I have a major problem with my WD TV Live Plus with firmware 1.06.16_B any video I play over network share on Windows 7 will stutter , the same thing happens when playing over media share, however if I copy the same file to USB it will play perfectly.
After trying many things (replacing cables, older firmware) I found out that if I put in static IP addresses on my network share computer and on the WD and connect directly to a hub without the ADSL router (Zyxel P-660HW-D1) it plays perfectly. This leads me to believe it is either my router or the WD that is the problem.
So I tried connecting my 10 year old Xbox with XBMC and connected it in the same way to my router as WD and it plays the same file perfectly over network share.
This leads me to believe that the network code in WD TV Live Plus is just fundamentally broken.
Desktop 1 (A), Desktop 2 (A), Server 1 (B), DirecTV HD DV-R (B), WDTV: LP (B)
Note: Only laptops, cell phones, and my DS Lite are connected over wireless.
So far the studdering occurs sporatically and there’s no telling when it might happen. One day, I may be able to watch 10 videos without any problems and the next, I may get studdering issues half way through video 2.
Overtime, here’s what I’ve found out though:
* - Playing media using an external USB hard drive works flawlessly.
* - Tried playing files using TVersity and I’ve had mixed results.
* - Currently flashed WDLXTV custom firemware and still having performance issues over wired network. This leads me to believe that it is either a workgroup authentication issue or WD network hardware issues.
* - I’ve also noticed that the WD device’s discovery packets take a really long time for network shares. Additionally, sometimes the device cannot connect to my shares anonymously on the first try. This further indicates the box is having authenitcation isues.
I’ve yet to try using different RJ-45 cables or test my currently connected ones for crossed wires, but that’s also a route.
I suppose lots of things can cause stutter, and stutter indicates reduced bandwidth speed when it happens to my setup. Like today; a momentary (split second) power loss brought the network to a slow crawl afterward. I noticed, first, having trouble copying a file through network from PC to drive attached to WDTV. I tried streaming and got stutter. Then , I remembered about the power loss, and also remembered that last month, for the first time in ten years, the 4-port switches in rooms and connected to the wall network plugs had to have power removed from them for a few moments to chase away gremlins that caused the two switches to have a problem and slow down the network – both to the Internet and within the home network.
I always shut down and restart all components in the network after power losses occur, so I did it again today and that fixed the problems. All this said to ask to you: Did you remove power from all affected and interconnected components yet? Restart your whole system and begin all afresh again. You could have similar (and hidden) power-company caused gremlins, too.
Yes I have tried everything, restarting devices, switching cables, updating firmware. The thing is, I have various devices that can play from the network: Philips TV with a DNLA client, Xbox with XBMC and two laptops running Windows. All these devices can play from the same network without a single stutter. Even my 10 year old Xbox with a 733 Mhz CPU can play without a single incidient and my TV can play high definition content without stutter. The only device that has problems is the WD TV.
Now I know what you may be thinking. This specific unit is just faulty and has a hardware problem right? I was thinking the same think so I borrowed another WD TV from a friend, and lo and behold that device also stutters in exactly the same way.
My conclusion from all of this is that the WD TV Live is a problematic device that has some major network bugs in it’s firmware.
There are no technical issues associated with the WDTV Live networking. I can stream a virgin rip bluray from a computer networked to a hub then through two switches to the WDTV Live without any video streaming issues.
I can also attach a USB drive to the WDTV Live, watch a virgin rip bluray on the plasma TV and stream a video from the WDTV Live to the computer and watch that video on the computer simultaneously with the plasma TV without both video streams stuttering.
I have a new model SMP in my lounge attached to an 8 port gigabit switch. Also connected to the switch are 3 x My Book Live 3tb NASs, containing mainly straight Blu-ray rips.
That switch is linked to another (5 port, but otherwise identical), which is connected to my router and my WDTV Live.
The BD rips play fine, without stutter on my new SMP, but are sometimes unwatchable on my WDTV Live as they pause, start, pause, start, pause, start, especially when there’s a lot going on with sound & vision (I presume when the bit rate is peaking).
My experience is that the wd tv live seems to have a very small buffer, hence relying on a very performant network with a low lag (the troughput itself is not the only factor)
I used to have my box connected with a router based on a broadcom 58 chipset, and experienced lag from time to time. I replaced the router with a newer model (same brand, exactly the same software, but based on broadcom 68 chipset, which is more performant) and never experience a lag anymore.
So my conclusion: you should have very low latency on your network for the WD to play fine.
