Some files just don't play

WD Legacy Products WD TV Live & Live Plus
1

I have a 2 week old WD TV Live and so far I am loving it. It has revived my interest in MP3s like never before !!

I have two complaints

  1. Some large Video fies in my 2nd USB disk just don’t play (mostly WMV files but a few AVI’s as well). I just get the “can’t play the media” message. Seems like some missing codec kind of a problem in a PC.

  2. All .MOV files from my new Canon 500D play just fine but the .MOV files from my older Panansonic play without audio !! I see that the audio from Panasonc MOV’s is using PCM but no sound comes.

I am on latest firmware (the device found the new firmware on 1st boot).

I bought this device based on solid reviews that it can play pretty much everything that is thrown at it and so it disappints me to see a vast part of my collection doesn’t play. Any troubleshooting tips?

2

Welcome to the forums.

Yes, I hear you and do understand your issues.  Unfortunately, the marketing for the Live is better than the Live is at playing all variety of video formats and codecs.  I’m sorry if your hopes were raised unrealistically – the truth is that the Live plays MOST all containers and codecs, certainly standard ones, and those it cannot play you must either convert them or live without them.

The good news is conversion is fast and easy in most cases.  In particular, those files with audio problems can quickly be converted using ffmpeg, for example.  Many videos can be fixed by putting them in an MKV container (using something like mkvmerge, or MakeMVK).  And larger videos which won’t play can be encoded (a longer process) into an MKV container using tools such as Handbrake.

The real bottom line is that you must learn to live with the Live’s limitations.  If you cannot, it may not be the right device for you.

3

Thanks for putting up the reply …in such an honest tone too :slight_smile:

Will try out some of the tool u mentioned and see how painful or painfree the conversion process is going to be !!