WD TV Live can't see network shares

WD Legacy Products WD TV Live & Live Plus
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Hoping this little device will replace my Windows 7 Media Centers. I have it connected via hardwire to my network (gigabit connection throughout the house).

It can see & play/show music, photos and vidoes from my Windows Home Server 2011 using the Media Server discovery option. I wish there was an easier way to customize the UI so it would only show my Pictures folder though (instead it also shows videos and such… maybe through network shares, but that is what is giving me the biggest problem:

I’ve got a seperate share on my network for my ripped DVDs (VIDEO_TS style). However whenever I select network share, it never finds any machines or shares. The folders are shared to EVERYONE w/ READ permissions… the OS on the server is Windows Server 2008 R2. It isn’t even seeing shares on my QNAP NAS.

Is there something special you have to do to get it to see network shares?

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Check if your WD TV is set to same workgroup where you have your other machines.  You may also try resetting it and check if you have the latest firmware on it.

1 Like
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No workgroups… all machines are in a AD domain. Does that matter?

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I have the exact same problem.

I’ve got a WD TV LIVE.  I also have a QNAP TS-859+ with 8 x 2 TB WD Black drives in it.

I have a 10 TB drive set up just for multimedia (i.e. home movies, I’ve ripped my DVD collection, home pictures, etc).

Once upon a time I was able to use it flawlessly… then in Oct, I had a bit of a catastrophie with my QNAP (long story short, it died - and I needed to start over from scratch). 

So when I finally got my QNAP back online and put all my multimedia back on it, my WD TV LIVE box refused to see it.

I have tried EVERYTHING… I have read every forum.  I’ve spoken with WDC and QNAP… and they just point fingers at each other…

I’m confused.

I’m seriously at the end of the line with this WD LIVE box.

I think I’m going to just get an AppleTV2 box and jailbreak it with XBMC and call it a day.

FEATURE REQUEST WDC:  WHY NOT LET US ENTER AN IP ADDRESS OR LOCAL SHARE NAME TO CONNECT TO?  Would make the product SO much more usable… 

My setup is as follows:

DOCSYS3 (50 M) Cable Internet

Cisco ASA 5505

24 Port Gigabit Switch

QNAP TS-859+ Pro with 8 x 2 TB WD Black Drives - 3.5.2 Build 1126T

2 x IP-TV’s (Vizio and Toshiba)

2 x ThinkCentre M90’s

ThinkPad Tablet (running Android)

2 x HP Elitebook notebooks

and of course, my WD TV LIVE box… 1.06.15_V

(BTW I have disabled all UPnP and do not like Twonky, so that’s shut down as well - all I want to do is see the file shares and thats it…)

Thoughts?

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I am not going to try and help other than say:  You have quite the “techie” setup.  Maybe too complicated, so try and simplify it down to the essentials.  By that I mean, use just two PCs to share on the network correctly.  Then bring the WDTV w/hard drive attached into the picture and get it to share with the two PCs.  

That’s how I built my network; first with one PC and the WD, then, I added another PC in to share, and then a third.  It all works well, and I, too., have a DOCSIS3 modem, network switches, and now a Pogoplug in the network mix, and all interact with the TV and other home entertainment stuff. 

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Joeussia:   

First I can tell you that QNAPs work GREAT with WDTVs.   I have 16TB worth of QNAP.  :)

So, based on your tale, I would guess you missed a setup option in the QNAP.

Go into the Admin dashboard, and go to:

  

Network Services

Microsoft Networking

CHECK - Enable File Service for Microsoft Networking

Workgroup:  Make sure the NAME here matches all your other boxes, including the WD’s.

Under ADVANCED options:   CHECK Local Master Browser.

Then, reboot all of your PCs and your WDs.

This will force the QNAP to become the “Master Browser” for your network, and should then be discovered by your WD’s.

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swamplander wrote:

No workgroups… all machines are in a AD domain. Does that matter?

I’d think it would.

Don’t AD domains use LDAP.

If you’re not using CIFS, I don’t think any CIFS devices on the network would be able to communicate.

But, I’ve never had a reason to install a Server version of the OS for my LAN so I don’t know for sure.  Perhaps you need to talk to the Admin about how to set up CIFS properly.  I know the Server versions tend to not work at all with external drives, because there’s no reason for them to… I don’t know what else is different in the Server OSes.  Talk to the network Admin.

If I recall, other folks have had their WDTVs work fine with Server OSes using CIFS, so it’s not impossible to do… it just needs to be properly set up.