samba (Windows Share) or DLNA?   – NOT acting as the Player?