I am new to this, but I have a WD TV LIVE PLUS, and any firmware after 1.03 cause studdering in playback of my network VOB. Tried 1.04.10_B and 1.04.17_B.
Question what is the “_V” versions of the firmware? I found the link in this forum, are they the same as “_B” versions or is that the difference between the Non Plus and Plus units.
Also on 1.04.17_B , I read about a workaround to fix studdering by clicking “play” on VIDEO_TS folder vs just playing file within VIDEO_TS folder. My results were it would play but without sound and it still studdered.
Please fix VOB playback problems created with new 1.04.x firmares for I would like the new features.
Update - The solution to this problem is to rollback to a 1.03.xx firmware.
The ‘V’ versions are for the WD Live. The ‘B’ versions are for the WD Live Plus. A lot of us have rolled back to 1.03.49 to fix the stuttering problem.
Is there any news on this? 1.04.18_B still has the same issue and WD Tech Support had been playing dumb with me for the past 2 months. They say that they are not aware if this issue, and to please check the Community Boards for solutions. Are they serious? Can it be that they don’t read these boards? Can it be that no one else is reporting the issue to WD Tech Support? They told me that they understand what the issue is, but will not admit if they are able to reproduce the problem. They suggested to just use a USB drive. Nice answer.
I am a loyal WD customer, but I think it’s time to jump ship on the Media Players.
Dave-DNS-323, I had a similar thing happen when I tried to report a problem to WD. I was reporting a video problem that has been a known problem on this board for over 6 months. The reps acted like they never heard of the problem. They asked me a bunch of questions that I had already answered in the original report that I sent to them. Then they just gave me a canned answer. It was obvious that they were just trying to pacify me without really taking me seriously. It was very frustrating. It made me feel like all the work I had done to carefully document and describe the problem was for nothing. (Sorry to go off topic).
Dave-DNS-323, I had a similar thing happen when I tried to report a problem to WD. I was reporting a video problem that has been a known problem on this board for over 6 months. The reps acted like they never heard of the problem. They asked me a bunch of questions that I had already answered in the original report that I sent to them. Then they just gave me a canned answer. It was obvious that they were just trying to pacify me without really taking me seriously. It was very frustrating. It made me feel like all the work I had done to carefully document and describe the problem was for nothing. (Sorry to go off topic).
Scandy,
Thanks, WD Tech Support really frustrated me as well, I wonder if they’re treating everyone this way?
Dave-DNS-323, I had a similar thing happen when I tried to report a problem to WD. I was reporting a video problem that has been a known problem on this board for over 6 months. The reps acted like they never heard of the problem. They asked me a bunch of questions that I had already answered in the original report that I sent to them. Then they just gave me a canned answer. It was obvious that they were just trying to pacify me without really taking me seriously. It was very frustrating. It made me feel like all the work I had done to carefully document and describe the problem was for nothing. (Sorry to go off topic).
Scandy,
Thanks, WD Tech Support really frustrated me as well, I wonder if they’re treating everyone this way?
You guys need to keep a couple of things in mind, when it comes to tech support. One, they don’t pour over these boards looking for all the issues that are being reported here. Remember this is a user forum. They are busy with phone calls and emails - mostly phone calls. Secondly, if there is an ongoing issue, such as this stuttering issue, and engineering is working on a fix, what do you expect them to say? There is only going to be a basic standard response until a fix becomes available.
Now, where calling/emailing them becomes important is in the information collection stage of this. That information is passed along, especially if it is different than what’s already been collected. Because any information that helps us replicate the issue, or understand what may be causing it, is important to us. So, please don’t assume that you’re just being blown off (well maybe pacified a little).
Scandy , this has happened to me before, as well, where the information sent to me didn’t quite make sense to me. So, I had to ask for it to be given to me slightly differently, just to understand what the person meant. Then again, I might have been just dense. But that’s life. We’re not always as clear as we think we are when we have to write it down for someone.
bill_s, I am sorry if my post sounded a bit negative, but I was just trying to write down what had happened to me (because it was similar to what Dave-DNS-323 had experienced). Believe me, I understand what you are saying…I worked in an R&D lab for 35 years!
