Over the years, I’ve tried quite a few devices that allow you to watch and listen to your digital media through your television set. Some of these devices have included WiFi, some included hard drives, some required that you stream the content from a computer to the player and some required that you convert the content to a format that the player could handle. For one reason or another, I stopped using all of those devices except for the AppleTV. I really like the AppleTV’s user interface, but have never really liked the fact that I have to convert the files and then ‘send’ them from my desktop computer to the AppleTV in the living room. I’m all about simplicity, and while the AppleTV comes close, it doesn’t quite get there. I think I’ve found a device that does get there tho. It’s the WD TV HD Media Player from Western Digital.
The WD TV doesn’t include YouTube or allow you to rent movies, but it does play the video, audio and image content that you already have, and does so in a really user friendly way.
Hardware Specifications
File Formats Supported:
Music – MP3, WMA, OGG, WAV/PCM/LPCM, AAC, FLAC, Dolby Digital, AIF/AIFF, MKA
Playlist – PLS, M3U, WPL
Photo – JPEG, GIF, TIF/TIFF, BMP, PNG
Video -MPEG1/2/4, WMV9, AVI (MPEG4, Xvid, AVC), H.264, MKV, MOV (MPEG4, H.264)
MPEG2/4, H.264, and WMV9 supports up to 1920x1080p 24fps, 1920x1080i 30fps, 1280x720p 60fps resolution
Subtitle -SRT (UTF-8)
USB 2.0 ports: 2
External Drive Formats Supported: FAT32, NTFS, HFS+ (no journaling)
Video Interface: HDMI, Composite A/V
Physical Dimensions: 1.57 x 3.94 x 4.94 Inches
Weight: 0.67 Pounds
Package Contents
WD TV Player
Remote Control
2 AA Batteries
AC Adapter
Composite A/V cable
Passport USB Drive stand
Instructions
The WD TV unit is small, allowing it to fit into even the most cramped areas of your entertainment center.
It’s made of shiny Black plastic and lacks buttons, dials and switches.
On the Left side, you will find a USB port and a reset switch.
On the back side, you’ll find an AC power connector, another USB port, an HDMI connector, TOSlink Optical audio port, and composite A/V connectors.
A small remote control with real buttons is also included along with the batteries to power it.
The WD TV doesn’t include its own hard drive like some players (AppleTV, MVIX). Instead, it has two USB ports in which you can plug in thumb drives or even WD’s own USB Passport drive.
There’s a little stand included specifically for the Passport drive, so that you can set it next to the player.
I tested the WD TV with my 32GB Kingston flash drive and a WD Passport drive. The cool thing is that you don’t have to specify which USB drive you want to view content from. The software in the WD TV reads both drives and creates one list of all the content.
Setting up the WD TV with your TV is a snap. A composite A/V cable is included in the package, that you can use to connect to your TV. While this works fine, you can get MUCH better video quality by using an HDMI cable (if your TV has that capability). The only bad thing is that you’ll have to go out and buy your own HDMI cable. Tip: Don’t go to Walmart, Target, Best Buy or other local stores to buy an HDMI cable. They will charge you $25-$30 for one, which is robbery when you can buy the same thing from NewEgg for less than $10.
After you connect the WD TV to your television and power it on with the remote, you’ll be presented with a simple user interface. You can scroll up and down to choose the main function (Photos, Video, Music, Settings) and then side to side to pick options for that specific mode.
In Photo mode, you can view images on the attached USB devices by thumbnails or a list of file names.
You can click on an image to see it in full screen. You can also rotate, pan and zoom. You can view the images in slide show mode and even have music playing in the background.
In Music mode, you can easily play your tunes. Even the album art will display on the screen while music is playing. You can choose music based on Artist, Genre and Album.
Photo and music modes are nice additions, but my main use for a device like this is to easily view my video content on my TV. I have to say that I think the WD TV does this easier than any device I’ve tried so far. Save your videos on a USB device, plug it into the WD TV, scroll through the list of files, press play on the remote and away you go. The best part for me is that no time consuming file conversions are needed. This is something I had to do all the time with the AppleTV in order to play video that I’d downloaded from the internets. I much prefer downloading the file, copying it to a USB stick, plugging the stick in the WD TV, sitting down and watching it. Easy!
Video quality using HDMI is great to my eyes. Of course it will really depend on the video itself. If you have low resolution video, it won’t look the best on a large TV.
The WD TV impressed me after I had downloaded an AVI video that wouldn’t play on my MSI Wind and wouldn’t play on my iMac using VLC, without VLC having to reindex it. I thought for sure it wouldn’t play on the WD TV either, but I was wrong. It worked just fine. The only video file that would not play for me was a really old .WMV file that I had created using Movie Maker on a Windows PC. The WD TV comes with some software that you can use to convert files if necessary. I didn’t try it, but I bet it would have fixed that file for me.
One nice feature is that you can resume playing a video if you stop it and want to go start it again later. The player will automatically remember where you left off.
While watching video, you can rewind and fast forward at four speeds (2x, 4x, 8x, 16x). I wish there was a feature to skip ahead so many minutes or to go to the end of a video. Just nit picking here though…
I really like the WD TV HD Media Player from Western Digital. Its small size and ease of use has me sold. It’s definitely going to stay in my entertainment center until something better comes along.
Product Information
| Price: | 129.99 |
| Manufacturer: | Western Digital |
| Pros: |
|
| Cons: |
|
 |
Subscribe to our RSS feed. |
{ 669 comments… read them below or add one }
← Previous Comments
Next Comments →
I was wondering if anyone had found or heard what the sollution might be to the .mkv unsupported audio problem?
Grtz.
hi i got one of this a couple days ago and i have a little problem it doesn’t seem to play dts volume on a mkv files i have no clue…. am sure everyone is having this problem…. and i was wondering if you knew anything about it or how to make it work….or do i have to convert the file to something else?
@Adam
I agree. I’m glad thumbs work 4 people who have m4p files…but guess what? The WDTV box says it supports other video files.
The box shows a nice “itunes like” thumbnail interface. False advertising. WDTV tech support is worthless too. I asked when an update will be released to enable thumbnails for .avi files. They wrote me with a weak attempt to explain how to encode wmv and m4p files…. nice – if thats what I had.
The homebrew sites are worthless too – they release unofficial updates to resolve what can only be described as “nerd crap”. I say that with 15 years in IT – I have no idea what they are tallking about or really trying to improve. Hello Guys… Thumbnails? This is a audio visual device after all. WD doesn’t really give a crap about this product. They make hard drives. This device is only made to sell more WD HDDs. It’s been out for 2 years now. I’m going to return mine and buy an Iomega ScreenPlay, PopCorn or build my own damn media center PC. How frustrating…..
I have one of these. To say the least it is excellent value for the money. 1 With the origial firmware I found that audio shift was common, since the new version of 1001 it is awesome and have not thought it needed the option like on an xbox running xbmc of changing the audio allignment.
2 Personally I do not like compression and want to keep the files as close to the original as possible.
2a. For dvd’s I use a combination of dvd shrink http://www.dvdshrink.org (menu removal and tidy up, removing un-necessary audio and foreign subtitles)
2b. Dvd decrypter (change default option to 1 read try of bad sector or rips will take for ever)for dvd’s with bad sectors (new copy protection techniques) then clean bad sectors files with FixVTS.exe then use dvd shink to clean up the files as in 2a.
