WD TV Live Firmware Version 1.03.35 Limited Public Beta (7/14/10)

After I turn off the unit and turn it back a hour later my Samsung LE-40B651 shows Mode is not supported. But when I unplug the power and plug it back I get the 1080p signal that I need.

After upgrade the DNS check didn’t passed alhought I entered the same addresses like before, but now, hours later it works, as well.

Edit: After some turn off and on, I started to get the Composite(PAL) output. TV shows 1280x720@50Hz

“The video/audio settings do not hold HDMI setting, every time i check it falls back to Component PAL instead of HDMI setting i choose. These issues should have been fixed and be part of the release notes.” - Still in this pre-release? This is a shame!

Wich TV Set you use ? Is the player directly connected ?

MOV HD files are finaly smooth, no stutter at all!

Upgraded.

Navigated to some smb share on my Windows box.

Tried to play some random movies, all said “Unsupported file format”?!?

Gave up and did something else…

Went back to Live Box and tried again, now they played fine!

Never seen that one before.

Seems like all errors when not being able to play a file → “Unsupported file format”. What the real error was, god knows, but most likely some smb problem:-) Weird that smb file browsing worked but not playing the files, but I guess they are 2 different apps.

Problems with this release:

  • 12-bit colordepth is not remembered (falls back to 8-bit)

  • slower menu navigation

Recommendations:

  • Move all internet related stuff under Internet Media

  • Better navigation in playback mode i.e. time navigate with left/right cursor keys

  • Make Option menu truely sliding, like the main menu

Context:

WDTV Live, just over a week old.  6 year old NTSC Sony Plasma, native resolution 480p, direct HDMI video, accepts and downscales 720p and 1080i. I change WDTV settings to HDMI 480p.  Optical audio to receiver (digital, no HDMI setting).  Main usage is to replace a 5 disc DVD changer. (ie ISO navigation is critical feature.)

USB1 is 16GB Flash stick (FAT32) and USB2 is 500GB WD external USB drive (NTFS).  Media is mp3, jpg, lots of ISO files (straight from DVD, no transcoding/shrinking/editing etc) and some net files (eg TED talks).

Results:

The new firmware is completely unusable for me and I have to revert to1.03.22.  

Showstoppers:

If I power off by remote and then power on again the HDMI signal is something that my TV cannot recognise.  I have to remove the powercable to get anything visible again.  This version defaults to 1080i,1.03.22 defaulted to 720p.  No matter how many times I explicitly set 480p HDMI output in menu, after power pull it is back in “Auto”.

Nasties:

After first upgrading to this new version I had no video output, and power cycling had no effect.  On connecting composite lead was able to navigate menus and select HDMI 480p and on switching to that did not get anything on HDMI and scrambled composite.  Was able to recover by pressing the reset button.

At some point the device mangled the NTFS drive.  Windows said the .wdtv directory was corrupt and I had to use chkdsk.

At one point it refused point blank to play any video media saying I should consult my manual and not giving any other details.  Worked again after a power cycle.

Unable to play Matt Ridley prosperity talk without massive amounts of flicker.  Choose download from this page (it is completely SFW):

   http://www.ted.com/talks/matt_ridley_when_ideas_have_sex.html

Then pick bottom right in download popup (hires mp4).  When browsing USB stick in thumbnail mode this video is played just fine.  When switching to playing the media proper (full screen) the screen keeps going black for a fraction of a second giving a very annoying flicker effect.  Audio is fine.

Strange :

I have a homemade DVD (iso) made using OpenShot on Linux from a birthday party.  It starts with many pictures played to music.  The DVD itself is in PAL format - 525i.  When playing on 15 year old CRT PAL TVs as well as firmware 1.03.22 the images would flicker a bit. It looked like each field was being displayed in almost the same place as the previous field rather than proper interlacing.  When played on a computer or a modern LCD style TV it was rock solid.

With 1.03.35 the photos were rock solid but looked like they were only taking one of the fields so there was effectively ~260 lines of actual resolution but this resulted in horrendously bad image quality.  I’m happy to supply the ISO to WD either by snail mail or upload.  (It is 1.4GB).

Problems with 1.03.22:

I have no way of telling if these were fixed in 1.03.35 (not mentioned in release notes) or even known to WD. After a power cycle it comes up at 480p (my setting). After power toggle with remote it comes up in 720p with the menus claiming it is outputting composite - that can’t be true as the composite cable isn’t even connected. I would go into the menu and set back to 480p.

When you play ISO images, they are not added to the Recent list.

