Video playlist question

I’m considering getting a WD TV Live to replace my Mediagate MG-450HD.  One feature of the Mediagate I like is the Bookmark button on the remote where you can “bookmark” a video currently playing and watch it later without having to remember what video it is (handy when you’re watching several tv series and don’t want to keep track of which episode you left off at).

Using a video playlist on the WD TV Live could serve the same purpose, but I’ve read some posts about problems about video playlists (see here  http://community.wdc.com/t5/Networking/Playlists-on-NAS-Serious-Limitation/m-p/7123/highlight/true#M576 and here  http://community.wdc.com/t5/Networking/Tried-to-search-and-can-t-find-it-Network-shares-and-playlists/m-p/5201/highlight/true#M251).

I find it hard to believe those issue actually exist for a media player. Who puts all their video files in one folder anyways? I hope someone can dispel those concerns.

Does the WD TV Live playlist for videos work:

  1. when the videos are stored on a NAS (network attached storage) device?

  2. when the videos are in different folders?

For example, my Videos folder currently looks like this…

  • Videos

------ Movies

------------  80s

------------   90s

------------  New

  • TV Shows

------  The Office

------  Grey’s Anatomy

  • Music Videos

Can I make a playlist of videos on my “Movies > New” folder and inside the TV Shows > The Ofiice?

  1. What’s the process of  creating a video playlist using the remote? How easy / hard is it?

I have tried to get a straight answer for this from many searches but had not managed to find a clear answer.  So in the hope that the various search engines will pick up this post and help others get through this, here is what I have found. 

WD TV Live music playlists and video playlists only work on Local Drives. 

WD TV Live music playlists and video playlists do not work on Media Servers. 

Sorry; didn’t have chance to confirm Network Share support, but I assume it is the same as Media Server. 

Actually, it is not just the playlists that don’t work.  It seems that the whole set of Media Library-related functions don’t work on anything other than a Local Drive.  ie when navigating, you don’t have access to the Date, Recent, or Playlist options. 

I specifically purchased the WD Sharespace for this application to avoid having to move files to multiple locations, and added a GigE network to remove any data rate issues during playback.  Although I have been extremely happy with the setup for watching individual shows/movies, this is one particular capability that I am frankly amazed to find.  There’s no reason why such a feature couldn’t work over the network, but WD decided to put their effort into all the file transfer functionality rather than just making all features work the same whether Local Drive, Media Server or Network Share.  What a bad product management decision! 

Oh, hang on.  There’s the reason for the product management decision right there!  Now my only option is to buy ANOTHER WD product; a USB drive like a Passport.  Maybe I’ll go for another vendor, just on principle!  I’ll still need to go through the admin pain of copying all the Music Video files from the NAS to the Local Drive.  Geez! 

Does anyone know if there’s a way of using Twonky (on the WD Sharespace) to make video playlists that will work on the WD TV Live? 

For reference, my setup is:

WD TV Live, 1.02.21 firmware (I have two devices in two different rooms)

Connected to a WD Sharespace 4TB NAS via GigE wired connection (DLink DIR-825)

WDTV Live music playlists do work on Network Share.

richUK wrote:

WDTV Live music playlists do work on Network Share.

Thanks richUK for pointing that out, and I’m sorry I didn’t persevere with setting up the Network Share before.  I just set it up and the Playlists files are now visible and do work properly.   

So to help make sure the search engines can find the answer to this questions:

WD TV Live music playlists and video playlists only work on Local Drives and Network Shares. 

WD TV Live music playlists and video playlists do not work on Media Servers. 

Cheers,

Mike

PS. Noticing your UK moniker, I’m a Brit living around Boston, MA. 

CardiffArms wrote:


richUK wrote:

WDTV Live music playlists do work on Network Share.


Thanks richUK for pointing that out, and I’m sorry I didn’t persevere with setting up the Network Share before.  I just set it up and the Playlists files are now visible and do work properly.   

 

So to help make sure the search engines can find the answer to this questions:

WD TV Live music playlists and video playlists only work on Local Drives and Network Shares. 

WD TV Live music playlists and video playlists do not work on Media Servers. 

 

Cheers,

Mike

PS. Noticing your UK moniker, I’m a Brit living around Boston, MA. 

 

They probably don’t work via Media Servers due to the way they work and the likelihood is that is has nothing to do with the WDTV.

I assume that you come from Wales given your user name. I’m on the south coast of England.

richUK wrote:

 

They probably don’t work via Media Servers due to the way they work and the likelihood is that is has nothing to do with the WDTV.

I assume that you come from Wales given your user name. I’m on the south coast of England.

Good point.  I have no idea what happens under the covers; it would be nice for such things to be consistent.  

Yup, from Cardiff originally.  Been here 10 years; Canada for 4 years prior to that.