Question about Hub Firmware and the versions people seem to be using

Community Archives WD TV Live Hub Firmware
1

Hi,

New member here, just purchased a WD TV Live Hub.  Awesome piece of kit.  It’s updated its self to the latest firmare availabe. I’ve noticed that a lot of people on the boards here are staying at 2.07.17, is there a reason for this?  Most of the themes seem to also be centred around this version.

Is there something that got broke or very slow in firmwares past 2.07.17? There must be some reason it’s so popular.

I don’t have any problems with the latest but have noticed that most of the themes are not compatible with latest.

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If I recall, the major change after that version was the support of true transparency in PNG files used as thumbnails, as well as the loss of a “trick” that made it work in specific cases.

Themers depend on this function, and it’s abesent after that version.

There may be other things, but that is what springs to mind.

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if you don’t use png files with transparency or a theme that specifically requires the old firmware you can update to the newest firmware unless there is really nothing wrong with your current firmware then there is probably no reason to change a working system. I am always on the most recent firmware and i am happy with it. Having said that I have turned off the library because it is not really functional in the scenario how i generate movie sheets. If you generate covers and info through the build in scraper you will like the new firmware more especially in context with TV Shows.

You can always try and roll back

4

I prefer 2.07.17’s caching system …

Go into “Gallery View” and it caches the Thumbnails … when you change to other views (Large Video, List etc …) the thumbnails are already there instantly … because they have already been cached.

Later Firmwares cache the thumbnails for each and every single view.

ie. If you’ve got 200 movies and choose Gallery View … as you navigate, the Thumbnails cache one by one.

Once you’ve finished and decide to change the view to Large Video Thumbnails the whole caching procedure begins again for that view.

Also later Firmwares when scraping Movie info … automatically downloads backdrops(fanart) for each movie you grab info for (it does this wether or not you want it to)

Firmware 2.07.17 … does not cache backdrop images for movies (it streams them)

When navigating via the remote control, i prefer to press and hold the navigation down and scroll through the movie list one at a time.  Which works fine with 2.07.17

Later Firmware … if you do this, within a second or or two it starts jumping thumbnail pages… which personally i find disorientateing and annoying.

A trick “Workaround” fo Metadata for Folders (eg. Plot,Title,Genre) no longer works properly in Later Firmware.

Later Firmware, MPAA tags No Longer work in List View,Video Browse,Large Video Views (they still work with 2.07.17)

Later Firmware, GENRE tag no longer works in Preview View  (still works with 2.07.17)

Later Firmware, ARTIST tag no longer works in Album Playback  View  (still works with 2.07.17)

Later Firmware, Delete or Add a movie with the Media Library “ON”  almost seems to recompile the entire Library as the WD blinking LED seems to go forever … Firmware 2.07.17 blinks for several seconds then stops and finishes.

.metathumbs in Later firmware are a pain,  2.07.17, if the internal scraper grabs a thumbnail i dont like … i just simply replace it with a custom one… Firmware 2.07.17 replaces the image within several blinks of the LED light and it’s done.

And yeah, PNG’s for Thumbnails stopped working after Firmware 2.07.17   :neutral_face:

P.S. I try all the Latest updates when WD releases them, try to get used them …(or deal with them)

but always end up rolling back to 2.07.17

Online Services dont interest me … which seems to be the major focus of Updates now.

(And attempts at upgrading other features whilst breaking other features/operation is pretty disappointing)

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I gotta say Joey, that is one of the most comprehensive lists of reasons to keep an old version of firmware I have seen. :slight_smile: I copied it and posted it somewhere else…I hope it accomplishes something.

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Thanks, fththemi

In a conversation with another forum member :wink:  he could  also add some more things i forgot to mention.

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JoeySmyth wrote:

 

When navigating via the remote control, i prefer to press and hold the navigation down and scroll through the movie list one at a time.  Which works fine with 2.07.17

 

Later Firmware … if you do this, within a second or or two it starts jumping thumbnail pages… which personally i find disorientateing and annoying.

 

Must have been a memorable day at the WD Labs…

“hey guys i have an idea, when the customer presses the button for longer than a second the navigation becomes completely uncontrolled and starts skipping pages” “Oh yeah let’s do that”

Someone must have gotte a pink slip that days.