# Western Digital - WD TV HD Media Player



## Baldie559

Anybody have experiences with this player? It seems really cool and for $129 at best buy it sounds like a good deal. I all my music and movie files on an external and whenever I want to watch it on my HDTV I usually burn it to a DVD, which won't show it in HD thought at least I can watch it. The other solution would be to hook my laptop up to my TV which can get annoying. Any opinions appreciated.

http://www.hdtvlounge.net/news/wd-hdtv-media-player/


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## 92b16vx

I have one and it is pretty neat. It doesn't have all the features of a Popcorn Hour, but I didn't need all the extras. Hopefully it will gain enough popularity to continue firmware updates, and improve compatability and functionality. For the price it is well worth it imo if you do backups, or keep movies and music stored like you do. Coupled with a 500GB Passport it is more than enough to store lots of HD movies, and high quality music files.


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## Illvill

Got one and I must say that after the last update, firmware, many problems were solved. 

I cant play ANY .iso thou. Can´t figure what the problem is. Otherwise its one of the best players out there if you dont need all the extras that the popcorn has. 

BUY is my recomendation.


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## Franckey

*WD TV - HDMI output doesn’t work correctly*

I have a WD TV and the HDMI output doesn’t work correctly. The device switch automatically to composite even when only an HDMI cable is connected and not a composite cable.

When I turn on the device, the HDMI output works for 2 seconds during startup, then the device switch to composite mode. 
When I manually switch to HDMI, the device switch back to composite directly.

A workaround is to manually choose HDMI output and manually choose for “1080i” in stead of “auto”. Next I must leave the Settings menu quickly. Now the device will use the HDMI output. But when I turn off and turn on again, the device switch to composite again.

My Sony Bravia HDReady TV supports max. 1080i and not 1080p. 

I use the latest firmware (1.01.02) and I tried lots of things, soft reset, hard reset, unplug composite cable. Nothing helps. Can anyone help me?


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## jarrydpinto

Hi Franckey,

I'm having the same problem with my WD TV device. My HD Tv is fairly old but it usually doesn't have any trouble displaying HD images from any of my other devices.

I've contacted WD support to see if they can figure out what the problem is. Just wanted to ask if you managed to find a solution.

Cheers,

Jarryd


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## toolfkntool

I just purchased a WD TV. I have multiple External Hard drives, The first one i plugged in was my iomega 1TB. It froze up my EHD and rendered it useless. I know my hard drive isnt dead but i cannot figure out how to undo what the wd tv did. The problem occurred when i plugged the HD into the WD TV, After a minute it froze. I am assuming that the firmware didn't properly install on my HD, but i don't understand why i cant plug it into my computer delete the WD TV firmware and start over. So i need some help on this subject. I would be very sad to loose all the data that i have accumulated. 

On a lighter not i plugged in my Maxtor 160gb Hd, and it work swimmingly. Great picture, cool menu, not impressed with the browsing features (if you have as many files as i do, you have to be patient and scroll through all of them. Or prior to connecting, group your movies or other media in seperate folders, like A-D would be one folder, E-H another, etc, that would make finding your movies faster and easier. All and all when it works it works great. But i would really like to find a solve to my iomega problem.

Thanks and Good Luck.


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## 92b16vx

Tool, it might have a problem with the size of the drive. Use a small thumbdrive to update the firmware on your WD, and then try plugging the iOmega back into it. If it freezes unplug the WD from the wall, and then plug it back in with the HD already plugged in.


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## Willito

Hola!
I just purchased the WD media player also and it works great. However I'm unable to see any thumbnails for my movies. All my movies are Video_TS format and they work perfect with this media player. I also have a coup;e of AVI movies and the same problem. Are you haveing the same problem? Can anyone tell me how I can get my dvd art to show? I've customize the folders with the front cover to no avail. If anyone had this problem and found a way please let me know.
In addition I downloaded a movie (WMV) witch is protected and it would not play on the Western media player. They say that it will play WMV9, however, so far the ones I converted to this format are not clear enough. 
Any help would be appreciated.


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## sundstedt

Hi Jarryd & Franckey;

I got the same problem; I got HDMI cable, WD TV and Bravia TV (1080i). Now I keep getting the composite setting back even though I choose HDMI and 1080i 60 Hz; actually ONCE I got it to work getting picture in HDMI mode; only to find it didn't work at all after re-starting the WD TV unit. (after this composite didn't even work).

Have you got any help on this?