2bI. You may need to use ifoedit to re- generate the VIDEO_TS.IFO (this is like the catalogue file for the vob’s, it allows the wdtv to flow form one vob to the next during playback) file if you used dvd decrypter.
3 The above for dvd’d keeps the original video files as close to the original as possible and is the fastest way to get it from dvd to usb hdd in around 15 mins per dvd. Storage is cheap 1tb usb hard drives are aorund $175 odd aud from office works, this works out at around $1-2 per movie which is a bargain. I personally can not see the point ripping to divx when storage is so cheap but for the few I have been bothered to do I have used a free tool Gordian Knot supposed to give the best type of divx or xvid r6 files.
4 I use mine with a logitch 1000i touch screen remote and it is just awesome for menu scrolling, much better than the factory remote. On the down side the touch screen is sensitive so it is common at first to do dual touches (moves twice in the direction you touched) when you only mean to do one with the wdtv. So yes it works with non std remotes and lagrely much better than the factory remote.
5 The thumbnail issus has been well covered as a feature that with firmware 1000 or 1001 does not work unless you are using mp4 formats. I personally do not like itunes like many apple products, the reason for this is that they tie you to using thier products like itunes. Personall I have setup my folder structure to be based on the name of its contents, then just set the wdtv to display as a list and it is very easy to navigate and scroll through movie names etc. Yes I have read nearly all web pages on how to display cover art and wanted to do this! but it seems at the moment that I am not happy to compress my media to an inferrior format just to display cover art, with new tv’s and the resolution that they are now, you do not want to reduce the quality of a non hidef dvd even further in my opinion. Mind you the wdtv seems to play everything I chuck at it and plays it well, all i can say it be mindfull of the compression tools you use.
6. Camera users: Yes the wdtv does seem to have trouble with the audio from movie files captured with the cameras, but as the guys say above this is more of a problem of the camera makers. The answer is simple to use “windows media encoder” or similar, it is free from the MS web site. They play fine once converted. Yes I did say I do not like conversion or compression but it is a work around in this case.
7. So like all of you I get mkv, xvid and divx files from my mates and off the web. It seems to play almost everything that is common from any torrent site so it is not a biggie when you come accross a format it does not play from someone who has used a lets say “non std” format.
8. So why did I choose a wdtv? I have an xbox running xbmc! The answer is simple. It will not play .mkv files of a network storage device without buffering errors. Usb storage is now super cheap and it is not logical to use a nas (network access storage device) say with a “POPCORN” similar to a wdtv to stream over the network. All costs are doubled with storage if you go down the nas path, the “popcorn” and power cost are way more to run a nas 24/7 than the alternative: usb hard disk or disks with a wdtv. The wdtv will control the usb storage disk from my experience, only powering it up when it needs it. Both the wdtv and a usb hard disks like WD essentials 1tb only draw a max 1.5a each and that is just bugger all. So it is very cheap to run.
9 If you have problems like one guy above had with having to reset it then it only worked for 5mins then your unit is faulty and you should return it for replacement. Before you do that you should update the firmware, If that fails to resolve the issue then you are doing something wrong or it is plugged in via soemthing that is faulty like a cable or faulty TV. You have to expect some failure rate in any product, mine works sweet as. The best laptop vendor has a failure rate under 1% but it does have failures, most vendors report 10-20% failures on laptops. The wdtv does not seem to have a high failure rate, it is quite un-common from what I have read so do not expect it.
10 Heat, yes it does seem to get warm but it has to be within a tolerance that is deemed to be safe, even in so called standby it will generate heat. In order to sell them in Australia we have quite tough tests and safety standards to meet. I can not see WD wanting 1000′s of fire related court cases so I do not see it as an issue or it would have been pulled off the market. I personally turn it off at the wall when I am done most days. It does seem to power down the USB hdd’s when it goes in to power save mode via the remote.
11 I read an article on turning off the file catalogue function and glad that I did, read up on it, I hate un-necessary file scanning. It is in the options of the wdtv.
12 Firware upgrade is easy as, just follow the instructions from the web site.
13 Hard disk formatting: I am impressed that the wdtv seems to be happy with most file systems. One article above talks about a 4gb file limit with fat 32, the answer is format the disk if large to ntfs (windows). Fat 32 came out with windows 98, yes 10 years ago. Ntfs works a treat! and is a far more stable file system. I did find that I had problems with a mac, fat32 and ntfs partitioned disk. The mix of partitions did seem to upset the wdtv. Answer was to move the files to a ntfs formatted disk. I have tried 4 usb sticks and 3 different hard disks and all seem to work fine, I suggest if you had any trouble it could be related to the multi partition of differing file systems on your disk.
14 I think form memory I read that they have let a copy of the wdtv OS out as open source so you can expect a group to jump on and take this little cheap device and take it to the enth digree like the xbox with xbmc. If it was going to be anywhere it would probably be here http://sourceforge.net/search/?type_of_search=soft&words=wdtv .
15 Apparently it will work with USB hubs, therefore you can plug in more than the 2 usb ports provided. Personally I can not see why it is a biggy to unplug one drive and plug in another to gain access to a further 1tb of files. One Guy reported that he had 6 drives plugged in at once via a usb hub on a forum I read.
16 One of my mates chucked a 15gb blueray rip it at it the other day and it just as expected played it
17 My final word. This thing is Cheap for what you get and WD are listening to what you have to say from what I can see from the firmware upgrade to 1001. When I registered mine (necessary to get firmware) they asked for feedback on the device, good to see. It uses bugger all power and seems to do 95% of what people want from it. If it was not for forums like this I would have probably gone down the wrong path to a NAS and am gratefull I did not due to everthing costing double. For yours and other words thankyou!
Go buy one or look at a “popcorn hour” http://www.popcornhour.com/onlinestore/ , suggest you read the reviews like this page.
@Paul: Thank you for the excellent comments, advice, etc!!!
I wanted to mention that I have the Popcorn Hour to test (I’m just waiting for them to send me the wireless module before I get started…).
Paul, very well said! I am VERY happy with mine and I’m patient to let WD work properly on the next firmware–not just throw it out.
@Jeff
Responding to your post #180, thanks for the info. I had a little free time this weekend, and found what you were talking about. The setting to keep the video the same is simply “original”
, however for whatever reason the developers of the software package did not make that the default video format in the custom AVI option (its the last option in the pull down menu). Using the “original” video format and using the default audio format of MP3, the converted file sounds great and now looks as good as the original, when played via the media player.
Thanks again.
@JCK
Thats good news. Glad it worked ok for you.
@ saddue. I would be happt if they would just release an update that allowed us to view image files named the same as the movie as thumbnails. Windows MC style. Come on WD. Get on the ball or I may return mine too. I hate to sound so superficial about thumbnails but I’m an artist and I like my user interfaces nice looking
Can somebody list the videos formats which has thumbnail support?
