Sudden Choppy video playback

[stormdragonbc]

Sorry if this has been answered (as there appears to be a few threads on choppy playback) but I had an odd issue the other night regarding the WDTV Live and video playback.

I have been running the WDTV Live box, hard wired via a Netgear power line box, for about a month now with no issues. However, last night I noticed that videos that I watched the night before are now very choppy and the audio is cutting in and out. I have the base firmware installed since using the latest tended to give me the “cannot play this video” messages several times before it would actually play the video (note that this is not related to the choppy playback). I have tried a combination of AVI and MKV files but have the same results.

I am also noticing a longer than normal delay when I start up videos (i.e. black screen for about 30+ seconds and then the video plays). This is also new behaviour and possibly indicitive of a network streaming issue?

I have checked all my connextions, rebooted my router, computer where the videos are stored, and the WD box but experience the same issues. I also confirmed there is nothing else running on my computer at the same time the video is being played. Playing the same videos on my laptop wirelessly has no issues.

Has anyone experienced this before? I might try a reset of the WD box and see what happens but I was looking for any other possible suggestions.

thanks

[richUK]

Just try the reset and see if that fixes the problem.

[stormdragonbc]

I tried a “reset to factory defaults” as well as the unplug, wait a bit, and replug back in, I updated to the latest firmware (1.04.17_V, tested, rolled back to 1.02, tested)…no difference, still extremely choppy video.

Transition between loading the video and back to the main listing also seems to take some time, either a long spinner or else a long black screen (but once I am back in the listing I can navigate quickly).

Something else that struct me as odd was when I manually tried to change the IP address on the WD box (e.g. x.x.x.105 to x.x.x.104 or 106), it would have issues connecting. Setting it to automatic would put it right back to the older IP I was using (x.x.x.105). I did check and no other devices on my network were using 104-106 and my router had that range enabled. Also, restoring back to defaults did not clear this data. Is there a way to completely clear all of these entries (and perhaps clear some cache)?

[stormdragonbc]

Update

I figured out the whole “paper-clip-to-hard-reset” option and then did another “reset to factory defaults”…now everything appears to be working again.

Ugh…

[markinuk]

stormdragonbc wrote:

Something else that struct me as odd was when I manually tried to change the IP address on the WD box (e.g. x.x.x.105 to x.x.x.104 or 106), it would have issues connecting. Setting it to automatic would put it right back to the older IP I was using (x.x.x.105). I did check and no other devices on my network were using 104-106 and my router had that range enabled. Also, restoring back to defaults did not clear this data. Is there a way to completely clear all of these entries (and perhaps clear some cache)?

 

That would be your router giving the ip address, you would need to enter the setup pages in your router and give the WD’s mac address a static ip if you want to change it.