Thanks

Anders



jarrydpinto said:


> Hi Franckey,
> 
> I'm having the same problem with my WD TV device. My HD Tv is fairly old but it usually doesn't have any trouble displaying HD images from any of my other devices.
> 
> I've contacted WD support to see if they can figure out what the problem is. Just wanted to ask if you managed to find a solution.
> 
> Cheers,
> 
> Jarryd


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## Willito

I can see the photo images. the images I can't see are those from my videio_st (thumbnails from the dvd art). So far I never had any connection problem. If your HDTV has a rebut or refresh buttom, try it it might work. I've done this for other connection and always worked for me.


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## Ang_Filibustero

*Re: WD TV - HDMI output doesn’t work correctly*



Franckey said:


> I have a WD TV and the HDMI output doesn’t work correctly. The device switch automatically to composite even when only an HDMI cable is connected and not a composite cable.
> 
> When I turn on the device, the HDMI output works for 2 seconds during startup, then the device switch to composite mode.
> When I manually switch to HDMI, the device switch back to composite directly.
> 
> A workaround is to manually choose HDMI output and manually choose for “1080i” in stead of “auto”. Next I must leave the Settings menu quickly. Now the device will use the HDMI output. But when I turn off and turn on again, the device switch to composite again.
> 
> My Sony Bravia HDReady TV supports max. 1080i and not 1080p.
> 
> I use the latest firmware (1.01.02) and I tried lots of things, soft reset, hard reset, unplug composite cable. Nothing helps. Can anyone help me?


I have the same problem too and I fixed it by resseting the system. Try this. Connect your WD TV using composite, turn both unit on (TV input on composite) and reset the unit by inserting a pin in the tiny hole beside the USB port on the side for about 10 seconds. After this turn-off the unit from the main switch, wait for ~1 minute then turn it back on. Go to system -> Audio/video, select HDMI, 720p 50hz, digital audio. After setting up, turn -off the unit, remove the composite cables and connect your HDMI cable. Turn your unit back-on, switch your TV to HDMI input and everything should be working fine. You can then experiment with other video resolution that you want except auto. Selecting auto in my case (Sony bravia) will cause blank screen.


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## enufspace

Hi,

I've just installed the latest firmware but did not leave it to startup by itself ie I did not complete the installation properly. 
Now I'm not able to read my ntfs drive or hfs+ drive... funny enough I can read another drive which is in hfs+

Tried doing a system reset to no avail...
Tried to re-install the latest firmware but it won't let me (from a thumb usb stick)

Does anybody know how I re-install the firmware?
Any help is much appreciated!!

E


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## 92b16vx

enufspace said:


> Hi,
> 
> I've just installed the latest firmware but did not leave it to startup by itself ie I did not complete the installation properly.
> Now I'm not able to read my ntfs drive or hfs+ drive... funny enough I can read another drive which is in hfs+
> 
> Tried doing a system reset to no avail...
> Tried to re-install the latest firmware but it won't let me (from a thumb usb stick)
> 
> Does anybody know how I re-install the firmware?
> Any help is much appreciated!!
> 
> E


Pretty sure the procedure to reinstalling the firmware is to rename the version number, and the WD will see it as new, at least this is the way some are downgrading firmware to use the custom firmwares. So you have version XXX1.01.02, than rename the files to XXX1.01.03, when you turn it on, it should see a new firmware, and want to run the upgrade, at least thats how I understand it works.

Here's a whole thread about firmware for it. 

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=1100062


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## enufspace

Managed to re-install the latest fw from my fat32 usb thumb stick successfully by first re-installing the fw 1.01.01 which was renamed to 1.01.03 (wdrv.ver)

It was not able to detect my maxtor one touch 500GB drive(HFS extended format)

So I decided to re-install fw 1.01.02 

I was able to re-install 1.01.02 since my WDTV saw the renamed fw 1.01.03 as 1.01.01 and allowed me to re-install 1.01.02

Unfortunately my drive was still not recognized... I've tried software reset..and hardware reset to no avail.

Any suggestions would be highly appreciated

Thanks in advance
E


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## 92b16vx

enufspace said:


> It was not able to detect my maxtor one touch 500GB drive(HFS extended format)





Western Digital Website said:


> External Drive Formats Supported
> FAT32, NTFS, HFS+ *(no journaling)*



Not familiar with the HFS, but could that have something to do with it? Are you using a Mac? If not than I would off load everything from that drive, and reformat to either FAT32, or NTFS.


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## enufspace

HFS+ is supported the funny thing is that it was working before when I just got the device. Problems only started after fw upgrade 

Any other suggestions?


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## toolfkntool

I wouldnt plug anything into th WD TV that is not WD, My iomega hardrive and contents where destroyed by simply plugging it into this little black box of death. Dont take the risk, or if you do at least back up your HD first.


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## 92b16vx

toolfkntool said:


> I wouldnt plug anything into th WD TV that is not WD, My iomega hardrive and contents where destroyed by simply plugging it into this little black box of death. Dont take the risk, or if you do at least back up your HD first.