After a while (sometimes as few as 3 viewing sessions, usually around 10) it will decide it can no longer play video media. When you select them from the menu the screen goes black showing the progress bar atthe bottom and stays like that for about 5 seconds before going back to the menu. A power cycle is required to fix.

Resume:

Please make resume work across power cycles. Failing that make firmware with no bugs and change the weather in my area so that storms never take out the power :slight_smile:

I don’t require the play position to be saved every second, but every few minutes would be greatly appreciated.

Remote codes:

It is highly annoying having to go to DVD menu, switch soundtracks and subtitles. It requires pressing option, left or right arrows however many times, enter however many times and then option again.

Please can you add more remote codes that do DVD menu, subtitle and audio tracks in one go. I use a Logitech Harmony remote so upload them there and then I’ll be able to make my remote issue those codes. People with other types of smart/programmable remotes would benefit too.

rogerbinns wrote:

Unable to play Matt Ridley prosperity talk without massive amounts of flicker.  Choose download from this page (it is completely SFW):

   http://www.ted.com/talks/matt_ridley_when_ideas_have_sex.html

 

Then pick bottom right in download popup (hires mp4).  When browsing USB stick in thumbnail mode this video is played just fine.  When switching to playing the media proper (full screen) the screen keeps going black for a fraction of a second giving a very annoying flicker effect.  Audio is fine.

 

Plays fine here, no flicker, stutter or any audio issue.


Plays fine here, no flicker, stutter or any audio issue.


There is presumably some difference between our setups that cause the difference in experience. It plays perfectly fine for me with 1.03.22. It plays just fine as a thumbnail with 1.03.35. Maybe it is something to do with output resolution and frame rates. My TV is 480P while the video is 850x480 @ 25fps, so the WDTV will have to be doing some downscaling and frame rate conversion, but not very much.

This firmware made my WD TV Live so that it won’t boot up any more! What do I do now? Total pissed!

Markco wrote:

This firmware made my WD TV Live so that it won’t boot up any more! What do I do now? Total pissed!

Try pressing the reset button on the left side.  The button is quite far in so a pen won’t work - you need something longer.  Do not hold it in for 10 seconds as that will toggle between NTSC and PAL!

Markco wrote:

This firmware made my WD TV Live so that it won’t boot up any more! What do I do now? Total pissed!

Please try the following steps:

  1. Download the firmware from our website again.

  2. Delete the firmware that’s on your USB drive and copy the newly downloaded firmware to the drive.

  3. Unplug the power jack of your WDTV.

  4. Plug the USB drive into the WDTV.

  5. Plug the power jack back into your WDTV.

  6. Wait about 15 minutes to see if it loads the new firmware.

If you still have problems after this, please let me know.

Tried it steps 1-6 twice and used a different USB drive the second time. The only thing that works is the power and USB port light. It still will not boot anymore! What do I do now or who do I contact? Thanks.

Markco:  What version were you upgrading FROM?

How do you know it’s not booting?   Could it be that it’s started up, but the VIDEO isn’t being seen any more? 

How are you connected?  HDMI / Component / Composite?  If HDMI, try Component or Composite.  

What about audio sync with H264 MKV files?   Is it still a problem? 

Still big problems with HDMI modes.

If I set to 1080p23.976hz/24hz, it will allways change to 1080p60hz.

How is it possible for them to mess this up since 1.02.24 and still didn’t solve it in this prerelease?

MathewS:   WHAT bug with MKV / h264?   I have over 1200 such MKVs and I’ve yet to come accross any sync issues in any of them.   Now, I’ll admit I haven’t watched ALL 1200 of them, but I’ve watched several hundred!  :)

Cusco:  WD has mentioned that the issue is in the new SDK from Sigma (the interface provided by the chipset manufacturer) .  Until SIGMA fixes it, it’s likely that issue will remain in the firmware.   I’d imagine WD is banging on their door, too… :wink:

Hi,

Did the firmware update go through the entire process:

Rebooting,

Status display for download and precentage,

Reboot upon completion?

When you copied the download to the USB drive was there a “Delayed Write Failure” message on your PC system when you removed the drive from the PC?

-SAS

Markco wrote:

Tried it steps 1-6 twice and used a different USB drive the second time. The only thing that works is the power and USB port light. It still will not boot anymore! What do I do now or who do I contact? Thanks.

If both LEDs are on, then it’s possible that your WDTV is actually booting, but is having HDMI handshaking issues. If you’re willing to troubleshoot a bit, you can try disconnecting and reconnecting the HDMI cable while the WDTV is on to force it to redo the handshaking. If that doesn’t work, try connecting via composite or component. You should be able to see the user interface in composite or component and then downgrade to a previously working firmware version.

Can you tell me what model TV you have? Thanks.