Setup:
Firmware Version 1.04.17_V for WD TV Live
Video: Component Video
Audio: Digital
Internet: Wired
Laptop: Windows Vista
Tested so far:
Playon version 3.0.38.1 Basic: Hulu videos and audio are fine, have not tested other channels or plugins.
Youtube: video and audio – pass
Movie playback is done sometimes with attached drive or via network share all files are mkv format and so far so good
Have not tested facebook, but don’t really intend to use it.
Not working.
Flingo: videos come up and play but, not getting any audio. Also when going back to the channels at this point the system just seems to hang.
danapark wrote:
upgraded firmware and lost wireless. Seams to be happening a lot. Now I’ve got a brick instead of a media player.
Losing the wireless does not make a brick. Have you tried rolling back to the last firmware.
To all those posters who are incorrectly saying their units are ‘bricked’ now their wireless adaptors don’t work have you tried rolling back the firmware.
Full instructions here from WD - use the firmware on this page (1.03.49_V)
http://wdc.custhelp.com/cgi-bin/wdc.cfg/php/enduser/std_adp.php?p_faqid=5800
After you go back and hopefully regain your wireless functions you can update to the 1.04.10 via the unit.
I wonder are they going to fix the subtitle. srt sub sit too high on the screen. It is very anoying. can the sub be in the bottom of the tv. Please fix this.
Rolled back now lost sound. Did the whole factory default then reset then wait ten minutes then switch audio to stereo. Still no sound. I’m about 4 hours into this and really have lost patience with the whole thing.
Scandy wrote:
Your best solution now, is to downgrade your firmware to 1.03.49, or 1.03.29. Some have rolled back all the way to 1.03.21.
And some to 1.02.21 (maybe that’s what you meant anyway). And there’s even some like me who have closely followed all the firmware release forums but never thought upgrading beyond 1.01.11 was worth the risk. I can live with the bugs in 1.01.11, and playback is predictable! :wink:
This is ridiculous… It’s your option not to update, but saying that ANY update is “risky” it is just plain mean spirited.
I did have problems with the 1.03 betas but the 1.02 and the last 1.04 are just GOOD. Updating by skipping whole “generations” might get you in trouble, I did update via internet and from 1.02 to 1.04 where four updates - each one after another.
1.02.21 was one of the best ones and the 1.04.17 is there too…
SoNic wrote:
This is ridiculous… It’s your option not to update, but saying that ANY update is “risky” it is just plain mean spirited.
I did have problems with the 1.03 betas but the 1.02 and the last 1.04 are just GOOD. Updating by skipping whole “generations” might get you in trouble, I did update via internet and from 1.02 to 1.04 where four updates - each one after another.
1.02.21 was one of the best ones and the 1.04.17 is there too…
I wouldn’t call any update or firmware release for this product “GOOD” by any means . . . And I would certainly say that updating this device is highly risky, since WD has not once released a firmware that did not have widespread problems . . . many of which still persist. . .
My WDTV Live was a POS out of the box - **bleep** thing still can’t consistently get through a movie without the audio falling out of sync . . . now it’s literally a stand for my appleTV to sit on . . .
Scandy wrote:
If you look at the release notes for the current version, you will see that virtually none of the problems discussed in the long firmware threads for 1.04.10 has been fixed. The new firmware has most of the same problems along with some new problems. I have been waiting 5 months for fixes to problems that I could have fixed in one day (I am a video hardware/software engineer), so I would not count on ‘working firmware’ anytime soon.
Your best solution now, is to downgrade your firmware to 1.03.49, or 1.03.29. Some have rolled back all the way to 1.03.21.
Yeah, I suppose whatever version was released in March 2010 is the one I should revert back to. The device actually kicked butt after that firmware update. It wasn’t flawless, but it was **bleep** near flawless. It’s the updates that started in November that made it all go down the tubes.
Unfortunately, I don’t have a USB drive of any sort, and I’m not about to go buy one just for this purpose. I already have a NAS with 1 terabyte, I don’t need any other storage devices. So basically, Western Digital has put me in a bind.
(Ironically, my NAS is a WD My Book World Edition white light, I’m actually a pretty loyal WD customer. Why do they like to screw with us loyalists?)
