I’m using a wired network connection but the blinking lights are too bright and are annoying. Is there anyway to turn them off?
What lights are you talking about?
There are two tiny LEDs adjacent to the RJ45 Ethernet connector - one orange, one green. Most Ethernet jacks are equipped with those lights, they are useful to indicate your connection status and activity. They can’t be turned off.
But they are on the BACK of the SMP, so how can they be annoying? Even in a completely darkened room, those little lights are overwhelmed by the white LED on the front and the TV screen itself!
This is one of the many uses of duct tape!
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Exactly. Covering LED’s with duct tape became a common practice for me when blue LED’s were trending; I hated feeling that the light was stabbing my eye. Luckily, now the trend appears to have moved towards white LED’s, which don’t have ill effects over the retina.
Black fingernail polish. Permanent. ;)
Try the sticky side of Post-its, cut-to-fit; easier than duct tape to position. Use as many layers as necessary to cover any bothersome lights (e.g. 4-inch blue light line at the base of some of my external hard drives – both sides – awful!) Less “permanent” than black fingernail polish, too. 
But WHY?
How could those little orange and green lights on the back of the WDTV Live bother any one, sitting as it is on your home theater equipment shelf along with a bunch of other multimedia boxes each with its own array of LEDs?
Those Ethernet activity lights are found on the backside of all of your network gadgets - modem, router, switch etc. I have a wireless router on my home theater shelf, an old WRT54GL, with lots of large blinking green LEDs on the FRONT. So I put a picture frame in front of it. But of course I can’t hide the WDTV Live that way - it needs a line-of-sight for the infrared remote. The SMP’s white LED is kind of bright, but at least it doesn’t blink. Beside it is my WD MyBook Essentials USB HD, with its blinking white LED. If the two white LEDs become annoying, I could probably put some translucent film over them.
But the Ethernet lights? I can’t imagine them even being visible from the front of your shelf!
I can see them reflecting off the wall. They don’t other me, but they’re visible in cases like that…
Thanks for all your suggestions, I’ll probably use some black tape.
FYI, I have this in a bedroom which is why the lights are too bright. They keep blinking when it is turned off.
This was also posted by another user in the Ideas Section !
Must be a new Internet craze called ‘Trivial Requests’
Sadly though, it will probably be a ‘New Feature’ included in the next Firmware Update.
I doubt the firmware has any control over the LEDs. I’ve never seen *ANY* network device that allows that, except for high-end switches.
Hey, folks don’t “dis” the guy because the blinking lights bother him. Some of this gear is lit up like …Christmas lights, and it is basically “light overkill”. Also, some people have no choice but for this stuff to be out in the open where it is really annoying.
As for myself, I am fortunate to have a CAT5 box in a home closet that is centrally located. So, that is where my router and modem reside; the wireless signal gets past the sheet rock just fine, but so what, the whole house is wired; the wireless is just in case we are to roam around with a laptop, iGadget, etc… The Motorola DOCSIS modem really looks like Christmas lights, and is so bright it acts as a 5-color night light in the master bedroom closet .
All my home entertainment gear (Incl. WDTV, is tucked away in a vented BDI 6 ft. entertainment cabinent enclosure with smoked glass doors that let the remotes’ “pings” get through, but not much light gets ourt to be a distraction. There ARE ways to deal with lights on equipment that look like Times Square lit up; ya just gotta find them and see what works best.
