Hi, just bought my new wd tv live, upgrading for a wdtv gen 1 player and I’ve noticed the quality on the playback of video files isn’t great. I was watching an avi file and while it was ok, there was small hints of distortion. Played it back on the wdtv and it was better, anyway of upscaling the avi file or improving the picture quality? I play it through hdmi.
What is the resolution of the file you are playing? And what is your TV showing as the HDMI resolution?
The resolution of the video file is 624 x 352, not sure about the hdmi resolution thing, how do i check that?
Most TVs will tell you. However, that’s not too important now.
The reason it looks bad is because it IS bad. The Live is an HD device, designed to playback HD material. It won’t do a good job on low res stuff like you’re trying to play – the original WD Player is a much better fit for this kind of stuff.
If you don’t have any HD material you might want to return the Live. Otherwise, just accept that you can’t make a silk purse out of a cow’s ear.
mkelley wrote:
…, just accept that you can’t make a silk purse out of a cow’s ear.
Oh my! And I thought *I* was the Texan Redneck here! :smileyvery-happy:
Thanks for the help, much appreciated. Do you think western digital will fix this with the live in the future? I could download the 720p quality video stuff but i only have 3 meg broadband so it would take me an hour to download it and I do like 5-10 a day. The 350MB HDTV shows are much easier with my slow connection but I wanted the live because it plays DTS audio.
I don’t think there’s anything to fix – as I said, the Live is an HD device, and that’s what it does best. Playing things other than HD is always going to be less capable (and we wouldn’t want the Live to focus on low res stuff).
I have the WD mini media player and an Wd Elements 500 GB External HD. I tried to hook this up to a new Panasonic Viera 32" LCD (model TC-L32C22). I must have made a mistake because when I play back .avi and Mp3 files the color is off…no reds or greens…everything comes off with a blueish and yellow tint… Could someone help me out I’m not that savey that I know whats wrong but initially the colors were fine. What needs to be plugged into where? and whar settings do I use when setting up the playback mode?? I will appreciate any help…thank you
Welcome to the forums.
The symptoms you describe sound like a component issue – is that how you plugged it in?
Component inputs are Red Green Blue – so if you want component input you must first use a component cable AND you must hook it up to a component output. If you mix up the inputs then you will get colors like you describe. However, this is the forum for the WD Live/Plus media player, NOT the mini player and I have no idea if the mini has a component out or comes with the right cable. You should probably ask on that forum:
http://community.wdc.com/t5/WD-TV-Mini-DVR-Expander/bd-p/tv_mini
I also have experienced some quality issues with the HD Live. I was watching HEROES Season 4. It is HD in an AVI can and I noticed that there was a very noticeable “discoball” type squares (? macroblocking) showing up during the playback. It was very noticeable in the darker portions. Any ideas / advice to help clear this up.
Thanks,
Bry
Welcome to the forums.
Since the Live plays properly encoded HD material superbly my own hunch would be that the encoding on this was bad. How did you do it? (What software did you use and what settings?)
Not sure. I’ll have to ask my buddy at work. He loaded up my external HD from his home computer. I know he gets his stuff via Torrents. Fortunately, he has unlimited bandwidth so he downloads a lot (so I don’t do any on my computer). The daughter chews up most of my 25G allotment on her university studies anyway.
My humble position on this is that is was a crappy upload to start with. All my other files are stunning!!
Thanks
That’s probably the case. Things downloaded from the internet vary widely in quality.
As always, the best bet is to do the encoding yourself from the materials you own.
I tried that and it worked…no more problems THANK YOU!!!
I have a gazillion DVD, BD and HD DVD discs and wouldn’t mind storing them digitally. Can you recommend good software to accomplish this. I found what appears to be a good one (“Any DVD / HD”), but it seems to be availble only in England. A freeware would be ideal. Recommendations appreciated.
Thanks,
Bry
Disregard this. Found the info in another post…
And for the record, AnyDVD HD can be purchased anywhere (it’s downloaded from their internet site).
But you probably found out about DVDFab (which I think is free) – it works *most* of the time (but not well for blu-ray materials). And Handbrake for encoding.
Mike,
Roger that. Now I have another question. I went into “Settings” and adjusted the audio to Digital…all well here. However. the Video has me a little perplexed. I am using a 720p Panasonic plasma and I noticed that there a multitude of Hz choices for the HDMI at 720 (and 1080p which is where I wil lbe using HD Live once I get my new AV reciever installed upstairs). Does this refer to the frequency of the video material or the display? Which should I use since the TV manual does not specify the frequency in the specs. I am running it on Auto right now.
Thanks,
Bry
Bry,
If “auto” works for you there’s no reason to change it. That setting “should” handshake correctly with most TVs and thus act best. The only time I’d change it is if you are having display issues.
There are *some* folks who believe in setting things to 24p where the source material is 23.97 frames per second. The theory at least is that there will be no duped frames. In practice I can’t tell the difference but YMMV and it doesn’t hurt to try it. Most all source DVDs and blu-rays will be 23.97 frames per second.
ACK.
If all is working fine…don’t mess with it 
Thanks for all your help.
Bry