I use a 8GB Cruizer, 250GB LaCie, 500GB WD Passport, and an 80GB Maxtor, no problems with any of them.


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## enufspace

I've found that re-formatting the drives and properly removing (pressing eject on remote) them from wdtv allowed to make them available again

Still I believe a newer fw should be released to make it more stable


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## OldDirty

Is anyone else having trouble playing movies ? I watch movies on my media player and the movies randomly stop at one point and return menu. I contacted WD and they think it's my usb key but I don't see what can be causing it. The key is brand new and the files are MKV.


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## datigren186

OldDirty said:


> Is anyone else having trouble playing movies ? I watch movies on my media player and the movies randomly stop at one point and return menu. I contacted WD and they think it's my usb key but I don't see what can be causing it. The key is brand new and the files are MKV.


I've had a similar problem. The player would just freeze, but I can go back to the menus. Then from there, the only way I can watch movies again is if i power cycle the player. This just started happening recently. Anyone else have this problem?


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## 92b16vx

OldDirty said:


> Is anyone else having trouble playing movies ? I watch movies on my media player and the movies randomly stop at one point and return menu. I contacted WD and they think it's my usb key but I don't see what can be causing it. The key is brand new and the files are MKV.


You'd need to download and use a program called MediaInfo and post the output for the movie, that way someone can look at it and see if there is something wrong with your file. The output should look something like this...



Code:


Format                       : Matroska
File size                    : 8.75 GiB
PlayTime                     : 2h 20s
Bit rate                     : 10.4 Mbps
Writing application          : x264.exe
Writing library              : mkv2rls v1.0

Video #0
Codec                        : AVC
Codec/Family                 : AVC
Codec/Info                   : Advanced Video Codec
Codec profile                : [email protected]
Codec settings, CABAC        : Yes
PlayTime                     : 2h 13s
Bit rate                     : 8451 Kbps
Nominal bit rate             : 8896 Kbps
Width                        : 1920 pixels
Height                       : 1040 pixels
Display Aspect ratio         : 16/9
Frame rate                   : 23.976 fps
Chroma                       : 4:2:0
Interlacement                : Progressive
Writing library              : x264 - core 67 r1145 d2e1e1c
Encoding settings            : cabac=1 / ref=4 / deblock=1:0:0 / analyse=0x3:0x113 / me=umh / subme=7 / psy_rd=1.0:0.0 / mixed_ref=1 / me_range=16 / chroma_me=1 / trellis=1 / 8x8dct=1 / cqm=0 / deadzone=21,11 / chroma_qp_offset=-2 / threads=12 / nr=0 / decimate=1 / mbaff=0 / bframes=3 / b_pyramid=1 / b_adapt=1 / b_bias=0 / direct=3 / wpredb=1 / keyint=250 / keyint_min=25 / scenecut=40 / rc=2pass / bitrate=8896 / ratetol=1.0 / qcomp=0.60 / qpmin=10 / qpmax=51 / qpstep=4 / cplxblur=20.0 / qblur=0.5 / ip_ratio=1.40 / pb_ratio=1.30 / aq=1:1.00

Audio #0
Codec                        : DTS
PlayTime                     : 2h 20s
Bit rate                     : 1536 Kbps
Channel(s)                   : 6 channels
Channel positions            : Front: L C R, Surround: L R, LFE
Sampling rate                : 48.0 KHz
Resolution                   : 24 bits
Title                        : English DTS 1509kbps
Language                     : English

Text #0
Codec                        : UTF-8
Codec/Info                   : UTF-8 Plain Text
Title                        : English
Language                     : English


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## OldDirty

92b16vx said:


> You'd need to download and use a program called MediaInfo and post the output for the movie, that way someone can look at it and see if there is something wrong with your file. The output should look something like this...


It's not one file it's every file that does it. I've since sent back my unit to WD for replacement and will give updates if does the same error.


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## panicker.renju

Hi,

This is my first post and its also regarding WD Mediaplayer and WDPassport.

I have a WDpassport 500 GB which was FAT32.It was working fine with my WD Mediaplayer.
Recently I got a HD movie and the size was 4.35 GB and I was not able to copy on to my WD Passport since it was FAT32.So i changed my filesystem to NTFS using the convert command (Without lossing the data) in Vista and copied my files.But unfortunately its not working with my WDMediaplayer.The HDisc is not detected by the Player.My laptop detects the Drive and I can see all the files..

Any possibilities???

Renju


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## Willito

That happened to me once and I discovered that it has to do with the way I copied the files (if that is what you did). I have a couple of programs in the even one does not work I try the other. My problem was that I copied it too fast so I did it again with a slower program and the problem was taken care off.


