WD TV Live SMP no longer downloading Movie Covers

WD Legacy Products WD TV Live Streaming
1

Hello both my WD TV Live SMPs have stopped downloading cover art from themoviedb.org.

I no longer get covers for my movies and this irritates me no end.

I assume themoviedb.org have changed their API such that to request pictjres you need to call a different link now or something.

Please fix this. Also when is the fix for the current version firmware that is broken coming?

2

I thought the API change happened last year ?Ā  ā€¦ couldā€™nt find and ā€œrecentā€ information about any API changeĀ :confounded:

Anyways ā€¦ thought iā€™d do some tests to respond to your post

  1. 2014 WDTV Media Player Official Firmware 1.02.17Ā Ā 

Result : No problems with ā€œGet Content Infoā€

  1. Installed Custom Firmware 2.02.32-EXT3_Palace_Plus-0.1.4Ā  on the 2014 WDTV Media Player

* Custom Firmware is based on ā€œOfficial Firmwareā€ and does not modify the ā€œGet Content Infoā€

* Installing 2.02.32-EXT3_Palace_Plus-0.1.4 requires some editing ā€¦ but can be done and is cross compatible with both older and newer devices.

Result : No problems with ā€œGet Content Infoā€

My advice ā€¦ Do a Factory ResetĀ Ā Ā Ā  Setup > System > Device Reset > Reset All Settings Back to Factory Default

ā€¦ and report back if this resolves the issue (or does not) ā€¦ if it doesent resolve the issue, time to start looking for a 3rd party info scraperā€¦

personally, i use XBMC and Thumbgen > Import XBMC nfo / -poster.jpg / -fanart.jpg to generate WDTV xmlā€™s / thumbnails and moviesheets ā€¦ super quick too ! :smiley:

3

Also have this problem as of yesterdayā€¦will try factory reset and report back

4

Factory reset didnt helpā€¦running firmware 2.01.86 any help would be appreciated
Thanks in advance

5

Hi, same problem here with my WD HD TV live Hub.

Works fine with series, but not with movies. As said, Info search is fine, but the covers are missing. Iā€™d say it started this week.

Thanks for your help.

6

@ Spirou_Hyluan

the WDTV Live Hub is a Legacy ProductĀ  (i have one myself)

donā€™t expect a *fix* anytime soon (or ever) for a discontinued device

my ā€œGet Content Infoā€ stopped working about a Year Ago (because iā€™m running older firmware)

so iā€™ve been using 3rd software (XBMC/Thumbgen) as my Media Scraper ā€¦ which works pretty well

@ Nevertolate

Your only options are:

1) Update your firmware to 2.02.32 and see it works

2) If it doesent ā€¦ then find a 3rd Party solution or wait for a firmware update (that may or may not happen)

sorry, but thatā€™s the reality

But, as i said ā€¦ Get Content Info works fine (Movie Info, Thumbnails, Backdrop etc) on the New WDTV with the latest Firmware

1 Like
7

It seems that tmdb.org shut down the link cf2.imgobject.com. The new link is image.tmdb.org

Example from a xml-file (007 - Goldfinger):

http://cf2.imgobject.com/t/p/w1280/nc0qGzSRSaupabI2mlqlgfEZxKg.jpg - does not work anymore 404

http://image.tmdb.org/t/p/w1280/nc0qGzSRSaupabI2mlqlgfEZxKg.jpg - works fine

If you have a router with a dnsmasq or a hosts file option you can change cf2.imgobject.com to image.tmdb.org

Just a workaround if you dont want to use the 2.02.32 firmware.

8

@Joey Smyth

Thanks for the reply. I guess iā€™ll have to use a thirs party software too.

Iā€™m not sure i totally understand what you use, i tried Thumbgen but it doesnā€™t look to generate the good format for the WD TV live hub.

Could you explain me what you use or link me to something usefull about it ?

Thanks a lot.

9

iws247 wrote:

It seems that tmdb.org shut down the link cf2.imgobject.com. The new link is image.tmdb.org

 

Example from a xml-file (007 - Goldfinger):

http://cf2.imgobject.com/t/p/w1280/nc0qGzSRSaupabI2mlqlgfEZxKg.jpg - does not work anymore 404

http://image.tmdb.org/t/p/w1280/nc0qGzSRSaupabI2mlqlgfEZxKg.jpg - works fine

 

If you have a router with a dnsmasq or a hosts file option you can change cf2.imgobject.com to image.tmdb.org

 

Just a workaround if you dont want to use the 2.02.32 firmware.

Do you know how to do this on DDWRT ? I cant seem to get it to work for me.

Thanks

10

Spirou_Hyluan wrote:  i tried Thumbgen but it doesnā€™t look to generate the good format for the WD TV live hub.

