i have 2 WD TV Live boxes that have both been working perfectly. until last night when both boxes stopped playing any file format. both come up with the same message that the files are not supported and to go to the help section of the Manual.
i have tried resetting and downgrading the firmware but nothing is working still. the rollback did squat. one box is connected via ethernet and one via wifi, they both find the media and all the files show up but none of them will play. just the yellow spinning arrow then a black screen. i have a variety of file types on my drives and they all used to play perfectly. i can still stream Netflix through it. though if i go from tryign to play a file to netflix there is no sound and need to do a reboot for netflix to work correctly.
what happened???
how can this be fixed?
I just upgraded to 2.03.20 two days ago. 80% of my recorded tv files are .mp4 files. I have watched about 10 hours of .mp4 shows so far. Not a single problem. My other 20% are .iso files. Watched one .iso last night. No problems. I used my Miracast this morning with my phone. The best I have seen yet. Crisp and fast was the viewing. All my .mp4 and .iso files are stored on a network attached storage device. I think even the network connecting is working better. Only time will tell.
My WD TV Live is working the best it ever has. Thank you WD so much for the firmware update.
The WDTV Live is a different device than the WDTV Live Streaming player and the operation, features and firmware are different. A comparison between the two units is meaningless for the most part.
Ah, thanks. I have the WDTV Live Streaming media player, to be clear. Thanks.
I believe the Miracast (you say you used) is an additional feature only added to the latest model, the WDTV Live. Someone correct me if I am incorrect.
Miracast was added to the WDTV Live Streaming (2011) from Firmware 2.02.32 or higher
Miracast is available on all Firmwares for the WDTV Media Player (2014)
THANKS, Joey!
Oh, I called the newest one WDTV Live, when I should have said WDTV Media Player.
well, theyāre all Dead now 
Yeah, I had a whole folder of movies that simply refused to playā¦ I discovered a belated update (3.20.86) and every single movie in that folder now playsā¦ it waits a substantial time before playing, but worth the wait. Going to try this latest and greatest release tonight!
@Craig_Cooper - What codec are those files encoded with? Iāve seen similar behavior on a (non-WD) player I have that doesnāt support h265 but ultimately does end up playing them (with a really long delay) - Iām curious if this is something similar.
it will only play the āAudioā ā¦ the WDTV canāt decode the āVideoā, and all you see is a Black Screen.
I know this because i accidentally downloaded a H.265 file instead of a H.264 and tried to play it.
Yeah I know it wonāt play h265ās - Iāve tested myself (although I did see different behavior) 
Iām wondering if it is something similar, maybe with 2 different codecs. If he can tell us what the codec is, maybe someone can try it and attempt to reproduce - this would help determine if itās a codec issue, a compatibility issue, or an issue with the files or device. .
i guess will have to wait and see if Craig_Cooper can provide some mediainfo output logfile for us
No, these were not h.265 videosā¦ H.265 requires a quad-core processor at a certain speed to decode (hardware decoding is out of the question on the WD TV Live Streaming).
They were all (ahem) downloaded Pixar shortsā¦ every last one of them.
Iām glad I didnāt upgrade to the latest firmware, as the forums are flooded with failuresā¦
Iāll give it a shot Joeyā¦
no probs ā¦ just a quick guide if you havenāt used mediainfo before
After installing on your PC ā¦ (On your video file right click and open with Mediainfo select View > Tree then File > Export >Text > Save then open the *.txt file and copy and paste the info here)
General
Unique ID : 186708861428936642401950987813784801549 (0x8C76D19708AA2C83BD9FC0CC1342510D)
Complete name : \\Wdtvlive\media\MOVIES\ANIMATED\NOTWORKING PIXAR SHORTS\For the Birds.mkv
Format : Matroska
Format version : Version 1
File size : 114 MiB
Duration : 3 min
Overall bit rate : 4 652 kb/s
Encoded date : UTC 2007-10-27 21:40:42
Writing application : mkvmerge v2.1.0 ('Another Place To Fall') built on Aug 19 2007 13:40:07
