Next OFFICIAL firmware release?

Community Archives WD TV Live Firmware
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Hi!

This one is for WD staff.

I know this question probably has been asked tons of times before, but…

When will we see the next OFFICIAL firmware release? Will we see a AUTO FRAMERATE feature with the next firmware?

And what about DTS HD MASTER passthrough? The xtreamer just got DTS HD MASTER passthrough with its newest firmware update. If xtreamer has the resources for a DTS HD MASTER license, WD should deffently have it to…

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I know you want WD to answer it, but I’ll chime in so you don’t die holding your breath.

You’ll see the firmware the day it’s available.   WD has NEVER given the date of a future firmware release.

I doubt we’ll see Auto Framerate. If that’s a must-have, I suggest you look at B-RAD’s custom firmware, supposedly, he’s implemented it.

I doubt we’ll see DTS HD Passthrough; the WD’s are not licensed for it.  So while the XStreamer and WDTV are both CAPABLE of it from a hardware point of view, DTS won’t permit it without license to do so.  But, never say never… (except above.)

Same reason the WDTV HD Gen 1 never got DTS they did not license that product.

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I know about B RAD’s custom firmware. ( using it right now ) Why is it so hard for WD to implement auto framerate / resolution? I simply don’t get it.

I want my 24p content to be played back on my 24p compatible tv in real 24p(96hz), and not just in a 3:2(60Hz) playback mode wich stutters( when HDMI Auto is selected in video settings menu ). I don’t want to go into video settings menu and change the HDMI output manually everytime i play back 24p content.

I suspect that WD is a MUCH bigger and richer with delevopment resources than the company behind Xtreamer, but somehow Xtreamer manage to implement genuine DTS HD MASTER passthrough in their latest firmware version 2.4 release. They must have a license, right? Don’t tell me WD can’t afford a license that just passes through the DTS HD MASTER signal. I could understand it, if they where to decode the DTS HD MASTER signal into PCM internally, wich would require a more costly license fee. Oh, Xtreamer also manage to implement real auto 24p playback.

Well, now you all wonder why I just didn’t buy the xtreamer… Well i bought the WDTV live, before xtreamer released their 2.4 firmware( and I start to regred it more and more each day), and I think WD has some sort of responsibility to keep continue  the WDTV products to be the best mediaplayer in the world!

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The comparison is somewhat unfair.

WD is a huge company, with a huge range of products.  That doesn’t mean that the manpower assigned to the WD TV range is also huge (sometimes it seems quite the opposite).

Xtreamer is a company that essentially makes TWO products (media player and network storage).  All their resources are applied to just those areas and the same firmware seems applicable to all their media players.  I’m not sure how large Xtreamer is as a company but, even if they’re relatively small, they probably have more staff devoted to firmware development than WD.

Same applies to Syabas (they make different models of very similar PCH hardware, PopBox aside).  All their resources are media player focused.

It shouldn’t be surprising that a company whose entire business model is about HD media players manages to get DTS-HD working before someone like WD, who has a finger in (arguably) too many pies.  Smaller companies have less red tape, have shorter, more focused meetings and can get things done because there are fewer people “up the chain” interfering.  I genuinely feel sorry for Bill, Guy, Jeff and the other WD staff who post here because they also own and use WD TV Lives and want the same features we want, yet get dictated priorities by people who seemingly don’t “get it”.

There’s also an issue of licensing.  DTS-HD pass-thru seems to be a grey area (you’re actually not manipulating the stream, so why is a license needed!?).  Smaller, focused companies like Xtreamer and Syabas have the greater motive (and manpower, apparently) to pursue such issues, plus the willingness to implement them even if they’re not 100% sure.

A huge company like WD does not take any risks, and seemingly won’t implement a feature unless it gets permission in writing (which DTS won’t do, since WD already asked and were told a license is not available).  That’s also why B-Rad can add cool new features faster than WD, because he doesn’t have to jump through the same QC hoops that the WD devs do.

Still, since this issue has been raised again by people like yourself who rightly wonder why an HD media player doesn’t do HD audio, it looks like WD is again looking into the matter.

Hopefully they can do something about this silly situation, before they become one of the only major media player manufacturers not supporting the most common HD audio format.  :|

/rant

This wasn’t really aimed at you Evanesco, just equally frustrated that other companies have implemented something that WD (in ignorance, apparently) told us was not possible.

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