I’ve tried to find a list of previous firmwares on WD’s site and via google, but can’t find anything.
Is there a list somewhere that shows the release dates so I can figure out exactly which firmware was released in March of 2010?
I was able to find out that 1.01.17 was released in early January 2010, but after that I can’t find further info.
March of 2010 was version 1.02.21.
TonyPh12345 wrote:
March of 2010 was version 1.02.21.
Thanks. That was the version that fixed all the minor flaws I experienced. Any other subsequent updates didn’t seem to have any impact, good or bad, for me. Well, up until the last three updates, that is. 
Upgraded from 3_43_V (beta) directly to 4.17_v. This release looks OK!
No MKV stutter problems as faced in earlier releases.
No problems playing very large MKV files (tested up to 10GB)
Video_TS folders Play fine
5.1 Audio smooth
DLink-DWA-125 Wireless adapter still up with no hitch (tested Youtube, Facebook)
Facebook has a quirk that when keying in user id, it fails when one types in the .com manually . Instead if I use the .com in the presets under the .www key it works ok!
Large MKV stutters when my Wireless is plugged in. It starts playing smooth when i unplug the wireless… how weird is that (Is it because the Sigma chip is spending too many CPU cycles for the wirless?)
Subtitles go out of frame when zooming to 2x(i have a 4:3 tv) . This was not a problem in earlier versions!
BTW all my tests were with local media (2TB Seagate Goflex)
Also, please fix the annoying folder icon problem!
Overall I give a thumbs up for this release. Thank you WD!
why can’t they fix the problems their firmware updates caused??
Shouldn’t they be concerned about introducing firmwares that break their customers products?
Mine worked great after the March 2010 update.
After that, it became almost impossible to use the WD TV Live because every video file would only play for 8 to 10 minutes and then it would crash.
Are they trying to satisfy the copyright holders? Or did they just have really bad programmers?
Could WD really have failed in hiring and have crappy developers? Could their firmware be **bleep**ty because they hired people who didn’t know how to write programs? Naahhh.
Something is up with WD. They don’t want it to work, because they got a message, copyrighted material is being viewed, and that needs to stop.
PhilLesh69 wrote:
why can’t they fix the problems their firmware updates caused??
Shouldn’t they be concerned about introducing firmwares that break their customers products?
Mine worked great after the March 2010 update.
After that, it became almost impossible to use the WD TV Live because every video file would only play for 8 to 10 minutes and then it would crash.
Are they trying to satisfy the copyright holders? Or did they just have really bad programmers?
Could WD really have failed in hiring and have crappy developers? Could their firmware be **bleep**ty because they hired people who didn’t know how to write programs? Naahhh.
Something is up with WD. They don’t want it to work, because they got a message, copyrighted material is being viewed, and that needs to stop.
Lets face we all use the unit to watch copyrighted material - ripped DVD’s. If you rip to an iso image than there is no problem with the unit therefore I would go with the quality of their programmers rather than invent some conspiracy that they are trying to stop viewing copyrighted material.
I agree completly.
I have a software house for about 17 years, I’m a programmer for about 20 years and what I can say is
that if I treat my customer with some kind of buggy software like WD do, I would be out of job a long time ago.
I will never buy a WD product.
I bought on the past, many products from WD. The Live is my second box (I had the first one).
I’m glad because thousands of people all over the world knows how this is a buggy BOX.
To the WD programmer, do something else. Learn with others. Western Digital name doesn’t do all the work.
You must know about what you’re doing to do a good job.
Go and study.
essentialbeef wrote:
this is exactly what i want to happen. i set mine to rgb high then it is is reset to auto (which does not select rgb high) instead of keeping my setting of rgb high. you can have my problem if i can have yours!
What connection cable and TV set do you use?
hdmi from unit to yamaha rx-v667 receiver, then hdmi from receiver to philips 42pf7621d tv.
