Update - WD changed my mind

Community Archives WD TV Live Firmware
1

Well, the last firmware release for Live Plus did it for me, as I can see for tens of thousands out there.

I must admit, in spite of a few troubled releases I was always able to rollback until a stable release came.

While the player worked, I liked it.

But now, after many, many attempts to rollback to the previous release, I’m done with this product.

I will enjoy walking it down to the curb and throwing it in the crusher tomorrow, garbage day.

Oh, and thanks to the guy that pointed me to another product that seems to appear to work for millions, Dune.  I’ll be checking that one out and others.  I’ll be researching other products for sure.  One thing I’m making sure of that updates work correctly, and QA is done.

All I really wanted with this one was to watch various video formats, I don’t care about youtube, and all the other online **bleep**.  I have a computer for that stuff.  I have a few WD drives, it will be a long time in **bleep** before I buy anything for this company again.

I read this was to be the last firmware update for WD Live Plus.  It’s now a dead product.  Thanks for telling us that before we all did this update.

If you’re reading this and you work for WD on this product line, I’d keep a low profile right now, update your resume, or transfer out as quickly as possible.  The suits won’t be happy when they find out about this one.   It’s going to hit the bottom line. 

For anyone considering a media server product, well…   you know what I’d like to say.

OK, I feel better now.

PS:  I usually don’t post much, but I just had to register to get this off my chest.

2

Hello,

After you did the update, did you reset the media player? Also make sure to set the media player back to factory defaults after any firmware update.

3

@nothappyman

Understand your frustration, but from another user – don’t throw in the towel yet.  While you were posting your message, I was posting one – one that you should see.  Find my last post here:

http://community.wdc.com/t5/WD-TV-Live-Firmware-Networking/New-Release-WD-TV-Live-Plus-Firmware-Version-1-06-42-1-17-13/m-p/534946#M17212

4

I’m the original poster on this one.

I need to update things.

WD support contacted me and offered to replace my pretty much dead Live Plus unit after the latest update.

I promised to throw it out the door, but I couldn’t do it on garbage day.

Maybe it will live again in the future (another firmware update?).

Anyway, they are sending me a new gen3 replacement unit.

When it arrives and it does the basics for me, play my videos and connect wi-fi to my network, I’m good.

I’ll never upgrade the firmware on the thing if it works for me.  This last one has taught me a lesson.

WD should do better with these firmware updates, especially if you can ‘brick’ your unit as they say, and your unit is EOL (end of life I guess), as WD called it.

They would have lost me forever in future purchases if they had not done something.

So, in the end WD is doing right by me and I’m pleased with the response, and surprised.

Let’s hope the new one works out of the box.

5

Received my replacement WD Live gen3 unit via UPS within a week of WD sending it.

Right out of the box, connected via wi-fi to my network and playing videos and music again, no problems.

It wanted to do a firmware upgrade of course, but I will never do a firmware upgrade on this unit.

Don’t fix it if it’s working, I’ve learned my lesson by bricking my older unit.

Thanks WD, I feel I was treated very well.

6

Wupti doo, great for you, i bet you live in the US… but for us sorry suckers who live in Europe, i don’t believe that WD will be so kind to replace the Brick of useless plastik i used to call WDTV live gen2 :cry:

On the other hand that i might be pleasantly suprised, WD are more than welcome to throw a Gen3 my way…

7

I live in Canada, so I thought it was a miracle for the U.S. company to send me a replacement here, no taxes or duty either.  If you have a dead unit like I ended up with try to contact the support group.  I didn’t chase them, they just read my post and contacted me with a private message.  They referred to my unit as an EOL (not sure, I guess it means end of life or line).  I had to provide them with contact info, and the serial number of my unit.  Hopefully they will help you out.  Good luck.

8

Consider yourself lucky I guess. I highly doubt they will replace every single unit for those who have complained here, myself included.

I guess I should consider myself lucky as well since all I have issue with is, like most, network shares. Problem is, that is my, as I am sure most others, main source of playing media.

The players themselves are great. They just need poeple who know what they are doing and how to solve problems when it comes to firmware. Seems they do not have that here and why most have given up and moved on to other media players.

9

Or they don’t have network problems since they fixed their router setup. Like me.

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nothappyman wrote:

They referred to my unit as an EOL (not sure, I guess it means end of life or line). 

I think EOL is kinda like SOL, essentially meaning: Essentially Out of Luck.   :laughing:

11

I it was only the network problems, but no, there is also the lack of autoframerate, stuttering i 1080p and sometimes 720p and not to mention the extreme time it takes to start…