WD live Hub crashes while watching a movie

Goodday all,

Let me sketch the situation first.

I’ve got a linksys WRT320 router which the PC, Popcornhour c-200,the wd live hub and my Synology DS-411j NAS are connected on, all on Cat 6 cables.

All media are stored on the NAS which I can perfectly stream all media from onto my PC or Popcornhour c-200.

But! when my dad wants to watch a movie from the NAS through the WD live Hub, it basicly crashes after +/- 50 minutes while watching a movie.

Only remedy to get it working again is by taking out the power supply and repower it and go through the hassle of selecting the movie + skipping it at the point where the hub crashed, to continue watching a movie. (The hub doesnt remember correctly at which point it crashed)

As you can imagen this is kinda frustrating.

When I bought the hub, first thing I did is update the firmware to the latest version.

I do not store any data on the hub itself, all data comes from the NAS.

First I blamed the NAS, but after testing, (letting different movies play on PC and Popcornhour c-200), the NAS worked fine. No hick-ups or crashes there whatsoever. 

It also occurs on any type of video file;

-VIDEO_TS folders.

-DVD ISO’s

-MKV (h264)

-Blu-ray rips.

-ect.

Really hope I don’t have to go trough the hassle of sending it back to the store, since I bought it of internet, meaning it going to take ages since I’ve got a replacement.

Thanks in Advance.

(Sorry if the english isnt a 100%, im from the netherlands)

Edit:

It happens on both NFS/SAMBA/UPnP

The only successful way to play movies is to place them on a WD external storage and connect it via USB. I have tried the network shares, and the NAS way and they both have failed me BIG TIME.

Buy a My Book or passport from WD and place your files on there. It wont disappoint you

Try turning off  the DLNA, it seems to have worked for others.  Go to Setup / Network Settings then turn off the DLNA media server.

Im afraid thats not an option, my movie libary is way bigger then what fits on a external hard disk.

Besides why advertise with possibilities that really aren’t available.

I also tried turning off DLNA/UPnP, no solution there.

I got things running through SAMBA and NFS.

Ive seen another topic somewhere (i’ll try and find the link) with users reporting the exact same problem as me, their solution was using component instead of HDMI, as they think the WDTV Hub loses the handshake (or something like that)

Edit: Here is the link:   CLick

[quote] I bought a new WD HTDV Live unit at the weekend. I upgraded the FW to 1.02.21 and sat back to watch the show.
Networked from a NAS using UPnP. The first mpeg-4 avi film played for 30 mins before the unit crashed. The second equivalent spec film crashed after 20 mins and a third film run from a USB drive took 60 seconds to crash the unit.

In all cases I was using the HDMI output. The screen went blank, the sound remained and within 2 minutes the device rebooted itself. Very frustrating. Having spent 2 days looking for solutions/workarounds for this on Aunty Google and Uncle Forums, it seems there is no such known resolution to this issue. Whilst returning this device is an option I’d prefer it to be fixed as when the unit does work, it works very well.

In my desperation to get the unit to work consistently, I have found that ditching the HDMI output in favour of the composite/component outputs seems to enable the device to live without crashing. Unfortunately the picture or the sound quality is vastly reduced depending on your workaround setup. 

I would also recommend converting to the WDLXTV-LIVE firmware (currently 0.4.2.0) as this seems to have more stability and optimal performance as presented on interweb reviews. I am currently using this with no complaints. For the feint hearted, you can always revert back to the official FW by following the instructions.

I hope this helps you all and I hope WD clean up their act and sort the HDMI issues out.
Regards. [/quote]

Above is quoted from the link I’ve posted. Exact same symptoms as I have, first the screen goes black then after maybe a minute or two, the sound dissapears aswell.

Really hope this can be sorted out.

I don’t see ANY correlation between having DLNA active and performance on the Hub.  Several people have said that it fixes every problem, but I just don’t see the relationship.

Generally, crashing mid-stream is the result of these two things

1>  A bad encode or corrupted file

2>  A network transition that causes the device to lose contact with it’s server for more than a second or two.

#2 has a whole bunch of possibilities. 

I have misread the post about turning DLNA off, I tought he meant on the NAS itself, which I’ve tried.

But reading it again made me understand he meant turning DLNA off on the HUB instead. Something I haven’t tried yet.

What I’ve done now is;

  1. Switch of the libary option, not using it anyway and prefer to browse by folder + i got rid of the annoying popup.

  2. Turn off shares + DLNA, so just leaving NFS.

I watched a movie with my dad just now, and it played 100% correctly.

I’m not 100% sure that was the sollution, but my dad is watching another movie just now, so i’ll update when he’s done.

Bad encoded or corrupted file is something i’d believe if it also happens on the popcornhour c-200 + PC.

Although that doesnt say anything, since the HUB is another device with its own firmware/flaws/pro’s and con’s.

