WDTV Live Plus Not Playing ANYTHING

WD Legacy Products WD TV Live & Live Plus
1

I’ve been messing around with this unit for days now.  It randomly decides whether or not it will play the file selected.  And sometimes even then, it will give a mesmerizing blue circle for about 10 minutes before embarking on your selection.

It sees indexes fine, I can search the net for videos on Youtube etc, and when I select one to play, it just gives an endless blue circle.  I access the network wirelessly, have two WDTV Units.  My other one, the plain jane WDTV Live, works flawlessly from a room not even close to the router.  It is not prejudicial to the file format, it equally refuses to play everything.  Last night I randomly turned it on, not expecting it to work, and it did.  I got to watch an ENTIRE episode.  Went to play the next and back to nothing.  And every file then refused to play.

Things I have tried:

Latest as well as downgraded firmwares.

Reconfigured Network.  Swapped out two other completely different wireless adapters.

Moving unit closer to router, making it only 10 feet away. 

Disabled Firewall, even though other WDTV unit could access just fine.

Changing the name by which the units identify themselves.

Thing that just worked: (but for how long)

Something I just tried and worked.  I put the USB Wireless Adapter into the rear USB slot.  Plugged a USB Flash drive in the side port.  Turned on the unit, played a file from the USB Flash and it worked.  Tried the file from the networked drive over the wireless internet and it worked as well.

I am using Windows 7 64bit on the computer that is being accessed for content.  As evidenced, the problem is intermittent and mostly seems to fail to work when I sit down with the family to watch something.

I’ve had the unit on and off about 5 times tonight and this last time it decides to work.  So for the heck of it I am powering down and seeing if it works again when powered up.  Second go was a success as well.

Anyone have any ideas as to why I am having these issues with this unit?

2

You could try an overkill reset.

Press the side paperclip button for a couple of seconds and then release with the unit fully booted up.

Reset to factory defaults via the internal menu.

Unplug the power for some minutes (not seconds)

Do all 3 one after the other.

3

I will give that a try when I get home tonight and when it acts up again.

Additional information maybe unrelated.  I got through one episode and half another before it just crashed to menu.  I was able to resume where the crash had occurred.

4

is it possible that the USB port I had the wireless card in was at issue?  Because thusfar, with the new setup, I have not had even a slight issue.

5

And last night, it played about 30 seconds of an episode, crashed to menu, and would play nothing after that.  The unit is in my bedroom which is the closest point to my router.  The other unit, which I am not having any issues with, I had just finished watching 3 hours worth of programming through. 

Turned the unit on a minute ago, and I can play videos again. for now.

*Edit* and later in the evening, I could not get through a single program without it crashing back to menu.  I made it about half way through another file and it decided it was done for the night, and so was I.

All this happens, and yet I can access, without issue, the file on the other unit.  Must be one of those extra features I get with the plus version.

6

So I have tried just about everything I can think of (aside from rolling back to the original firmwares) and yet I still have problems with this thing.  As matter of fact, both units now do the same thing.  They play something for so long, crash to menu, play again from that point, crash to menu, only takes longer to get to menu.  Then when you try to play the file it will give you either file not supported or it plays choppy.  Plays normal video with no audio, choppy with out of sync video then crash to menu, etc.

When I got the first unit about 18 months or so ago, it worked great out of the box over a wireless network, which I still employ today.  I can use two computers wirelessly, playing movies, mmo’s etc while a third wired one also does the same, no problems.  I try to use the WDTV box as the only connected wireless device and forget it.

Oh and yes, long ago when this issue first arose, I used a wire to connect directly and had the same issue.

/grumble

7

you should try just simply backing out to the main menu and then reentering your share folder.

i normally see the spinning circles too when i first turn it on and try to access my folder, but once i do the steps above its fine.

8

No, that does not work, the “blue circle” keeps spining and nothing will work until it is reset with side button or the power cable removed. Is it a hardware issue, why have WD not found a fix yet? It seems this issue has been happening for quite a while.

9

kilnacash wrote:

No, that does not work, the “blue circle” keeps spining and nothing will work until it is reset with side button or the power cable removed. Is it a hardware issue, why have WD not found a fix yet? It seems this issue has been happening for quite a while.

That normally happens if the WDTV plays a ‘bad’ file. After this the unit will hang up and not play anything. Reset and see if you can find the ‘bad’ file.

10

well my first tip would be to switch to a wired network, it fixes alot of issues that can happen with wireless.

but even on my wired network i do experiece these same issues when i first boot up the player as i said, but i normally just back out of the share folder an move to the left once where you can scroll up an down an choose (youtube/network share/ect) then go back into my share folder and the circle shows up for a second an then im in. maybe i have to do it 1 or 2 times but it works. then im fine, ive been doing the same routine for as long as i can remember. but simply waiting for the circle to go away wont fix itself, just back out of the share folder menu an reenter an it shoud work everytime.

also you could try just leaving the unit on once you get it working, then you shouldnt have that issue again.

