I have recently bought a new WD tvlive plus? Previously i had a tv live model and i bought this one just to connect to netflix and stream my movies. However since then i was not able to stream even a single movie. After one minute from start of any movie i get lots of Rebufferings and after a while the movie gets interrupted. I have a 12 mbps connection from at&t uverse and wd is connected with cable to my modem. I am also using HDMI cable to connect to my sony ldc. I have checked with both netflix and att guys. They all say that there should be something wrong with WD. A guy from att came to my house and he checked all connections, he said that he is sure that it is related to WD. Can someone help me figure out what’s wrong?
Can you play the movie when using the composite or component cable? (We need to eliminate HDMI issues).
I have used components cables too. The problem still exists…
If it’s getting interrupted frequently, then it’s a network connection issue (Either your local network or Internet connectivity), or a problem with NetFlix.
The Plus, when it DOES work, works well (and when it doesn’t work, it doesn’t work AT ALL. You’re not in that camp.)
Go to www.speedtest.net and see what kind of speeds you get. For Netflix to get good video quality, you need at least 4 megabits per second sustained.
I am really confused and just bouncing between different companies. Everyone is blaming the other. I have talked couple of time with Netflix customer sevice, and I had a AT&T technician coming to my house and check all my connection. Both netflix and AT&T said that there is something wrong with WD.
So what was the result of the test I suggested?
No surprise that the two companies are going to blame each other. Until you come at one or the other armed with reasonable “Proof,” they aren’t likely to do anything other than point fingers at each other…
What I can tell you, from experience, is that NetFlix is pretty darned good technically speaking; they’re quick to respond, quick to own up to their own problems, and quick to resolve issues (which are often data problems with their own encodes.) Given the reputation of the two companies involved, I would believe NetFlix before I’d believe AT&T…
But, given what you’ve said so far, there’s no way of “convicting” either entity right now.
The Internet is nasty business. If it winds up there’s a problem with you connecting to NF’s servers, NO ONE will be very interested in helping out because the internet ain’t touted to be 100% reliable…
By the way, when you do that speed test, don’t just use the server closest to you; test a sampling of servers in the US.
There’s more “Advanced” troubleshooting you can try, as well.
Try streaming the same content to your PC using the NetFlix viewer in your browser. If it also fails, it tends to vindicate your WDTV. If it’s NOT failing on the PC, that can indicate a specific transcode issue at NetFlix, and it can also indicate network issues because NetFlix sends different types of streams (meaning different bandwidths and codecs) to different players / clients.
Try streaming some HD content from MediaFly to your Plus. Good results there would tend to vindicate AT&T.
None of these are absolutes… Even if MediaFly DOES work, AT&T could still be at odds with NetFlix because of congestion in the peering points that go to NetFlix but not MediaFly.
Thank you very much for your help. I checked my spped using that website with different servers. On all servers i had a download speed more than 8Mbps and an upload speed of more than 1.5 Mbps. I also tried the Mediafly and have no problem streaming its contents. So does it mean that the problem should be somewhere between Netflix and WD ?
That would seem to be the case; that’s why you should try streaming the same content to your PC to narrow it down further.
I think i figured out what is causing my problem. I have two hard drives connected to my box through USB. One is WD 1TB and the other is a 500GB from maxtor. When the drives are plugged in i can not playback netflix online, but when i eject them, netflix comes without any problem. Can someone help me with this issue? What shall I do to have both my hard drives connected and be able to playback netflix?
Do you have to eject both drives? Have you tried each one to try and narrow down if it’s a particular drive or not?
It seems to works both of them individually but when both are plugged in, problem occurs.
Okay, more questions – do you have to physically remove the drives, or does ejecting one or both of them (using the USB eject drive from the menu) solve the problem? If the latter, have you tried doing a reset of the Live, using the paperclip in the hole in the side, as well as unplugging it for at least 10 minutes from the power supply?
It is just enough to eject them in the software and there is no need to eject physically. I tried reseting the device and turning it off for long time, didi not help unfortunately.
But what about unplugging it from power for at least 10 minutes? (Actually, overnight is even better).
I tried unplugging for like 20 mins. I will try repeating overnight too.
I qlso tried unplugging overnight but it didn’t helpmand the problem exists. I can only stream netflix when my hard drives are ejected.
And forgive an old man (because this thread is long and I don’t remember) but have you tried the latest beta firmware? (Just came out a day or two ago).
It’s supposed to fix a number of Netflix issues and would be worth trying.
Why hello! I have the same exact problem, im on a Mbps cable line. It works fine threw the computer. Anyways, a few things I’ve tried that have no alleviated the problem.
-Beta Firmware
-DMZ IP on the router
-Disabled Firewall
-Port Forwarding *Although pinning down a netflix port range is tough*
-Hard Reset
-Power Cycling
-Different movie on Netflix
It’s funny though, because it WAS working perfectly fine, then all of a sudden about 2 weeks ago, buffering/rebuffering continuously. It should be noted this was all done with composite cables, as my TV (Philips) cant run the beta firmware with HDMI, doesn’t get a good handshake, just like the Sharp TV Guys.
Just an update. I noticed today that my WDTV set is in a constant state of scanning my External hard drive when it’s connected. Before it would scan it quickly, then stop and netflix would work without any problems. Like the OP said, if I eject my drive, or disconnect it, netflix works fine. If I leave it connected constant rebuffering is almost a guarantee.
