ncarver wrote:
BSOD mean anything to you? Apparently not!
Did you bother to troubleshoot WHY you got your BSOD? Apparently not! 
roscolo wrote:
Am I going to spend hours and risk screwing up my set-up just to get a marginally useful, more-or-less outdated device (WDTV)
Outdated how? Just because it won’t play 10bit? Thanks, it plays all formats I need it too and will do so till h.265 takes off.
roscolo wrote:
For the “noobies” researching this device (or a Roku or any of these cheapo boxes) your $60-$90 is better spent putting your hard earned $$$ towards a real HTPC solution.
Because newbies won’t have any problems setting up a HTPC properly (including HD audio, remote, etc.). Yeah, right.
I firmly believe that some BSODs are a gift from Microsoft that lurks within the next Windows Update, and what Microsoft giveth, it often taketh away – usually in the next Win update or two. For over three years, I never got a BSOD on my laptop then I got one, a month later, I got a second, and a few weeks ago, a third. Each one has a different message than the previous one. The BSODs were infrequent, eventually ended, and so with a lot of other “strange occurances” on my laptop.
BSODs and other strange things that happen and then go away are very likely bad code in some Win update that’s later corrected, because often things appear to go bad or they get fixed around the time of the most recent update.
Last example: My out-board USB 2, blu-ray drive stopped spinning up and loading most blu-ray discs. So much so, that I figured it was fading fast. I updated the firmware. No help. Miraculously, (and shortly after a Win update) it has loaded every of the 8 or 9 blu-rays I stuck in it , and I have declared it “healed” of any ailments. Go figure.
roscolo wrote:
Did you bother to troubleshoot WHY you got your BSOD? Apparently not!
Where did I ever say I was having any BSODs? This is some assumption that you made, having missed the point of my sarcasm about you saying your HTPC OS never needs rebooting, which indicates that it is the only bug free OS in existence (or that you don’t use it heavily or for very long before you shut it down–i.e., reboot it).
ncarver wrote:…having missed the point of my sarcasm about you saying your HTPC OS never needs rebooting, which indicates that it is the only bug free OS in existence (or that you don’t use it heavily or for very long before you shut it down–i.e., reboot it).
Don’t know about roscolo, but I’ve been using Windows 7 for almost 4 years now. I’ve *never* had a BSOD. Not once. Never.
I reboot only when Microsoft pushes critical patches, so maybe once or twice a month. Other than that, my desktops are up 24x7.
TonyPh12345 wrote:
ncarver wrote:…having missed the point of my sarcasm about you saying your HTPC OS never needs rebooting, which indicates that it is the only bug free OS in existence (or that you don’t use it heavily or for very long before you shut it down–i.e., reboot it).
Don’t know about roscolo, but I’ve been using Windows 7 for almost 4 years now. I’ve *never* had a BSOD. Not once. Never.
I reboot only when Microsoft pushes critical patches, so maybe once or twice a month. Other than that, my desktops are up 24x7.
Right there with you, Tony. I think I’ve had 2 BSOD’s on my workstation running Win 7 for about the same time as you, and that was when I was installing an OLD SCSI card I needed to run an OLD scanner.
NEVER had a BSOD on my HTPC since I built it. But why would it? It’s hardly stressed at all. 
How many times have I had to pull the plug out of the back of my WDTV and plug it back in? Crikey!
Great for both of you. However, googling “windows 7 bsod” or “windows 7 hangs” or the like, finds plenty of hits. Seems to me that it was roscolo in this very thread that argued that if you can find people having problems via googling then he concludes that these problems must be darn near universal. Presumably he only supports such “logic” when it agrees with what he believes.
As for the SMP’s stability, well if we are going to use personal experience with tiny sample sizes to form our opinions, then my opinion is that the SMP is extremely stable. We have two that each get used for multiple hours per day, and they hang/crash on average about once per month each. This is the only time they get rebooted–we never turn them off. So we are rebooting our SMPs less than TonyPh12345 reboots his Win7. As to why roscolo’s SMPs are supposedly so unstable, I am in no position to diagnose.
ncarver wrote:We have two that each get used for multiple hours per day, and they hang/crash on average about once per month each. As to why roscolo’s SMPs are supposedly so unstable, I am in no position to diagnose.
Actually, you just nailed it and didn’t realize it. Your SMP’s are just as unstable as mine. My WDTV crashes just like yours do, every month, and a crash a month is unacceptable for me, along with the MLB TV FAIL. Have you got it working good? You’re likely the only one. Hence my advice to prospective WDTV owners to put the money spent on an SMP towards building an HTPC (if they know what they are doing).
The difference between a BSOD on Windows and the hangs/crashes you, me, and other WDTV owners experience with regularity, is that a BSOD on Windows can be diagnosed and addressed. With WDTV, it’s just “comes with the device” as WDTV support told me. OK. Not exactly good for sales, but at least they acknowledge the problem and are honest about it.
roscolo wrote:
My WDTV crashes just like yours do, every month, and a crash a month is unacceptable for me, along with the MLB TV FAIL. Have you got it working good? You’re likely the only one.
No, he isn’t. Mine hasn’t crashed so far.