Like I know mp4 has thumbnail support… Please list the formats …
Regards
Great unit. I use it mostly for AVI (DivX) so these are some suggestions/feedback (I hope WD people read these blog
- the Settings/Movie/Video Sequence when set to Play All does not play video files in the same folder continuosly but rather stops after each file
- mentioned before: the unit apparently is constantly ON and pretty warm despite turning it off with remote control
- mentioned many times before: thumbnails for all video files (not only mp4), either image with the same name in the sub folder or how Vista does it picking some random (not sure) frame from the video to be a thumbnail
Also it would be good to have these options in the Settings:
Display file extention (Yes/No)
Display additional info next to a file name (File size/Duration(min)/Nothing)
Remember last used folder for the unit to start with (Yes/No)
While playing video file display Time Elapsed/Total Video Duration information with the following options:
- In the corner (Top Left/Bottom Left/Top Right/Bottom Right)
- Opacity (20%/40%/60%/80%/100%)
- Font size (1/2/3/4/5)
Big thanks for Julie, for maintaining this thread
So this thing can play divx files? Im seriously thinking of getting one and since most of my videos are in divx format. This thing will be very handy, but wd didnt list divx in format supported. I heard some people said the player do play divx and some people said they cant get their divx to work. Man…
This machine will play almost every video format you can throw at it. Although I don’t personally use them I have played Xvid, Divx and Avi files through this little beauty. I mainly use this device for 720P and 1080P high definition .mkv files which I have found to play flawlessly. Once you have watched a film in either 720 or 1080 you will never go back to standard definition again!!!!!
does any one know how to get the sound working on wmv-hd 1080p files pic is 10/10 i have tryed the leads all of them from hdmi to red and white to the dig out lead, the mkv files play fine sound and pic just no sound on the wmv-hd files 720-or-1080p and they do work because i watched them on my xbox and pc can anyone help me and i have update to the latest drives
regards david
@George Yes it support avi, divx files…
David. I had the same issue and believe this unit doesn’t support WMA3. I simpy ripped the sound out in to AC3, ripped the video to MKV and remuxed them back into a TS HD file.
The one I bought is great. I keep about 1300 albums I converted to MP3 on a portable drive. I don’t have to look for a cd unless I really want to listen to the better resolution (I use 192k bit-rate).
I’m also impressed with the person moderating this site. Quite a bit of time involved with finding answers for people. It’s nice to see.
@Andrew
Can you give a good en easy program to rip out the audio and convert is to AC3? Thanks.
Andy-comment 213, you said you play .mkv files flawlessly, on mine, it freezes 10 seconds in and that’s with the firmware update.
Has it played every MKV you thrown at it flawlessly?
Thanks
All but three files in .mkv have played flawlessly. The three I believe may have had a corrupt file as I got major pixelation with 1080P files I had downloaded, avoided the people that encoded them and have had no problems ever since. Are you using the DTS output as I believe this has caused video stuttering problems for some people. I convert all my .mkv’s to 5.1 AC3 and use only 5.1 sound as my current system does not support the DTS.
Bart. I use xvid4psp to rip the audio as AC3 and SUPER to rip the video.
a fairly simple question but relatively important, will this play avi files with audio tracks encoded in ac3 (2.0/5.1) format using the rca audio outputs? I have tons of videos/movies ripped in this format and just want a simple stereo output to watch my videos.
Thanks Julie and to all
jay
I have the Popcorn Hour and have ordered the WD device to give it a try. The DTS audio “problem” is not unique to WD’s device, it has to do with licensing fees.
AC3 is open source and unencrypted, so it plays freely through the TV speakers. DTS is proprietary, so it can only be processed through a certified DTS decoder/amplifier. On the PCH, the DTS signal is passed through the unit via a “Toshlink” which can be attached to an amplifier/speaker combo. I suspect this would be the same setup on the WD Media player.
Anyone with even an average level of computer knowledge can use easy to find programs to convert the DTS track into AC3, allowing it to play on TV speakers. The conversion process takes only around 5 to 10 minutes per movie (depending on your CPU speed), is permanent, and is very simple to do.
Ok I purchased this yesterday. I can play DTS and Dolby Digital…. the whole thing is to make it passthrough my 7.1 surround Samsung receiver via HDMI (of course). Any receiver with a HDMI passthrough should be able to do this with no problems. My unit came with the latest firmware updates already on it. I can play all the blu-ray rips I got off the net with no problems…. mkv, mpeg, mp4, vob, ts, avi. I read all the comments on here and I think the ones connecting this directly to the TV is having the audio problems because MOST tvs don’t have a DTS decoder, if theyt have any its Dolby Digital. I know videophiles have a good surround setup, so I would definately recommend this to this with one.
Thank you for a fine forum Julie.
I have only one question: How can I get my Apple .mov files to play? Any file output from iMovie or Final Cut Pro, even re-saved in Quicktime will not play. I thought .mov files were supposed to be supported. Must I convert them all to H264 or another format?
Thanks for the help in advance.
I just got one of these the other day and have been through some of the growing pains mentioned above. Overall, I love this unit even with some of its warts. Fact is, it plays my movie files and does so nicely. Navigation can be a bitch if you don’t have an efficient folder system ….
That all being said, I’ve experienced a problem that I haven’t seen mentioned anywhere – my unit is a NTSC, I bought it on Amazon and confirmed its region in the “about” option in settings. After playing a couple of movies, I noticed that the region automatically changed to PAL. This is very weird, and I cannot explain it … and it does not appear to effect playback so maybe it is a non-issue. I’d like to reset it to NTSC but I have no idea how.
Last thing is be sure to check your firmware version BEFORE updating. Nobody seemed to mention that. Seemed like updating was a “MUST do first” with every unit purchased. So, naturally, I went through all the trouble of downloading the latest firmware, only to be frustrated because my wd hd tv media player was not recognizing the firmware update on my USB device .. there was no firmware update folder to select in the settings. After about 30 minutes of cussing I looked up the “about” in the settings tab and recognized my wd hd tv media player already had the latest firmware installed out of the box.
Now if I could only understand why it switched from NTSC to PAL, and figure how to reset it to NTSC (already tried system restore/reset and nothing changed) … unless this isn’t really going to be a problem, in which case I won’t worry about it. But I’d like to know either way if someone can help me out.
Hi Julie,
do you know or can you find out whether the ability to play Flash FLV files (without conversion) will be included in a near future update? Thanks!
I just wanted to know why most of my mkv files (DTS) don’t have any sound on playback. The picture quality is superb, truly superb. But, what can I do to get these files to playback with sound. Any help will be greatly appreciated for sure. Thanks In Advance!!!
Oh, and I’ll buy an optical cord just to see if that’s it. I believe my 47″ Vizio will decode DTS, so maybe that’s it.
Dave…
You can convert your drive to NTFS using windows XP without data loss… Google it
Its NTFS Convert
I just received my WD Media Player yesterday and I love it. It plays movie files beautifully. However I am having audio headaches. It’s literally driving me insane and the WD tech support is basically useless, as I’ve emailed them several times to no avail. I don’t have an amp/receiver set up, it’s just ran through an hdmi straight into my TV. I couldn’t even get sound when playing mp3 files until I hooked up the analog composite audio cables (I shouldn’t have to do this if hdmi is hooked up right?). Switching from digital to stereo in the settings makes no difference either.
I understand that when playing .mkv files with DTS audio that I have to convert them to 2 channel ac3, and this works through the composite audio cables only, not through hdmi, which I thought it should. Also, .mkv files already encoded with ac3 audio WILL NOT play through my speakers even though I have a Dolby Digital capable TV. I don’t understand this at all….and I’m not sure how to downmix an ac3 file to 2.0 stereo, and the program that I use (Popcorn audio converter) only downmixes DTS (that I know of). Shouldn’t my TV set play ac3 audio directly through the speakers??? I can’t find a solution anywhere…..PLEASE HELP!!!
P.S. – Can anyone recommend a decent amp/receiver setup that won’t break the bank? Thanks.
