Out of ideas

Community Archives WD TV Live Networking
1

Well, I’ve done everything a search could turn up about this and I did make progress because of it. Recently went to Windows 7 (oh joy! *sarcasm*) and couldn’t access the files I’ve watched for over a year on my WDTV from my PC. Got that working thanks to threads on here and can now see the 4 HDD’s on this PC with the media files I’ve always watched. Problem now is it says there is no media content in the folders. For example…

One hard drive is labeled “HD Movies I”. Inside of that are probably around 100 folders with .mkv files in them (1080p Blu-Ray encodes). Can see the folders, click on any of them and it says no media content. Now there are some stray .mkv and .avi files on these main drives which I CAN see when I go into “HD Movies I” or “HD Movies II”. Those don’t even play anymore and the player says they aren’t supported file formats which is obviously wrong. Like the title says, I am simply out of ideas.

The closest thing I’ve seen to a “solution” for this problem was a thread talking about un-sharing and re-sharing my folders and waiting for the HDD light to stop flickering because Windows supposedly writes little share file info for every file but when I re-share folders after un-sharing them there is no flicker from my HDD LED so I guess that’s not something that happens with my setup? Any help is appreciated as the only thing I can think of anymore is to finally go ahead and build a new PC for myself (have been planning on it for a while) and basically create a server from my left over parts with XP on it since that worked beautifully.

2

It does sound like a permissions problem…  

That error about files being unsupported will also display if the WD is unable to open the file because of denied reads.

3

Man, I had that post all nice and formatted in paragraphs before I posted and it just got turned into goop…lol.  The permissions are set to “everyone” and it has “read” checked.

4

You might try browsing (in your PC) to one of the movies or folders that is showing you that error, and check the sharing for THAT folder.

If the permissions were inherited properly, *EVERYTHING* in that share, including the files and subfolders, should all show Shared with Everyone.

5

I’m the guy who wrote the solution for the “no media in folder” issue you referred to here.  There are a few points I want to make clear so as to help you out.

First of all, take the WDTV out of the picture for a moment. . . . now, can you share folders between PCs on your network?  In other words, can PC A see shared folders on PC B, (and vice versa) and if so, can it play say, a shared video file on the other PC?

If you can do this, then your network is likely set up properly.  If not, then you need to address that issue first.

Assuming the network is working properly, I want to point out there is a big distinction between “sharing” on the WDTV when it comes to the two menu option choices, “Media Servers” and “Network Shares”.  Both can get you media from say a HD on a PC in the house, but it all works differently, or not at all.  For example, “Network Shares” is a “pulling” condition, meaning you access the remote drive (as you would from a PC, too) and the WDTV requests a particular video be made available for it to play by “pulling” the video to it.  This share operation is similar to a PC doing the same thing.

“Media Servers” is different, because the WDTV requests that the media server/remote PC drive “push” the video (actually, any media) so it can be played.  Not all PCs can be servers; Win7 PCs can, XP PCs can’t, (although I think a Win XP Pro can). What I wrote about that you read, pertains to media servers.  Even while I had problems under that condition, I had no problems under Network Shares condition.  Under the Media Server scenerio, not only does the Win 7 PC need to share folders, it also needs a list of what it will SERVE and it needs to “share” that list with the WDTV, and this was what baffled me for a long time.  If this list did not reach completion, then the WDTV thinks, “There is no media in the current folder”.

Also, an ISO file (and maybe even an MKV file) cannot be played via Media Server; only via Network Shares condition .  This is explained somewhere within the complete manual for the WDTV found in the Support section of this WD website. 

So, with this all in mind, do you have any more comments or questions?

PS: If I got any of this techno-babble incorrect I am supposing some network pro here can set me straight, but this is how I, a user, not a network guy, understands this stuff.

6

mike27oct wrote:

First of all, take the WDTV out of the picture for a moment. . . . now, can you share folders between PCs on your network?  In other words, can PC A see shared folders on PC B, (and vice versa) and if so, can it play say, a shared video file on the other PC?

 

If you can do this, then your network is likely set up properly.  If not, then you need to address that issue first.

 

Welp, there’s the first roadblock I guess.  Can’t access the files from another computer either.  Same thing, can get into the shared drive and see the folders but can’t actually open the folders with the actual movie files in them.

Have any ideas as to what I may have overlooked?  Not very familiar with Windows 7 networking stuff so it’s probably something easy.

7

Am I correct in assuming you installed WIn 7 on an exisiting XP machine?  If so, that’s a whole set of other issues – issues that could be affecting the ones you mention.

Forget about viewing movie files for a moment. . . . can you share something more simple, like a jpg photo from PC to PC?  Same question for an mp3 file; can you play it from PC to PC?  Can you share anything?

If none of this can be done, then disussing working with the WDTV is premature untill this is all cleared up re: the network sharing issues.

8

Fresh install of Windows 7.

I’ll have to check something simple like a jpg or mp3 tomorrow but something that kinda frustrates/confuses me is that I can see and play the “Wildlife in HD” sample video that comes with Windows 7 perfectly fine on the WDTV.

Also I’ve always gone through “Network Shares” to get to and play the files on these drives.

I’ll mess with a jpg/mp3 tomorrow night when I’m not half asleep.  Thanks for the help and responses thus far though.

9

Great, new Win 7 install.  Start over.

OK, get the Win 7 to share with another PC on the network; jpg, mp3 and movie file.  Until that happens, I don’t want to see any questions about getting it to work with the WDTV.  :slight_smile: