What is the last best good firmware for the Gen 3 Streaming Live

My Gen 3 SMP is still on the original firmware that came with the unit, 1.08.17. Since it worked just fine for watching files from a USB drive I never felt the need to update… until now. Finally installed a wireless router so  I’d like to have access to some of the latest apps.

Since the latest firmware seems to have a lot of issues I’d like to avoid it. Can I update to a prior version right away or do I need to update to the latest firmware and if  breaks the WD roll back to a prior version? Then the question becomes which is the best prior version and where do I find the prior version firmware. A search is not coming up with prior versions.

My first priority is playing all video files from a USB drive, which my WD SMP does now,  and second is accessing streaming content. Your advise is most appreciated.

Which firmware is better? stable? YouTube applications problematic in the latest firmware. The device restarts. What firmware advice? 1.08.17 is good?

my recommendation is to go with 2.02.32

2.01.86 or 1.12.14 (the most rock solid firmware…)

KAD79, you are recommending The CURRENT firmware?  Really?

I’m sorry, don’t take this the wrong way, but you have to be crazy to recommend that as “last best good firmware”.  It’s horribly unstable, slow and buggy.  It’s a nightmare using it, frankly.

WileyCoyote wrote:

 

 

 

KAD79, you are recommending The CURRENT firmware?  Really?

 

I’m sorry, don’t take this the wrong way, but you have to be crazy to recommend that as “last best good firmware”.  It’s horribly unstable, slow and buggy.  It’s a nightmare using it, frankly.

yes, Really

anybody that knows how to set up and manage their network is not likely to see any issues

I haven’t had any complains from my user base

http://forum.wdlxtv.com/viewtopic.php?f=23&t=8707

KAD79 wrote:


WileyCoyote wrote:

 

 

 

KAD79, you are recommending The CURRENT firmware?  Really?

 

I’m sorry, don’t take this the wrong way, but you have to be crazy to recommend that as “last best good firmware”.  It’s horribly unstable, slow and buggy.  It’s a nightmare using it, frankly.


yes, Really

anybody that knows how to set up and manage their network is not likely to see any issues

 

I haven’t had any complains from my user base

http://forum.wdlxtv.com/viewtopic.php?f=23&t=8707

 

I would have to agree with KAD79. My WDTV SMP is very stable and fast on the latest release, no problems with playing files over the wireless network from Windows PCs and NAS drive or attached HDD, ISOs, mp4s and mkvs.

There are some nice minor improvements with the latest firmware too. I would suggest anyone ought to try the latest firmware first, some of us are enjoying it as it works well. If you’re not then rollback.

and just wait till somebody starts pushing out new theme and custom apps that will only work with 2.02.32

there not available yet, but once they are anybody on older firmware will be left with the choice of

upgrade or they will not be able to use any of the new apps

I appreciate your suggestions and comments. I’ll update to the latest firmware first and if that does not work then rollback to 2.01.86 or 1.12.14 as suggested. I’ve found the rollback firmware page and am downloading those versions in case they are needed, so I’m good to go. Wish me luck!

KAD79 wrote:


WileyCoyote wrote:

 

 

 

KAD79, you are recommending The CURRENT firmware?  Really?

 

I’m sorry, don’t take this the wrong way, but you have to be crazy to recommend that as “last best good firmware”.  It’s horribly unstable, slow and buggy.  It’s a nightmare using it, frankly.


yes, Really

anybody that knows how to set up and manage their network is not likely to see any issues

 

I haven’t had any complains from my user base

http://forum.wdlxtv.com/viewtopic.php?f=23&t=8707

 

I have to disagree about the latest firmware being rock solid. I upgraded last night and after the upgrade, the moives that use to play was not playing anymore. I stream my movies from my PC and yes I know how to setup my wifi network. I have different formats for my movies. Most are MP4s and some are mkv and the latest fw won’t play the MP4s anymore.

I had to rollback to 2.01.86 to make everything play again.

After updating to the latest 2.02.32 firmware everything seems to be working. MP4 and 720p files play from a Passport drive and subtitles display. It’s a bit slow but what else is new. There is an issue with Services. Not all the apps display icons. They are there and selectable, but you don’t know what they are until hovering over the blank space and the info text displays. Does anyone else have that problem?