This device will only support DTS over HDMI passthrough…. so unless your surround system has HDMI input and output you will not get DTS sound. I use Popcorn MKV Audio converter by Heartware to convert the DTS track to AC3 5.1, it is simple to use and takes about 10 mins to complete an mkv file of about 6gb. An AC3 5.1 track should also be able to output through most TV’s as they are able to internally downmix it to 2ch stereo. If using a surround amp and outputting through a Toslink (optical out) you must set the relevant option in the settings menu…. this is a common mistake being made by thousands of owners. This is a great piece of equipment if you take time to get to know it properly!
@ Andy, I understand the DTS situation, as I use the Popcorn audio converter as well. But what if AC3 5.1 doesn’t play through the TV speakers? No AC3 5.1 file will play through the speakers no matter what I do…and I’ve tested 3 different TV’s in my house, so I know it’s not the TV. Matter of fact, I can’t get any sound to come through the HDMI connection with the WD Media Player….nothing….not even mp3′s. Mp3′s as well as downmixed AC3 2.0 audio will only output through the analog audio cables. I shouldn’t have to use any other cable other than HDMI but only the picture comes through the HDMI for me. I’m really fed up and am almost to the point of returning this Media Player. Nothing but headaches for the first couple of days of owning one, which is a shame because the video playback is great.
WD Media Player after the updates is the best and most completed piece of software I’ve ever had.
Whether you can afford it or not, BUY IT. It will pay off.
Jason…. it sounds to me like you have a faulty player as AC3 5.1 should play through your HDMI through your TV. mine will play through Toslink or HDMI to my plasma. Are you sure you haven’t set your output to digital?
Anyone with audio issues just invest in a nice receiver that supports that format and has optical input and your problem is solved.
A warning – as of March 09, with all firmware updates, this box is not as universal as everyone claims. I have 50-60 DV files from my older sony camcorder – the WD TV will not play them. I have another 20-30 hours of analog video captured by Studio as .avi files – WD TV will not play them. I have another 30 hours of HD video from my Sony HDR – HC1 camcorder, which captures as .m2v with a separate .wav file for the sound – the WD TV will play the video OR the audio, but not both at the same time. Like watching silent movies.
Playing DVDs means you have to go through the directory file structure and find an obscure .VOB file – no menus, no features, no chapters – very primitive.
Yes, of course you can go through and convert all your files, but with 1 terabyte + of video in already otherwise useful form, why should someone buy anonther 2 or 3 hard drives, and spend 100+ hours at least converting all these files to something with less resolution. That’s why I bought this box, so it would play these files, not to make more work for myself. This WD TV is a real disappointment.
Until there is a significant, if ever, firmware update for all this mess, this was a $120 mistake – another piece of near useless gear sitting in a box. So much for early adopters…
I really love this player, only problem i have is not supporting central europe charset for subtitles (with character like ščćž)
Derek, quit your whining pal, poor poor you whaaaaaa. You make it sound like they were suppose to develop this device according to your needs only….wow, lighten up dude !
Hey, anyone create mini-ISO’s out of serial DVD’s (like cartoons, etc…). I extracted each episode’s video content, then made a DVD ISO out of it so I could play them without watching them all together… but the WD TV won’t recognize the smaller ISO’s (<2gb) or VOBs.
Any suggestions besides re-encoding in a different format?
Hi Dan,
Yes me – and I was wondering why I was (also) getting a message about an unsupported format.
Yet I do have a small number of re-authored iso’s that WILL play. And lo and behold they are >2gb. Thanks for helping me to realise what the issue is and that this is just another bug.
I do not intend to re-encode everything, I have a life to lead. I just hope a firmware update (soon!!) fixes this.
Maybe you could re-name your <2gb .vob files to .mpg – that should fix your problem.
Does anyone know if there is a tool (preferably free) to re-mux an .iso or .vob into an .mkv (without re-encoding and the ability to keep subtitles)? This would then be a way to get the cover art to display? (by including it in the .mkv)?
Other than these issues, I am delighted with my unit. There are some minor niggles, all of them easily fixable in firmware updates, but it plays h264 encodes at 1080p/24fps with no issues and that’s what I bought it for. FLAC support is just a big bonus for me. Though I wish it would handle gapless playback.
Anyone know if WD has any plans to ever release another firmware update?
Do you know how I can change the thumbnails of my files so they can be displayed instead of the generic image of the WD TV? Do you know how to change the screen saver to make it display my images instead of the WD logo? Thanks.
I got the device and it seems like a cool product….at least at first. I have lots of .mkv files with DTS, which apparently don’t readily work with the device (they should advertise this). I’ve just purchased a fancy new receiver and it can decode about every format there is (including DTS), but I can’t seem to get the audio to play.
I’ve tried hooking the device up via hdmi (audio and video) to the receiver then out to the TV w/ its speakers, this didn’t work (the receiver is capable of doing this…and works like this with .avi files).
I’ve tried hooking the video up to the receiver via hdmi and the audio via the optical cable, then both out via hdmi to the TV using the tv’s speakers. This didn’t work.
I’ve tried hooking the device up via hdmi directly to the TV for the video, and via optical cable to the receiver which then goes out to the TV via hdmi to the tv’s speakers, and this also didn’t work.
I’m kinda at a loss here on how to make it work. I don’t have any speakers yet to hook up to the receiver (can’t afford them right now), so I need to have the sound go through my TV and out the speakers on it.
Does anyone know how to make this work? Is it possible to have the audio and video for .mkv files go over the hdmi cable alone (without the optical cable)…my receiver is capable of doing this? I know it works like this (video and audio over one hdmi cable) for .avi files, but I cannot get mkv with DTS to play with audio.
I have a brand new model receiver that’s supposed to be great: Yamaha RX-V465 which has decoders for HD audio formats: Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio; Dolby Digital Plus and DTS-HD High Resolution Audio, so it can handle the decoding.
Please help….
Hi Julie & all,
Thumbnails, thumbnails, thumbnails!!!
Like all of the previous ppl, I am having the same issue. WD havn’t been able to give me a definitive answer either.
I came across a guy at “VR-Zone” that apparently has been able to get thumbnails to work.
http://vr-zone.com/articles/western-digital-hd-tv-media-player/6178-2.html?doc=6178
I have posted a “HOW?” note on his thread. If he gets back to me, I will post the answer back on this site.
WD… I can tell you it is a slight downer but not the end of the world.
I, like most people would have expected this toy to come with avi thumbnail displays.
I look forward to any solutions in the future.
Hello,
There’s some good info on this site….thanks for that.
I’m hoping to see if anyone else has found the same issues I have with playback of .iso’s of Blu Ray rips.
I have absolutely no problems with any other files including straight rips of DVD files to .vob which is great.
My biggest issue is that I want to be able to rip in the simplest and quickest way possible without having to convert to some of these other formats that loose quality. (FYI is use DVDFab Platinum for DVDs and AnyDVD HD for Blu Ray…both are great)
I also have quite a large Blu Ray collection that I was hoping would play on this unit and they do…..kind of. I rip my Blu Rays to image and although the files are visible and play in spurts they are totally choppy and often the audio cuts in and out. These same files play flawlessly on my HTPC w/Power DVD.
As mentioned above I also have had some audio issues with these same files but having read through the posts it sounds like this may be a DTS issue. I get an “Audio 1 ” message but do get the other tracks albeit in Spanish and other languages. I assume this is DTS issue because on Pride and Glory (as an example) I have no problem with any audio.
