The twonky server currently on the mybook live is 5.1.9, i saw there is a far newer version which is 6.0.30 , how do i upgrade it?
I believe that it comes with firmware, so I think you will have to wait for a firmware update. Other than that its the latest is there any particular reason why you want it?
I just got a MyBook Live, and twonky 5.1.19 does not play many .mp4 and .mkv that are playing fine with twonky 6.0.28 I have running on my laptop. When does WD plan to release the firmware upgrade?
dz12345 wrote:
When does WD plan to release the firmware upgrade?
They never say.
Anyone know of any unoffical ways to upgrade Twonky on the WD MyBook Live. In my conversations with Twonky, they too told me about the updated Twonky server, but the list of upgrade links they send me did not include Western Digital, nor were there any instrucctions on how to perform such an upgrade anyway.
My trouble has been the ability to view most video files on my DNLA enabled BluRay and all research is pointing toward Twonky being the primary issue.
What BluRay player are you using, and what type of files are you trying to stream? Â (Format / File Extension etc)
Product Details:
-Sony BluRay BDP-s370
-Western Digital MyBook Live 1TBÂ (MyBookLive 01.02.03 : MioNet 4.3.1.12 : Twonky 5.1.9)
Summary:
 My Sony BlueRay BDP-S370 is DNLA certified to play external files. I was successful playing a number of video files, including .m4v when I had a Western Digital MyBook plugged into the BlueRay via USB.
I then purchased a Western Digital MyBook Live to be able to access files wirelessly. The MyBook Live has the Twonky Media Manager on it. The BluRay player finds the MyBook Live just fine and I’m able to play music files and view photo files. But when I try to play video files, I receive an error message of “There is no playable file”. A handful of MPEG files have been recognized, but most have not, which add an additional layer of mystery to the situation. Why would some be recognized while some are not. Instructions for the Sony BDP-S370 do support mpeg and mp4 (proved by when they worked fine with the USB connected MyBook).
Western Digitial has also communicated that have no intent on updating Twonky on their devices and are fine to be selling a product with an outdated third party software that may make their hardware not perform as advertised.
I believe there was a similar thread here about this Sony Blu-Ray player. If you look carefully at the specs, they don’t support all that many formats. Do a search on these forums and you’ll find your answer.
And we put specific versions of the DLNA server on for a reason. Not all versions work that well. We looked at the 6.0 version, but there were just too many issues with it at the time.
Tony
WD Customer Service/Staff has been AWFUL addressing this issue up until this point. All they simply need to do is supply a firmware upgrade with TwonkyMedia Server >= 6.0.30. I was planning to return my MyBook Live device, but I thought I would try to upgrade the TwonkyMedia Server on my own first. I successfully upgraded from 5.1.9 to 6.0.32 today using the following version:
http://www.twonkyforum.com/downloads/6.0.32/twonkymedia-powerpc-glibc-2.2.5-6.0.32.zip
I selected the PowerPC version since that’s the machine hardware name that is returned when I run the uname command on my device:
MyBookLive:~# uname -a
Linux MyBookLive 2.6.32.11-svn21605 #1 Fri Oct 15 17:13:23 PDT 2010 ppc GNU/Linux
MyBookLive:~# uname -m
ppc
To get this up and running only really involved a few simple steps (assuming you are familiar with navigating Linux):
- Download TwonkyMedia Server 6.0.32
- Copy the downloaded package to the /root directory on your MyBook Live device (e.g., using scp)
- Unzip the downloaded package in the /root directory
- Create the following folder: /usr/local/twonkymedia-6.0.32 (NOTE: the original installed TwonkyMedia Server 5.1.9 is installed in /usr/local/twonkymedia-5)
- Copy the following files and directories from /root to /usr/local/twonkymedia-6.0.32:
- Linux-HowTo.txt
- RevisionHistory
- cgi-bin/
- plugins/
- radio.m3u
- resources/
- twonkymedia
- twonkymedia.sh (you don’t really need this)
- twonkymediaserver
- Copy the following files from /usr/local/twonkymedia-5 to /usr/local/twonkymedia-6.0.32:
- bg_trans
- start_bgtrans.sh
- twonkymedia-server-default.ini
- twonkymedia-server-default.ini.orig
- Copy the file /usr/local/sbin/share-param.sh to /usr/local/sbin/share-param.sh.orig to create a backup copy
- *VERY IMPORTANT STEP * Edit the /usr/local/sbin/share-param.sh file and set twonky_dir=/usr/local/twonkymedia-6.0.32
- Restart the TwonkyMedia Server: /etc/init.d/twonky restart
You should be able to verify that TwonkyMedia Server 6.0.32 is up and running at this point by pointing your browser to the TwonkyMedia Server config page ( http://<your_ip>:9000/config) or by going to the MyBook Live UI and viewing the settings page for TwonkyMedia (Settings > Media > Twonky > Status). Either page should show the TwonkyMedia Server version as 6.0.32.
