WDTV LIve Plus Streaming issues

WD Legacy Products WD TV Live & Live Plus
1

Hey guys.  I have had the WDTV live plus for about a week now and have had some headaches getting it to stream without issues. Currently I am trying to stream off a network share of a Win7x64 box. I am usually able to start a stream but about half the time the host pc actually aquires some sort of network problems and has to be restarted. I have tried searching around for this issue but either dont know how to search for this specific issue or cant find something related.

Is there anything that would stand out to someone as to things I should try?

Thanks

2

Take it back to the store and buy another brand of media player - Asus, D-Link, anything but WD. I am not being sarcastic or trolling. Just save yourself the trouble of waiting 8 months for firmware upgrades that would hopefully fix small issues like network share, only to see them either never get resolved or simply get worse. Go browse the last 2 years of the WDTV forums and you should get the drift of the kind of brand you have bought into.

I have owned a WDTVLive+ since last October. When I bought it I thought it was a most marvelous thing ever - I could not only use Netflix, but I could stream all of my lovely x264 MKV and Xvid files from a network share straight to an HD TV over 1080p HDMI with full AC3 and DTS support. Insert the playing of harps as angels dance around the miracle of this media player.

Forward 8 months and add the laughter of the robot devil from Futurama as I perform yet another manual power cycle (read pull the plug out) to get the old clunker working again because I dared to stop a Netflix video and I am rewarded with “no video signal”. So after the restart I get to login to Netflix yet again because it doesn’t keep my login after each restart. *Shrug*. Dare I try something different this time? Maybe watch a sweet HD rip from my network share instead you say? Sure I will…but…but…where did my share go? It was right here just a second ago? I swear that I performed the 7,243 different tips, tricks and voodoo spells to get it to work! Surely this isn’t possible!

It is possible. Do yourself a favor and don’t end up bitter and defeated like me - go buy a different brand. Don’t say I didn’t warn you (add robot devil again…Muhuhuhuhahahaha!).

3

sbbots wrote:

I am not being sarcastic or trolling. Just save yourself the trouble of waiting 8 months for firmware upgrades that would hopefully fix small issues like network share, only to see them either never get resolved or simply get worse.

And yet two facts remain (which a quick browse around here would have shown):

  • the majority of users have absolutely no issues with Network Shares under any firmware
  • _ every _ resolved instance of Network Shares “not working”, it has been another device on the network at fault, and not the WDTV

Hooking a different brand of media player to a network that isn’t set up correctly is not likely to fare any better – they all use the same protocols to talk to Windows PCs.

There is no firmware fix for a broken network.  Sitting around waiting for the WD engineers to “fix” something they physically can’t, is bound to disappoint.

Even the post you were responding to, the OP specified the host PC was having network issues… what firmware fix are you expecting from WD to “fix” the OP’s PC??

No matter how many different “tips” you say you’ve tried, with this being your first post, it seems apparent you never thought to _ ask _ any other users for help with sorting out what’s wrong on your network.

kwwood wrote:
I am usually able to start a stream but about half the time the host pc actually aquires some sort of network problems and has to be restarted.

Us knowing what kind of “network problems” might help… what actually happens?

4

Whatever the case, I’ll stand by my initial statement. Buy another brand. In fact, I stand by that opinion 100%, unless you are the technical type that is compelled to solve the great riddle of the WDTV and you will be doing that for many months indeed. The fact that anyone has to come to their technical forums to get a basic feature working is testiment enough for the quality of this cheap product. This particular network issue isn’t just an anomoly by the way. Search the internet and make your own opinion of it.

As for the other guy who took offense to my post - good day sir and good luck with your continued bug hunt for this poorly programmed beta product. It is my perogative to suggest a course of action that will solve his issue. If you don’t agree with my solution, good for you.

5

sbbots wrote:

 Buy another brand.

And, as I said, that won’t fix a problem that is not WDTV-related.

I did exactly what you asked, and did a quick online search…

I see thousands of things like:

“The second-generation Apple TV is now shipping, and a few owners who have received their units are having difficulties with sharing and streaming from their Macs. Even though iTunes is set up to share home folders or libraries, the Apple TV is not seeing them on the network”

“I’ve been banging my head against this issue for the past two days, so perhaps someone can help me out.
Does the Popcorn Hour support SMB shares?..”

“Hi, so i just got my boxee box in the mail today and its great! but i cant seem to connect to my mac via wireless network… i have file sharing turned on and i use to be able to share stuff with my xbox via connect 360 but now that wont work either… so… help? boxee doesnt even recognize that my mac is there… is there any special terminal commands i can do”

sbbots wrote:

The fact that anyone has to come to their technical forums to get a basic feature working is testiment enough for the quality of this cheap product. This particular network issue isn’t just an anomoly by the way. Search the internet and make your own opinion of it.

That’s what I just did.  MANY users can’t get sharing working easily no matter what device they’ve bought, no matter how much you pretend otherwise.  People have to go to the forums and beg for assistance for all of them.

And before you accuse me of being disingenuous and cherry-picking results, I just searched “AppleTV sharing” “Popcorn Hour sharing” and “Boxee Box Sharing” and those were my top results – I didn’t even search for “problems” or “help”.  Sharing is just an issue when there are network issues, regardless of the player.

You’re right in that it isn’t an anomaly – technophobes find setting up CFIS shares problematic.

So, between shares working fine for the majority of WDTV users when the network is working properly, and users of the other devices having the e_xact same problems_, and the fact that every resolved issue has been the fault of something else and not the WDTV, I’m not exactly sure how you can confidently stand by your opinion that it’s the WDTV and not your network that isn’t working right, and pretend the problems aren’t industry-wide and solely limited to people who try using WDTV’s.

But you weren’t trolling out of bitterness, no…

6

I really didnt want to start some flame war, just looking for some hopefully good answers.

As per the networking problems essentialy the pc hosting the network shares loses its local network connection and basically must be restarted which gives it access to the local network.

I have narrowed it down to be something with the share/how WDTV is accessing it because it has never before happened (although I have really only used shares before to share files and not stream anything)

Is there a list somewhere of settings I need to check to ensure playback is optimal on the host pc?

THanks

7

Well, it MAY be happening, but you might not have noticed it before.   I mean, it’s kind of obvious that it’s losing connection while you’re streaming because it will kill the playback.   But if your PC is sitting idle and it happens, you probably wouldn’t notice it.

You can try this test.

Open TWO CMD windows.

In the first one, type this command:

ping -t [ip address of your WDTV]

In the second:

ping -t [ip address of your router]

Start watching a movie.   As soon as you notice a problem, go look at the two windows and see what’s happening.

If BOTH windows star saying something like “TTL exceeded” or “No Response” or whatever, then the issue is certainly with your PC or network.