I’m beginning to think this unit just doesn’t have the muscle to play these larger 40-45gig 1080p .iso files.
I’m running these over a 1080p projection system with HDMI. My reciever is the Denon 4308CI which supports pretty much all audio formats.
Any comments/recommendations would be welcome.
As mentioned this is great for .vob DVD files but I would like it better if I could play my .iso Blu Ray collection as well.
Oh ya…….thumbnails would be great as well!! (in case requests were being counted)
Hope someone can help. Ideally I’d like to hear some input from anyone that has successfully been able to do what I can’t seem too.
Cheers
I am not the first to ask…
Please…firmware update or solution to show thumbnails for the folders (just like in windows explorere) and video files.
Hmmm, it seems that I still cannot figure out why some ripped DVD’s will play and others not. Does not seem to matter if they are .iso or .vob format.
Some will play, others not. I thought it might have been to do with the size of the .iso/.vob (see above) but it appears not….
Does anyone anyone else notice this?
Any help/advice warmly received.
Thanks
Hey Mike,
Not sure if this unit is geared to playing iso & vob files. When ripping, I have been using magic dvd or imtoo dvd ripper to rip dvd’s straight into avi files. Takes about an hour per rip.
You can also try ripping into a vob file then converting with divx converter. I have used this process in the past however it can be a lengthy process; around 30 mins for the rip and around 2hrs for the conversion depending on your circumsatances.
Hope this helps. Maybe someone else can add to this or correct me if I’m wrong about the iso/vob thing.
julie… all this seems like a lie to me. I have plenty of mkv files and h264 format files, but none work on this media player. i am guesssing u were paid by western digital to come up with a scam
@salem No, I was not paid by WD to write that review. Did you upgrade the firmware on your player?
@ Julie
I’m not sure why you even bothered to dignify that with an answer! You are doing a great job and this site has helped heaps of people including me,
Thanks.
@Jeff Not answering a comment like that can sometimes convey the wrong message. But thanks for your comments on the topic
@ Salem – I have no problems using these files on this unit. I have tested all of the files it is meant to play and had NO issues!!!
Maybe your settings are incorrect or the unit is not doing what it is meant to! Try calling WD, they are normally a great help. Rather than blame and be silly, why not ask a question???
Julie, see @ Jeff; Thanks heaps for this thread
Lots of good info
Looks like a great device, and the comments here have given me a lot of insight into the pros/cons.
One thing I would like to do is to connect the output from the device to two TV’s using either:
a) a HDMI splitter
b) using both outputs from the device i.e. the HDMI to one TV and the component to the other TV.
Does anyone know if this can be done?
Hi,
Just following up on my previous post (#245). I still have had no luck with .iso images of full Blu Ray backups playing without choppy playback and/or questionable audio.
I have however figured out that pulling the ‘main’ .mt2s file from the stream folder works without hiccup. (the picutre is magical!)
As you will have gathered the WD unit does not like DTS so the “Audio 1 (Unsupported)” message is a result of this. This was remedied when I connected to my 7.1 Denon reciever via optical out. I guess it just passes through the audio and the reciever does the rest.
So although the unit certainly can play the .iso there still seems to be some bugs. The alternative approach for your backed up Blu Rays would be to just pull the main .mt2s file from the stream directory. Since you don’t get menus or bonus items to play anyways this shouldn’t be a big deal.
As far as ripped DVD files (vob) (Mike #247 above) I have yet to have any issues with playback of these…..so I don’t think its the unit in this case. Although the file structure shows all the vob files if you pick the first one it knows to play all the files and the movie playback is flawless.
I haven’t tried .iso of DVD files yet but given my experience with .iso’s of Blu Rays I’m guessing I’ll find the same thing you did there.
If you want to post a list of the DVD (vob) files you’re having issues with I can check if I’ve got the movie and try it myself….but to date I haven’t had any issues with vob playback.
Cheers
P.S. WD…..Thumbnail support is always welcome!
Ducer1,
As my post above #255 above illustrates I have been successful with .vob files.
I use DVD Fab Platinum for ripping my DVDs and its real quick in doing so.
I used IMGburn to rip my Blu Rays to .iso format. Typically I’d just use Daemon Tools to mount the image and AnyDVD HD to decode the .iso image. Playback would be in Power DVD. Given limitations of .iso playback with WDs unit (that I’ve encountered anyway) I now just use AnyDVD to rip the mounted .iso image to Hardrive which puts the full file structure on the drive. I pull out the ‘main’ .mt2s file and voila….she plays perfect with WD unit.
All files are 100%, uncompressed quality and both methods are fairly quick and easy. My Blu Ray solution is a little longer simply because I like to keep a true protected back-up of my Blu Rays but otherwise I could just skip the inital IMGburn step and let AnyDVD just rip the movie to hardrive. Depending on the Blu Ray size that would take about 45-60 minutes
Anyway…hope this helps.
Cheers
Roland,
Re: post #254
I tried you plan (b) to see if there was a difference in quality. However both leads were going into the same tv. Not sure if it would make a difference if you had 2 different types of tv’s. If i had 2 tv’s I would give it a go for you…. but I dont
soz!
One would assume that you would be happy watching the same thing on both tv’s though.
Maybe someone else can help further.
ducer,
Thanks for trying it out for me. Although I intend connecting it to 2 TV’s, its for the convenience of watching a movie either on my main TV (in the basement) or the bedroom TV. So I guess the question that I should perhaps have asked is whether the WD TV supplies a signal to BOTH outputs simultaneously.
I ask this question because I know that some devices only apply a signal to a single output. In other words, if the HDMI is connected to a TV, then the signal to the component out is cut off.
Cheers
I love this little device. I’ve had it now for about a month and a half and it’s great. It plays almost anything I have thrown at it. But best of all it’s easy enough for my wife to use. She does not have to mess with the media center pc and does not have to deal with a key board and mouse. The only thing I really dislike is the lack of an ethernet port. Has anyone come up with a clever way to copy movies to the device over your network? For my uses I don’t need to steam over the network just being able to get data to the attached hard drive would be great. Any advice?
Roland,
My brother lives next door (lucky me!). If i get the chance over the next few days, I will get his tv and try it out. Until then… not sure
Let you know how I go.
ducer
Mark,
Firstly – happy wife, happy life
I & a lot of ppl agree 100% with the network issue. I have cat5 cable running through my walls at the moment. Once they get fitted with wall plugs I am going to try the following plans in order:
1- buy a ’3 port usb hub with ethernet adapter’. Plug my WD unit and HD into the usb ports and my cat5 (pc) into the ethernet port. Hopefully my main pc will pick up my HD & voila… network.
E.G –
/–usb— WD HDTV
PC Hub
\–usb— HD
2- buy a usb/ethernet adapter that sits between the main pc & wd hdtv. Hopefully the HD can be detected via the WD unit. e.g -
PC adapter WD HDTV <—– HD
3- buy a usb/ethernet adapter & stream – not a great option.
In theory, scenario 1 looks like the best option but these are thoughts only at the moment. Will it work… don’t know. These are my thoughts tho. Hopefully they might get you started.
If you or anyone else ever solve this issue, pls post & vice versa if I do.
ducer
Sorry, diagrams did not work as hoped
For people having trouble with WMV WMA-PRO audio this tool might help.
http://www.networkedmediatank.com/wiki/index.php/WMV_Converter
Hi all here,
Thanks for so many great inputs on the device. I have been proud and happy owner of the same for two month so and have not many complaints regarding it.