If you ever need to switch back to 5.1.9 for any reason (which I have no idea why you would want to), just edit the share-param.sh file and change the twoky_dir setting back to its original value (set in /usr/local/sbin/share-param.orig) and restart Twonky (/etc/init.d/twonky restart).
This version of TwonkyMedia Server requires a license after the 30-day trial period ends, but at least you have that amount of time to evaluate it. I downloaded this version because I had problems streaming MKV video files from my MyBook Live device to my Samsung LED TV. I verified that this version resolves that issue.
Hope this helps!
Alias: Gordon.Gartrelle
4 Likes
Nice try! Is there any way to transfer existing 5.1.9 license to 6.0.32 twonky?
Many thanks!
Twonky 6.0.32 works for me. But there is a problem:
After your procedure I cant reach the UI of MBL. I get the following error:
Could you help me?
Notice (8): Undefined index: empty_passwd [APP/app_controller.php, line 77]
Code
AppController::checkDeviceIsSecured() - APP/app_controller.php, line 77
AppController::beforeFilter() - APP/app_controller.php, line 46
Dispatcher::_invoke() - CORE/cake/dispatcher.php, line 209
Dispatcher::dispatch() - CORE/cake/dispatcher.php, line 194
require - APP/webroot/index.php, line 88
[main] - CORE/index.php, line 61
Notice (8): Undefined index: owner_name [APP/controllers/components/owner_api.php, line 115]
Code | Context
OwnerApiComponent::authenticateOwner() - APP/controllers/components/owner_api.php, line 115
AppController::__testAdminCredentials() - APP/app_controller.php, line 611
AppController::__checkLogin() - APP/app_controller.php, line 557
AppController::beforeFilter() - APP/app_controller.php, line 47
Dispatcher::_invoke() - CORE/cake/dispatcher.php, line 209
Dispatcher::dispatch() - CORE/cake/dispatcher.php, line 194
require - APP/webroot/index.php, line 88
[main] - CORE/index.php, line 61
Warning (2): Cannot modify header information - headers already sent by (output started at /var/www/UI/cake/basics.php:109) [CORE/cake/libs/controller/controller.php, line 647]
Code | Context
header - [internal], line ??
Controller::header() - CORE/cake/libs/controller/controller.php, line 647
Controller::redirect() - CORE/cake/libs/controller/controller.php, line 628
AppController::__checkLogin() - APP/app_controller.php, line 567
AppController::beforeFilter() - APP/app_controller.php, line 47
Dispatcher::_invoke() - CORE/cake/dispatcher.php, line 209
Dispatcher::dispatch() - CORE/cake/dispatcher.php, line 194
require - APP/webroot/index.php, line 88
[main] - CORE/index.php, line 61
Ok, I dont know why, but now the errors dont appear any more! Everything works fine!
Thank you. Trying it right now
-UPDATE-
Works great!
Cromwell wrote:
Nice try! Is there any way to transfer existing 5.1.9 license to 6.0.32 twonky?