I’ve tried both the Roku 3 and Apple TV and each stretched the Korean drama videos to the TV 's full screen. Nothing on the TV or streaming device could affect that tendency. The WD SMP does not, it maintains the correct video file aspect ratio. I decided to update the firmware to have more access to supported apps. I’m disappointed that the Crunchyroll app is not included. Asian Crush and MBC America is available, so I guess that is something. Perhaps one day DramaFever and Crunchyroll will add support. One can only hope.

In conclusion, updating the firmware to the current seems to be working. I did reset the WD to factory setting before doing the update. I also removed everything except the update files from the flash drive so it wouldn’t try to index every file before recognizing the firmware files. Maybe that helped in the overall process.

Tried fw 2.02.32 by upgrading using a portable hdd connected to the WD TV Live and had the same result. MP4s won’t play. From another thread people have been successful playing MP4s after remuxing though.

Actually, with the latest upgrade it will play mp4s, but not those converted for iTunes. I will NOT play ISO files. It just spins while trying to load the file… back to the drawing board.

Actually… the latest firmware does play ISO files, just not the ones I created using BurnAware Free. Must be a setting used when creating the ISO. I noticed that the bit rate in 0 (zero) in the thumbnail preview. For the ISO that does play the bit rate is 9.9 Mbps.

Any suggestions on correct setting to use when creating an ISO from DVD with BurnAwareFree?

barrygreybeard wrote:


KAD79 wrote:


WileyCoyote wrote:

 

 

 

KAD79, you are recommending The CURRENT firmware?  Really?

 

I’m sorry, don’t take this the wrong way, but you have to be crazy to recommend that as “last best good firmware”.  It’s horribly unstable, slow and buggy.  It’s a nightmare using it, frankly.


yes, Really

anybody that knows how to set up and manage their network is not likely to see any issues

 

I haven’t had any complains from my user base

http://forum.wdlxtv.com/viewtopic.php?f=23&t=8707

 


I would have to agree with KAD79. My WDTV SMP is very stable and fast on the latest release, no problems with playing files over the wireless network from Windows PCs and NAS drive or attached HDD, ISOs, mp4s and mkvs.

There are some nice minor improvements with the latest firmware too. I would suggest anyone ought to try the latest firmware first, some of us are enjoying it as it works well. If you’re not then rollback.

I’m not even running wireless.  Both my NAS and my WD are connected, with physical connections, to the same router (which I’m using as a switch, since it’s in my living room away from the rest of my network).  It’s not gigabit, admittedly, but that shouldn’t be necessary for something like this.

shadow23 wrote:


KAD79 wrote:


WileyCoyote wrote:

 

 

 

KAD79, you are recommending The CURRENT firmware?  Really?

 

I’m sorry, don’t take this the wrong way, but you have to be crazy to recommend that as “last best good firmware”.  It’s horribly unstable, slow and buggy.  It’s a nightmare using it, frankly.


yes, Really

anybody that knows how to set up and manage their network is not likely to see any issues

 

I haven’t had any complains from my user base

http://forum.wdlxtv.com/viewtopic.php?f=23&t=8707

 


I have to disagree about the latest firmware being rock solid. I upgraded last night and after the upgrade, the moives that use to play was not playing anymore. I stream my movies from my PC and yes I know how to setup my wifi network. I have different formats for my movies. Most are MP4s and some are mkv and the latest fw won’t play the MP4s anymore.

 

I had to rollback to 2.01.86 to make everything play again.

The worst problems with me aren’t even the streaming.  That seems to work okay, other than the occasional time when I get that old problem where the playback pauses then fast forwards.  MP4s, MKV, FLV… they all play fine on this firmware.  

The problem is the number of times the unit just freezes when navigating through the interface.  It happens often.  Very often.  Worse yet, it’s random.  It’s not the remote, because I’ve tried multiple remotes, batteries, etc.  It’s literally just the unit being slugish, barely acknowledging commands, and then also often double and triple acknowledging keypresses at other times.  The litle refresh symbol (the arrow going in a cirle) is a frequent visitor now too, whereas in previous firmwares it never was.

