WD TV Media Player Firmware Version 1.02.17 (12/16/14)

WD Legacy Products WD TV Media Player
1

I was excited to see a WD TV firmware update, and also see all the resolved issues.

Imagine my extreme disapointment when I quickly found out that my issue have not been resolved!

I logged a support case back in April and then it was closed.

Obviously some major gaps in the WD support processes?

My issue is that I have to reset the WDC back to factory defaults, to get it going again,

Every time I want to watch a video.

This problem is easily repeatable on any video more than 30min long.

It happens on network shares or locally attached storage.

It happens on ALL types of videos (.mp4, mkv, avi…)

It happens on different WDC players as well!

I don’t know if I can be bothered logging another case, and waiting another 8 months or longer?

2

If this has happened with different players, then perhaps checking the media info for files that trigger this behavior is the next step.

3

All types of video files/containers trigger this behavour;

MP4, WMV, AVI, MKV…

tried all different resolutions & bitrates too…

4

I’ve got Avatar.mkv playing in the background to test … it’s been playing for 2 Hours now, about 41 minutes left to finish.

File is playing off a 1TB WD Elements USB.

When is this bug supposed to happen ?

1 Like
5

my guess something on his network is crashing the device, like possibly a misbehaving dnla server

6

sorry, kad … but he said he tried local usb storage as well

My issue is that I have to reset the WDC back to factory defaults, to get it going again,

Every time I want to watch a video.

This problem is easily repeatable on any video more than 30min long.

It happens on network shares or locally attached storage.

It happens on ALL types of videos (.mp4, mkv, avi…)

It happens on different WDC players as well!

I don’t know if I can be bothered logging another case, and waiting another 8 months or longer?

Anyways, i have not found this bug as " easily repeatable" as he said

Finished watching Avatar.mkv … 2Hrs 41Min movie played fine from Start to Finish

Currently testing Fantasic Four.mp4 … 50Min in and it’s playing fine

7

Hi

There are a couple of ways to trigger this bug.

  1. play a 2nd movie after the first movie has finished.

You can browse to the movie, but when you press play you get the spinning orange circle & it never plays.

  1. press the pause or stop button after you are more than 30min into the movie.

You get an error “Unable to play content” but the audio continues. 

You then get the spinning orange circle if you try to resume or play something else.

It sounds like if you can play a 2nd movie (without reseting the WD TV back to factory defaults)

then you are not seeing this bug.

Is there a test video (more than 30min) somewhere I can download and see what happens when I try 1. & 2.?

Thanks for the replies.

I’ll persist & try to get the root cause of this. 

8

1. play a 2nd movie after the first movie has finished.

You can browse to the movie, but when you press play you get the spinning orange circle & it never plays.

Did that (see above) after Avatar finished …went to Fantasic Four and it played fine

2. press the pause or stop button after you are more than 30min into the movie.

You get an error “Unable to play content” but the audio continues. 

You then get the spinning orange circle if you try to resume or play something else.

I paused the movie for 60 Seconds at about an 1hr 15min in … pressed play and the movie continued to play as per normal.

Just to state again … i’m using a 1TB WD Elements USB HDD attached to the WDTV Media Player

EDIT: i’m playing a 3rd Movie now … at 68min in i pressed “pause” and left it on pause for 15min … came back, pressed play, and it’s resuming playback as per normal.

Sorry, i know this is frustrating for you … but i simply can’t replicate your problem   :confounded:

9

Unless he is playing from local drive and network is disconnected dlna is still possible issue

Network cable should be unpluged. Wireless info deleted then reboot so that its never connected to the network

Then if problem persist network and dlna issues are completely ruled out

10

oh, ok  :neutral_face:    my wdtv is connected Wired to my route

if it is a dlna bug … how do you fix that ? 

my Billion Modem/Router has UPnP settings Enable / Disable  (currently it’s Enabled)  would disabling UPnP disable DLNA ? and still you use Network Shares?

11

So now I’ve got my 1TB WD external HDD plugged into my WDTV…

downloaded & copied an open source movie to the HDD;

Sita Sings the Blues

http://ossguy.com/sita/Sita_Sings_the_Blues_640x360_XviD.avi

MPEG-4 1.2MbpsBitrate 700MB

and am playing it, I’ll pause it after 30min mark.

12

problem also happens on DLNA media servers (I’ve tried a few Plex, Windows, Nero…)

so I disabled those and generally use a windows share from a Blackarmour.

I haven’t tried Unix NFS shares - I might try that later?

I’ve also tried 3 different firmware versions.

13

thanks bok007, i’m downloading the sample now …

i will report back a little later (dinner time now) … will be online most of the night  (too hot outside,staying in to enjoy the air-con :smiley:

also, there is something else you could try  (but will have to discuss in Personal Messages )  if you’re willing to try anything  (i’ve done what i’m alluding to … and it works fine)

14

When I plugged in the HDD I unplugged the network cable.

I’ve never used wireless on this WD TV, so it’s not connected at all.

Interesting to hear about DLNA - I’ll audit what I’ve got.

15

check your Personal Messages   (top right of screen)

16

video downloaded and now playing … will check back in 30-40mins

EDIT: nope … paused it at 35min in … left the room … when i came back the WD screensaver had kicked in … pressed  the “play” button … playback resumed as per normal

sorry … i can’t test this anymore, after nearly 5 hours i can’t reproduce the “bug”

17

I’ve played the test video Sita sings… and it not exhibit the issue!

I’ll try it again, but I’m amazed as this is the first time it’s worked since I brought it 8 months ago,

and WD tech support never suggested doing this, after many hours on the phone to them.

I should be able to narrow down the problem now and I’ll report back with results.

18

well, that’s good to hear … so it’s your files then ?

19

no that’s unlikely - I’m suspecting a rouge DLNA server as KAD79 suggests? (I have a few on my network)

Just connected the LAN cable & will play the same video again to see if I can get it to fail.

20

ok, no probs … at least we may be getting somewhere with nailing down the cause