Hello all, I am new to the scene here. I have a WD (G3 I think) TV Live Streaming device, with a MyNet N900 Switch-Router / DLNA server and and HP USB external drive. WD Live is connected via 1gig port to N900 switch.
All media files appears to play fine except normal ripped DVD’s when launched from a WIndows Share. It loads ok, starts to play, the first 10 seconds appears to be normal, but then is slows down to a drag where it isn’t viewable. However, when launching the same video from my laptop (Wireless 72mbs), it plays fine.
Again however, if I launch the video from the same source using the DLNA media server instead of the File share, it plays fine up to the point where you press Play to start the movie. I suppose that format doesn’t support DVD menus as I am not able to find a way to press play.
I updated the firmware recently tot he 2.something… I thought this might be the issue… so I reverted back to the 1.36 I believe but still have the same issue. I did also update the firmware on the N900 Router. Seems liek if this was the issue, it would be present in any type of connectivity.
My researched via Goggle finds most comments expressing ripping it into a different format as the solution. First of all, I dont’ want to have to do that. It obviously can play fine as the DLNA option has proved. Second, I consider this to be the best video box on the market and can’t tell you how disappointing it is to find it can’t (at least until now) play the most basic video user likely have. A DVD.
The ISO solution… is it merely encapsulating the Vido_TS folder into an ISO file format or do you change the video format and encapsulate it into an ISO?
Good information, thanks. I didn’t hear anyone say “yes” it plays those files types fine so I would think it was my setup. So I have the impression a WD TV Live G3 with 2.x firmware doesn’t play a regular ole DVD format video.
I have disocerved that the frmware update to my Router . DLNA server did break some networking connectvity. So I have reverted back and have that working correctly again. I couldn’t get to the USB shared video files to test it as I presume the systm needs to do its indexing fucntiomn before it make the content available.
I’ll update tonight or tomorrow if I get an snwer either way.
The ISO holds the very same content as the VIDEO_TS-folders. It simply a different container I prefer over having several files instead of one. I play them from my NAS via network shares.
Thanks for all the input. After a variety of changes and testing I have not been able to crack this nut. That being said, how would packing the same Video_TS files into an ISO change how it is processed? If it is dragging as a network share from my WD TV box in it’s current format why would it work any better as an ISO?
Obviously WD is aware this is an issue. Again, can’t express how disappointed I am. If my latop can play it, their box shoudl play it. .
I’m not sure about that. There have been a few mentions of this on the board but the fact remains, that I can stream VIDEO_TS and ISOs from network shares just fine - including menus (DLNA does no ISO and often enough no VOBs with menus either). It’s also only 9.8 Mbit/s so if your network can’t handle this, there’s something wrong with it.
You say, it doesn’t work from PC → WDTV but from PC → Laptop? Does it work when you turn DVD menu off for that DVD or is it all DVDs? What happens, when you reauthor in DVD Shrink to get the main movie only?
Thanks for all the input. After a variety of changes and testing I have not been able to crack this nut. That being said, how would packing the same Video_TS files into an ISO change how it is processed? If it is dragging as a network share from my WD TV box in it’s current format why would it work any better as an ISO?
Obviously WD is aware this is an issue. Again, can’t express how disappointed I am. If my latop can play it, their box shoudl play it. .
I haven’t seen any issues playing VOB (Video_TS) files either. However, different containers are handled differently. An ISO is treated differently then a DVD structure file.
Also, you are talking about apples vs oranges when you are compairing a PC to the SMP. Different hardware, software, OS, etc. and usually a PC software decodes videos as were the SMP hardware decodes. So just because a file plays on a PC does not mean that it will play on the SMP because hardware decoding is less forgiving, this is especially true if there is something wrong with the file.
The easiest way to test though is to copy the file to a portable drive, then plug it into the the SMP and play it directly. If it plays with no issues, then then problem is most likely an issue with you network and not the SMP.
I am going to test with the WD TV launching a Video_TS movie from the same USB drive when it is hosted by my laptop. If this works, then it should rule out the N900 Switch / Router I am using. I will also test launching the movie from my Laptop as the client and the same back end and see if there is any difference.
Incidentally… before I went to bed I tested it again… it appeared to be working fine. No slow-down / dragging. So I was thinking perhaps earlier when I was testing the USB drive couldn’t handle the WDTV indexing and streaming that type of Video at the same time. This movie played flawlessly for about 30 minutes or so… and then the problem returned. **bleep**.
So, it’s either:
The back end related - the USB drive, which I don’t think is the case as I have streamed this type of movie from one of my laptops connected to the drive and watching it over the Wireless network on another laptop.
The Network - The N900 is new to this confiuration. It provides 1 gb connected and Wireless 2.5 / 5 ghz. I f I am able to stream the movie from my laptop with no issues, it leaves the client (WDTV) as the issue.
Hi, I am very new to WD and here but had exactly the same problem. I have a WD Mybook Studio Ii attached to a Macbook. I could not stream my dvds over wifi either. I turned them into ISOs and works now like a charm over wifi. Also keeps menu and does not loose Dolby sound during conversion. I hope this helps.
Cool. I’m glad to hear that. For me, my WDTVLive box will play the Video_TS movies fine when the USB is attached locally. It will not play them fine over the network, WiFi or directly connected 1Gb. All 3 of my laptops will play the videos fine over the network. I changed out the Router and had the same issue.
So rather than going through the process of converting all my moves to ISO’s, I have opted to keep the USB drive attached to the WDTVLive box. Initially I had it connect to my N900 router. But all is working well now and I don’t need to worry about streaming video hogging any network bandwdith while web surfing since they run locally for now. I likely add another WDTVL box to other location(s) in my house and will see how that goes then.