I think it has to do with memory management under this firmware.  Often unplugging the unit and totally rebooting “fixes” the problem… temporarily.

KAD79 wrote:> yes, Really

anybody that knows how to set up and manage their network is not likely to see any issues

This latest  firmware works better for me than the previous version.  Plus, the ability to have direct links to exactly those apps, shares, and even share subdirectories, from the main screen, is a vast improvement in functionality.  Paging through movies is much faster (loading thumbnails).

As for all these supposed problems, well I have not encountered them at all.  I have had NO issues playing SMB share files that are DVD/Blu-ray sourced MKV files or MP4 files from a dozen different sources.  None.  Also no issues with the apps I use:  Netflix, weather, Youtube. 

The only issue I have encountered is that when I get to a TV show directory (subdirectory of a share), moving between individual episodes is slow.  I am not yet sure what the conditions are for this to occur.  It does not occur for example when moving between movies in my Movies share.  It seems to occur only when in subdirectories of a share (paging does not have this issue).  Thus far, I find this only a minor annoyance.

loracme wrote:
Any suggestions on correct setting to use when creating an ISO from DVD with BurnAwareFree?

Where do you guys get these softwares? Why not use the best: ImgBurn? It’s free too.

Where do you guys get these softwares? Why not use the best: ImgBurn? It’s free too.

I’m somewhat reluctant to reply to this but here goes, the person who wrote the program is condescending. I don’t know a lot, but I also don’t want to be treated like an ■■■■■. Besides that, you have to scour your computer for add-on software after installing the program.

We all have our preferences. If some find ImgBurn useful then by all means they should continue to use it

On another note, I found another issue. I was in the middle of streaming an episode on MBC America and the subtitles disappeared after about 8 minutes. Resuming the episode didn’t help. I’m not sure if it’s a WD problem or an MBC America issue. This WD is becoming more problematic that it’s worth as far as streaming is concerned. Too many variables.

WileyCoyote wrote:> The worst problems with me aren’t even the streaming.  That seems to work okay, other than the occasional time when I get that old problem where the playback pauses then fast forwards.  MP4s, MKV, FLV… they all play fine on this firmware.  

 

The problem is the number of times the unit just freezes when navigating through the interface.  It happens often.

I’m just wondering, if you’re using the Media Library and have a large file collection plus the unit is set to download meta information automatically if thats what is making it sluggish? It’s been mentioned before that the WDTV is not very fast and can have memory issues when processing a lot of information, maybe thats the problem here? I also read people having memory issues with some apps too.

It may help to actually turn the unit off rather than set it in standby (if you dont do that already) which should clear memory regulary. Just a thought.

EDIT: are you using the new grid interface? If so try Mochi, which appaerntly uses fewer system resources.

barrygreybeard wrote:


WileyCoyote wrote:> The worst problems with me aren’t even the streaming.  That seems to work okay, other than the occasional time when I get that old problem where the playback pauses then fast forwards.  MP4s, MKV, FLV… they all play fine on this firmware.  

 

The problem is the number of times the unit just freezes when navigating through the interface.  It happens often.


I’m just wondering, if you’re using the Media Library and have a large file collection plus the unit is set to download meta information automatically if thats what is making it sluggish? It’s been mentioned before that the WDTV is not very fast and can have memory issues when processing a lot of information, maybe thats the problem here? I also read people having memory issues with some apps too.

 

It may help to actually turn the unit off rather than set it in standby (if you dont do that already) which should clear memory regulary. Just a thought.

 

EDIT: are you using the new grid interface? If so try Mochi, which appaerntly uses fewer system resources.

I AM using Grid, because it’s probably the only real compelling reason to upgrade to this firmware.

One thing I DID just try was turning the Media Library option off.  I’m not even 100% sure how it got on in the first place–I may have backed into putting it on when I (at first) couldn’t figure out how to add media folders to the Grid view (I think I may have wrongly concluded at the time that the new firmware took that from the Media library, whereas in actuality you just have to add stuff using that Options button we’ve never really had to use before).

Hopefully Media Library was doing all of this.  

I WILL say that I did finally find a group of my MP4 files that won’t play under this firmware.  What I don’t know for sure is if they would have under the older ones, because I don’t recall trying them there (they play fine on other renderers/players though).