WD Live Close but no cigar!!

Forums › Home Theatre (including HTPC and EPG Collector) › WD Live Close but no cigar!!

gnfb

2398 posts

Uber Geek

#116202 21-Apr-2013 21:21

Bought one of those WD LIVE's to see if would replace the pvr i have running xbmc so i could use th ebox for something else
all was going well till i think i have discovered that it doesnt play mpeg4's
I have never found a format I cant get to run on XBMC so i haven't worried what i get dont know how many of my collection is mpeg4
I could convert them i supoose and just make sure i dont get anymore but that is a bit of a hassle

Is an English Man living in New Zealand. Not a writer, an Observer he says. Graham is a seasoned 'traveler" with his sometimes arrogant, but honest opinion on life. He loves the Internet!.

fbwhatnot on trademe

Email Me

JimmyH

2820 posts

Uber Geek

#803882 22-Apr-2013 19:39

Are you sure?

I have never had an issue playing MPEG4s on either my WD Live or my WD Live Hub, and it's the standard format I convert things to.

There are some issues with the WD series, notably the sub-par interface and issues with the functionality of the android/iOS app they make available. But as far as codecs go, it plays a pretty wide range and all of the mainstream ones.

I recommend checking out the file using something like GSpot or Mediainfo to make sure it really is that format, and testing it in VLC to make sure it actually plays.

Backblaze

Backblaze Unlimited Backup. World’s easiest cloud backup. Get peace of mind knowing your files are backed up securely in the cloud (affiliate link).

gnfb

2398 posts

Uber Geek

#803892 22-Apr-2013 20:00

Thats kind of the point the 8 files all play fine in xbmc and just a minute......... and they play fine on my desktop in VLC The only difference that there could be is that the files are of a New Zealand tv show where s most of my tv comes from OS that's the only thing i can think of

Is an English Man living in New Zealand. Not a writer, an Observer he says. Graham is a seasoned 'traveler" with his sometimes arrogant, but honest opinion on life. He loves the Internet!.

fbwhatnot on trademe

Email Me

mattwnz

19389 posts

Uber Geek

#803898 22-Apr-2013 20:13

When I had one of these, prior to returning it, I had problems fast forwarding and rewinding in mpeg4 videos, it would just stop at to random places in the file. The interface was also slow and clunky. Considering it was about the same price as the apple tv at the time, which has a superior interface, I don't think it was a particularity good device.

logo

609 posts

Ultimate Geek

Trusted

#803899 22-Apr-2013 20:14

I've had sound issues with my WDTV live and certain video files

The picture plays fine but there's no sound.

Supposedly all xvids too.

networkn

Networkn
30223 posts

Uber Geek

ID Verified

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#803916 22-Apr-2013 20:52

I've never had any issues with my WDTV Live.

gnfb

2398 posts

Uber Geek

#803962 22-Apr-2013 21:44

Im in the process of buying a cheap box to run XBMC on and be done with it go with what i know. I find that I can do pretty much everything I wnat with xbmc Yes it is still a bit like a meccano set but it is getting really solid with every new version. So anyone wnat to buy a wdlive box ?

Is an English Man living in New Zealand. Not a writer, an Observer he says. Graham is a seasoned 'traveler" with his sometimes arrogant, but honest opinion on life. He loves the Internet!.

fbwhatnot on trademe

Email Me

michaelmurfy

cat
12244 posts

Uber Geek

Moderator

ID Verified

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#803966 22-Apr-2013 22:00

Turn a Raspberry Pi Into an XBMC Media Center in Under 30 Minutes

Michael Murphy | https://murfy.nz
Referral Links: Tessie | Tesla | Quic Broadband (use R122101E7CV7Q for free setup)

Are you happy with what you get from Geekzone? Please consider supporting us by subscribing.
Opinions are my own and not the views of my employer.

Ragnor

8085 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

#804316 23-Apr-2013 14:02

Custom third party firmware for WDTV Live improves it a lot
http://wiki.wdlxtv.com/Main_Page
http://forum.wdlxtv.com/

aros71

122 posts

Master Geek

#804362 23-Apr-2013 15:47

WD TV Live == a world of hurt with sound/video out of sync issues.

Mine playes mkv files encoded with h.264 and AC3 5.1ch, but the sync is off.

Give it an m4v file and you'll have to learn to lip-read. sync is half a second or more off, very distracting.

older xvid/divX files encoded with 2ch MP3 - no prob

I'd be after something newer if I had the time to research what's good now. It needs to be something suitably acceptable to the Wife Simplicity Factor. Also if it's too hard my daughter will wake me up on my weekend sleep-in because she can't figure out how to get to the kids movies.

It'd be a big plus if something would be able to use Spotify too.

Any suggestions for someone who unfortunately due to time constraints is limited to buying something off-the-shelf rather than building something?

old3eyes

8995 posts

Uber Geek

Subscriber

#804364 23-Apr-2013 15:49

I bought a WDTV last year. No problems at all with playing files. There was a upgrade a couple of months ago

Regards,

Old3eyes

gnfb

2398 posts

Uber Geek

#804597 23-Apr-2013 22:41

Ragnor: Custom third party firmware for WDTV Live improves it a lot
http://wiki.wdlxtv.com/Main_Page
http://forum.wdlxtv.com/

I did see that but the unit was $155 (i think) then spend another two hours getting to to run xbmc why all along the chance I will brick it!.....when i can buy a cheap box for under a ton and be up and running in 5 mins and XBMC has everything from CNN to whatever

Is an English Man living in New Zealand. Not a writer, an Observer he says. Graham is a seasoned 'traveler" with his sometimes arrogant, but honest opinion on life. He loves the Internet!.

fbwhatnot on trademe

Email Me

GBristow

178 posts

Master Geek

#804637 24-Apr-2013 00:22

gnfb1234:
Ragnor: Custom third party firmware for WDTV Live improves it a lot
http://wiki.wdlxtv.com/Main_Page
http://forum.wdlxtv.com/

I did see that but the unit was $155 (i think) then spend another two hours getting to to run xbmc why all along the chance I will brick it!.....when i can buy a cheap box for under a ton and be up and running in 5 mins and XBMC has everything from CNN to whatever

I'm also looking for a cheap box to run XBMC, but everything seems expensive or lacking. I'm on the verge of just building an HTPC from scratch. So you have any examples of what you're thinking of buying?

gnfb

2398 posts

Uber Geek

#804731 24-Apr-2013 09:30

CPU speed:2 GHzCores:2Memory:2 GBHard drive:200 GBCD / DVD:CD + DVD writerMonitor:No monitor

Is an English Man living in New Zealand. Not a writer, an Observer he says. Graham is a seasoned 'traveler" with his sometimes arrogant, but honest opinion on life. He loves the Internet!.

fbwhatnot on trademe

Email Me

gnfb

2398 posts

Uber Geek

#804733 24-Apr-2013 09:32

CPU speed:2 GHzCores:2Memory:2 GBHard drive:200 GBCD / DVD:CD + DVD writerMonitor:No monitor NEC Core2Duo FAST Tower PCYou may already have something around home its only cause i moved recently and got rid of a lot of old boxes. You should pick one of these up for under a ton. I am only going this big as i want to run win 7 on it to fit in with the rest of the network with ease. But I belive xbmc will run on a usb drive! so

Is an English Man living in New Zealand. Not a writer, an Observer he says. Graham is a seasoned 'traveler" with his sometimes arrogant, but honest opinion on life. He loves the Internet!.

fbwhatnot on trademe

Email Me