Hi all,
This is the first time I’ve ever experienced a media player box, and I’m enjoying it.
The model I have is the WDBAAN0000NBK. Accessing the Windows 10 “media server” from the device
and/or “cast to” within Windows explorer is functional. Certain files have a little stutter,
but not too bad. Attached a Seagate 1TB USB drive to the WD and it also works well.
It has an old firmware, 1.02.21 and frankly, I’m wary of updating it, saw many negative
comments on the latest FW, 1.06.43
Is there any equivalent functionality of the Windows 10 “cast to” from either an iPad or an
android phone? Just wondering.
Thanks for any info -
Dave
What I will tell you is not related to my WDTV, since it is a receiving device which displays. I have a home NAS with all my media on it that can be tapped into by all my devices, including the WDTV.
I also have apps on my iPad and Android tablets (Kindle) that can also tap into server (or external drives connected to Win computers) to play music and videos from NAS on to the devices. In fact, if the app has the Google cast feature. it can send videos to Chromecast/TV from tablets/phones, and in the case of the Google Home AI Assistant some apps can cast music to the Home devices, or to Alexa devices via Bluetooth. Google around for some ideas of what can be done today.
BTW, stuttering is usually caused by poor wired or wireless connection to home net work, or a too slow router (not one that is gigabit speed) or not using the 5G wireless signal when available. These are the most common culprits of stutter.
One of the things I could try is to copy some of the stuttering files from the ethernet attached Windows 10
box to the Seagate USB drive that’s attached directly to the WD and compare the performance
The PC is attached to the router with a long cat 5e cable of about 15 feet.
The WD is attached to the router with a very small, about 2 foot cat 5e cable
The router is the one supplied by Time Warner/Spectrum to their 100mbps download tier.
Nothing special, just a standard gigabit router on the LAN side (I think)
I’ve only just started to eplorer the WD box, some of the posts mention that later FW may have
added extra capability regarding connectivity possibilities. For now I will refrain from updating it
until I have a better handle on things
Thanks
It appears you have the potential for good network speeds in the home network. FYI, I use wired connections as much as possible in home since the house has wired CAT5e outlets in four rooms, and by placing gigabit network switches in each room we have plenty of connections. I only stream video wirelessly via 5G signal and only use the 2.4G for audio-only devices that do fine at that slower speed.
It seems you have the last WDTV model made. I know nothing about the FW, and since WD discontinued the WDTV line of products a few years ago they have basically abandoned much of any support for them. Some of the FW is still on their server for D/L but can be difficult to find.
My WDTV boxes are older models called WDTV LivePlus (of 2010), but they still work and we use them frequently. Many people looking to replace their WDTV are buying android boxes and there are lots of them in various price ranges. An affordable alternative to WDTV is the Amazon FireTV stick or box with the free Kodi media player app installed on the device. Kodi installs on lots of devices so check it out at kodi.tv. I have it installed on a couple of Fire sticks on TVs around the house, and we also watch our movie files using it and not the WDTV. Lots of ways to view our movie files today. So enjoy your WDTV and know there are alternatives, too.
Thanks for your update, I made some progress today. I found an app in the Google play store that enables
me to serve videos to the WD from the phone and watch on the TV. Secondly, errors related to “cast to”
from Windows 10 were resolved by remuxing the MKV video to MP4. Only takes a minute or two, no
re-encoding. Not sure what it doesn’t like about MKV’s,
I’m certainly enjoying this device., appreciate your thoughts
If anybody is interested in the particular android app I’m using, I’ll post the info upon request.
No problem with sharing, I’ve seen on other forums that if a new member mentions
a product, he’s sometimes suspected of trying to promote the product (in other words spamming
the forum)
The app I found is called "Web Video Cast | Browser to TV (Chromecast/DLNA) by InstantBits Inc
(There’s an ad-supported and premium version)
The error I experienced with regards to MKV occurs in Windows 10 when you right click an MKV and select
“cast to”. Winnows 10 displays “unexpected device error” in the "cast to’ box. Remuxing to mp4
alleviated the problem and formerly troublesome files were now OK (albeit they were now mp4’s). Hope
this is clear
I have found the manual PDF but I’ve not gone through the whole thing yet
I never heard of the app, and I prefer more accepted ones for Android such as Bubble UPnP and Avia. Is this casting feature of Win 10 like Google Chrome’s . I have a Chromecast that I have iOS apps that can send to Chromecast, but since you now have a WDTV you can use the Network Shares feature to access drives, PC, etc and play anything the WDTV can, and not mess with DLNA. Figure out houw to use Network Shares vs Media Server and use your WDTV and not some app on a phone. Why use wireless if you don’t have to!
I have not been able to get Network shares working in Windows 10, only the Media Server.
Win 10 refuses to accept the login information regardless of what I enter.
Tried it in Windows XP and it works fine with the default “anonymous”
Never heard of those android apps you mentioned, but then again, I’m new to this whole
streaming thing. I’ll check them out.
Here is the solution to Network Shares right in this WDTV forum you likely did not see. I wrote this quite a few years ago and it helped many people. Just don’t use passwords!
I can access the Windows 10 box from a Windows 7 PC upstairs, no passwords used.
See these settings. Notice public folder(s) are shared, and no passwords
required. This works fine for accessing this PC from other devices in the house. The encryption factor
is more conservative using 128 bit. Is that an issue ?
To be honest, not having this functionality at the moment is not a showstopper. The “media server” still
works, the only problem is that it seems to enable access only to the “video” folder of my own user ID.
My daughter, who has a school iPad was disappointed that apparently, the device is not able
to stream to the WD… Apparently no DLNA support - that surprises me
I see nothing wrong with the Win7 setting you show.
Apple has very closed systems and plays by its own rules and has never embraced DLNA (aka UPnP) Apple is partial to what the media player calls Network Shares, and then media file has to be sent to their Apple TV., not WDTV There are VERY few apps for iPad that have DLNA functionality and can be played to WDTV, I have one for music and another for all media.types. I recommend neither for a school iPad installation; some of the apps cost $$, too.
