WD TV Live stops playing files

i have no idea what to suggest … except a Firmware Rollback and see if it resolves any of these issues.

Sorry, i’m not much help … but that’s what i’d try if i was in this situation (i don’t have a SMP i have the Newer Model)

http://community.wd.com/t5/WD-TV-Live-Streaming/2-02-32-Firmware-no-longer-allows-content/m-p/781937#M32423

JoeySmyth wrote:

i have no idea what to suggest … except a Firmware Rollback and see if it resolves any of these issues.

Thanks - I’ll add that to the list of things to try!

However, it will only be to see if the issue persists or not in that version - the previous version does not support BBC iPlayer and that is a core required service for my device…

Note regarding Bug #4 that this is suspected to be:

It doesn’t seem to be a 30 mins thing either - today, after resetting it back to a working state, I checked it after 30 mins, 1 hour, 3 hours and more, and playback was still working ok. And it doesn’t just affect *some* files, but *all* media playback files.

Unless mine has a unique hardware issue…

I did experience a random crash and lock up, and then it’s been playing all evening and is still playing now. I’ll check it again in the morning and see whether it’s stopped working overnight…

wdtvgeek wrote:
When you attempt to play a file, it results in a black screen with the orange turning arrow indefinitely. You can BACK to the menu and try a different file, with the same result. Other than media playback, the WDTVLive box functions normally in this state.

I’m afraid this constitutes yet another bug then cause with #3 you’d always get “Unable to play selected file. Please see the User Manual for a list of supported formats” and with #4 you’d get to see at least some playback before it stops.

Do you experience this when the device has been turned off completely?

wdtvgeek wrote:
Is there anyway to get access to some system log from the WDTVLive that might shed some light on the error condition or state?

I’m trying to figure out some way to get logs with KAD, gonna post results as soon as he’s come up with something working on non-modded boxes.

Do you experience this when the device has been turned off completely?

No - when it comes up from a cold boot playback always works.

I haven’t experienced freezing *during* playback at all. It either works fine, or nothing can be played at all…

Just checked this morning after leaving it on all night and playback is still working - finding some reproduceable way of triggering this issue would obviously be the thing to find, as I have no idea yet what condition puts it in this state…

Ok, so it’s been fine since I reset it the last time - a couple of days. Last night watched some BBC iPlayer, some Netflix, and some local video content without problems.

This mornng, I checked again, and it’s hanging on playback. Will try to replace the steps to se if any combination of those things might have triggered the issue, or whether it’s just a random occurance that happens regularly…

Update: Ok. I can now reliably reproduce this and have a cause.

It’s the BBC iPlayer.

  • Start from a clean boot

  • Verify my test video file playback is ok

  • Run iPlayer

  • Browse a bit, settle on some content, press play. Wait for the menus to go away and let it play full screen for a few seconds

  • Press stop to stop iPlayer playback

  • Press the Menu button to go back to the home menu

  • Play test video file. At this point, all media playback is killed.

This triggers the bug reliably, every time, regardless of the media files I play the first time after the BBC iPlayer.

So it’s the use of iPlayer that is causing my system to kill playback. And this explains why I only got this behaviour more recently - because it was only in the most recent firmware version that the BBC iPlayer service was introduced - hence, it never happened in previous versions without the iPlayer service.

Can anyone please try this and see if they can reproduce the behaviour I see? They will have to be in the UK as the BBC iPlayer service is only available on UK machines, as far as I can see.

If I can get some independent confirmation I can at least file some sort of report with WD so they can look at it. And in the meantime, I have a workaround to avoid the issue - after using the BBC iPlayer, reboot the box.

And another, non-related bug in the current 2.02.32 version related to iPlayer:

If you use Remote Settings to assign the BBC iPlayer service to a button on your remote control, it runs the older BBC iPlayer app, not the current nice BBC iPlayer available from the services menu.

The older app should not even be there, it’s not available from anywhere else in the menus because the new version should have replaced it - so it’s not possible to assign the current BBC iPlayer service to a button on the remote control.

The older BBC iPlayer app is very poor…

Nice find. I hope someone else who had this error chimes in to confirm they’ve been using iPlayer too.

Unfortunately not for me - i only use it to play *bleep* and my own encodes, i haven’t used it for any streaming media but i have the same symptoms.

Cheers,

OK I have confirmed what’s happening on my end:

Scenario A - When playing videos off of a USB device while TV Live is connected to the internet (cabled or wireless makes no difference), the entire system will lock up and freeze after 30-45 minutes of playing. The only solution is to reset the device.

Scenario B - When playing videos off of a USB device while TV Live is NOT CONNECTED to the internet the system works perfectly fine and I can watch videos back to back with zero freezing.

Scenario C - When using the Netflix app to stream movies or shows, the entire system will lock up and freeze after 30-45 minutes of playing. The only solution is to reset the device.

Scenario D - When using the YouTube app to stream videos, the system works perfectly fine and I can watch videos back to back with zero freezing.