You guys need to keep a couple of things in mind, when it comes to tech support. One, they don’t pour over these boards looking for all the issues that are being reported here. Remember this is a user forum. They are busy with phone calls and emails - mostly phone calls. Secondly, if there is an ongoing issue, such as this stuttering issue, and engineering is working on a fix, what do you expect them to say? There is only going to be a basic standard response until a fix becomes available.
What do I expect them to say? Here is the latest reply:
"Thank you for your reply.
As our engineering team constantly monitors the forums the posts you are referring to has already been brought to their attention and is currently investigating the root cause of the problem. If you had a direct attached usb drive you should be able to play the VOB files without any issues. If engineering is able to duplicate the issue and determine the root cause of the problem they will try and come out with a firmware that would fix the issue.
If you have any further questions, please reply to this email and we will be happy to assist you further."
This is being pacified? I too worked in Tech Support, the worst thing we could have done was to play dumb concerning an existing issue, especially one that has been going on as long as this one. I’m furious that they will not own up. This is a cowardous approach to dealing with a problem. I expect more from WD.
I don’t quite understand your anger at the email response from Tech Support. The agent told you that they were already aware of the problem and were investigating it. He then provided a work around for you. He has nothing more that he can do for you. Nobody is playing dumb or being cowardly. Look if our agents screw up, I’m the first to escalate it. But this is a totally valid reply. Unfortunately, it just wasn’t what you wanted to hear.
And I quote (with emphasis)…
“As our engineering team constantly monitors the forums the posts you are referring to has already been brought to their attention and is currently investigating the root cause of the problem. If you had a direct attached usb drive you should be able to play the VOB files without any issues. If engineering is able to duplicate the issue and determine the root cause of the problem they will try and come out with a firmware that would fix the issue.”
@ Scandy. I really appreciate the work you’re doing to try and help others in the community. I just wanted to clarify what you said with some valid perspective.
I don’t quite understand your anger at the email response from Tech Support. The agent told you that they were already aware of the problem and were investigating it. He then provided a work around for you. He has nothing more that he can do for you. Nobody is playing dumb or being cowardly. Look if our agents screw up, I’m the first to escalate it. But this is a totally valid reply. Unfortunately, it just wasn’t what you wanted to hear.
And I quote (with emphasis)…
“As our engineering team constantly monitors the forums the posts you are referring to has already been brought to their attention and is currently investigating the root cause of the problem. If you had a direct attached usb drive you should be able to play the VOB files without any issues. If engineering is able to duplicate the issue and determine the root cause of the problem they will try and come out with a firmware that would fix the issue.”
@ Scandy. I really appreciate the work you’re doing to try and help others in the community. I just wanted to clarify what you said with some valid perspective.
In this case, I would have to agree with bill_s. The tech rep acknowledged that the WD engineers were aware of the issue and they were investigating it. That is all we should expect. They can’t really say anything else until they can reproduce the problem and work out a fix.
Bill - this is posted on these Boards as a known issue. You yourself posted two weeks ago:
‘I know they are working on this, but I’m not sure when it will be released. However, it does seem like it’s about time for a new firmware update isn’t it? It should be soon.’
But Tech Support writes to me a few days ago saying:
‘If engineering is able to duplicate the issue and determine the root cause of the problem they will try and come out with a firmware that would fix the issue.’
If they can duplicate? What does it take to duplicate? Play a VOB on a network drive with any of the last 3 firmware released. Not very hard now is it?
And the remark about attaching a USB drive directly to the player, that doesn’t do me much good since I purchased this thing based upon it’s support of NAS drives. This is supposed to be help? Maybe they should have said to just look at jpegs on my drive since that still works.
My point is that maybe we should not rely on these Boards to communicate issues to WD. Maybe everyone experiencing this issue has to contact Tech Support in order for them to take it seriously.
Say what you want how they do Bill, but the proof is that there STILL is not even a beta for a fix released.
