WD HDTV Problem

[p4j1]

Hi guys I’ve been looking for a solution to my problem for so long and after reading some threads in the forum and having no luck I thought I’d register and see if anyone can help me.

I’ve got a WD HDTV Media Player (2nd Gen) with the latest firmware, and I currently use an external 1TD WD Elements to play bluray .mkv’s off. All the movies I have were working fine for over a year but in the past few weeks it seems none of them seem to want to play. If I reset the device a few times I can get one video to play but if I try to play another after that it won’t play, just gets stuck on the round loading icon screen.

I’ve checked my external drive for errors and it has no problems, I’ve also tried a few other HDD’s and they cause the same symptoms. I’ve tried to reset the device via the reset button next to the USB port on the side but it doesn’t seem to help, and I cannot downgrade my firmware as it is already updated to the latest one.

Is it safe to say the box is faulty or is there anything else I can try to fix this? Any help will be appreciated as I’ve run out of ideas now.

Kind regards,

p4j1-

[richUK]

It sounds as if you have the ‘header compression’ problem. You need to remux your mkv files using mkvmerge with the ‘header compression’ turned off. I assume that your player is not a WDTV Live as this problem was sorted out recently with updated firmware. The reason none of them will play is because once a ‘bad’ file is played the WDTV will hang up and not work until it is reset. 

[p4j1]

Hi richUK,

So I’ll have to do that with all my mkv’s? I have over a 100 ;/

[p4j1]

Also you say the bad files cause the WDTV to malfunction until it is reset, how would I go about resetting the device? Is there no other possible solution than remuxing my files?

Also it’s the non Live version as you mentioned

[p4j1]

Well this is weird, I remuxed one of my 1080p mkv’s and it played fine, and now all my other movies that haven’t been remuxed are working again, is that what you meant by the device resetting the software?

Thanks

[oxter]

Please, post few of your MKV media Info, this way we can try to see if is a code issue:

http://wdc.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/2745/session/L3RpbWUvMTMwMjU0Mzc3NS9zaWQvd3BTRS1kcms%3D

[p4j1]

Here’s one I have a problem with:

General
UniqueID/String                  : 194980886616302608230041274680214330464 (0x92AFF3EB788DA0848F4C46772A3C9C60)
CompleteName                     : J:\Movies\English\Golmaal.3.Bluray.x264.720p.DTS-FictionBoy.mkv
Format                           : Matroska
FileSize/String                  : 4.37 GiB
Duration/String                  : 2h 20mn
OverallBitRate/String            : 4 468 Kbps
Encoded_Date                     : UTC 2011-03-13 02:01:50
Encoded_Application              : mkvmerge v4.5.0 (‘Speed of Light’) built on Feb  1 2011 02:10:32
Encoded_Library/String           : libebml v1.2.0 + libmatroska v1.1.0

Video
ID/String                        : 1
Format                           : AVC
Format/Info                      : Advanced Video Codec
Format_Profile                   : High@L4.1
Format_Settings_CABAC/String     : Yes
Format_Settings_RefFrames/String : 4 frames
Format_Settings_GOP              : N=1
MuxingMode                       : Header stripping
CodecID                          : V_MPEG4/ISO/AVC
Duration/String                  : 2h 20mn
BitRate/String                   : 3 701 Kbps
Width/String                     : 1 280 pixels
Height/String                    : 576 pixels
DisplayAspectRatio/String        : 2.222
FrameRate/String                 : 24.000 fps
ColorSpace                       : YUV
ChromaSubsampling                : 4:2:0
BitDepth/String                  : 8 bits
ScanType/String                  : Progressive
Bits-(Pixel*Frame)               : 0.209
StreamSize/String                : 3.54 GiB (81%)
Title                            : Golmaal 3 720p
Encoded_Library/String           : x264 core 114 r1913 5fd3dce
Encoded_Library_Settings         : cabac=1 / ref=4 / deblock=1:0:0 / analyse=0x3:0x113 / me=hex / subme=7 / psy=1 / psy_rd=1.00:0.00 / mixed_ref=1 / me_range=16 / chroma_me=1 / trellis=1 / 8x8dct=1 / cqm=0 / deadzone=21,11 / fast_pskip=1 / chroma_qp_offset=-2 / threads=4 / sliced_threads=0 / nr=0 / decimate=1 / interlaced=0 / constrained_intra=0 / bframes=3 / b_pyramid=2 / b_adapt=1 / b_bias=0 / direct=1 / weightb=1 / open_gop=0 / weightp=2 / keyint=250 / keyint_min=24 / scenecut=40 / intra_refresh=0 / rc_lookahead=40 / rc=2pass / mbtree=1 / bitrate=3701 / ratetol=1.0 / qcomp=0.60 / qpmin=0 / qpmax=69 / qpstep=4 / cplxblur=20.0 / qblur=0.5 / vbv_maxrate=50000 / vbv_bufsize=50000 / nal_hrd=none / ip_ratio=1.40 / aq=1:1.00
Language/String                  : English

