Hello,
Today a bought a Samsung 4K TV with plans to stream movies via WDTV Live connected to Hard drive.
The picture quality is terrible, am I doing something wrong with the settings. …
Thank you.
Hello,
What type of videos are you streaming and where are you streaming them from?
I am intrigued by your setup, as I had hoped to do the same with my WD Hub and a 4k TV to be purchased later this year.
I hope you connected the WDTV LIVE through a HDMI cable, since this is the best video quality your box will ever put out.
What kind of video’s are you trying to play on your WDTV Live? - Are they streaming video’s or Compressed movies on your hard drives?
I would think if you tried to play AVI (DivX encoded) TV shows and movies, the video would look horrible since most of those TV shows were actually compressed down to 640 x 320 resolution (or something equally bad).
MP4 format video’s were noticably better but many still retained the same resolution level of the DivX-encoded video’s.
Your TV shows may look acceptable on a 720p or even 1080p TV set but that is stretching the video quality a bit. Those files are already being upscaled 4 times to match your old 1080p resolution.
Your 4K TV is going to upscale that “crappy” resolution playing through your WDTV media player to 4k… it’s no wonder your video’s don’t look that great. That is ANOTHER 4 times upscaling to 4K.
Total upscaling 8 X (8 Times!) = Crappy video quality!
If you truly want to see GREAT video, I would recommend playing TV shows recorded in their TRUE 1080p resolution. The video files would be around 2-4 Gigs in size, but they would look A LOT better than any upscaled AVI or MP4 files.
Better yet, Use the YOUTUBE app on your Samsung 4K TV set … and look for any 4K video channels. (Do a search for “GO PRO” or “4K Video”).
The GO PRO Channel has some amazing Video’s in 4K that will look great on your TV, even though your WDTV LIVE will only be able to pump out the video’s in 1080p! The youtube app on your WDTV live box will have the same limitation! - So always use your SAMSUNG Youtube app.
Until a firmware update can increase the resolution of our WDTV boxes to 4K (if that is EVEN possible), the best resolution your WDTV player can achieve is 1080p. Of course, even the YOUTUBE app will need to be updated… Oh well!
Again, if you want to see these video’s in REAL 4K, you will have to download the ACTUAL 4K video’s from YOUTUBE.com through your computer. The files are compressed but are around 800k in size. If your TV has a media player in it, you will be able to play these files if can download the videos’ onto a USB memory stick and play them on your TV. You will be AMAZED!
Even better, view them directly on your TV through it’s built-in YOUTUBE app - you will be able to view MOST OF these GO PRO channel video’s in REAL 4K. My favorite are those daredevil “stunts” and wild animal video’s on GoPro’s channels.
Some of those Go Pro video’s will look better than others on you 4k TV - depending on the Go Pro model used to film the video’s. HERO 3 was a 1080p camera. The HERO 4 is a 4K camera. But regardless of the camera used, all their video’s look wonderful on a 4k TV!
Beware that some other youtube video’s are labeled 4K in the TITLE because that was the resolution they were filmed in and NOT the resolution they were uploaded to Youtube! (they will only play at the MAXIMUM resolution they were UPLOADED to youtube!). If possible, look at the video’s comments on a PC to know whether 4K is their FILMED resolution or their final YouTube resolution.
On a PC, the youtube site now beginning to label video’s with an ICON indicating the video’s actual resolution. Not ALL Youtube windows have it, Not all video’s have them, and unfortunately, even a DVD can be uploaded as a 4K Youtube video when it obviously isn’t, either. BE AWARE. 
If you perform a Search for “4K” on youTube on a PC, the search results will have this “4K” or “HD” icon next to the video snapshot on your computer. Other Youtube windows do not.
If you perform the same search on Youtube APPS on Android phones, you will NOT see these ICON indicators. I don’t know if your Samsung will tell you if a Youtube video has been uploaded as a 4K video or not.
Ultimately the only reliable indicator on a PC is where you can CHOOSE the resolution to play the video in. THIS is where you will determine the video’s MAXIMUM resolution.
UNTIL Youtube starts filtering out crappy video from reliably labeled video’s - I recommend you look for actual GO PRO channel(S) to find the highest number of 4K resolution video’s. It is a new channel and you can takes advantage of Youtubes’ new 4K resolution thru these channels. and every new GO PRO video is 4K at filming and MOST OF their users LOVE to upload their video’s AND ONLY SOME do so using Youtube’s new 4K resolution.
Streaming a Youtube 4K-resolution video through your TV this way will really show off your TV in the best way! Watch the SKY Diving or STUNT video’s in 4K and You will be AMAZED!!! (Or you may get motion sickness or a fear of heights, you’ve be warned!)
ALso, look for NASA channels. Some of their video’s are very high resolution but many were never uploaded as HD because they are old… but many are still worth viewing!
Hope this helps!
