WD My Book Live Duo (4TB): DLNA issues

WD Legacy Products My Book Live Duo
41

Dear WDTony,

… DLNA still not working with Denon Receivers, e.g… AVR-2312. Months of waiting for an update  were useless…

I’m very angry now, because obviously WD was avoiding Twonky on Duo to lower their license costs and let lot of users standing in the rain with that new c**p. And, what is worst, gives no legal possibility to go back to Twonky.

PeterC.

42

The update solved almost none of the problems that I had experienced. Only improvement is that the server is now actually visible to other devices. It still dosen’t perform at all…

I have absolutely no issues with other DNLA servers on my network, so I am pretty confident that there is no issues with network performance or other devices. It’s a fairly standard setup with a Samsung Smart TV, a couple of PCs, a PS3, XBox and some iOS devices running various players - none of them work with the build in DNLA server, but ALL of the work when using Twonky on my server.

  

Pretty disappointing results after more than 3 months of testing from WD…

I am now dumping this c**p. Going to salvage the drives and install them in a NAS from antother brand.  I see no need for continue to hope for improvements form WD - it’s just a waste of time. 

Anyone want an empty WD Live Book Duo cabinet for free?

43

I would be more than happy to take it off from your hands if you are really giving it away. I’ve been saving money to buy one of these MBL’s but as a student the cost of this has been a bit steep. Also based on all the talk here I’m not sure if I want to take a risk and pay that much for something that won’t necessarily work.

I can pay for the delivery if you are willing to send it to me. Let me know.

44

PeterCS wrote:

… DLNA still not working with Denon Receivers, e.g… AVR-2312.

Still not working with Marantz AV7005, either.

However, I bought a license for Twonky 7 for $19.95 and installed it on my Duo, following the instructions given here.  Works like a charm with the Marantz! [Note: I originally had to execute an extra step to get Twonky to work, but the latest script at the above link makes it unnecessary.]

Tom

45

Hi Tom, you’re completely right

at the moment I:m testing this, too. I paid extra € 7,47 (bonus price) fee für Twonky and - till now - it works perfectly.

But, as I mentioned, this is not inended/supported by WD and seems to void warranty. Doesn’t bother me much,

cause I think this is still better than tap the thing into the garbage or exploiting it by removing costly drives…

Best regards

PeterC

46

Update on my situation with my MBL Duo 4TB (raid 0 - 2TB).

SONY BRAVIA 55HX925 on wired CAT6 - GIGASWITCH - CAT6 to MBLD.  works well now!!!

SONY PS3 - CAT5e - Not tested but tested on Wireless G and N.  One movie was a little choppy at some point.  Will try another movie and try on Cat5e soon.

SONY 3D DVD BDP-S485 - CAT5e - WORKS!

XBOX360 - CAT5e - No cigars! - not tested yet!

YAMAHA AVR RX-V671 - CAT5E - WORKS!

Will update further when PS3 is tested further.

Thanks.

J

47

Its June now, my samsung still cannot connect to my Book Duo …this is really bad !! So difficult …

48

Just wanted to throw my hat in the ring / share my frustration on this one, even with the new firmware, the xbox 360 isn’t working (three of them in the house, not a single one works), oddly, the device was visible to begin with, however there was an error message along the lines of ‘blocked by firewall’ that prevented anything actually streaming.  Now it doesn’t even appear in the list of available sources.

I’m also having no joy with my Panasonic P50GT30B, which intermittently recognises that the device is on the network, however, this also doesn’t work since selecting the device just seems to time out, with ‘connection to the server failed’ popping up after a few minutes.

I don’t believe the home network is to blame, as I previously had a WD 1tb drive, which was then upgraded to a 2tb when I ran out of space (think the may have been mybook worlds) and they worked absolutely flawlessly.  I wanted added safety of raid and the additional space offered by the 6tb, but so far, all I have is an annoying flashing LED on my TV cabinet and a box full of music / videos which won’t play on anything.  Even more annoyingly, I gave my old drives to a friend, so I now have the awkward task of trying to ask for them back…

Has there been any word on further firmware updates following the latest batch?  Given the stellar performance of the WD products I’ve owned in the past, to say I’m disappointed with this latest effort would be a massive understatement, feel like I’ve had given over money for a product that is not fit for purpose.  Really hope that there’s new firmware in the pipeline to correct this so that I can get back the same functionality I had with the older, smaller drives…

Tom

1 Like
49

This DLNA Serving problem does not appear to have been solved by the latest Firmware Release

I have the following WDMBL firmware/server builds

MyBookLiveDuo Firmware  02.31.08-067

Media Server Version   2.2.3.9068

My recently purchased Marantz NA7004  cannot see the directory structure nor stream content from this server.

However the Marantz can stream content from a TVMOBILi server on my network just fine - So it’s not the Marantz.

Also the Marantz streams quite happily from an older  WD Twonkey server in the shop.

Can WD please giver further feedback into what they are doing to fix this DLNA serving problem?