It is sweet small but powerfull device.
I too had a problem with DTS.I do have the sound. I have connected my Onkyo receiver through toslink and it shows DTS(video through HDMI to sony LCD). But the only problem is the that the audio stutters every 8 to 10 seconds. I have converted the same to ac3 using pop corn audio converter which is very simple software.
But would like to know whether this is a known problem and would a firmware upgrade solve the same.
Julie, Do you know if there is any talk of another update anytime soon? If they do one I’m sure they’ll fix the thumbnail issue so many people don’t like and some other minor issues. WD needs to get on the ball, only one firmware update so far isn’t cutting it for a new piece of hardware. Thanks for all you do here Julie!
@Adam Unfortunately, I don’t have any inside track on the updates.
We can hope…
@rajesh, you can also clean the DTS track using the DTS converter instead of converting it to AC3.
Julie,
I keep trying to post a question to millertime but it doesn’t come up at all. I have tried from 3 different pc’s and the same result… nothing. All my other posts seem to be fine. Any ideas?
Cheers, ducer
@ducer1 You’re trying to post a message in this same thread that isn’t showing up? It’s not showing up as spam, I can tell you that much.
Morning Julie… Well it is here anyway
Thanks for you unbeleivably prompt reply!
Exactly right. But everytime i go to post, it shows up with a blank screen and in the progress bar it shows ‘Done’.
Are there key words or links that will not allow a post to go through??
It is a general question about quality for converting and playing on the WD unit.
@ducer1 No, I don’t have a list of ‘bad’ keywords. Hmmmm, I have no idea why it won’t let you post it. Can you try rewording it? Or adding more text to what you’ve tried to post before?
No worries,
Have tried diff things but none work. Will try again. Thanks for your help
Millertime77 & All,
Please excuse the long winded explanation.
I am going through the process of converting all of my dvd’s to avi’s so that I can watch from my WD HDTV.
My issue -
I can not get the image any bigger than 720 x 504. I have a Samsung 1080p HDTV & everything appears in the centre of the screen with black bars around it which I don’t want to crop.
I have tried using:
- ImToo dvd ripper Ultimate; picture’s great however to small for my tv
- Magic dvd ripper; Picture show up full size but lacks quality
- DVD Shrink & Divx converter; for some reason even on divx’s 1080 setting it stretches the image from top to bottom leaving black bars on the side
- About to try using ‘dvd decrypter’ followed by ‘auto gk’ as suggested by a forum.
I’ve spent for ever (it seems) trying different settings & configs but cant get it to work. I’m going nuts!!!
- Does anyone know of software/process/config to help give me a max image quality for 1080p hd tv?
- Is what I am asking possible?
Any help would be greatly appreciated
Cheers – ducer1
All I want to do is watch movies in great quality on my beautiful little WD HDTV and I can’t
Julie, I think it was the link I had put in. Also, I hope the above post isn’t out of line for the thread.
Ducer1,
To be honest. I really haven’t experimented with any of those other programs. I happened across DVD Fab Platinum (DVD Fab Gold is a free version without the mobile options) and haven’t had any reason to try anything else. (I do not have any vested interest in this program just conveying my experience..LOL)
Can I inquire as to why you are converting your DVD to .avi’s?
All of my DVDs are in the TS folder in .vob format. It literally takes about 20 minutes to rip a full DVD. When I open this folder on the WD I simply choose the first .vob file and the whole movie plays from start to finish without fail.
This format is great. Before I came across the WD unit I would always make a second hard copy of my original and put the original away. To do this all I had to do was simply dump the files back onto a DL disk and any newer DVD will play it like its the original disk. (Of course now I don’t have to as I can just play it electronically)
I guess the only down side is the size of the ripped dvd is as it was on the native disk. There is an option to rip the ‘movie only’ which helps a little with file size……point being you need a lot of storage space to go this route.
I’m just not sure what the avi conversion is doing to the native files.
This is probably a stupid question but what happens when you use the zoom feature?
Anyway….love to help more but I’m all about quality and keeping things in their native format so other than some simple tests with a variety of file formats I haven’t dealt much with file conversions.
Cheers
Ducer1
I do not understand why you are wasting time converting DVD to avi. The player plays dvds (vob files) perfectly. I burn straight from dvdv to my usb and then hit play. As for the image you may need to just playaround with it in the settings however some movies are in widescreen so you will never loose those bars. I don’t have a problem with seeing the bars.
MillerTime77 & Stevedog,
Thank you both for the reply. I am in total agreement when it comes to quality of things. Hey, I still buy my music on vinyl when I can
The two main reasons that I am trying to convert to avi:
1) I would like to create some torrents for uploading. No massive drama if I can’t though… Just thought it would be nice to give back to the community.
2) MT77 – As you say, more of a storage issue than anything else. I have around 600 dvd’s that I want to watch through the WD unit. If I ripped to vob, each file would be around 4gb meaning I would need 3, 1TB external HD’s.
With a higher bitrate conversion the file compresses and creates a 2gb file instead of the normal 700mb. Quality is much better than you traditional torrent d/l but not as good as vob.
Zoom – Not a silly question, I asked myself the same thing then tried it on both tv & wd units. It doesn’t really do great things to the image or my eyes for that matter.
I’ve been using ImToo for a while plus their support has been good as well. If I can’t get ImToo to do what I want it to, then I might buy and try DVD Fab. (Salem #249, no vested interests here
)
MT77 – When you create the TS Folder on you HD, I am assuming that it would include audio ts as well?
I will try the vob option when I get home from work tonight.
Thanks again guys, ducer
MillerTime77 & All,
Let’s say I did rip everything to vob and stored them all on 3 external hd’s.
If I attached these 3 hd’s to a hub, do you think that the WD HDTV could read all 3 drives simultaneously OR do you think that I would have to switch and change the drives all the time?
PS – MT77, Wish I could help with you BlueRay issues but to date, I don’t own any
No problem Ducer.
I here ya on space…when you start looking at Blu Ray rips you’re looking at upwards of 45gigs!! I’ve got over 6 TBs of storage, but its pretty cheap these days. I just picked up a 1TB ext drive from Best Buy for $120 CDN.
As for your other comments:
The file structure when I rip with DVD Fab looks like this:
Main Folder (movie title) —>inside that there are two folders
Audio_TS & Video_TS.
There is nothing in the Audio_TS folder which I found odd. All audio and video must be in the vob files in the Video_TS folder.
I wanted to see if I could eliminate the number of folders I had to dig through so I’ve even had luck just renaming the Video_TS folder to the Movie title and leaving only that folder on the drive. I think the stucture that DVD Fab rips is identical to the structure that a DVD player wants to see. WD HD doesn’t care…it only wants to see the files.
With regards to the USB hub despite specific text saying it wont work in the manual (Can’t remember the page off hand) I have read on a forum where a guy had 4 USB drives connected. I haven’t tested this so I’m a little hesitant to believe it at this point. I’m not sure how the unit would handle the ‘library’ feature with these additional drives. To be honest I haven’t connected two devices yet….I’ve just been testing the unit out to see how it performs.
Now that you mention it I think I’m going to stop by Future shop this week-end and grab a hub and see what happens. I’ll let you know how that works out.
