When I’m connected direct wire to router /hub I can watch everyting fine.
Now when I switch to wireless and play a large 1080p MKV movie it works fine for about 50 sec and then it gets choppy and no audio. If I stop and continue where last played it works again for about 50 sec. Again it plays fine when directly connected.
So here is my info
I’m using D-Link DI-624 Router (Not on the official approved list but then not many are) it is set to 100mbs but wireless, I believe, is half that. It is a g router.
USB loaded firmware ( .11)
I turned off my firewall, I use WPA security protocol, I belive I have tried it with it off with same results - will confirm when I get home.
The problem with other lower bitrate files it plays fine but 10 min in it loses network connection. I’m sure the problems are related
I want this to work so bad so I can impress family and friends for Christmas.
On 802.11 g wireless, 54 Mbps is the maximum theoretical speed (per channel). The actual speed depends on many factors: strength of connexion, other network activity, or depending on the router hardware, even just the presence of other connected device. So in practice you may get much less continuous transfer speed than 54 Mbps.
In contrast, streaming a 1080p video file is typically a demanding operation network-wise. There is an average transfer speed needed but also keep in mind that all parts of the files are encoded at the same bitrate, so that bandwidth spikes are to be expected.
I got no problem on LAN with 100 base T ethernet cable, but I would be wary of 802.11 g for these files. On the other hand, 802.11 n was in part designed with streaming HD content in mind, with a peak bandwidth of 300 Mbps. Routers and USB dongles are pricier for 802.11 n but that’s probably the way to go for wireless transfer of 1080p content.
Anthony… I had the same problem… I have DIR-655 wireless router & cable modem that I moved from my home office to my home theater. I bought a wireless bridge to get the Internet/WLAN to the home office. The WD Live is now hardwired to the router and NAS. I have a DLNA enabled HD TV attached to the router and the widgets run just fine.
I am experiencing excatly the same problems but with 802.11n. I am using Linksys equipment WRT610 and WET610 - wireless bridge. I haven’t treid it yet with a cable but it seems, the WiFi connection is the problem.
Does anybody knows something about buffering in the WD TV Live? Or is the Ethernet socket a 1 Gb/s or only 100 Mb/s?
I am able to stream full 1080P (mkv) wirelessly anywhere in my house using a dlink wireless N router. I suspect a G router is pushing it, but the WD device can do it. (Which is quite remarkable, actually.)
I hope that the family were impressed for Xmas - but I have the same problem using the Dlink 150 Wireless N USB key in the unit. Just can’t get the bandwidth. I now have a network cable running over door frames and around skirting boards until I can get it hardwired in…
I would enable MAC filtering for just the WDTV Live device and disable broadcasting the network name when you are streaming videos across the network to ensure that there are no other unauthorized devices connected or trying to connect and borrow some of that limited G bandwidth. Also try disabling the wireless connectivity on any devices that were previously authorized for connections to your network.
The unit documentation clearly states you must have a supported N router and wireless USB dongle. Anything less and you will achieve the exact results you are experiencing with choppy and patchy files. It’s a matter of bandwidth, and hard-wired will always win over wireless networking when it comes to stability and performance in most environments; not to mention that N is a far superior technology regarding bandwidth. You have to realize that N is the general standard when it comes to wireless home theatre connectivity, and asking a G network to handle something that needs to be handled by N is absurd. Would you try to use wireless B for downloading large files, or rather try connecting that device to a G/N router and download that 1GB file from a torrent site?
Bottom line is if you aren’t using the supported N devices, how can you expect your network to handle the bandwidth it was never intended to handle? Power-line networking is a feasible solution but at best you might achieve a peak of 85 MBps on a standard device.
Thank you WD_Guru for your insights. I agree, however, I did some tests and checks today.
The outcome was rather unspectacular.
I checked the video bandwidth of a normal HD video. It is around 35 Mbit per second MAX, plus sound of about 1 Mbps. That is well in the range of a G network with good connection - around 50 Mb/s for a 108 Mb/s connection. Well, if hte G network connection is able to achieve this throughput etc.
In my case, I have checked a Cisco WRT610N router with a Cisco WET610N WiFi bridge and a Belkin 100 Mb/s hub.
I have tried the full path, a direct cable connection from the router to the hub and from the router to the WD TV Live.
I fogot to mention, that I am using a WHS to distribute the data.
After checking all these different set - ups and also changed the firmware on the WRT610N to the DD-WRT version, I can say - no change!
All kinds of set-up showed the same result - choppy performance of HD movies. Now, I am believing that there is a problem of the source, the WHS and the hard disk performance. This is something, I have found toaday and I would like to share with you. It seems, the network is not very stable however, I also tried this on a PC and got the same results. Next thing I am going to do is to change my old Samsung 501 HDs to newer ones. May be this helps. However, I am still puzzled.
I had the exact experience as the OP. Wired network, fine. Direct attached storage, fine. Wireless, plays okay for about a 30-40 seconds the the video gets choppy.