50

WOW The only reason I brought this MBLD was to stream DLNA to my PS3 and 360! Only reason! PS update didn’t work!  Sigh well can use it with my iPhone and iPad but not what it was for! Saddest part was I spent days copying files over for my PS3 now going to have to reencode just for iOS SIGH> Dropped the ball on this one.

51

For those interested, I have been able to overcome the DLNA server issues just with an internet connection and some minor alterations of the My Book Live Duo. All for free

Thankfully, the system is a debian based linux (that was a very, very good new to my eyes), except for the DLNA server, which is some really bad software created by a company named ipinfusion ¿? SO we can disable that server and install an open source based one. It is incredible fast and easy. All you need is to not be afraid to use a command line to enter a few commands…

So, to use this workaround, just  disable the multimedia option at the web interface (to stop the server) and open an ssh connection to the device (you have to activate it before at  the web interface at   http://IPofYourMB/UI/ssh and checking ‘enable’))

Once connected to the device, edit

/etc/apt/sources.list

Uncomment the second line, the one related to “sid” packages. Sid is the unstable debian distribution (unstable in debian means “very usable”), so when you uncomment that line, you can download packages from that distribution. To get them, just write

apt-get update

The list of updated and new packages will get downloaded to your MBLD, and now you can install “minidlna”, a DLNA server that works far better than the preinstalled one

apte-get install minidlna

This will install this pacakge and some more packages required by the minidlna server. Most of them are new packages, so no problem there. The only possible conflict could be due to the fact that 2 installed packages are updated to their newer versions. As of today, I haven’t detected any problem, but I am just warning.

Then you just have to configure the minidlna server with your drives and settings. It is a text file at

/etc/minidlna.conf

so not as easy as configuring through  the web interface, but actually quite easy, specially if you, as  myself, just browse your media folders. You can google how to do it. Actually, I just uncommented and modified the media_dir parameter, just at the beginning of the file, to point it to /DataVolumes/shares/***theNameofmyyShare***  . This is the actual path where your shares are stored. And that was all I changed. (BTW, I have the disks configured in raid). Start the server with

/etc/init.d/minidlna start   

And your dlna server will be running (and will autostart when you reboot it)

Hope this helps someone with that annoying dlna server problem that prevents the My Book Live Duo to be the great device it should.

PS: actually, I wonder wy WD engineers do not follow that simple and very straight path…

2 Likes
52

 I also had issues with the DLNA server but it is now working fine.  My fix was that I had the DLNA active on multiple shares on the drive.  As soon as I disabled all but one active share, the DLNA worked great.  I tested it again (endabled media serving on more than 1 share) and the DLNA stopped working.  One thing I noticed was that no matter how many shares I had enabled, the DLNA always worked on my android tablet using WD2GO.  I only had issues on my PS3, XBOX and Sony BD player.  Now that only 1 share is enabled, all the devices are working.

53

IAHskr-That is interesting, I only have the default public share and am still having the DLNA not staying detectable by my PS3. Never any problems streaming to my MS machines though. Is the problem still somehow related to how I am sharing my folders do you think?

54

Hi Picopaco

I got the minidlna working but Mediaplayer cannot find any media files. “MyBookLiveDuo: root” seems not to be right user…

In the minidlna.conf I pointed to to /DataVolume/shares/Public. A rescan has been started with minidlna -R.

Thank your for any suggestions.

Peter

55

I solved the DLNA for ever problem using this guide:

http://mybookworld.wikidot.com/forum/t-459592/complete-guide-to-upgrade-to-twonky-7-version-my-book-live-o

Works like a charm. No probs no issues - thanks WD for waiting half a year without any succes in solving this very small problem.

56

I actually bought a PS3 and the WD My Book Live Duo to replace the WDTVLIVE that suddenly failed to function properly.

I cannot get the MBDL to correctly stream AVI or MKV to the PS3 in a consistent way.

This is very irksome since all the docs from both WD and Sony indicate that these two units SHOULD work flawlessly together.

I guess I should have learn my lesson about WD after my awful WDTVLIVE experience.

Fool me once; shame on you: Fool me twice…

57

Any update on a new firmware?

58

picopaco wrote:

For those interested, I have been able to overcome the DLNA server issues just with an internet connection and some minor alterations of the My Book Live Duo. All for free

 

*snip*

Thanks very much picopaco, your guide was extremely helpful. Now I can use dlna with XBMC and VLC, neither of which worked with the built-in server.

I did have to create a /run directory, as minidlna would not start without it. For reference, I am using the 6 TB model with RAID1 and running firmware version 02.31.08-067.

59

All,

We are marching (I know … pretty slow) towards a firmware update in October. This firmware update will fix many of the reported DLNA issues in this thread. I am hoping that you all will be much happy after the update (Keeping my fingers crossed). We are also making updates to support Windows 8 certifications (new DMS logo certification for Windows 8).

Estimate time for the release is late October (near the Windows 8 launch).

I’ll let you know if that changes.

Tony

60

Thanks Tony. Your words noted.

Look much forward to c…Hope it can really solve the headaches…