As far as my Blu Ray issue…..I think I’ve pretty much got a work around figured out for now. No luck with .iso files but per Post #256 above I just pulled the ‘main’ .mt2s file out of the stream directory and that seems to work. The sound issue was mitigated by using the optical out into my HD reciever. Not an ideal solution as I wanted to just connect this unit to my TV upstairs and have a simple set-up. But anyway…I’m happy for now and hopefully future firmware updates will allow the .iso’s to play.
Long post….sorry.
I’ll let you know when I test the hub.
Cheers
Ducer,
Reference the bottom of page 7 of the manual for the note regarding hubs. Still can’t remember which forum I saw the comments regarding a set-up with a hub actually working. Maybe WD’s comment that it doesn’t support it just means they haven’t tested it. Anyway…only way to know for sure it to try it. I’ll give it a shot.
Cheers
Ducer,
I can confirm that the unit WILL work with a usb hub. I tried it with a Dynex 4 port usb hub from Best Buy ($40).
I connected a 500Gig Mybook to USB 1 (side port) and the hub was connected to USB 2 (back port). To the hub I had 1TB Mybook and 320Gig Passport.
It recognized all three right away except you have to dig into USB2 to see the two drives connected to the hub.
The other thing I noticed is that unless I turned off Media Library the usb icon on the front of the unit would continue to flash and it the notice that it was searching the drives remained on screen. I turned Media Library to off and everything was fine.
I see no reason why it wouldn’t accept the full 5 ports that I have connected which is pretty great news.
Anyway….thought I’d let you and others know.
Maybe WD’s warning on page 7 is as I thought…..they hadn’t tested with a hub or they meant that it wasn’t supported with Media Library enabled. (which isn’t true either as I could get to all the drives but as mentioned above the drives were continuously being accessed and the usb icon continued to flash)
Cheers
Julie,
I’m having issues with my device where I cannot view the contents of folders. After I attempt to play media after it’s either been: turned off, or left on (left powered on while not being used) for an extended period of time, folder contents are unreachable. It seems that I have to eject my hard drive and re-mount it before I can view folders again. This is happening every time I turn it off or resume from the screen saver.
When I go to view folders as described in this scenario, it shows the name of the drive (USB2 for some reason, even though I didn’t name it this way), but when you select this, it shows “this folder is empty”. I’m able to view individual files on the drive when it does this, and they seem to play alright, but I have so much media it makes it difficult to navigate without the use of folders.
As a note, it seems the system temporarily locks up when resuming from being in screen saver mode (after extended idle time when powered on). It unfreezes after a 10-15 second period of time, but this is quite aggravating.
Another issue I’ve found is with music playback (mp3). The manual navigation between songs is quite cumbersome. There is such a marked delay when manually changing between songs (by hitting the next button) with no system response, that your inclined to press the next button again and it ends up playing only a few seconds of the next song, then goes to the very next. Again, i have lots of music, but nothing unreasonable (80 GB).
I am using a 750GB Seagate Free Agent Pro. It’s approximately 9-10 months old.
Have these issues been experienced by other owners?
Do you know of any possible fix that could potentially be expected?
Do you have any idea when WD intends to release a new firmware update?
To be honest I only use this to watch HD porn i DL off the internet, and pretty much most rippers encode in MKV H264 720P or it is in an blu ray ISO form and everything plays fine with sound and is awesome. Not trying to play obscure home movies from proprietary formats, just PORN and an occasionally bootleg movie off thepiratebay. With that being said, poeple who dont like paying for anything rest assured all your bootleg stuff will play just fine, let these fools trying to rip their own dvd’s and flac music themselves have their own fun. And yes, this will answer what I am assuming is 80% of lurkers who come to this review like myself looking for that answer.
ilovegoodnugz,
Your a funny bastard!
What an opening line! lmao
Your right tho, this unit will play most, if not all, formats of d/l movies.
And yes, this fool will still continue to have fun ripping all the movies I can’t d/l )
Heya MillerTime77,
Massive thanks going out to you for trying this out for everyone, inc myself
Re: ts folders – In the past when I’ve ripped & burnt back to dvd (before the days of avi playing dvd players), I came across the same things as you mentioned previously. Thought you might say to just keep the video ts and rename it. Thanks for confirming.
USB Hub – Is there any down side to disabling the Media Library? By the sounds of it, no. Just seeing if you have come across any issues.
Page 7 of manual – “Note: The WD TV HD Media Player does not support USB hubs” I originally read this thinking ‘There must be a way’. Conspiracy – I don’t think that WD actually do a usb hub. Could be possible that WD just dont want you to buy someone else’s product and use it with theirs!
I know that this is the angle they have been taking with the external harddrives. WD told me to buy their ‘Passbook as they claimed other brands may not work…hhmmmm!
Cheers, Ducer
Ducer,
No worries…..I enjoy mess’n around with these new gadgets.
Interesting enough I actually found an issue when I changed the Video_TS folder . Its seems for some reason it didn’t recognize all the vob files and play them one after the other. It actually only played each vob as though they were individual files. When I put back the structure it was fine. Odd.
As far as downside to the hub….I’m not sure I see any. I haven’t noticed a difference without Media Library enabled. I haven’t tried the search feature however and if I was to guess I’d say this might be affected.
I tend to think they’ve made their disclaimer because they didn’t test it and didn’t want to have to answer technical inquiries for those that tried it and had problems……..but there’s probably some truth to your theory as well! The only reason this unit exists is to help sell their harddrives.
That being said however….I’m happy it does exist!
Cheers
ilovegoodnugz,
Still think your opening line is a cracker!!
MillerTime77,
Interesting find re: vob files. I am going to have a muck around with it this weekend and see how I go. Bizarre that it would do this tho. Will let you know how I go.
Am in total agreement with you, I am glad this unit exists!
Cheers, ducer
Hey,
This looks pretty good, I wish it had wireless networking and space for an internal hard drive.
I ended up buying a HDX-1000 just before this unit was announced, and I’m still happy I bought it. It’s a little bigger, about the size of mac mini, and I installed a 1TB WD green drive inside.
The interface is a bit clunky, but the controls are great. 2x 4x 8x rew and ffw, the number buttons go in increments of 10%, and the left and right buttons skip 30 seconds at a time. Really nice.
They run close to $250 though, without a drive. You can do youtube on it and other streaming websites.
This is how I have connected my drives to the unit using a combo of USB and Cat5 my Hard drives are in the server room and my WD is in the Den about 50 feet away. I use this(http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=3246389&CatId=444) to connect my Drives to the WD and when I want to add more content I just unplug from the cat5 and plug into the server which has an exact copy on the server so it updates the external using icemirror to copy any changes over than reconnect back to the cat5. Have not had any issues yet which I was surprised with thought I would see stuttering I have had it disconnect for no reason twice so far in 6 weeks but it reconnects on its own right away not if the cat 5 is the problem or not.
dlanson,
refer to post #261
So no problems (a) streaming from your HD room to the WD unit in your den? & (b) using a usb/ethernet adapter that is not usb 2.0? “Note: This Cable is NOT USB 2.0″
If you had the adapter connected this way – MAIN HARD DRIVE CAT5 USB/ETHERNET ADAPTER WD HDTV EXTERNAL HARD DRIVE, do you think that the main hard drive would see the external HD via the wd hdtv? Have you tried it this way?
In theory, this would leave the network connected at all times and I guess this way you could still create a mirror image on the external.