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## OldDirty

OldDirty said:


> It's not one file it's every file that does it. I've since sent back my unit to WD for replacement and will give updates if does the same error.


Well I've received my unit back from WD and have the recurring problem. I've tried different external hard drives with the same result in the movies suddenly stopping and returning to the menu after playing for a amount of time. I've further contacted WD and patiently waiting there response. So far the WD media player gets my two thumbs down.


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## matudtud

gud day to all,

i bought WD Media Player 2months ago with 1TB (Seagate) Extrernal drive. 

i have downloaded one TV Series cartoon movie with 299mb file capacity with MKV extension. the problem is, when i tried playing the movie it always move slow-motion. 

i have noticed that the when i am running a 95MB size with MVK extension and it work fines. i bought this player because of the MKV file supported features.

can you please help me to find the solution.

just to add more,

i have already updated the firmware to the latest version and problem still exist.

hoping for ur reply. 




OldDirty said:


> Is anyone else having trouble playing movies ? I watch movies on my media player and the movies randomly stop at one point and return menu. I contacted WD and they think it's my usb key but I don't see what can be causing it. The key is brand new and the files are MKV.


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## piousm

I'm late in on this. I just bought the gen 1 player which seems to be really good, except that there is one cartoon series in avi format that plays up - the picture freezes (sound is OK) and I get the pixels out, similar to a transmission problem with digital tv. this happens on 2 passport drives, so it isnt the passport, but it plays fine on the computer and it previously played fine when converted and burned to dvd, so it must be the media player. It happens to each file in the (say) 12 episode series, but similar files in other series have no problems. I tried the firmware update - no help. Any clues? Thanks in advance.


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## yacar

Hello. i´m recently got one of the WD TV and i´m not able to use because it doesn´t recognize my Lacie 500 gb rugged. Also try with a Lacie Quadra 750 but its the same, the media player can´t recognize it. i´m a mac user. any idea?


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## tijuas24

hello guys i jus buy the wd tv hdmi 1 tb and i can't instal movies or shows that ihave in my hard drive external can u help me with that!!??


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## JimE

First, let me say that EVERYONE should be starting a NEW topic...not posting new issues into someone elses post.


matudtud - mkv is only a container. The file inside the container can be encoded numerous ways. Most likely the files that don't play are not encoded with the specs supported by the player.

piousm - see above. the file type (ie: extension) doesn't mean anything. the files can be encoded with various specs. the files that don't play, aren't supported by the player.

yacar - most media players only support drives formatted FAT32. If the drives have been used on your Mac, they are very likely NOT FAT32.

tijuas24 - simply connect the HDD to your PC and copy the files onto it


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## tall1

I have had a western Digital Media player for over a year and have been extremely happy with it. Figured out a few things along the way like factory reset but over all no major problems. i recommended this media player to one of my friends and she has had it for several months no problems until this week she had it off for about a week and went to turn it back on and it doesn't respond all it does is have a symbol of a plug. I'm pretty sure she has the live version where as my media player is the older one with no Ethernet connection. Does anyone have any ideas as to why hers would freeze to this plug screen and what to do to fix this problem.
Thanks:wave:


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## JimE

tall1 - for future reference, start a new topic

Remove power for a short period of time, then restore power and see what happens. Also, the user manual may have a description of what the "symbol of a plug" implies.


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## ADunhill

I was hoping someone can help me with a problem I am having with my WD Media player. I have two WD external hard drives attached to my player. Recently after making some changes to the folders in these external hard drives, the media player will no longer display a list of the video files according to date. 
It used to previously. 
Now when I select the Video Date option in the main menu, it comes back saying this folder is empty. However if I eject one of the external drives, it then will display the remaining drive's video files according to date. This does not matter if I eject USB1 or USB2, the remaining drive's files are able to be viewed according to date. However, when I reattach the drive that was ejected, the files cannot be displayed according to date again. When the option to view Video by date is selected, it comes up, folder is empty.
I add new files regularly and would like to view which are the most recent additions and having them displayed by date is helpful to do so.
Any suggestions to fix this problem would be much appreciated.


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## ADunhill

Dogg, I tried to start a new post, but I'm new to this and could not figure out how to start a new topic...my apologies..


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## JimE

Sounds like a software glitch in the player. I don't know that there is anything that you can do. Could be related to the number of files in the folders, an issue with using two drives, or any number of other factors. Have you tried contacting WD or checking their forums?


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## AnnDroid

Hi! I have recently bought this media player and was very excited when found out that the graphical appearance of its interface can be changed to 'cover view' instead of usual firmware view. Searched a little bit on the net and found a program, called 'Movienizer', that creates cool catalogs for WDTV with info and covers of your movies. Looks really nice: 

This could be interesting for WDTV player lovers


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