11

yeah, the mystery bad file everyone keeps playing, if said file will play though xbox, iomeega media player, the computer with no problem but hangs on the wdtv, I think the problem is the player.

Can it overheat, is a hardware issue or network setup issue, I seen people write about both some with success in fine tuning the network but ultimately it fails again.

I’m thinking its hardware, which kinda makes the machine redundant, who wants to have to reset, power off before using each time when this is not the case for other brand players.

Also going out of folders to the menu and back in dosen’t do anything.

12

That’s the thing, my original WDTV unit played all of these files fine without a hickup over the same wireless network.  Now both units are displaying the same issue with crashing out of an episode of a show.  I don’t know if this is proof of anything, but the last couple times it has crashed to menu, it did so at the 34 minute mark.  This is the case on three diferent programs of varying lengths thus far.  I haven’t been able to get the time of crash for each, because sometimes it just wont go back into the program.  Sometimes it starts back up but about 30 seconds before the crash point.  Sometimes it gives me circle for about ten seconds and crashes back to menu, at which point forget it, it displays that it can not play the specified file to consult the manual.

Btw Playing music on it right now, no issue.

On a second note, this happens more frequently on my WDTV Live PLus which is being used to stream standard def material to an older tv, while the older WDTV Live is playing on a 720P Plasma.

The only consistent thing I have seen thus far is that it wont let me complete a program without some sort of divine intervention.

Anyone have a link to the old firmwares?  I am unable to find them on WD’s site.

13

http://wdc.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/5800/

1 Like
14

Thanks for this mate.  I’ll give it a try tomorrow after work when I have time to sit down with it.

15

kilnacash wrote:

yeah, the mystery bad file everyone keeps playing, if said file will play though xbox, iomeega media player, the computer with no problem but hangs on the wdtv, I think the problem is the player.

 

 

Of course its the player, thats why I said ‘bad’ and not bad. The player has a problem with certain files and simply hangs up instead of backing out gracefully. It thinks it can play them but then finds it can’t and then hangs up on every file.

16

Downgrading my firmware to 1.03.29_B seemed to do the trick for the most part.  I was able to watch 3 hours worth of programming, with the only hiccup being that in two files near the beginning, it lost sound and fast fowarded on it’s own for about 30 seconds of programming.  Otherwise it ran fine.

Quite a happy change from not being able to get through programs at all.  Will update to inform on continued performance.

17

Talorin wrote:

[…] with the only hiccup being that in two files near the beginning, it lost sound and fast fowarded on it’s own for about 30 seconds of programming.  Otherwise it ran fine.

 

Quite a happy change from not being able to get through programs at all.  Will update to inform on continued performance.

You have a problem with your files, this shouldn’t happen with proper encodes. I’ve made 200+ movies (DVD/BD) in about a year with maybe 4 different versions, played a lot of them, without a single dropout or sync error when properly decoded (I had a “learning” phase, though).

Cocovanna

18

So you are going to tell me, the files that worked flawlessly before on the same machine, are suddenly encoded incorrectly?

I’d also like to point out the issues do not apply to only one set of files, but all files of all types.  This much I am sure I have stated in my first post.  Also, the files play fine on multiple devices, computer, DVD player, Playstation etc.  None is evidence that would suggest bad encoding.

It has become clear this is obviously a firmware issue.

19

No, that’s not what was said at all.

If you play a file that has something in it that the device doesn’t understand, then the playback module gets “stuck”.  The WDTV thinks the file is supported, but something within the file is something the device can not play back.

Then, _ nothing _ will play… even files that used to play.  The device needs to be reset to “unstick” it.

The “good” files didn’t suddenly become bad encodes… the box just lost its ability to play anything once a single “bad” file gets played (or attempted to be played).

Resetting it is all it takes to get the other files back playing properly… until you play another “bad” file.

  • unplug the WDTV for 10 minutes or so… if, when you power it back on, the problem persists then…
  • press the paperclip reset button on the side… if, when it reboots, the problem persists then…
  • select “Reset To Factory Defaults” in the System Settings.

Usually the first one is enough, but sometimes it takes all 3, or occasionally it needs to remain unplugged for longer.

20

Yes, I know what you are talking about there, I have seen that happen.  But, this is not the same thing.   I could probably write out a detailed explanation of what happened, but I thought I had already done so with the numerous posts.

Regardless, the solution to my issue was to downgrade to the original firmware.  It played fine out of the box, why I ever decided to allow the upgrade to begin with is beyond me.