New Release - Firmware Version 1.04.22_B for WD TV Live Plus (3/8/11)

Before this update all my movies played without stuttering. The only problem I had was that I had to change the framerate manually to match the framerate of the movie. So I was happy to see the Auto Framerate feature was added. And as for as I can see till now it is working great.

But yesterday I discovered some movies now are stuttering which where not before (with the previous firmware).

With Auto Framerate and with manual framerate. Somehow a couple of movies are not playing smooth any more. I will check with the previous firmware again to see if this really is caused by the new firmware.

Thank god for this update especially as it seems to address a lot of issues with the player that were not fixed for a long time. Some of the bugs - like the delay in being able to play videos on start up - were extremely annoying. I hope this firmware addresses some of the basic bugs that affected the WD live+ performance.

Thanks again !

Unfortunately this update gives me major issues !!! I used to be able to playback movies and music from my twonkyserver on Netgear ReadyNas NV+ . Since the last update this doesn’t work anymore. Can you help me ???

Updated a week or so ago (see previous post).  Just discovered that my remote is dead.  Put in new (tested) batteries, cycled power several times and pushed the reset pin - still not working.   Any suggestions?  The box is less than year old.

Netflix? What’s that?

Oh thats right you live in the USA, and some of us in CANADA.

Wait! We have Netflix in Canada, and the WDTV is the only device basically that does not support it. But it’s on the Box! Oh wait thats right, Canada not supported, coz the Product Manager for the WDTV LIve is an ■■■■■.

I’m happy to do his job, what is his bosses name? I’ll ping him on Linkedin and tell him I’ll roll upmy sleeves and get it coded sometime in this century!

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Wow. I think the problem lies less with coding problems on WD’s end and more with techno-politcs with your Canadian Radio-television Telecommunications Commission.

Boxee and Apple TV both have Netflix Canada.  Its definitely not the CRTC.  I agree with the first guy who said the product manager is an ■■■■■

Well, perhaps you guys can go complain somewhere other than the firmware subsection, then?

Marde wrote:> I have never heard of “Netflix audio over the optical port is still broken”. I am positive that is untrue in my home with Live+ and fw 1.03.49. You should troubleshoot your setup. Netflix and optical out works fine.

How about 1.04.22_B?  Anyway, I tried rolling back to 1.03.49 yesterday, and Netflix audio over the optical port is broken with that firmware, too.  The only difference being that with 1.03.49 Netflix never outputs audio over the optical port, and with 1.04.22_B, it only works if you play a movie file first.

This is my experience, with my receiver, at least.  Maybe it works with yours.  I will say that the optical port works fine when playing movie files, and it works fine with every other device with an optical output that I’ve ever hooked up to it.  Except the WD Live Plus with Netflix.  And I’ve spent many, many hours factory resetting and reloading firmware and testing and troubleshooting.

But it is a firmware issue.  We have been asking for this since Netflix has been available in Canada.  They have done 3 firmware updates since.

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Looking forward to installing this upgrade tonight.  Long list of fixes, although I don’t see any mention of the shuffle problem I am hoping it is fixed and will report back here after testing.  That is the reason I am still on 1.03.49.

Typing with fingers crossed.

Wrong post.

Sorry to tell you this horizons1 but they have not fixed the shuffle problem. I have tried every update since I got my unit and each one breaks my ability to play my videos recorded with my Sony HD camcorder. My videos are store on my main PC which is hardwired to my router as is my WD unit. In version 1.04.22_B the video will play for about 20 seconds with NO sound then freeze. The sound will then start with the video frozen. I tried various setting adjustments with no luck. The latest version also will not let me set the resolution to 1080i even though 1.03.49_B will. I have reverted back to 1.03.49_B. I have absolutely no faith that WD will or can fix this problem. I think that they should stick to making hard drives. I have worked in IT for 25 years as a programmer, systems analyst and database administrator so I know that all software has bugs. The fact that WD has not fixed this problem that affects one of the main functions of their product in this amount of time is unacceptable.

You are right, GWTHOR, much to my disappointment shuffle is not fixed.  I had to, once again, roll back to 1.03.49.  Good thing I keep that version on a thumb drive by itself considering how often I have to roll back.

I’m going to open a ticket again, not knowing what good it will do.  When I shuffle music from my media server library (not an attached storage device) I can only play a small section of my library.  It only plays songs beginning with the letters Y or Z.  This has been broken since 1.04.x

I’m experiencing the Netflix/Optical issue as well.  Using HDMI output to send video to the TV (Samsung) and optical out to send audio to the receiver (Onkyo).

Previous Version

Netflix would work properly for a while, then the audio would start stuttering.  Sometimes audio would return on its own after 30 sec, and usually if you rewound Netflix to force a rebuffering the audio would return as well.  Usually only happened between 6-8PM US EST (I live in EST), so originally I thought this was a bandwidth issue.

After a while, the problem worsened.  After the stuttering started, audio would never come back.  I tried exiting Netflix and using Pandora, but that didn’t work either.  Pandora wouldn’t load the songs at all; it would just skip from one song to the next every 3-4 seconds.  Rebooting the WDTV Live Plus was the only way to restore audio.

The Live Plus also started randomly rebooting itself while watching movies, so I was beginning to think that my unit was defective.

Version 1.04.22_B

Downloaded a couple days ago and it’s much better, but not completely fixed.  I still get occasional audio stuttering in Netflix, but now it always recovers itself given enough time (5-15 sec usually).  Rewinding Netflix to force a rebuffer also still works, but this happens often enough that it’s difficult to watch a Netflix movie without interruption as the audio will kick out at least a couple times per movie.  You lose the flow of the movie when you rewind, and you miss dialogue if you wait for the audio to come back.

The random reboots also seem to have gone away; I had been watching VOB files and had experienced other situations as described in the release notes for this version.  So my only remaining issue is the audio dropout on Netflix.

Time and date are quite wrong (12/31/1999, 19:05).  Netflix is not working, a symptom of the date/time issue.

It would be REALLY NICE if we could set the date and time ourselves. 

Netflix doesn’t give a flip about the date… Is your router blocking NTP traffic? That’s the only reason I can think of that the date would be wrong…

Wish it were the router.  Only happens every once in a while, and none of the NTP clients on the same net are impacted.  

Not to protest too much, but the date/time’s been the same wrong values (12/31/1999…) every time I get the “Netflix cannot connect, please try again later”.  I’ve heard that the PS3 has this problem too.