From both of the previous posts, you are experiencing the same issue. I took some time to look at the Knowledge Base associated with the device and it states which devices are supported and from what I understand in the matter of support, this is specifically why they list them; they are tested to work.
There is no guarantee that any/all devices utilized for connectivity will work for proper streaming, however the ones listed should work and therefore fall under the umbrella of that category. I understand your frustration, and the reasoning for why your device should work, but the issue is still at a network level, and as such, if you are not using supported devices, then they are not guaranteed to work. I personally refuse to rely on a wireless technology for proper streaming when I know that hard-wired is the only real answer for consistent bandwidth when it comes to proper data transfer exceeding a couple hundred Meg. You previously mentioned there are no issues when connected via hard-wire so I dont really have to explain much further where the problem lies. Wireless technology has been utilized for the convenience of browsing without wires, but when you stream across a network you are asking that technology to do something it essentially was never intended to do at this point (G). I commend you for your proactive approach in isolating the issue and really burrowing down on your network because Ill admit it is beyond my know-how. The only real solution at this point is either stick with what works (hard-wired), or invest in supported products and enjoy wireless connectivity. Im sorry I couldnt be of further assistance because again, I understand your frustration as I have been through it previously.
Thank you again WD_Guru for your help. In this list are many 802.11g routers. However, this only says that these should work with the box and nothing more.
I would recommend that you isolate the problem, e.g. if streaming works fine via a cable connection compared to a WiFi connection, than it is obvious that you have a WiFi problem. This means you can try to improve this connection. It is known that each access point has different throughput and signal strength. Also the coverage differs greatly and it is difficult to say something about this from the distance.
However, all this has nothing to do with the functionality of the WD TV, this is a pure network problem, in my case more a hard disk performance problem, even.
For me the problem is identified and I have to work on it. Good luck to all of you that you will be able to solve your problem as well.
To share my additional findings with you and to probably save you some money in buying new equipment, here is what I tested today and the results.
My Cisco Linksys WRT610N, WUSB600N (attached to my PC) and WET610N wireless bridge definetly do not work with 1080p files played directly from a network share. But even with cable not all kind of 1080p files work!
The WD TV Live - as I know now from my router - has a 100 Mbit/s Ehternet interface. One file works, the other with higher picture bit-rate not. The cable connection is Windows Home Server with giga-bit interface connected directly to WRT610N. There I also plugged the cable to the WD TV Live. This should work, but it also does not.
What I did not try, was playing something via a media server like Windows Media Connector or Twonky or others.
After trying all this, my solution for my set up is to put a hard disk beside my WD-TV Live and copy the content from the server. This is definetly not how I imaged it. However, be warned, in case you want to buy 802.11n WiFi equipment with 300 Mbit/s, try it first, if it really works for 1080p. For SD resolution, everything was fine. At least something…
Well, I give it up here and wait until 600 megs or gigabit WiFi will be available. May be this will work better…
Good luck to all of you and I hope you found this somehow useful…
I have the same experience (stops playing after 10 min, with a message of “lost network connection”), but it is with .avi and .vob as well as .mkv. It requires a power off/on of the player to get reconnected and then re-play from the last position. It will sometimes do this 5 times in a 30min video file; sometimes only once.
My setup:
Hardwired cat5e all connections
Linksys GbE router
GbE LAN connection at PC
I assume 100Mb connection at the WD player
Latest WD firmware (well, at least the 1.11 version…I think that is the number, the player updated itself)
No wireless.
I do not believe it is related to bitrate, since all types of files give the same behavior. It would seem to be related to the network connection/chip/driver in the player.
I tought it’s only 802.11g that has some thoughput limit. That would be expected. Most wlan setups include encryption and some re-keying. In those cases throuput will vary, in some moments. And would be unable to sustain a 1080p movie. But for an avi file…
I was hoping a 100mbps cablling shouldn’t encounter any problems. Or a 802.11n wireless connection.
Are you sure that on the cable you have put your wdtv a laptop/pc can negociate 100mbps full duplex? Your router don’t give you port status?
I haven’t try play over the network as I have a Windows 7 laptop and current firmware 11 it’s not able to access my laptop without breaking the laptop security. But I am able to copy at a realy good throughput from the laptop to WDTVLIVE.
I think all the wireless has to do with security over wireless. the different security settings on the router tacks on extra decryption, encryption for the wireless packet. If you turn off security, I think everything wil run fine. But of course, thats not the greatest option. Im going to try again, turn off security, retest everything and if it works, im going to buy another WIFI router just for media streaming. enable mac address only and let it run. Im not super excited about that, but id rather not run cat5 cable around my house.
I have a trendnet (same as the dlink whatever it is). Im going to turn off security and test it. If it runs fine with video, thats my problem. I think these wireless routers and cant process the packets fast enough for encryption coming to/from multiple endpoints. Not saying the WDLIVE does not have an issue either… it could have the same issue with encryption/decryption of the wireless packets.
