Whats so LIVE with WDTV LIVE?

Community Archives WD TV Live Firmware
1

WDTV_Live,

please fix the networking issues already! PLEASE!!  WDTV Live is supposed to support networking, so make this your priority!!! Whats so LIVE with WDTV LIVE anyway??

Connection with Buffalo Mini USB is super dooper mega ultra unstable, RUBBISH for short.

SIGH SIGH!!

2

+1

please make NETWORK USSES the ablsoute super mega priority … please please

too many connection lost, too often …

… SIGH SIGH!!

3

If there is something wrong (and not just your configuration) I think you need to provide a lot more details. Like specific devices etc.

4

I’m just exosted of he constant problems with reading network shares…

The Live is the only device that I have needing to be reset every day because often looses the abilit to reconnect the network shares of my server.

People say is my network, is my configuration, I say:

No other device ever presents any problems…

All computers can see all the shares play all files with no interruptions.

The live have to be restarted … every day.

And guess what after restaring the live it works again …

At  his point after all I’ve tested there is no otre conclusion but that the live is EXTREMELY UNSTABLE on the network.

The point is:  this is a product designed to work with network share out of the box. (well it does work but really badly)

  • So all I’m asking is more STABILITY on the network.

I own the non live WDTV and I wonted the Live because I could use one server, one place for all my media and not. locally connected hard drives.

At this time there is no so mutch LIVE with WDTV LIVE…

5

I would agree that stability in netowrking is necessary however given the wide variety of networking configurations it is unlikely that an easy fix will occur.

Send your config details to the tech support as they are the ones actually working onthe firmware.

But you do need to consider how your network is configured. Are you using fixed or dynamic IP addresses, uPNP, firewall issues, DNS issues. Windows versions etc.

As an example I purchased a highly recommended NAS a few years ago but it could never be “seen” by my PC. tech support failed to find a solution. No one else apparently had the problem I had. All we knew was it was related to Kaspersky software issues. I then bought a new NAs, plugged it in and it worked.

I wonder what % of people are having network issues. Hate to say it but if for example it is only 5% then the economics of a concerted effort to solve the issues is unlikely.

6

“I wonder what % of people are having network issues.”

I use to have it too. BTW, b-rad’s custom firmware is already more stable with SAMBA shares than the WD’s one.

7

“I wonder what % of people are having network issues.”

I always had networking issues since I bought it. I was able to work around two bugs in the previous version, but it broke completely in the latest 2 beta firmware versions. The WDTV live would hang up completely on startup, if the network cable was plugged in. I will have to check the new firmware to see if it got fixed.

To sum it up: this device is sitting around idle since I bought it 4 months ago, waiting for a fixed firmware. :frowning:

-Klaus

8

This is like buying a laptop with WIFI, but you can not use your WIFI, now tell me how many percent of those buyers have this problem?? 

What WD should do is focus their firmware to delivery what their unit is suppost to DO, which LIVE, WDTV LIVE!

Make it LIVE, and EASY!  Make the settings easy and robust! Intead of those FADE IN FADE OUT EFFECTS, which is totally useless for the LIVE part of WDTV!

now with regards to their new firmware, i think its 1.2.21? I think its missing some audio codec! Sigh! Some MKV files that was playing PERFECTLY, now have audio codec problem! Firmware upgrade should be improvements, WD you’re going back!!

9

I guess I’m one of the lucky ones, my WD is hard wired and I’ve never had a problem. I have had dropped connections with other wireless equipment, a smc usb wireless dongle on my pc, reverted to wired. I’ve a Samsung wireless laser printer (fixed IP address) which often drops the connection and an HP wireless 4 in 1 printer which never drops the connection.

Only my amp and TV goes on standby, the rest is left on.

10

Gotta say I have absolutely no problems with the Mini USB wifi dongle from Buffalo product  name as follows

‘Buffalo Nfiniti Wireless-N Ultra Compact USB Network Adaptor’

The WD live device has been rock solid on my network, and I am running the most recent firmware 1.02.21, but it was also just as stable under previous firmware releases.

I would have to conclude it is something else in your setup of WD TV live or your  network that is the issue, not WD TV live support for the dongle

11

I wonder what % of people are having network issues. Hate to say it but if for example it is only 5% then the economics of a concerted effort to solve the issues is unlikely.

I stand by my original comment. By their very nature forums such as this tend to attract people who have issues. so we will always have a skewed statistical number herein. Only WD support know the true extent of the issues.

12

I use a Buffalo wireless-N USB dongle as well, and it works like a charm every time, 100% stable connection in network share…i also made sure to buy a decent wireless-N router, so everything is compatible…I dont know if its the way i set up my system that makes the difference. I use a Synology NAS server connected to my PC and to my wireless router and then share my media folders on the server.