781Ɨ397 101 KB

11

Hi,

maybe this link will help (scroll down a little):

http://community.wd.com/t5/WD-TV-Live-Streaming/TMDB-not-working/m-p/737388/highlight/true#M30803

12

iws247 wrote:

Hi,

 

maybe this link will help (scroll down a little):

http://community.wd.com/t5/WD-TV-Live-Streaming/TMDB-not-working/m-p/737388/highlight/true#M30803

Thanks but still not working.I cut and pasted into

DNSMasq Options box and enabled DNSMasq but not sure if  i set the Primary DNS in the correct place.

ā€œThe primary dns of your router should be set to itself ā€˜192.168.1.1ā€™ and the secondary to your choice (ie 4.2.2.4).ā€

I set it  in Basic setup Static DNS 1

address=/54.243.118.138/198.41.185.159
address=/54.243.68.11/198.41.185.159
address=/cf2.imgobject.com/54.243.68.11

Any help is appreciated 

13

I have v1.16.13.Ā  It works the way I want and have no intention of upgrading.Ā  My WDTV SMP is no longer getting the cover art as of this week, no problems previously.

This is kind of a kludge, but works fine if you only have one or two images to update.

Go to any internet site that has an image you want to use for the cover art.Ā  I use IMDB.com most of the time, and use .JPG images.

COPY the image to your computer.

RENAME the image to .metathumb.Ā  The has to exactly match the movie file name.

On your computer, navigate to the movie file storage location.

COPY the image to the same directory the movie file is kept.Ā  If a .metathumb file already exists, replace it.

Do a hard power down (hold power button for 5+ seconds) and restart.

Just did this for two movies, works fine.

14

There is a workaround I found after searching through many forums about this issue.

Thereā€™s a program called HubFlow from http://www.hubflowapp.comĀ that creates the appropriate .metadata and xml files, as well as the backdrop folder for your movies stored on the hub. Itā€™s a bit tricky to use at first, but once you get the hang of it, it does what the ā€œget content infoā€ option used to do.

One glitch that Iā€™ve noticed is that you have to do a hard reset on the hub for all of the covers to appear after youā€™ve used HubFlow to create them.

Hope this helps.

15

Seems like this was similar to the issue almost a year ago when IMDB changed the URL.Ā From what I gathered, they were suprised then that WD had not updated the firmware,Ā but were kind enough to put the old URL back for WDTV users temporarily.Ā  Almost a year later and WD still hasnā€™t updated the firmware to the new URL and we are SOL.

Looks like things really are wrapping up for my SMP.Ā  I was OK running older firmware, hoping they would at least give us one more update to fix the last buggy release.Ā  Now even a simple URL change canā€™t be accomplished?Ā  I have been a true fan of these players since the original WDTV Live and think they are still one of the best players for stored media, but I can only stick so many band-aids on a product and still support it.

WD pleaseā€¦do the right thing and take care of the users who faithfully supported your products for years and update some firmware.

16

Iā€™m giving WD a little longer to do the right thing.Ā  Right now I am researching alternatives and some of the premium android boxes are looking good.Ā  I will likely not purchase another WD.Ā  I will most likely be purchasing the quad core MyGica android box.

17

Running firmware 2.0.86 gets info not covers. not updating because the latest firmware is broken and breaks my bleep.

18

Wellā€¦looks like something was corrected somewhere, get content info is bringing cover art back up for me again running 2.0.86.Ā Ā  Thanks to whoever resolved this!!!Ā  :smiley:

19

Just to summarise what happened with the cover info on the old 2.01.86 firmware, as I understand it anyway. And so we know who to thank for the fix.

A year or more ago the movie database site (TMDB) changed the path their API uses to get cover posters from cf2.imgobject.com to image.tmdb.org.Ā The 2.01.86 firmware ā€˜get content infoā€™ looks at cf2.imgobject.com so it stopped getting the covers.

TMDB were told about this and enabled a re-direct from cf2.imgobject.com to image.tmdb.org which meant the 2.01.86 firmware boxes could get covers again. At the time they said they hoped WD would fix it properly by updating their firmware to look at image.tmdb.org.

Last year WD released firmware 2.02.32 which included the fix to look at image.tmdb.org.

Last week the re-direct from cf2.imgobject.com to image.tmdb.org was switched off/expired and the 2.01.86 boxes couldnā€™t get covers again, 2.02.32 boxes were OK because they now use image.tmdb.org.
The problem was raised at the TMDB google+ group site and Travis Bell from TMDB very quickly reinstated the re-direct. 2.01.86 can get covers again, for now.

So many thanks to Travis Bell at TMDB for acting so quickly and fixing this problem for us.

1 Like
20

thatā€™s good news ā€¦ but " for now" sounds ominousĀ  :neutral_face: