I was wondering if anyone could help me with something.
I got the WD Live TV Streaming Media Player a week ago and noticed it was very hot after I turned it off. Doing a bit of research I found that pressing the off button on the remote put it in to standby and holding it shut it down. So I realised I was only putting it in to standby mode, and have since found that the fully off mode it is much cooler (although there is a slight heat coming off of it).
My questions are:-
Should it really be that hot in standby mode? We are talking bordering too hot to touch.
Does anyone else who has this box find it is hot when in standby mode?
I am now going to leave it in its fully off mode when not using it, but would it have done irreperable damage being that hot for a week?
Should ANY heat be eminating from it when fully off?
It is really hot when it’s in use. Is this normal?
Is there a fan in it, because I cannot hear one?
FYI, I have the latest firmware.
I would really appreciate it if some people could reply about what their box is like so I know if it is duff, as this was a manufacturer-refurbished item, so I am curious as to whether it is working correctly.
Yes, mine is quite hot in standby. Not quite as warm as when it’s playing video, but hotter than I would expect.
No, mine operated this way for months without expiring.
Standby mode is a balance between device start-up time and power consumption. I don’t know any details about the software or hardware in the device, so it may be that it can’t be in a mode that allows quick start-up without consuming lots of power. Or maybe the designers were sloppy. Either way, they won’t be telling us.
Yes. I removed the cover from my SMP and was surprised there was no heatsink on the main IC. It gets too hot to touch when playing video.
There is no fan. Nor is there convection; there are some holes in the bottom to allow cool air in, but not many crevices for the hot air to escape.
We can only assume WD’s engineers are aware of the heat created inside the box in operation and standby, and expect it to have a reasonable lifetime as-is.  I have chosen to attach a heatsink to the main IC in my SMP with some thermal epoxy. I have also chosen to leave the cover off. The heatsink is doing a pretty good job; it also gets quite hot, but that means the heat is transferring to it sucessfully.
It’s not clear to me how much actually gets shut off in standby mode, or if the SMP merely turns off the video output. I know the optical audio output is still working, which is odd.
Thanks so much for the reply; really good to know someone else has this issue. If anyone else does, please do post.
Whiskey, do you have any heat coming from it at all when it is in its fully off mode?
That’s very surprising there’s no cooling installed for it, but I guess if they believe it will be okay with out it then we should trust!
Interestingly, I called WD and the guy who answered said he didn’t think it should be like that. Then again, he seemed somewhat confused and thought there should be a fan. If you’ve opened it up and found no fan, then he was obviously thinking of a different model!
Thanks so much again for replying and if you could let me know about that fully off heat I would very much apprecaite it!
The heatsink in my SMP was at about room temperature this evening before I powered it up. I’d say the device consumes very little power when fully shut down.
Although I have never had an issue with the heat generated by this device while in operation I have never been happy about the amount of heat generated while in standby. WD really should take note of what people are saying here.
The short press power off & long press are absolutely the wrong way round.
My wife hates it, my kids do not have the patience to hold the button for 5 seconds. These guys that design this stuff obviously don’t have families.
WD take note, short press deep standby (turns off wifi, NIC etc). Long press high power standby. It would not be hard for you to recode this in your firmware or at least give us the option in settings.
We always turn the unit off at the wall outlet every night.
I have also discovered that doing this while in operational mode (white light on) gives me a reasonably fast boot up and only about 2mins of compiling media library. The whole boot / compile process takes no more than about 5mins.
I think I might be a bit lucky here now as I used to have lots of issues with the compiling media library when I first got the SMP but it does seem to have settled down nicely now.
my streaming player also generates a good amount of heat in stand-by (off) mode as well.  This is not how off mode should be, and I’m tired of having to unplug it every time I want it to be completely off without heat.
my streaming player also generates a good amount of heat in stand-by (off) mode as well. This is not how off mode should be, and I’m tired of having to unplug it every time I want it to be completely off without heat.
And you don’t have to unplug it to turn it “Off”, just press and hold the power button for 5 sec.
I got tired of the frustration of the unit being sluggish after about an hour of use and being hot to the touch so I did this yesterday. My warranty is up anyway so Runs nice and cool and responds quickly now I used a SilenX IXP-11-14 40mm Case Fan about an hour of my day and a little patience
Runs nice and cool and responds quickly now I used a SilenX IXP-11-14 40mm Case Fan about an hour of my day and a little patience