My only problem with the WD TV is the **bleep** thumbnail issue in network share, where in each movie folder both the jpeg AND the subtitle file is shown along with the actual movie file…

13

Maybe i can solve your issues :slight_smile:

The Problem is that the WB Box only uses the Windows Discovery Protkoll to find shares and it didnt cache them.

Other devices (Full Computes in special) always cache this information.

So the issue is the following. It turns out that many WLAN Home Routers have some issues with that (reboot them might help instantly). Its a Broadcast problem but this would go to far.

TO Say it simple: Many Wlan Routers are instable in combination with the Windows Browser Protokoll so the WD Box cannot find them anymore.

Since your other computers cache this information you cant repoduce it there - so your laptop might work while the Box DONT.

Solutions: Narow it down first - in worst case cable cou Computer or NAS Device to the box with a Simple Switch (not a Wlan router) or direct Crossover Cable see if it works.

Reboot the Wlan Router and see if you get instantly a reconnect to the share

if thats the case : try alternative Firmware for the Router (like dd-wrt)

Get a new Router

Hope they accept my Suggestion of Stroing hosts manually :slight_smile:

Background: A WLAN Router is not a simple thing. Normally it has at least 2 Network Devices - one for cable one for WLAN - (WAN and LAN port are usally on the Same Network Device / embedded Card and switched virtually)

So the router has really to route from Wlan to Cable - and heres often an issue with old kernels / firewalls and the Virtuall switch itself - so the broadcast discovery from lan to wlan isnt working anymore - but bevore i get a flame this is the simple explanation of course i know i left a lot out :slight_smile:

14

Hmmm … maybe I’ll write a n00b tutorial on how to setup NFS and how to configure your WDTV so that it can’t become master browser. I think that will most likely solve your problems. Not promising anything just yet, but might look into doing this …

15

Hmm im personally not a big fan of NFS in a Home Enviroment since you got no eal way to secure it

(Remeber old NFS only by IP Security, NEw one can do much more but isnt setupable in an home enviroment)

Also the Datatransfer / Overhead by Samba aka Windows Shares isnt soo bad and Basically dueable for everyone who knows how to google the instructions.

In other Words: Setup by Samba like now is a Way for everyone and not nessesarly supported here directly (how to setup a winX Share is 10k times described in the net)

NFS Share on the Other Hand is a different animal.

First Makeing the Box a Browser will NOT SOLVE the issue

The Issue is the Brodcast routing from WLAN to LAN by the cheap Home Routers.

If you cannot transport a Samba Broadcast you cannot transport an NFS Broadcast.

Second: Accessing a NFS Share by Windows (or even Setup a Server) isnt dueable for all Windows Versions out of the Box (Win 7 has it Built now but what you do with XP or Vista?)

Easier Solution would be the following:

  1. Host (aka mostly Windows PC) need his fixed IP Address

  2. Client (aka WD Box) need a Fixed Mount on that IP

That way all the Issues are GOne

Again the Issue is NOT the Samba Client on the WD Box - Which is normaly really stable (i dirve a lot of VPN / Samba Servers with uptimes of 600 Days and more except for update Reboots)

NFS (as fine it is in a *nix Server enviroment) woudl just overcomplicate it without beeing a real solution

But just my personal Opinion after 15 Years in that Busniness :slight_smile:

PS: Sorry for my Ugly english,… im not an native Speaker so forgive me please - i know i must look like an 12 Year old wrote it :slight_smile:

16

bofh_ wrote:

Hmm im personally not a big fan of NFS in a Home Enviroment since you got no eal way to secure it

(Remeber old NFS only by IP Security, NEw one can do much more but isnt setupable in an home enviroment)

 

 

NFS has indeed less possibilities of securing a share. If you’re on some shared network this might indeed be problematic,  but if you’re on a homenetwork and have configured your router correctly it really doesn’t have to be a problem.

 

 

 

bofh_ wrote:

 

Also the Datatransfer / Overhead by Samba aka Windows Shares isnt soo bad 

 

 It is ! Most users only will get 20 Mbps-25 Mbps via Samba (whish isn’t enough for high bitrates HD), while NFS will get 75 Mbps

 

 

bofh_ wrote:

 

First Makeing the Box a Browser will NOT SOLVE the issue

 The key is to NOT make the box masterbrowser :slight_smile:  And yes, that DOES solve the issue (of course depending on your problem). There’s a weird problem with the WDTV that once it becomes masterbrowser, it can become problematic and it will take a long time before your WDTV finds the shares. Disable that ability and your problems are gone (if you had the problem that your shares appeared after some time, not if they dont appear at all, not even after half an hour)

 

 

bofh_ wrote:

 

Again the Issue is NOT the Samba Client on the WD Box - Which is normaly really stable (i dirve a lot of VPN / Samba Servers with uptimes of 600 Days and more except for update Reboots)

The problem is caused by the fact hat WD is using modifed Samba sources (like for example smbtree). Obviously, something went wrong there. You can check the modifcations by downloading the GPL code.