I keep this thread updated, for now I think turning off the DLNA media server + Network Shares is the solution. (Fingers Crossed!)

Come to think of it, the HUB is now connected trough component cables rather then HDMI (<-- at the time of the problem, hub was connected through HDMI). So that could also be it…

I’ll continue testing this evening, to narrow the problem down.

I’m also going to test with the movie that the problem occured with.

Re: WD live Hub crashes while watching a movie AND how to force a directory read / refresh when using wireless Networked drives

It is illogical that WD would release a ■■■■ system so

I have been researching this problem  for about 2 days now, as i have been having the same problem and everyone seems to be looking at software and firmware and networking issues

then I discovered this page

http://wdc.custhelp.com/cgi-bin/wdc.cfg/php/enduser/std_adp.php?p_faqid=3805

It states that

  • Western Digital recommends using an “N” class router when streaming wirelessly to the WD TV Live HD Media Player. Playback of video may be unstable when using a “G” class router.

I Purchased one of the routers on the list  (d-link  -  DIR-655 ) and so far (3 days later) I have played 3 movies and       5x  >45 mins tv shows with no stoppage. The Router  has been active for 3 full days (24 hours) without a crash. I was using a d-link “G” class Modem/router

I wonder too if this may fix the infamous MKV incompatability issue that seems to abound in this forum. I haven’t tried to play any large files yet but the “N” Class router should handle this well

On the second issue i have a dirty workaround to force the Hub to re-read (refresh) a networked drive’s directory.  I haven’t fully explored this yet but it seems to work, at least in the short term.

  1. Copy a small file (Video) to the directory, call it anything you like but for example “VideoToBeDeleted.avi”           (Maybe several files of this kind to be sure there are lots available for future use)

  2. Do a Hub reboot as per Setup/System/ReStart Hub

  3. You will then see your     “VideoToBeDeleted.avi”    files listed

Then Later

  1. Copy your new movie files to your shared directory ON YOUR COMPUTER

  2. IN THE HUB Select your   “VideoToBeDeleted.avi”   file              THEN DELETE IT !!!

  3. When the HUB finishes it AUTOMATICALLY refreshes the directory listing.

  4. BUT…IF YOU LEAVE the VIDEO MENU you will lose the Refreshed information. This is why i call it a dirty workaround.

  5. However if you reboot your Hub (or at the end of the evening) or just power it down overnight then the information will be refreshed automatically at the next powerup.

Hope I haven’t made a fool of myself.

Good Luck MZStone - Please let me know if this works for you too.

PS I am doing this WIRELESSLY but it is only 3 Days and I am delighted with the results

MZStone wrote:

Re: WD live Hub crashes while watching a movie AND how to force a directory read / refresh when using wireless Networked drives

 

It is illogical that WD would release a ■■■■ system so

 

I have been researching this problem  for about 2 days now, as i have been having the same problem and everyone seems to be looking at software and firmware and networking issues

 

then I discovered this page

 

http://wdc.custhelp.com/cgi-bin/wdc.cfg/php/enduser/std_adp.php?p_faqid=3805

 

It states that

  • Western Digital recommends using an “N” class router when streaming wirelessly to the WD TV Live HD Media Player. Playback of video may be unstable when using a “G” class router.

 

I Purchased one of the routers on the list  (d-link  -  DIR-655 ) and so far (3 days later) I have played 3 movies and       5x  >45 mins tv shows with no stoppage. The Router  has been active for 3 full days (24 hours) without a crash. I was using a d-link “G” class Modem/router

 

I wonder too if this may fix the infamous MKV incompatability issue that seems to abound in this forum. I haven’t tried to play any large files yet but the “N” Class router should handle this well

 

On the second issue i have a dirty workaround to force the Hub to re-read (refresh) a networked drive’s directory.  I haven’t fully explored this yet but it seems to work, at least in the short term.

 

  1. Copy a small file (Video) to the directory, call it anything you like but for example “VideoToBeDeleted.avi”           (Maybe several files of this kind to be sure there are lots available for future use)
  1. Do a Hub reboot as per Setup/System/ReStart Hub
  1. You will then see your     “VideoToBeDeleted.avi”    files listed

 

Then Later

 

  1. Copy your new movie files to your shared directory ON YOUR COMPUTER
  1. IN THE HUB Select your   “VideoToBeDeleted.avi”   file              THEN DELETE IT !!!
  1. When the HUB finishes it AUTOMATICALLY refreshes the directory listing.
  1. BUT…IF YOU LEAVE the VIDEO MENU you will lose the Refreshed information. This is why i call it a dirty workaround.
  1. However if you reboot your Hub (or at the end of the evening) or just power it down overnight then the information will be refreshed automatically at the next powerup.

 

Hope I haven’t made a fool of myself.

 

Good Luck MZStone - Please let me know if this works for you too.

 

 

 

Even though your post is full of good stuff you should notice that original poster in this thread is using a wired system and not wireless.