Bill - this is posted on these Boards as a known issue. You yourself posted two weeks ago:
‘I know they are working on this, but I’m not sure when it will be released. However, it does seem like it’s about time for a new firmware update isn’t it? It should be soon.’
But Tech Support writes to me a few days ago saying:
‘If engineering is able to duplicate the issue and determine the root cause of the problem they will try and come out with a firmware that would fix the issue.’
If they can duplicate? What does it take to duplicate? Play a VOB on a network drive with any of the last 3 firmware released. Not very hard now is it?
And the remark about attaching a USB drive directly to the player, that doesn’t do me much good since I purchased this thing based upon it’s support of NAS drives. This is supposed to be help? Maybe they should have said to just look at jpegs on my drive since that still works.
My point is that maybe we should not rely on these Boards to communicate issues to WD. Maybe everyone experiencing this issue has to contact Tech Support in order for them to take it seriously.
Say what you want how they do Bill, but the proof is that there STILL is not even a beta for a fix released.
I would do both. I would still post on the forum, because people are also looking here. But it would also be a good thing to also contact Tech Support. The reason I say this is because Tech Support isn’t always aware of what’s going on on the forums. So, in order for them to get on top of it and gather as much information as they can, Tech Support does need to be involved.
Now, having said all that, I know we’re working on this. However, the issue isn’t VOBs in general, it’s how they’re being streamed over the network. I play VOBs all the time on my WD TV Live, but the drive is direct attached, and I have no problem at all (this is with the latest firmware). Something obviously has changed, and that’s where the issue lies. That’s why Tech Support is saying to use a direct attached drive to the WD TV. It’s only a temporary workaround. We are also still looking for more people to supply VOB files that are stuttering, in order to check against what you are experiencing.
If some of you want to post links to download them, it would help us alot.
Bill - this is posted on these Boards as a known issue. You yourself posted two weeks ago:
‘I know they are working on this, but I’m not sure when it will be released. However, it does seem like it’s about time for a new firmware update isn’t it? It should be soon.’
But Tech Support writes to me a few days ago saying:
‘If engineering is able to duplicate the issue and determine the root cause of the problem they will try and come out with a firmware that would fix the issue.’
If they can duplicate? What does it take to duplicate? Play a VOB on a network drive with any of the last 3 firmware released. Not very hard now is it?
And the remark about attaching a USB drive directly to the player, that doesn’t do me much good since I purchased this thing based upon it’s support of NAS drives. This is supposed to be help? Maybe they should have said to just look at jpegs on my drive since that still works.
My point is that maybe we should not rely on these Boards to communicate issues to WD. Maybe everyone experiencing this issue has to contact Tech Support in order for them to take it seriously.
Say what you want how they do Bill, but the proof is that there STILL is not even a beta for a fix released.
I would do both. I would still post on the forum, because people are also looking here. But it would also be a good thing to also contact Tech Support. The reason I say this is because Tech Support isn’t always aware of what’s going on on the forums. So, in order for them to get on top of it and gather as much information as they can, Tech Support does need to be involved.
Now, having said all that, I know we’re working on this. However, the issue isn’t VOBs in general, it’s how they’re being streamed over the network. I play VOBs all the time on my WD TV Live, but the drive is direct attached, and I have no problem at all (this is with the latest firmware). Something obviously has changed, and that’s where the issue lies. That’s why Tech Support is saying to use a direct attached drive to the WD TV. It’s only a temporary workaround. We are also still looking for more people to supply VOB files that are stuttering, in order to check against what you are experiencing.
If some of you want to post links to download them, it would help us alot.
Bill, are you serious?
First of all, WD advertised that VOB is a supported file type. How did they determine this if they don’t have more than enough VOB files to test with?
Secondly, You have stated that you have VOB’s directly on your attached drive, but you want people to provide links to download them so WD can check against what we are experiencing?
Do we have to send WD Network Drives as well, or do they think they can handle this one?
I’m not getting a warm and fuzzy about what’s going on in WD Land (when it comes to media players - IMHO, WD makes the best drives on the market hands down, but they didn’t get this reputation by taking the same approach they are taking with their support for media players).
