No Audio Media Player Live

Community Archives WD TV Live Firmware
1

I am new at using forums.  

I have just purchased a WD Live plus media player (July 2011).  It will not play any sound.  Tried USB movies and netflix.  It is hooked up through an HDMI cable to a Sumsung LCD t.v.  Settings are to digital sound.  I have checked the software and I am advised that it is up to date.

Any answers out there.  I prefer not to return the product.

JohnR

2

Are you sure your TV can decode the audio?

Most TVs can’t… they won’t decode DTS or AC3 5.1 audio sent to them over HDMI.

Unless your TV explicitly says it will decode DTS and/or AC3 at its HDMI input, your options would be to set the WDTV’s audio to “Stereo”, or to buy a home theater AVR that will decode the audio streams for you.

It really doesn’t matter if the TV will decode 5.1 audio from the tuner… very few of them will decode audio from their inputs… and even fewer will pass the HDMI input audio to their own Optical out ports.

3

Thanks, I tried setting the unit to stereo.  No luck.  Are you telling me that I need a stereo to hook up to the player?  Certainly don’t see that advertised anywhere in hte WD material.  They all have the cable going directly to the t.v.

JohnR 

4

Well, if you tried Stereo as well as Digital, then something else is amiss… either a bad cable, a bad port on the TV or a bad WDTV.

No, you don’t _ need _ an AVR to use it… you only need an AVR if you want multi-channel sound.  Since most TVs only have 2 speakers anyways, it would make no real difference whether the WDTV downmixed the 5.1 to stereo, or whether the TV did it (if it could)… you’d still only be getting 2-channel output.

5

Thanks.  I’ll try switching ports to the DVR port.  I know that works.  Otherwise, back to Best Buy.

JohnR

6

Ha.  That worked. 

Thanks

7

No worries… you’re welcome. :smiley:

8

JohnR wrote:

Ha.  That worked. 

 

Thanks

It might be possible that you plugged it into a video only input.  My samsung has one hdmi input that also says (DVI), and it’s used for inputs from a DVI source which is only video.  Usually very close to that input are the audio inputs for the corresponding audio.

9

U have to hit tha reset button on tha side it happen to me too lost sound as well!

10

What about working one day then not the next ?

Bought this WD TV Live yesterday  and connect it to Samsung via HDMI. Connected external hard drive and played Megamind and Monsters Inc for my little one then in the evening settled down to watch Space Oddessey 2001.

No problems whatsoever.

This evening I have gone to watch something else and no sound whatsoever. “maybe its the film” I said to myself and proceeded play something i knew would work…three films later same problem.

So you see if there was a compatabilty problem surely it wouldnt have worked in the first place ?

 The firmware is in its original state and Im scared off upgrading because of complaints about it on here.

So what do I do ???

11

I can conclusively confirm that when playing virgin rip bluray titles on a computer using a HDMI video and audio output capable graphics card, a Samsung PS50C550 Plasma TV will passthrough digital audio to a 5.1 amplifier via the Samsung TV SPDIF output. Therefore; the Samsung PS50C550 Plasma TV was manufactured for SPDIF output passthrough.

When playing the same virgin rip bluray titles through the WDTV Live, some of the titles will passthrough digital audio and others will not. The issue is with the bluray title menu structure. When an m2ts file is played outside the bluray title menu structure, the file structure copy protect stops the m2ts file audio playback. Digital ripping will not pick up that copy protection because the title author used Java programming in the bluray title compilation.

I purchased a Samsung PS50C550 Plasma TV to watch a virgin source high definition video not compressed video. It would have be cheaper to pay the DVD and bluray title playback royalties as it would have eliminated having to purchase a stand alone bluray player and building a HTPC to just play bluray titles.  

WD state that the WDTV Live is not licensed for bluray title playback. Maybe the resolution is to manufacture the WDTV Live in two versions; royalty paid DVD and bluray title playback and general purpose video streaming.