Just bought the box and updated everything and am having some issues. First is I can’t play any trailers for blockbuster or cinemanow so I’m nervious about renting on. Sometimes it says that the video file is not supported (**bleep**), how could it not be? Next is the ones that do load (or dont give me an error) just sit with the blue wheel spinning and whala, nothing happens.
Is this thing just a **bleep** or is there something I’m missing.
Next is netflix and Hulu. The sound is different (loud on some, quiet on others) on different movies, why is that. Next is the quality. I have the box set to 1080p 60hrtz and 8 bit color (was 12) and my netflix account set to top vid quality and the picture is just not crisp. I’m wating king of the hill and it’s in HD and tried lost hd and the picture is grainy and washed looking. The roku box looked great but not this one. Now my HD rips through my PS3 media server look great but not the streaming.
Like mentioned before I cant test watch any trailers to compare pic quality.
I tried tech support for help with Blockbuster and CinemaNow. None of their suggestions worked. Finally they said to revert to a former firmware version which I have not done. They also told me to seek help at the community forum.
When will there be a new firmware version with a fix Blockbuster and CinemaNow?
PS. Blockbuster is no help. Netflix works just fine.
Blockbuster: I just signed up, activated my WDTV Live Plus and browsed a few movies. Fine so far. Before renting anything, I wanted to see a trailed to check out the picture and sound quality. So I hit “Play Trailer” and I just get a blue and white circle in the center of my screen just circling and never loadng/showing the trailer (I waited almost 10 minutes). I tried this for several other movie selections and had the same result. I don’t want to rent a movie if I can’t watch it on WDTV Live Plus! Any suggestions?
Same thing with CinemaNow. When I select “Watch Trailer”, aal I get is a blue and white circle in the center of my screen just circling but the trailer never loads/plays.
Netflix: Movies, etc play fine. However, I do notice some issues/glitches.
(a) Audio volume: The volume I get from netflix when I use WDTC Live Plus is low. I have to turn up the volume of my AV receiver ver high to get to a level where I can listen adequately (& no, I am NOT hard of hearing). I have given details about my setup below, but when I connect my laptp to my system (using HDMI), the volume from netflix is fine. This happens for everything I play with Netflix (lots of movies and TV shows). Also volume of movies and music I play from my computer via WDTV Live Plus is fine and appropriately loud. So I think it is a netflix specific issue.
(b) Audio language: I was watching he TV series “24” (Series 1, Episode 1) and when checking out audio & subtitle options, I saw it is also available in Hindi (Stereo). For kicks I chose that and also chose English subtitles. It still played in English and without any subtitles. Don’t know if the issue is with Netflix or with WDTV Live plus. I haven’t seen the option for other language much, but I have been able to get substitles for a few movies on Netflix.
Connection Cable: HDMI connection from WDTV Live Plus to Onkyo AV receiver and HDMI connection from Onkyo AV Receiver to Samsung LCD TV (Video displayed on TV and sound via speakers connected to Onkyo AV receiver).
I also have the same issue with trailers not playing in Cinema Now and Blockbuster. Everything else works fine.
I had Western Digital try to help, but they could not.
Finally I called Blockbuster On Demand, the fellow put me on hold and came back and said that they do acknowledge that their is a problem streaming movie trailers, “to certain devices”. He said a work order had been put in sometime back at Blockbuster but nothing has been done yet. It was news to him, he had no idea of the issue.
We wondered if Blockbuster and Cinema Now shared the same server for streaming trailers. He guessed that maybe they might since he believes the trailers are actually streaming in from the movie studios.
Hopefully this will be resolved as it does appear to be going on too long.
Netflix: Movies, etc play fine. However, I do notice some issues/glitches.
(a) Audio volume: The volume I get from netflix when I use WDTC Live Plus is low. I have to turn up the volume of my AV receiver ver high to get to a level where I can listen adequately (& no, I am NOT hard of hearing). I have given details about my setup below, but when I connect my laptp to my system (using HDMI), the volume from netflix is fine. This happens for everything I play with Netflix (lots of movies and TV shows). Also volume of movies and music I play from my computer via WDTV Live Plus is fine and appropriately loud. So I think it is a netflix specific issue.
Connection Cable: HDMI connection from WDTV Live Plus to Onkyo AV receiver and HDMI connection from Onkyo AV Receiver to Samsung LCD TV (Video displayed on TV and sound via speakers connected to Onkyo AV receiver).
Any suggestions are welcome.
Low volume on Netflix is a known issue but the general concensus is that is not really a firmware bug. The low audio volume is a result of the mixdown of 5.1 audio to stereo. This issue is not unique to WD. Most media players and DVD players also exhibit this issue.
With Netflix, you can eliminate this problem by choosing ‘Stereo’ before starting the video (using Netflix audio options menu).
