Earlier this week, I upgraded from a WD TV (gen 1) to the WD TV Live Plus. I"m experiencing two problems on a pretty regular basis.
The first problem is with audio. A little more than 50% of the time, after turning the unit on, the audio on every video file cuts in and out every two seconds or so. It doesn’t matter if fhe files are on the disk drives connected to thte unit of if they are network drives, the problem is consistent across the board. After rebooting (sometimes 2 or 3 times), the audio on every file, plays perfectly. If rather than rebooting, I reset the unit, the audio always plays perfectly the first time. But I shouldn’'t have to reset the unit every time that I turn it on. For the most part, I’m playing .wmv & ,avi files. But, since these same files play perfectly half the time on my new unit and 100% of the time on my original WD TV, I have no reason to believe that there is anything wrong with the files.
The second problem, which only occurs about 10% of the time is that, half way through the startup process, the unit reboots itself back to the splash screen and starts up again.
Reading through the forum, I haven’t seen anyone report either of these issues. I’m wondering if I should just contact Amazon and ask for an exchange or if these are problems that others are experiencing and I need to wait for a firmware update/
It’s connected using HDMI. The setting is Stereo. It’s going through a Monoprice HDMI switch which is connected to a Toshiba TV. This is identical to how the original WD TV was connected. I made no connection or cable changes. I just swapped the WD TV unit with the WD TV Live Plus unit.
Edited because I forgot to include the part about the HDMI switch.
Well, there’s a very vague report of HDMI issues with certain displays (Samsung and LG, specifically,) but there’s always a chance that the Toshiba uses the same HDMI internally. Hopefully this will be addressed in a firmware update, expected any day now.
As far as the reboots: Yes, I have seen random reboots of my Plus as well. Sometimes (but not frequently) during startup, and other times, as well.
It’s connected using HDMI. The setting is Stereo. It’s going through a Monoprice HDMI switch which is connected to a Toshiba TV. This is identical to how the original WD TV was connected. I made no connection or cable changes. I just swapped the WD TV unit with the WD TV Live Plus unit.
Edited because I forgot to include the part about the HDMI switch.
Hey Bill!
I have an LG 42" and 46" TV, I have the same issue using HDMI, or the audio just doesn’t work at all, but using Component cables worked awesome. I was able to get LG to send me an updated firmware for my 46" and everything works great with HDMI, no such luck on the 42", I had to keep using the compenent cables. =(
Best advice I can give you is to contact your TV manufacturer and see what they can do for you. It fixed one of my TVs at least…
That’s a good idea. I actually have a firmware update for my TV, from early 2009, that I never applied because I didn’t have any problems. In looking at the documentation for the firmware (which is only available from Toshiba’s Canada site, for some reason), it says that the update is intended “to improve compatibility between the TV and set top boxes connected via HDMI.”
I’ll try updating the firmware tonight when I get home.
No good. I updated the TV fiirmware last night, but didn’t have much time to play around with the WD TV Live Plus. At first, it looked as if the firmware update took care of the problem. Upon retruning home from work this evening, i had a chance to play with it a little bit and both problems (audio cutting in and out and reboot during startup) are still occurring.
Well, updating the TV firmware isn’t going to prevent the Plus from rebooting. That’s definately a known issue with the Plus’ firmware. I had about 8 reboots yesterday when I was troubleshooting something else…
No good. I updated the TV fiirmware last night, but didn’t have much time to play around with the WD TV Live Plus. At first, it looked as if the firmware update took care of the problem. Upon retruning home from work this evening, i had a chance to play with it a little bit and both problems (audio cutting in and out and reboot during startup) are still occurring.
Awww that ■■■■■, Bill! I wish I had some other ideas to give you! The only other thing I noticed, and this is just me playing around with my WD Live, is that if I resume a show either on the attached hard drive, or over Netflix, the sound doesn’t work a lot of the time if I am using HDMI. If I start the show from the beginning though, it plays great.
I am sure you have tried this (probably several times) but I just thought I would mention it the hope that it might give you some ideas to try.
I have not experianced any rebooting, so I can’t really comment on that problem. Sorry you are having so much trouble!
The only other thing I noticed, and this is just me playing around with my WD Live, is that if I resume a show either on the attached hard drive, or over Netflix, the sound doesn’t work a lot of the time if I am using HDMI.
My problem is occurring with files that I’m starting from the beginning.
What’s wierd about the problem is that the player always works correctly after a paperclip reset (at least is has so far). It’s during later startups that I’m having the problem. The only setting that I’m changing away from the default is that I’m automatically logging into my network. Otherwise, everything else is at the default settings. So, I don’t think that I’m screwing anything up.
For now, I’m going to wait for a firmware update. But I hope that I don’t just have a bad unit that I should be exchanging at Amazon.
My new HDMI cable arrived today and it appears to have solved the problem. I’ve only started the player 5 or 6 times so far. But I’ve had nothing but success as far as audio & video is concerned. Up until now, I don’t think that I’ve had 2 consecutive startups with out a problem. After ordering the new cables, I started having video sync problems as well. This also appears to have been solved by the upgraded cable. At this point, I’m not so sure that the WD TV Live Plus is what is really requiring the upgraded cable. While I was ordering the new cable from Monoprice, I took a look a the the page for the HDMI switch that I’m using. It has a disclaimer that says "24AWG or thicker (lower AWG number) cables are HIGHLY RECOMMENDED for best performance. Some devices will require thicker gauge, category 2 cables to work with this switch. " Apparently, the WD TV Live Plus is one of those devices, while the WD TV (gen 1) isn’t. Previously, I was using one of Monoprice’s 28AWG 1.3 category 2 cables. I upgraded to their 24AWG 1.3 category 2 cable. It was only an $8.00 fix. Thanks to everyone who has helped me to resolve this problem.
