If the original firmware includes any products in which WD must license then WD may not have a provision to include that product on a firmware restore.
I may be misunderstanding what you’ve said here, but that doesn’t make sense.
If WD doesn’t have a licence to include a particular product as part of a firmware, then how would that product ever be updated? Licensed properties such as Netflix, YouTube, etc. all periodically require changes to their software in order to continue using their services; if they’re not updated in the normal course of firmware upgrades (as that is the usual update method for all software components), does this mean that they’re in a static state from the day the player ships until it’s eventually sent for e-waste?
It also doesn’t explain why those features would remain disabled after a rollback. Can you please clarify what you meant by this?
He’s saying that, under their license agreements, if a user elects to use their own firmware (which ISNT LICENSED), WD cannot grant that customer a NEW license to reinstall those features.
TonyPh12345 wrote:
He’s saying that, under their license agreements, if a user elects to use their own firmware (which ISNT LICENSED), WD cannot grant that customer a NEW license to reinstall those features.
Thanks, but I’d prefer the clarification on that to come directly from the source.
If the original firmware includes any products in which WD must license then WD may not have a provision to include that product on a firmware restore.
I may be misunderstanding what you’ve said here, but that doesn’t make sense.
If WD doesn’t have a licence to include a particular product as part of a firmware, then how would that product ever be updated? Licensed properties such as Netflix, YouTube, etc. all periodically require changes to their software in order to continue using their services; if they’re not updated in the normal course of firmware upgrades (as that is the usual update method for all software components), does this mean that they’re in a static state from the day the player ships until it’s eventually sent for e-waste?
It also doesn’t explain why those features would remain disabled after a rollback. Can you please clarify what you meant by this?
This doesn’t make a whole lot of sense to me, either. I seriously doubt that WD is doing a “Per Device” license as opposed to a blanket / volume licsense to have their devices connect to Netflix / Pandora/ etc. I would also be insterested on how either WD or any of the licensed services were going to activly track who has what firmware on the device?
They could issue a “Cease and Desist” kind of like how Google did with Cyanogen when he was releasing Google Apps with his custom firmware for the Google phone, but since the apps were under the GPL, you could install them (Google Market, etc) as a seperate package.
What confuses me is that I don’t really understand how custom firmware for these devices could be a bad thing in the first place? For every ten units sold, how many of those people are going to install 3rd party firmware? How many of the people who buy the devices are even going to know that an alternate firmware EXISTS?
And for the minority that actually installs the firmware … what is so dangerous that they get that makes it such a big deal? Stuff WD could implement if they took a couple weeks to add it to current firmware? USB Hub support? Better movie navigation? FTP Support? OH NO MOVIE SHEET SUPPORT? CALL THE ARMY!!!
I got my WDTV Live yesterday and went straight to the custom firmware. Reason-moviesheets
I’m sort of hanging off the edge currently though.
The moviesheets look great but I feel like they are quite slow going from one to the other. When I click options on the remote to change how I see everything I can have the list or the moviesheets. But sometimes I quickly see big thumbnails of the movie cover – not sure how I stay on that
No other reason to use the firmware really… Will probably go back to the original if I have problems
It’s just like jailbreaking a iOS device though. They (WD,Apple) will say it voids your warranty but I can’t see why you couldn’t just restore the original firmware and you’re be ok (if it lets you install it)
Oli, keep in mind, we were discussing the HUB, not the original Live/Live+.
As far as we know, there’s no “Gotchas” from using Third Party firmware (Unless, of course, it bricks your box and you have to send it back, they won’t cover that.)
But the HUB explicitly states that if you use Third Party Firmware, you will lose access to certain features FOREVER, even if you re-install the “Stock” firmware.
he thinks you may lose ‘netflix/blockbuster and possibly youtube, live365, pandora’ on the hub if you flash it with 3rd party firmware and then rollback.
By the way its not called restore - its just re-flashing. There is no restore facility on any WD Live.
This is an OLD thread; pretty sure he hasn’t posted anywhere else on the forum since June so I’m guessing he won’t read that. ;)
But B-Rad is to be commended for his work on the WDLXTV firmwares, I’m planning on trying them once WD drops support for the Live and Plus. Don’t need any of the extra functionality at this point.
From what it looks like, I think WD has already dropped support of their WD live boxes.
This is an OLD thread; pretty sure he hasn’t posted anywhere else on the forum since June so I’m guessing he won’t read that. ;)
But B-Rad is to be commended for his work on the WDLXTV firmwares, I’m planning on trying them once WD drops support for the Live and Plus. Don’t need any of the extra functionality at this point.
From what it looks like, I think WD has already dropped support of their WD live boxes.
*Like Tony says, WD are continuing to produce firmwares, not just to fix bugs but also to add new features / more online services. I’m pretty sure the Live is their main media streamer product outside of North America whilst the Plus is their main model inside North America (Hub is a higher price bracket).
All signs point to continued support. The only discontinued products are the older Gen1 (officially EOL) and Gen2 (effectively EOL given zero support right now).
i tried this custim fw once and found it useless. They managed to add 50Megs of bs to the original fw but no usefull features. I’ve written them that they cannot even manage to make their user interface file right (small text file with 10 to 20 settings one can alter) and they banned me : ) http://forum.wdlxtv.com/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=1353&p=10031&hilit=wow#p10031. So I never tried their bs afterwards. Unfortunatelly wd fw is also not flexible.
What I know about law is not going to fill a book, but I do have some input here regarding this issue. WD can make any claim that does not break a law. That includes a restriction that they cannot enforce. That is usually called a bluff. As to whether they can actually remove functionality from your property, the law has something to say about that also. If they make a change to your property as a punitive action for installing custom software, this is illegal. Only a court of law could take that action. It is highly unlikely that this would happen. It would be like Ford disabling 2 pistons on your car because you replaced your V-6 engine with a V-8, or Harman Kardon removing twenty percent of your volume capability because you added a secondary amp to their head unit. While you may void warrantees and risk bricking your device, you are not restricted from reprogramming it in any way you choose.
I love the custom firmware from BRad, the interface is beautiful and it boots 10 times faster than WD firmware, I think there should be more people that take the time to make the WD product better and more useful, I installed this on all 3 of my WD live plus media players and on all the ones of 4 of my friends, way to go BRad
I have all the respect in the world for B-Rad, he is taking his own precious time and making this product way better and more useful for anyone that wants to install the firmware, if only WD could wake up and do something like this for people that spend hard earned money for buggy firmware, way to go B-Rad!!!
yesterday, i tried BRAD’s latest firmware based on 1.02.21, actually it boot slow on my Device (WDLive)… and i found some “delay” when browse folders alot…
After flash into custom firmware, my WD only shows blue-ish WD Logo then TV HDMI says “no signal input”
I’m afraid it brick… but soon i found it didn’t
It take about 1 minute in my WDlive to Brad custom firmware load
I take credits for Brad developing this … but still, based on 1.02.21v, there’s no good internet content…
It stuttering playing some Apple Trailer *.MOV too…
The newest B-Rad firmware (Posted 31 DEC 2010) http://forum.wdlxtv.com/viewtopic.php?f=61&t=3026 is based on the 1.03.49 WD Firmware and should have what you are looking for in content. It is not as up to date as the current stock FW but does not have the bugs either. I can stream all content with no stuttering wireless and wired. I have 3 units all flashed with the current WDLXTV firmware and they all work great. The firmware add loads of options. Even a way to add custom channels via a built-in UMSP server. http://forum.wdlxtv.com/viewforum.php?f=49.