I just called WD support and the short answer is no. And I also confirmed again that they have no intentions of upgrading the TwonkyMedia Server version. This shows that they could really give two sh*ts about their “customers” after they’ve already capitalized on hard earned $$$.
Alias: Gordon.Gartrelle
I wouldn’t characterize us that way. You are “assuming” many things when you make comments like that.We did an extensive evaluation and testing of twonky. Decisions were made that it was too unstable and had way too many issues to ship in a consumer product.
In fact, we will have a firmware update in the next quarter that will have some exciting features…
I would temper your criticism a bit going forward.
Tony
Edit - I wanted to add some color to this thread for you all:
The misconception in this case is twofold:  1. It is very easy to change the firmwareon the units. 2. Because changing the firmware is so easy then WD isn’t changing it because they don’t care.
I am not sure you understand how difficult it is to release software. Moving to a major release like twonky 6 (assuming it even passed our tests) requires quite a bit of effort -including certification testing (DLNA, Microsoft, etc.) , system testing, and compatibility testing in order to have the highest quality release.
Are we happy with Twonky 5? For the most part it is been reliable and bug free. There are always newer software stacks and services that we are looking at for this as well as future products. We definitely are looking at these moving forward.
One last point, we do not endorse nor will we support user modified changes to our product. You are on your own if you go and make changes like this to your My Book Live and most likely you will void your warranty.
Help! I’ve made a bit of a error in judgement. I started to follow the instructions to install v6 and clicked into the v5 folder by mistake and deleted the files below:
- bg_trans
- start_bgtrans.sh
- twonkymedia-server-default.ini
- twonkymedia-server-default.ini.orig
- twonkymediaserver
I’d like to put things back straight, can anyone provide these original files for me from v5.1.9?
Any help appreciated.
tonyp1983
Update 1:
I’ve now figured out how to do an “Update” to the current firmware version - back to full Twonky 5 glory! Now to install Twonky 6 but paying attention this time.
WDTony Thank you for the response.
Just give us the choice to upgrade/not upgrade Twonky. That may be an option in Twonky UI. So if you got some problems with upgraded Twonky, you always can reflash to original FW and get 5.1.9 Twonky again.
WE NEED AN ALTERNATIVE!
1 Like
WDTony: As a software developer for a large IT organization, I understand the difficulty of releasing software and its impact on test resources. However, my organization NEVER promotes features for products it does not support or has no intentions of resolving issues for. This is my main gripe with WD. All documentation I have seen for this product clearly states the support to stream MKV files via DLNA. There are no disclaimers ANYWHERE. Had I known that MKV files (which make up 99% of my video library) would not be supported out-of-the-box, I simply would not have purchased the device. So as a customer, I expect this function to work. When you get statements from WD support staff saying “we don’t have any plans to provide a firmware upgrade to resolve this issue” and “we don’t plan to upgrade the TwonkyMedia Server”, this is precisely how customers will feel, especially when they know that the makers of the software used by the device to support DLNA has resolved the issue themselves. As I mentioned, WD support staff has not been helpful with this issue. The information you provided is the most I’ve heard from anyone.
Alias: Gordon.Gartrelle
2 Likes
Cromwell wrote:
WDTony Thank you for the response.
Just give us the choice to upgrade/not upgrade Twonky. That may be an option in Twonky UI. So if you got some problems with upgraded Twonky, you always can reflash to original FW and get 5.1.9 Twonky again.
WE NEED AN ALTERNATIVE!
Actually, a good thing about the instructions I provided is that you don’t even need to remove 5.1.9 at all. If you want to rollback and use 5.1.9, just update a single file (/usr/local/sbin/share-param.sh) and restart Twonky.
Alias: Gordon.Gartrelle
To Gordon.Gartrelle
After the update (thanks by the way for figuring out how to do it), how does it work if you want to get the licence for the 6.0.32 Twonky? Is there simply a licencing option on the Twonky UI or do you have do a new installation? I haven’t done the update yet but will probably do it if the licencing is easy.
Cheers,
Another disappointed WD customer who found out the MKV-streaming is not working and that WD couldn’t care less.