I have run these scenarios on both the current firmware and the rolled back firmware and it is exactly the same. I have also been monitoring the device’s temperature and it does not overheat when it crashes. It stays at the same temperature whether it’s working or not. Placing the device on its side or even putting a fan underneath it makes zero difference.

Any advice on this would be GREATLY appreciated.

NightmareRunner wrote:

Scenario B - When playing videos off of a USB device while TV Live is NOT CONNECTED to the internet the system works perfectly fine and I can watch videos back to back with zero freezing.

Did you disconnect the LAN cable or is the device still connected to your LAN but your router not to the Internet?

No cable, modem/router switched off. The device has zero connection to a network of any kind. It’s the only way it will play local files without crashing.

fwiw, I’ve had my WD TV live streaming player for more than a year (I did update to current FW last September).  One afternoon last week, I suddenly encountered the same issue where existing MP4 and MKV files would not play beyond about 30 minutes.

The files were stored on a flash drive plugged into USB socket.  I tried a different flash drive with same results.

This had me completely baffled.  The WD TV box was not overheating.  Rebooting it didn’t make any difference.  The issue persisted all afternoon.

The box is connected to the network via wifi and I do have a DLNA server (shibby tomato access point with flash drive connected).  I switched off the server and rebooted the WD box and it didn’t make any difference.

I then did some googling and came across old posts  in this forum that seem to suggest when WD box unexpectedly becoming the new master browser,  this can cause video playback issues even from USB if the box is connected to the network.

I then realised I had a Windows 8.1 laptop switched on  (sleep mode disabled) since the morning and had forgotten to switch it off.   I turned off the laptop, and also rebooted the WD box and the problem with videos halting after about half an hour disappeared.  Media streaming (DLNA) is Not enabled on the win 8.1 laptop and I’ve never seen the laptop appear in list of DLNA servers on the WD box when I have been using it for past year when the laptop has been left on btw.

I’ve not been able to reproduce the problem with the laptop turned on.

I also have  WD MyNet N750 router which I have not rebooted in 6 months.   I did not reboot the router while investigating the above problem.  The N750 can act as a secondary browser - the ‘Master Browser’ setting was unchecked.  As a precation, I’ve now checked the setting to make sure the router is always the Master Browser.  I have no idea if it will make any difference in long run.  The N750 can also double as a DLNA server and it is visible to the WD TV Live box, but I never use it as MKV files won’t play from it (known bug) and there is no way of permanently disabling it.

I don’t know if it is Master Browser related, but I thought I’d share my observations.

NightmareRunner wrote:

 

Scenario B - When playing videos off of a USB device while TV Live is NOT CONNECTED to the internet the system works perfectly fine and I can watch videos back to back with zero freezing.

 

 

if it works when the WD is not connected to network (ie no eithernet and no wifi connection)

then the problem is on the network, most likely DNLA related

on other news techflaws mentioned above, we’re working on a way to get some debugging output

@techflaws, I think I found a way to debug only the medialogic portion without dmaosd

I’ll test it tonight, then send you a PM with the info when I’m done testing

As a followup to my issues relating to the BBC iPlayer, I’m working with WD support on the issue who have been great so far.

I’ll post back if I get anything tangible to share.

Sounds positive on the debugging output front… 

Some additional info:

I’ve also verified that the two other BBC apps/services on the WDTV Live, namely “BBC News” and “BBC Sport” both also cause the bug that breaks media playback, and is 100% reproducible too.

I don’t know whether those and the iPlayer app are developed by the same team, and/or use shared code or something, but they all break mdia playback after use so something is going on between the BBC apps and the WDTV 2.02.32 firmware version.

WD are aware of this and are looking into it, hopefully we’ll get a fix at some point.

hey guys, just a quick little update

since I mentioned logging

I got some limited logging functions working on official firmware

the bad news is that the logging really did not provide anything useful

but I’ve still got something pending on this

and no it’s not a cure all

but it may help some people

so stay tuned

hey you might want to check this out

http://community.wd.com/t5/WD-TV-Live-Streaming/WDTV-Reset-EVERYTHING/td-p/845085

I could have written that myself!!

My box is acting the same way exactly.

It stated off with an “Out of memory” message when playing videos and has now got to the stage that to play any different file types (which have played for years before) you have to do a shutdown and restart of the box.

I’ve tried rolling back the firmware three generations but this has not cured the problem.

I’ve also got one of the earlier versions of the WD box which still functions perfectly.

It looks like it’s getting to the end of the road for the WD TV Live in our house as a new Android MX111 box is on its way.

This will do 4k video and play 50fps video which the WD falls down on as it can’t keep up with the video and the audio together resulting in broken-up sound.

Such a pity after some years of good service.

Ok, I’ve just heard back from WD about the bug with the BBC apps breaking media playback, and their engineers have indeed confirmed it is a firmware issue.

I don’t know whether they will include a fix for this in a future firmware version, but hopefully they will - at least they know about it now. In the meantime, it can go on the official list of firmware bugs with the WD TV Live current firmware version, and anyone else who comes across the bug will hopefully stumble upon this thread.

If we get a new firmware version at some point, I’ll check to see if it fixes the behaviour and update the thread.