What you have explained is pretty much what I would try to do if my point 1 didn’t work. However you still have to physically unplug and replug it. Personally, I would like it to be connected to the network at all times rather than mucking around every time I either d/l or rip, which is almost everyday.
Once I get the wall points connected I am going to try my scenario 1 using something like the ‘GWC USB 2.0 3-Port Hub with Ethernet Adapter’ http://www.supermediastore.com/gwc-usb-2-0-3-port-hub-ethernet-adapter.html
This scenario MAY also alleviate the ‘usb hub’ scenarios that MillerTime77 & I have been discussing as well as the networking issues… I guess killing two birds with one stone. However I am not sure… will update once tried… hopefully within the next couple of weeks.
Sorry for the long post.
cheers, ducer
Apologies, this thread isn’t fond of arrows & dashes
Diagram from above –
MAIN HARD DRIVE
to
CAT5 (in wall)
to
USB/ETHERNET ADAPTER
to
WD HDTV
to
EXTERNAL HARD DRIVE
Phillip (post #282)
Let me try to address these points one by one
DISAPPEARING FOLDER VIEWS
WD release notes to their firmware update state:
- “Resolved issues surrounding drives going to “sleep” and folders showing as empty; previously drives equipped with a sleep feature would not re-initialize before the WD TV timed out and displayed the folders as empty”
- “Resolved the issue surrounding updating the firmware from a large (500GB or larger) drive, previously the WDTV™ would not recognize the updated firmware on a large drive”
http://www.wdc.com/en/products/wdtv/releasenotes/WDTVreleasenotes101.pdf
Have you installed the current firmware properly? I would assume… no!
Maybe try the firmware process from the start. i.e – by downloading the firmware (Version 1.01.02 ) and then installing it following the instructions. Should resolve the above issues.
USB2
is the port that you have your HD connected too. Mine does this and I assuming everyone else’s too. No biggy.
HARD DRIVE SLEEP MODE
I currently use a 1TB Seagate Free Agent & I also get a 5-10 second delay when my HD comes out of ‘sleep’ mode. I think it goes into sleep mode after around 30 mins.
You have to remember that a hard drive is moving part. It stops moving upon sleep mode and starts moving again when waking up. Your PC does the same thing, only it takes a few seconds so you dont realise it.
I know when I wake up in the morning it takes me about 30mins for my brain to start working… same thing with HD’s
MUSIC PLAYBACK
I get this with my TV series sometimes when I press the buttons to quickly. Have you ever tried to scroll through 3mb pics on your PC… If not, let me tell you, it doesn’t happen straight away. Same thing with your mp3’s.
PATIENCE
Patience, Patience , Patience… by the sounds of it you tend to want everything immediately.
You have to remember that PC and gadgets like this have to read, process and spit the info back out. Sometimes this process happens straight away, sometimes it takes a few seconds.
E,g- You can’t get on your PC, open 15 apps and expect it to open them all simultaneously. There are 3 outcomes here – (A) It will take forever to open everything, (B) your PC will freeze and not open anything & (C – my favourite) you’ll get a BSOD – google it! this one’s lots of fun
Take your time and be patient.
Again sorry for the massively long thread – Hope this helps
cheers, ducer
Networking the WD HDTV,
The other device I have come across is the ‘Belkin Network USB Hub’.
Has anyone used or tried this?
http://www.cnet.com.au/wireless/accessories/0,239028911,339284455,00.htm
ducer
Hey all,
I read elsewhere that USB Hubs are not supported. Someone from WD was posting in AVSForums I think..
I will google and try and find the link.
Kiwi – Refer to post #281. It works. Supported is another issue all together. I’m pretty sure, although I have no evidence to support this, that this just means they have not tested and done trouble shooting with USB hubs. (Plus as Ducer has mentioned…..this note in the manual will probably change if WD starts making hubs…LOL)
Bottom line is I’ve tried it and it works. Don’t believe me simply go to Future Shop/Best Buy or equivalent and buy a hub and try it out. You’ve got 30 days to return the item so you have nothing to loose.
Ducer – Let me know how your networking exercise works out. I’d get involved but I don’t really have a need for it right now as I’m really only using this to play my kids DVD collection and my own archived DVDs/Blu Rays but I’m sure I’ll look to streamline the transfering process in the near future. Right now the Passport and my netbook are doing the trick.
Cheers
I see alot of people asking about using USB hubs. Just wanted to chime in to say I have a Belkin 7-port hub attached to my WDTV and it works perfectly. I even like how the WDTV now requires me to choose one of the HD’s connected to the hub, which I have named “WDTV Black” “WDTV Blue” & “WDTV Silver” (because the little MyPassport drives I’m using are colored). This allows me to more easily choose which drive I’m searching without having to check which WDTV USB port the drive is in (before, with 2 drives connected to the WDTV, the options were “USB1″ or “USB2″).
And regarding file types, I’m using Magic DVD Ripper to rip to .vob files and I’ve never had any issues watching them. They’re uncompressed and look perfect. Each DVD takes around 5GB of space so I’m fitting around 100 movies on each 500GB MyPassport drive. Those little drives are perfect for the WDTV because they’re USB powered (no need for an extra, ugly power chord connected to your outlet) and about the size of a checkbook. I have 3 stacked neatly on top of each other, routed through the Belkin hub and into the WDTV. A really nice little setup with plenty of room to add more drives.
I’ll be trying Blu-Ray soon!
Richard, MillerTime77 & all,
Thanks for confirming that the Belkin usb hub works. This may mean that there is now a higher chance that the network hub will work.
To rename the drives I would assume that you would re-name it as per a normal drive?
I have spoken to Belkin regarding their Network USB Hub. They claim that there should not be a problem with doing what I want it to do.
Harris Tech. (Melbourne, Aus) sell it for Aus$199. They also seem to think that it shouldn’t be a problem. As MillerTime77 says with his supplier, these guys also have a return policy and have no probs with me bringing the unit back to them.
Plus it works to their advantage – 2 guys there also have a WD HDTV and are keen for me to try. Go me, the guinea pig
lol
From what I understand, this the software for this unit tricks the PC into thinking that all the devices connected to the hub are actually connected directly to the PC. http://www.belkin.com/au/networkusbhub/
I am going to buy it this afternoon, much to my wife’s disgust! My sparky is coming to fit off the cat5 points in my house on Monday morn. So hopefully I should have an answer for you all by mid next week.
cheers,
PS – Ignore me saying that I will but a ‘GWC USB 2.0 3-Port Hub with Ethernet Adapter’… have found another toy
could you please tell me which one is the best to buy, wd movie player or lacie lacinema?
thank you
odysseas-post #298
Well I own A WD Movie Player but not a lacie lacinema but from the Specs I would stay with WD as you can add hard drives to the WD but not the lacie. Lacie also doesn’t have HDMI output and doesn’t support as many file formats. The remote on the lacie looks better than WD but that still wouldn’t get me to switch. Hope this helps
Odysseas-
I would definitely go with this unit over the Lacie Lacinema. I have both and I find the Lacie to be very buggy in comparison to the WD. It will often freeze up when fast forwarding, leaving me no choice but to pull the power cord. The Lacie does not play lossless audio nor does it do HDMI. The WD will also play a wider variety of video formats than the Lacie and I find its photo navigation to be far superior to the Lacie’s. The user interface is also much smoother and visually appealing than that of the Lacie’s. Now if WD could just address the lack of gapless audio playback issue…
← Previous Comments
Next Comments →
{ 11 trackbacks }