BSODs – I don’t need to google and find they exist to believe they exist. I have firsthand experience. Thankfully, not a lot of it. The first one on my XP laptop a few years ago was a doozy. BSOD that never cleared up, because the PC could not boot anymore because it could not read a certain boot-up Windows file. Diagnosis: hard drive failure. A friend helped me recover the data with Puppy Linux, and we put the drive in an enclosure and recovered ALL data. Whew! Replaced the drive with new one, and that laptop mostly gets used these days for running AnyDVD. 
Crashing WDTV players? Big deal. Everything can crash – that’s life. My WDTV mostly crashes because of some external “irritation” e.g. a movie file, something streaming from the internet, whatever. I don’t think the WDTV is a “piece of junk” because these things happen, that’s for sure. When you stop and think about it all, it really is a wonder that ANY of these electronic gadgets and computers of today even work at all! Think of all the things going on in them; it really is kind of amazing.
BTW, I finally got tired of instructing people over and over how to set up the WDTV to properly use Win 7 shares, so I posted an infomative and to-the-point tutorial over in the SMP forum earlier today. Any people complaining about this problem any more will be referred by me to take a look at the message link. All of you are invited to take a look at it and refer folks to it as well – except roscolo, because he “knows” it is not possible to get Win 7 and the WDTV Network shares to work together, and I would hate to pop his bubble.
roscolo wrote:
The Windows Shares is a feature of WDTV Live that Western Digital support has acknowledged in my phone call to them when I first wasted a lot of time trying to set it up (sad to say I’m not alone in that endeavor) MAY NOT WORK depending on your set-up. My workaround of the Windows Share Fail was to install a media server. That took about 5 minutes. No offense mike27oct, but I’m afraid I’m going to have to take Western Digital’s word over yours
Western Digital support acknowledges Windows Shares, er, “feature” doesn’t work much of the time. Some of us also like our networks SECURE.
Since someone missed it the first time around.
roscolo, did you find my post, and have you set it up as described? This is not “my way” of setting it up, it is WD’s way; explained in another simpler way than the manual. There could be other things going on that can prevent the setup from working, for sure, but a properly set up Windows sharing on a PC, and a properly set up WD will respond positively to the described procedures to follow.
Look, until you tell us you have followed the guide I posted, I really wish you would pipe down on this topic. It is really tiring to hear from you again criticizing things as you do.
mike27oct wrote:
roscolo, did you find my post, and have you set it up as described? This is not “my way” of setting it up, it is WD’s way; explained in another simpler way than the manual. There could be other things going on that can prevent the setup from working, for sure,
No kidding. The manual is pretty simple, mike. Hence my call to WD Tech Support when it did not work, yet ALL my other computers, devices, androids, share files and printers and set up in minutes. Yes, there are “other things going on that can prevent it from working.” Glad you finally acknowledge that fact. Pretty sure this is EXACTLY what WD Support meant when they told me Windows Shares MAY NOT WORK depending on your set-up and doesn’t work “much of the time.” Tells me that my experience is not isolated (not to mention all the posts here on the topic). As I have pointed out, all my other computers and androids see and share files and folders and set up took minutes. Could I re-do my network or spend hours, leave my network and systems open to gosh knows what and find some configuration where it works? Probably. Why would I jeopardize the other 99% that works perfectly, not to mention the security of my network, just to set up Windows Shares on a WDTV? Why would anyone? Dang, only took me 4 hours to build an HTPC from start to finish.
roscolo >>> Yes, there are “other things going on that can prevent it from working.” Glad you finally acknowledge that fact.
I did not mean this the way you interpreted it. I meant things like the “other things” going on could be, e.g. Windows sharing on the PC is not set up correctly, or the WD is not set up correctly. In other words, things that are controllable by a user and NOT things uncontrollable going within the WDTV, for example.
Given a proper setup of all equipment, then the guide to setting up the password sharing of the WDTV to access Network shares ought to work for everyone (except for you, of course).
By the way, I have said ALL I want to say to you on this topic and will not respond to any other comments from you in this thread. So, if you want the “last word” then go for it; here’s your chance to stick whatever you what into the wringer once again.
roscolo wrote:
Actually, you just nailed it and didn’t realize it. Your SMP’s are just as unstable as mine. My WDTV crashes just like yours do, every month, and a crash a month is unacceptable for me…
One crash/hang every 60 to 100 hours of actual use (and never in the middle of playing anything) is unacceptable to you? Wow! Better not buy any multimedia player on the market, given my personal experiences with several, and the reviews that I have read of most of them. And good luck with that Android tablet you think is so fabulous. Mine certainly doesn’t go anywhere near 10 hours of actual use without having to be restarted.
Mike, I could not find your post. Please help.
Dantebolla wrote:
Mike, I could not find your post. Please help.
- *> Is this what you want? Everything else related to setting up Windows sharing must be set up correctly, too.
How to resolve Network shares access problems
Thanx Mike, I already used method 1 as I am alone. Following the user guide I am prompted to the Settings/Network Settings/Wireless. My Network setup has only Automatic and Manaul, no Wireless. I am using a Netgear 3400 router and Netgear 3100 wireless adapter. I am willing to buy everything new and start over as I did not set up this system but hired it done. Big mistake I now think. Your help is much appreciated.
BTW I run only the WD Live TV Plus and one or two computers on this network.
I repled to your similar message entitled Wireless: as that is a more appropriate place for discussing these wireless issues.