Audio
ID/String                        : 2
Format                           : DTS
Format/Info                      : Digital Theater Systems
MuxingMode                       : Header stripping
CodecID                          : A_DTS
Duration/String                  : 2h 20mn
BitRate_Mode/String              : Constant
BitRate/String                   : 755 Kbps
Channel(s)/String                : 6 channels
ChannelPositions                 : Front: L C R, Side: L R, LFE
SamplingRate/String              : 48.0 KHz
BitDepth/String                  : 16 bits
Compression_Mode/String          : Lossy
StreamSize/String                : 756 MiB (17%)
Title                            : DTS 768 5.1

Text
ID/String                        : 3
Format                           : UTF-8
CodecID                          : S_TEXT/UTF8
CodecID/Info                     : UTF-8 Plain Text
Title                            : English
Language/String                  : English

[p4j1]

Another one:

General
Unique ID                        : 230684589374632149798420238083119925903 (0xAD8C3C5FE9EBE18B8D6D732B664C4A8F)
Complete name                    : J:\Movies\English\The.Town.EXTENDED.1080p.Bluray.x264-CBGB.mkv
Format                           : Matroska
File size                        : 10.9 GiB
Duration                         : 2h 30mn
Overall bit rate                 : 10.4 Mbps
Encoded date                     : UTC 2008-11-29 01:49:34
Writing application              : mkvmerge v2.9.8 (‘C’est le bon’) built on Aug 21 2009 13:21:42
Writing library                  : libebml v0.7.7 + libmatroska v0.8.1

Video
ID                               : 1
Format                           : AVC
Format/Info                      : Advanced Video Codec
Format profile                   : High@L4.0
Format settings, CABAC           : Yes
Format settings, ReFrames        : 5 frames
Codec ID                         : V_MPEG4/ISO/AVC
Duration                         : 2h 30mn
Bit rate                         : 8 880 Kbps
Width                            : 1 920 pixels
Height                           : 800 pixels
Display aspect ratio             : 2.40:1
Frame rate                       : 23.976 fps
Color space                      : YUV
Chroma subsampling               : 4:2:0
Bit depth                        : 8 bits
Scan type                        : Progressive
Bits/(Pixel*Frame)               : 0.241
Stream size                      : 9.12 GiB (83%)
Writing library                  : x264 core 110 r1804 e89c4cf
Encoding settings                : cabac=1 / ref=5 / deblock=1:0:0 / analyse=0x3:0x113 / me=umh / subme=8 / psy=1 / psy_rd=1.00:0.20 / mixed_ref=1 / me_range=16 / chroma_me=1 / trellis=1 / 8x8dct=1 / cqm=0 / deadzone=21,11 / fast_pskip=1 / chroma_qp_offset=-3 / threads=12 / sliced_threads=0 / nr=0 / decimate=1 / interlaced=0 / constrained_intra=0 / bframes=3 / b_pyramid=2 / b_adapt=1 / b_bias=0 / direct=3 / weightb=1 / open_gop=0 / weightp=2 / keyint=250 / keyint_min=23 / scenecut=40 / intra_refresh=0 / rc_lookahead=40 / rc=2pass / mbtree=1 / bitrate=8880 / ratetol=1.0 / qcomp=0.60 / qpmin=0 / qpmax=51 / qpstep=4 / cplxblur=20.0 / qblur=0.5 / ip_ratio=1.40 / aq=1:1.00
Language                         : English

Audio
ID                               : 2
Format                           : DTS
Format/Info                      : Digital Theater Systems
Codec ID                         : A_DTS
Duration                         : 2h 30mn
Bit rate mode                    : Constant
Bit rate                         : 1 510 Kbps
Channel(s)                       : 6 channels
Channel positions                : Front: L C R, Side: L R, LFE
Sampling rate                    : 48.0 KHz
Bit depth                        : 24 bits
Compression mode                 : Lossy
Stream size                      : 1.59 GiB (15%)
Language                         : English