WD TV SMP - Network shares and My Media Library problem

Hi,

I am going to do my best to provide as much information here as possible.

Problem:

WD TV SMP loses “connection” to Windows 7 network media shares after certain periods of inactivity either when off, standby or even when left on.  When trying to access media it reports “Last content source has been removed” or network share is read-only when doing a manual rescan of network shares.

If I reset the device to factory settings and add network shares to Media Library it rescans and starts working again.  This includes proper function of metadata and “get content info”, it writes to the shared folders fine.  Then after a period of time the problem reappears.

Setup:

Windows 7 64-bit

Sagemon Sky router

WD TV Live SMP

Wired connection

Shared media is on two drives in my windows box

Sharing permissions set as recommended and obviously works, for a while, with Everyone having read/write access to the shared folders (for now anyway while I troubleshoot)

Some details:

C:\Users\David>net view
Server Name Remark
---------------------------------------------
\\MANTIS
\\WDTVLIVE WD TV Live
The command completed successfully.

[code]
C:\Users\David>nbtstat -a mantis
Mantra:
Node IpAddress: [192.168.0.2] Scope Id: []
NetBIOS Remote Machine Name Table
Name Type Status
---------------------------------------------
MANTIS <00> UNIQUE Regisered
WORKGROUP <00> GROUP Registered
MANTIS <20> UNIQUE Registered
WORKGROUP <1E> GROUP Registered
MAC Address = 1C-6F-65-D9-4F-88
[/code]

C:\Users\David>nbtstat -a wdtvlive
Mantra:
Node IpAddress: [192.168.0.2] Scope Id: []
NetBIOS Remote Machine Name Table
Name Type Status
---------------------------------------------
WDTVLIVE <00> UNIQUE Registered
WDTVLIVE <03> UNIQUE Registered
WDTVLIVE <20> UNIQUE Registered
.. __MSBROWSE__.<01> GROUP Registered
WORKGROUP <1D> UNIQUE Registered
WORKGROUP <1B> UNIQUE Registered
WORKGROUP <1E> GROUP Registered
WORKGROUP <00> GROUP Registered
MAC Address = 00-00-00-00-00-00

Note that wdtvlive appears (getting to the limit of my knowledge) as the master browser.  Not sure if this is a problem.

C:\Users\David>net view /domain
Domain
---------------------------------------
WORKGROUP
The command completed successfully.

C:\Users\David>nbtstat -a 192.168.0.2
Mantra:
Node IpAddress: [192.168.0.2] Scope Id: []
NetBIOS Remote Machine Name Table
Name Type Status
---------------------------------------------
MANTIS <00> UNIQUE Registered
WORKGROUP <00> GROUP Registered
MANTIS <20> UNIQUE Registered
WORKGROUP <1E> GROUP Registered
MAC Address = 1C-6F-65-D9-4F-88

C:\Users\David>net view \\mantis
Shared resources at \\mantis

Window 7 64-bit System

Share name Type Used as Comment

------------------------------------------
Music Disk
Video - Children Disk
Video - Grown ups Disk
The command completed successfully.

Not sure if any of that is of much help?  I have wireshark and can understand what it does but not what the logs say.

I can run any additional test or commands that could provide more information.  Grateful for any help.

Perhaps this is a power savings issue in Windows 7?

does the computer go to sleep during these inactive periods?

Just a thought, check the power settings on the PC you are accessing. 

Hope this helps!

D

Thanks, good suggestion.  The computer is set never to sleep (although hybrid sleep is on) and the hard drives will  turn off after twenty minutes.  However, the sharing media option is set to prevent idleing to sleep.  Should I change these?

I don’t have Hybrid drives in my computer that i am sharing the files from, but i have disabled the power savings on the hard drives that are in it.

i would give it a shot and see if that helps.  if not, you can always turn it back on.

Dave

Thanks for the suggestions.  I have turned of a few power saving features including the one for my network card.  But the problem still persists.  Looking at wireshark during the throws of losing content source/endless spinning arrows is “interesting” in the sence that it seems different to me than during working opperation.  Would anyone with experience be willing to look at the logs for me?

Also, is it fundamentally bad/wrong for the wdtv live to be the master browser?  During an election it always wins, I find that a bit odd and know that the issue has been reported.

Hey, experiencing the exact same problem here.

I can validate that it happens on both Vista 32 bit, Vista 64 bit, as well as Windows 7 64 bit, so I don’t think the version of the OS is a problem.

It also happens with a range of different routers, I have tried with at least a linksys WRT610, a Cisco E4200. Same behavior.

A way to recover without having to reboot is to clear the network password, delete the libraries, clear the library, and reconnect. That usually, though not 100% of the time, works.

The problem seems very specific to the library functionality. Connect just to the shares I think works OK. It’s when you add the shares to a library that creates trouble. The behavior can be replicated 100% of the time, but sometimes takes longer than others to appear. It may be a few hours to a few days before the connection to the shares degrades and the library goes dead.

I have experienced this easily dozens of times. My only workaround right now is as described above, reset the library and the network password and do it again.

Seems like a firmware implementation defect to me. Something is broken in the way the library is handled, and the WD is unable to recover from it. This defect/bug has existed through multiple firmware versions.

Hopefully WD will read this, and eventually implement a firmware fix.

WD, if you are listening, this is a pretty severe defect in your equipment. Basically makes the most attractive functionality on the device useless. It’s like it’s in “beta” mode, it doesn’t quite work.

Yes the library is poor imo, i have to reset my library a couple of times a day, i wish i could get all content info without having to use the library because its just a pain sometimes

I have the same issue and it is driving me crazy. I have 4 WDTV Live streaming units networked to a Windows 7 desktop with filesharing turned on. If I do a hard restart on the WDTV(Unplug or restart system in the menus options) I can navigate to my server and connect to my media drives. It works for several hours. When I go to connect after several hours of non use it comes back with the cannot connect error and will only connect again if I do a hard restart. I have several friends with simular setups and they experience the same problems. This issue needs to be resolved! I have been a long time user of WDTV and am about to jump ship because the issues has been hanging around since the beginning of the new WDTV live units and  perhapes before on the older networkable units. I am sure WD is aware of it because the issue is littered around this and other communities.