WD TV Live stops playing files

Well, I’ve been using some “bleep” for about two years and the problem appeared during the past weeks even in files that previously played OK. So I’m not sure it’s a problem with all of my files suddenly. If it happened only with a specific one I’d say OK. Thing is after power cycling I can play one file (starts normally) then I try another file (something that I’d previously watched) and I get the spinning thing again.

Are there any possible solutions? Downgrading or anything else?

Got a new update. Tried streaming netflix via cabled connection rather than wireless. It still locks up and freezes in the same way, after the same amount of time.

Some of these problems sound like overheating issues I have had in the past. Try flipping the device over onto its roof so that the holes are on top for a week and see if the problems go away. I keep my 2 devices standing on end.

Don’t know what you mean by ‘faulty mux’, so I don’t know how to respond to that
Again, as I said, they’re videos that are the same as hundreds or thousands of others that I’ve played without issue, and if any individual videos were incompatible or corrupt, and that was what was causing playback issues, then resetting the device wouldn’t change that

Removing from power solves nothing either, nor should it be a reasonable solution, really

Bug #1

I think I may have encountered this bug, though why a random file in a series of perfectly fine files from an identical source should end up being ‘crappy’ enough that the device has issues with it, and I have no way of knowing which is which until it happens, is beyond me

Bug #2

Yeah, downgrading fixed a lot, but not all of, my issues with file playback
Not sure what you meant about ‘remux’, or which devices you were referring to when you said ‘downgrade on the “new” WD TV is useless cause all firmwares exhibit this problem’ (I’m hoping not mine)

Bug #3
Haven’t encountered

Bug #4

Kinda sounds like an issue I’ve had as well, where I’d be playing a file and then it just randomly drops out. Most of my files are .mp4 now, though I don’t believe this issue has been exclusive to that file type for me, and I’ve been playing them from an external HDD via a USB cable (got a new cable to see if I have better luck, too)
Can’t see heat being an issue, since neither the WD nor the HDD have had any heat issues
EDIT: Just realised how warm the thing gets, though since my issues crop at random times and in random circumstances (length of time of use, time of day and temperature in the room etc.), I don’t think this could be the root of my issues. I have managed to get it to stand up on it’s side so it can vent better, just in case

“Crappy files refers to **bleep** you download from the internet”
Isn’t that pretty much the entire reason devices like this and high capacity external HDDs exist in the first place lol?

If you say so. Still, like anyone being able to write anything to the Internet so people can upload all kinds of **bleep**. And since many don’t even understand the difference between codec and container, it doesn’t suprise in the least that some release files with specs that aren’t compliant with standalone specs. Which probably is one of those files that resulted in your WDTV stopping to play any proper files until you powercycled it.

Techflaws wrote:

Lets not mix up bugs:

 

  1. playing one corrupt file results in no playback of any proper file afterwards
    this bug has been around for ages and can only be fixed by power-cycling (and by not playing crappy files in the first place)

I have had this. It was mostly some internet downloaded 720p MKV files - once one had been played, the WDTV stopped being able to play any video file afterwards (playback would initially hang at a black screen) until it was rebooted.

I don’t tend to experience this one since I moved from the early WDTV to the current WDTV Live (2.02.32) box.

I *am* however experiencing one related bug that I’m trying to find a solution for (and is why I came here looking), and I think it must be this one:-

  1. some files stop playing after any number of minutes (usually ~30)
  2. So far there’s been no proper description on how to reproduce this: what file type was played? Was it played from USB/NAS/Wifi or standby (which seems to be playing a major role in some issues)?
    It might be an overheating issue which is weird cause I’m almost exclusively playing uncompressed high bitrate BD rips and haven’t seen this happen ever, not even after long video nights of 5-6 hours continuous playback (and despite the WDTV gettig quite warm to the touch). Maybe it’s the “3 hours energy saving Auto shutdown” that’s somehow active and interfering after a standby?

 

What we need is people trying to narrow this down as much as possible.

I’m using a 2.5in USB harddrive, HFS formatted, to store files on. It works fine, and then for some unknown reason playback is affected and when you try to playback more or less *any* video file, the box hangs at the turning arrow. I can go back to the menu, and play a different file, and it results in the same thing.

The 100% reliable way to “fix” this when it happens is to eject the media, and reboot the box. Playback always returns to normal.

Now, I *thought* it was triggered by me uploading/adding new files to the USB drive over wifi, but looking at the description here, I will do a bit of troubleshooting to try and determine what’s going on.

I haven’t noticed the 30 minute thing though, i didn’t think it happened as quickly as that, but I will have a look. I generally keep the WDTV on it’s side, so it gets ventilated well enough.

This is the *only* problem I have with the WDTV Live, which otherwise is just brilliant for my uses…

Ok, so stage 1 in investigating my WDTVLive freezing issue - I checked this morning, the WDTV Live had been on all night, not in standby, and the freezing issue was in effect and no files will play. While it’s in this state, lets get some data to see if anything affects this.

Note: my standard setup is as follows:

  • WDTV Live 2.02.32
  • USB 2.0 2.5 external drive, formatted to HFS
  • TV on HDMI port
  • WiFi networking (mainly to admin files on the drive without disconnecting it)
  • 3 Hour energy save is turned OFF (we still get bug)
  • Media Library ON
  • Get Content Info AUTO

In the buggy state:

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.

In this state:

  • What files will play on the WDTVLive?

None.
Video - No mp4, m4v, mkv video files will play.
Pictures - no JPG images will display (eg in photo view, or files view)
Audio - no audio will play.

  • Heat/Ventilation

In the test state, the WDTVLive had been on all night, not in standby. It was barely warm, kept on it’s side away from walls in a coolish room and therefore well ventilated.

  • Wifi Networking

Turned Wifi off by turning off the router, verified the WTVLive had no network connection. Files still won’t play.

Accessed the WDTVLive share over WiFi from my Mac, and accessed the drive. The files could be played by my computer, so the WDTVLive can still access, load and stream the files on it’s local drive to the network.

  • Drive & USB

Ejected the drive, unpluggged and replugged. Waited until it was available, then tried to play a file - still won’t play.

Repeated this and tried it in the front USB port instead. Still won’t play.

Put an mp4 and mkv file on a USB flash drive, also HFS formatted, inserted into the front USB slot. Neither file would play. Reformated this to FAT32 and tried again. Still won’t play.

So, in summary, once this buggy state has been triggered (we don’t know what triggers it at this stage), the WDTVLive will not play *any* media content, but otherwise performs normally.

This doesn’t seem to be a function of the drive, the USB ports, the disk format, the networking setup, excess heat, or sleeping hardware.

The *only* thing that cures the issue is ejecting the drive, and then a device reboot, or cold boot.(Just turning the WDTVLive off, waiting and turning it on again will not fix the issue, the drive must be ejected before rebooting first).

Nothing else I have tried will get media content to play once in this buggy state.

It’s as if a dedicated hardware chip for content playback has gone offline, and nothing you can do short of a reboot will get it to function again.

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

So the next thing will be to try to narrow down what things cause or trigger the error condition, which is what I will take a look at next.

Any tips, advice, suggestions etc welcome, thanks.

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?