Writing library : libebml v0.7.7 + libmatroska v0.8.1
Video
ID : 1
Format : AVC
Format/Info : Advanced Video Codec
Format profile : High@L5.1
Format settings, CABAC : Yes
Format settings, ReFrames : 8 frames
Codec ID : V_MPEG4/ISO/AVC
Duration : 3 min
Bit rate : 4 000 kb/s
Width : 1 280 pixels
Height : 688 pixels
Display aspect ratio : 1.85:1
Frame rate mode : Constant
Frame rate : 23.976 (24000/1001) FPS
Color space : YUV
Chroma subsampling : 4:2:0
Bit depth : 8 bits
Scan type : Progressive
Bits/(Pixel*Frame) : 0.189
Stream size : 95.9 MiB (84%)
Writing library : x264 core 56 svn-680
Encoding settings : cabac=1 / ref=5 / deblock=1:0:0 / analyse=0x3:0x113 / me=umh / subme=7 / brdo=1 / mixed_ref=1 / me_range=16 / chroma_me=1 / trellis=1 / 8x8dct=1 / cqm=0 / deadzone=21,11 / chroma_qp_offset=0 / threads=3 / nr=0 / decimate=1 / mbaff=0 / bframes=3 / b_pyramid=1 / b_adapt=1 / b_bias=0 / direct=1 / wpredb=1 / bime=1 / keyint=250 / keyint_min=25 / scenecut=40(pre) / rc=2pass / bitrate=4000 / ratetol=1.0 / rceq='blurCplx^(1-qComp)' / qcomp=0.60 / qpmin=10 / qpmax=51 / qpstep=4 / cplxblur=20.0 / qblur=0.5 / ip_ratio=1.40 / pb_ratio=1.30
Language : English
Default : Yes
Forced : No
Audio
ID : 2
Format : AC-3
Format/Info : Audio Coding 3
Mode extension : CM (complete main)
Format settings, Endianness : Big
Codec ID : A_AC3
Duration : 3 min
Bit rate mode : Constant
Bit rate : 640 kb/s
Channel(s) : 6 channels
Channel positions : Front: L C R, Side: L R, LFE
Sampling rate : 48.0 kHz
Frame rate : 31.250 FPS (1536 spf)
Compression mode : Lossy
Stream size : 15.7 MiB (14%)
Default : Yes
Forced : No
General
Unique ID : 227088064345114573247457123628267814597 (0xAAD7920011193C72AC6727D4C0F33EC5)
Complete name : \\Wdtvlive\media\MOVIES\ANIMATED\NOTWORKING PIXAR SHORTS\One Man Band.mkv
Format : Matroska
Format version : Version 1
File size : 151 MiB
Duration : 4 min
Overall bit rate : 4 646 kb/s
Encoded date : UTC 2007-10-28 03:34:37
Writing application : mkvmerge v2.1.0 ('Another Place To Fall') built on Aug 19 2007 13:40:07
Writing library : libebml v0.7.7 + libmatroska v0.8.1
Video
ID : 1
Format : AVC
Format/Info : Advanced Video Codec
Format profile : High@L5.1
Format settings, CABAC : Yes
Format settings, ReFrames : 8 frames
Codec ID : V_MPEG4/ISO/AVC
Duration : 4 min
Bit rate : 4 000 kb/s
Width : 1 280 pixels
Height : 528 pixels
Display aspect ratio : 2.40:1
Frame rate mode : Constant
Frame rate : 23.976 (24000/1001) FPS
Color space : YUV
Chroma subsampling : 4:2:0
Bit depth : 8 bits
Scan type : Progressive
Bits/(Pixel*Frame) : 0.247
Stream size : 127 MiB (84%)
Writing library : x264 core 56 svn-680
Encoding settings : cabac=1 / ref=5 / deblock=1:0:0 / analyse=0x3:0x113 / me=umh / subme=7 / brdo=1 / mixed_ref=1 / me_range=16 / chroma_me=1 / trellis=1 / 8x8dct=1 / cqm=0 / deadzone=21,11 / chroma_qp_offset=0 / threads=6 / nr=0 / decimate=1 / mbaff=0 / bframes=3 / b_pyramid=1 / b_adapt=1 / b_bias=0 / direct=1 / wpredb=1 / bime=1 / keyint=250 / keyint_min=25 / scenecut=40(pre) / rc=2pass / bitrate=4000 / ratetol=1.0 / rceq='blurCplx^(1-qComp)' / qcomp=0.60 / qpmin=10 / qpmax=51 / qpstep=4 / cplxblur=20.0 / qblur=0.5 / ip_ratio=1.40 / pb_ratio=1.30
Language : English
Default : Yes
Forced : No
Audio
ID : 2
Format : AC-3
Format/Info : Audio Coding 3
Mode extension : CM (complete main)
Format settings, Endianness : Big
Codec ID : A_AC3
Duration : 4 min
Bit rate mode : Constant
Bit rate : 640 kb/s
Channel(s) : 6 channels
Channel positions : Front: L C R, Side: L R, LFE
Sampling rate : 48.0 kHz
Frame rate : 31.250 FPS (1536 spf)
Compression mode : Lossy
Stream size : 20.9 MiB (14%)
Default : Yes
Forced : No
I cannot see any reason why it wouldnāt play. I am using AC3 passthrough to a 5.1 Amp.
Anyways, the buffering pause at startup isnāt nearly as long as I made it sound like, probably only 2 or 3 seconds more than an AVI or MPG.
Itās all good with my current firmware thoā¦ (2.01.86)
Pity the UI is so sluggish thoā¦
Maximum supported is High Profile L4.1
- EG-4.10 (H.264) Max (BP@L3.0 720x480p30 or 720x576p25, MP@L4.1 and HP@L4.1 1920Ć1080p30 or 1280x720p60), bit rate (SD:20, HD:40)
Page 211 in the user manual
Yes, the hardware is pretty slow compared to anything you can buy today.
WDTV Live Streaming ~ Released 2011 Single-Core 700Mhz 512MB RAM
Man, you found that easily!