I just bought a WD Live TV, and updated the device to the latest firmware 1.04.17, and I am experiencing the mkv stutter problem on high-bitrate (10Mbps+) x.264/DTS mkv files when streaming over a 100Mbps LAN from a Acer EasyStore WHS running a Netgear WNDR3700 router. Even on lower bitrate (6.5Mbps) mkv files, the file will play for a few minutes, then both audio and video becomes choppy and eventually stalls out. Here are the specs on a file that stutters as taken by MediaInfo x64:
General
Format : Matroska
File size : 15.2 GiB
Duration : 2h 37mn
Overall bit rate : 13.8 Mbps
Encoded date : UTC 2010-01-18 18:31:47
Writing application : mkvmerge v2.5.2 (‘Stranger in your Soul’) built on Feb 28 2009 18:58:17
Writing library : libebml v0.7.7 + libmatroska v0.8.1
Video
ID : 1
Format : AVC
Format/Info : Advanced Video Codec
Format profile : High@L4.1
Format settings, CABAC : Yes
Format settings, ReFrames : 5 frames
Codec ID : V_MPEG4/ISO/AVC
Duration : 2h 37mn
Bit rate : 12.1 Mbps
Width : 1 920 pixels
Height : 800 pixels
Display aspect ratio : 2.40:1
Frame rate : 23.976 fps
Color space : YUV
Chroma subsampling : 4:2:0
Bit depth : 8 bits
Scan type : Progressive
Bits/(Pixel*Frame) : 0.329
Stream size : 13.0 GiB (86%)
Title : 2012.2009
Writing library : x264 core 80 r1373 4322f63
Encoding settings : cabac=1 / ref=5 / deblock=1:-3:-3 / analyse=0x3:0x113 / me=umh / subme=10 / psy=1 / psy_rd=1.0:0.2 / mixed_ref=1 / me_range=64 / chroma_me=1 / trellis=2 / 8x8dct=1 / cqm=2 / deadzone=21,11 / fast_pskip=0 / chroma_qp_offset=-2 / threads=12 / sliced_threads=0 / nr=0 / decimate=1 / mbaff=0 / constrained_intra=0 / bframes=3 / b_pyramid=2 / b_adapt=2 / b_bias=0 / direct=3 / wpredb=1 / wpredp=2 / keyint=250 / keyint_min=25 / scenecut=40 / rc_lookahead=60 / rc=2pass / mbtree=1 / bitrate=12100 / ratetol=2.0 / qcomp=0.70 / qpmin=10 / qpmax=51 / qpstep=4 / cplxblur=20.0 / qblur=0.5 / vbv_maxrate=50000 / vbv_bufsize=50000 / ip_ratio=1.40 / aq=1:1.00
Language : English
Audio #1
ID : 2
Format : DTS
Format/Info : Digital Theater Systems
Codec ID : A_DTS
Duration : 2h 37mn
Bit rate mode : Constant
Bit rate : 1 510 Kbps
Channel(s) : 6 channels
Channel positions : Front: L C R, Side: L R, LFE
Sampling rate : 48.0 KHz
Bit depth : 24 bits
Compression mode : Lossy
Stream size : 1.66 GiB (11%)
Title : DTS-HD MA core 1536k
Language : English
Audio #2
ID : 3
Format : AC-3
Format/Info : Audio Coding 3
Mode extension : CM (complete main)
Codec ID : A_AC3
Duration : 2h 37mn
Bit rate mode : Constant
Bit rate : 192 Kbps
Channel(s) : 2 channels
Channel positions : Front: L R
Sampling rate : 48.0 KHz
Bit depth : 16 bits
Compression mode : Lossy
Stream size : 217 MiB (1%)
Title : DD2.0 192K Vorbis commentary
Language : English
I do not know if previous firmwares were immune from this issue, as the first time I used the device I immediately updated. Needless to say, I’ve heard public opinion about WD products, and now that I’ve experienced this first-hand, can definitely say their firmware updates leave much to be desired if they break a stated feature that’s written in the specs and on the box. If I don’t see a swift fix for this, back to the store it goes, and getting the Patriot Box Office instead.
Can we expect an update that give to wd the ability to be a very good browser?
Seconde request will be fine if the wd buy from dts the copyright for dts-ma.I think the donating goes good so why not they still cant fix it(true-hd passthrough with big success)?
And the last request can the wd do upscale to non HD-files to 1920x1080?
Simple dvds do it so why not wd?
George19855 wrote:
And the last request can the wd do upscale to non HD-files to 1920x1080?
Simple dvds do it so why not wd?
But it does do it … e.g. set your WDTV to output Full HD and play a non-HD media file - it’s upscaled.
