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[phillil]

I'm not sure if this is the right place to post this topic, but I purchased a WDTV Live the weekend as a DNLA renderer. I set it up and it worked perfectly playing all types of music (mp3 and mainly wma lossless) and video (HD mkv's and ifo's) using the 'Generic DLNA' server configuration.

I used webremote to control what was playing on either the server in the lounge of the WDTV in the kitchen and it worked like a dream effortlessly switching between the 2 xones playing HD movies on both simultaneously

However the next day I couldn't get it to work at all. Neither music or video would work, and in MC the WDTV was just constantly 'waiting' and nothing would play at all.

After hours of messing around, I deduced that it seems that an update to the latest WDTV firmware caused the unit to crash whenever MC streamed 'converted' audio or video to the unit.

My music collection is all WMA lossless, so MC must assume that the WDTV cannot play it so converts to mp3 then streams, thus crashing .

It's the same for my mkv's.

The workaround is for music, set the 'Generic DLNA' settings to 'always convert' and select 'uncompressed' as the audio format.
For video, change the setting to 'never convert'.

Hopefully someone will find this useful

[bob]

Did you try power cycling the WD? Sometimes it can get confused. We've got the same model here and it works without audio conversion.
What version of MC are you running??

[phillil]

Hi thanks for the reply.

Maybe I wasn't clear - the WDTV Live works fine without conversion, the issue is when MC converts audio or video to a different format

[bob]

What build of MC are you running??

[sakendrick]

This sounds like the same issue I'm having - but I have yet to get it to work. Switching to Never Convert for video still doesn't allow it to play.  Just sits and spins for ever.

I'm using build 16.0.181

[Vocalpoint]

This is a known issue with the WDTV. Dependent on your firmware version (I have tried ALL of them relentlessly and have settled on 1.02.21 - FOR GOOD)...if the WDTV hits anything...and I do mean anything - that it cannot handle straight away (without even a ms of hesitation) - it immediately has a tantrum and cannot/will not play anything after that.

I see this all the time with mkvs, wmv and other formats. The only resolution is to completely power cycle this thing - including unplugging the power for a good two minutes and then hooking it all back up and starting up again.

The WDTV's ability to recover from anything even slightly suspect is probably the worst I have seen in a piece of hardware - that's why I have finally ditched it and moved onto the Dune HD Smart D1 player as of today....

VP

[sakendrick]

so are you suggesting that if I use WD TV Live firmware 1.02.21 it should work?  I'm going to try some testing with straight up windows 7/media player "play to", and see if I hae the same problems before down grading my firmware.  Their recent firmware upgrades have fixed a lot of issues.  I'm pretty certain I was successfully streaming video to prior to testing JRiver. (and the JRiver team seems to suggest the WD product works in their labs)

[Vocalpoint]

so are you suggesting that if I use WD TV Live firmware 1.02.21 it should work?  I'm going to try some testing with straight up windows 7/media player "play to", and see if I hae the same problems before down grading my firmware.  Their recent firmware upgrades have fixed a lot of issues.  I'm pretty certain I was successfully streaming video to prior to testing JRiver. (and the JRiver team seems to suggest the WD product works in their labs)

Well...the whole WD "firmware" quality scenario is for a another day and another thread. My WDTV Live was purchased new in Dec of 2009 and I have had nothing but issues with any firmware past 1.02.21. Not to imply that WD has not fixed some issues with later revisions - for SOME users but for me - with my specific hardware (TV, receiver etc) they have broke almost everything that was working circa 1.02.21 with every successive firmware revision since.

It blows my mind that all of us have basically the same piece of hardware yet not a single issue of firmware is considered to be "the one" we should all be running. For me - after trying every single revision since around March 2010 (1.02.21) - each one has had a showstopper (or two or three) and I had to roll back to good ole 1.02.21. Even 1.02.21 is not without issues  but lets just say - it's has the smallest amount of problems that test my patience.

As far as this specific issue goes - even with 1.02.21 - the box will continue to stall hard on anything it does not like. I cannot comment on whether or not the box can handle problematic playback more gracefully in newer firmware revisions - since I have not kept any recent firmware on my unit long enough to really test it. Due to ongoing annoying problems - I had to revert back to 1.02.21 everytime.

Sorry I can't be of more help.

VP

[sakendrick]

Well... I have no idea what I did, but it's working like a charm now.  I started by turning JR media server off and turning Windows Media Player serving back on as a test.  Audio started playing.  Initial folder browse was slow but it started working so I immediately assumed it was a JRiver issue.  Tried playing movies through media server and only some would play.  Then I turned windows media player serving off, fired up JRiver.  Browsed to the JRiver server from the WD, audio played no problem.  Started playing movies and everything played - even those that wouldn't play through windows media player.

There were no firmware updates since I last tried so - anyways, I'm happy and digging JRiver right now.  setup a doctor play list from my laptop out by the pool, turned on zone 2 of my denon, and listened to tunes while BBQing dinner.

So far I'm set for now.

[csimon]

The WDTV's ability to recover from anything even slightly suspect is probably the worst I have seen in a piece of hardware - that's why I have finally ditched it and moved onto the Dune HD Smart D1 player as of today....

Is the Dune a DLNA renderer like the WDTV, i.e. it can be controlled externally?

[Vocalpoint]

Is the Dune a DLNA renderer like the WDTV, i.e. it can be controlled externally?

Not quite sure...since I have not unpacked mine yet (Too busy right now). Will find out over the holidays. I do know that it's UPnP compliant so that will work for me.

VP