I’ve decided to make my own post to see if anyone can give me some troubleshooting ideas to try to fix the problem that I am having with my WDTV live SMP players.
I am having issues playing back high Bitrate MKV files. I’m talking about MKV files that have a Bitrate of 20 Mbps or higher. All of the MKV files that have Bitrates below 20 Mbps play just fine. The high Bitrate files use to play fine on firmware version 1.03.10. After upgrading to firmware 1.14.09 (problem persists on the new firmware 1.15.10), the device can’t seem to play those 20 Mbps Bitrate files properly. This is exactly what happens. The device will start playing the movie, but then it pauses and this orange circular arrow appears; I’m not sure if that is the device seeking information or what. Sometimes the movie will just freeze and I have to unplug the device from the electricity to get it to respond.
I’ve put these problematic files on an external hard drive and connected the hard drive to the front of my WDTV live and they play flawlessly. This was pointing me towards blaming my server. However, these files play just fine over the network when I use any of my networked (wired) computers to play the files.
I have tried this on two other WDTV SMP units and the problem is the same. I have also tried connecting a laptop to the exact network cable where the WDTV units are connected to see if I can play the file without problems. The laptop was able to play the same files over the same network connection without any issues.
This is what I’ve tried to fix the issue:
I’ve reinstalled my Windows Home Server 2011.
I got a new modem and router (motorola SB 6141 and D-link Dir 655); I was planning to return the gateway I had back to time warner cable anyways.
I’ve setup a static IP address for my WDTV.
I’ve tried all the WDTV smp firmwares available for download.
I’ve remuxed the problematic file with Makemkv (wdtv profile) and I’ve also tried remuxing with mkvtoolnix 5.8
I’ve tried remuxing and making sure there was no header compression.
I’m accessing my MKV files through the network shared folders on my windows home server 2011; I believe it is smb sharing, but I’ll do some research to see exactly what sharing method it is. On my WDTV SMP, I just go to videos, network shares and I get access to all the network shared folders available on my windows home server 2011. I have plenty of bandwith on my home network. Both my router and switch are gigabit units; my transfer rates are usually 80 to 100 megabites per second, but I have seen occasions when the rate drops to a minimum of 48 megabites per second. Also, these big files use to play properly before updating the firmware. I wish I could try the script you posted, but I don’t think I have the proper knowledge for those type of exercises.
I’ll do some research into nfs. The drops to 48 megabites per second I’ve seen are very few. I tried playing these http://jell.yfish.us/ mkv files and my wdtv starts stuttering and showing that orange circular arrow with the 20Mbps mkv file. I’ve also connected my laptop directly to the same network cable where the WDTV is connected and I have no issues with speed and the mkv files will play flawlessly on the laptop.
I hope the NFS thing works. Thank you so much for taking the time to shoot some ideas this way.
I use stablebit drive pool to pool my harddrives together and that does not support NFS at the moment so I’m afraid I can’t try the NFS sharing system. I doubt it is the SMB sharing method. I’ve used it for years with WDTV live boxes for years without any issues. I really wish I could try it though just to see if that fixes the issue.
Don’t know much about stablebit (except for brief google), but certainly there could be some adverse interaction between it and the SMP. Doubtful it was tested extensively (if at all) with Linux-based CIFS systems, given what is standard for most Windows-only software vendors (i.e., nearly complete ignorance of Linux/UNIX).
I assume you still have a drive not in the stablebit pool, like C (boot drive)? What I would do is create a share there, put the jellyfish files in it, then add that share to the SMP and try playing the files from that share. If they work, then stablebit is your problem. If not, then there is something else to blame.
Stuttering on the 20 Mbps jellyfish file is absolutely horrible performance for a wired connection. My SMP could handle that file over “n” wifi even, and can handle the 60+ Mbps jellyfish files over a wired connection (from a Samba server).
I tried one this week. High bitrate but not sure if it’s 20mbps… It went into the two colour spinning arrow for >30 seconds before starting playback. Once playing the device response is like once every 20 seconds? Aka I need to jam the stop button. Once, it even started playing when I had exited Play and was at Home screen – the audio was going on and the device lagged badly. I am using direct USB HDD.
I’ve decided to make my own post to see if anyone can give me some troubleshooting ideas to try to fix the problem that I am having with my WDTV live SMP players.
I am having issues playing back high Bitrate MKV files. I’m talking about MKV files that have a Bitrate of 20 Mbps or higher. All of the MKV files that have Bitrates below 20 Mbps play just fine. The high Bitrate files use to play fine on firmware version 1.03.10. After upgrading to firmware 1.14.09 (problem persists on the new firmware 1.15.10), the device can’t seem to play those 20 Mbps Bitrate files properly. This is exactly what happens. The device will start playing the movie, but then it pauses and this orange circular arrow appears; I’m not sure if that is the device seeking information or what. Sometimes the movie will just freeze and I have to unplug the device from the electricity to get it to respond.
I’ve put these problematic files on an external hard drive and connected the hard drive to the front of my WDTV live and they play flawlessly. This was pointing me towards blaming my server. However, these files play just fine over the network when I use any of my networked (wired) computers to play the files.
I have tried this on two other WDTV SMP units and the problem is the same. I have also tried connecting a laptop to the exact network cable where the WDTV units are connected to see if I can play the file without problems. The laptop was able to play the same files over the same network connection without any issues.
This is what I’ve tried to fix the issue:
I’ve reinstalled my Windows Home Server 2011.
I got a new modem and router (motorola SB 6141 and D-link Dir 655); I was planning to return the gateway I had back to time warner cable anyways.
I’ve setup a static IP address for my WDTV.
I’ve tried all the WDTV smp firmwares available for download.
I’ve remuxed the problematic file with Makemkv (wdtv profile) and I’ve also tried remuxing with mkvtoolnix 5.8
I’ve tried remuxing and making sure there was no header compression.
Anyone have any ideas of whatelse I can try? :(…
What’s the postscript on this?
I’m having the EXACT same problem with a WDTV Live (latest firmware) connected to a Synology DS 713+ running DSM 4.2 via a gigabit Ethernet and switches and using HFS.
Nothing decisive. I for one have no problems watching movies > 20 mbit/s (all my rips are uncompressed) over network. Some people have reported setting all links to 100 mbit would fix this but this is also not clear yet.
