WD TV Live Incompatible w/ Windows 8? I'm close to giving up!

WD Legacy Products WD TV Live Streaming
1

Have two WD TV Live units in my home for many years that worked great using Windows 7 to stream from PC.  Upgraded to Windows 8 and now they both have continuous problems - I spend hours trying fix one problem, another one appears, then something goes wrong on the other and then a few weeks later everything breaks again.  It’s frankly gotten to a point where I think WD TV Live units just don’t work with Windows 8 and am close to giving up.  Yes, I’ve updated the firmware, yes I’ve tried everything suggested on this forum, yes, I’ve tried all the other fixes from other forums – nothing works for long.  Primarily, either one or both of the units don’t see the PC now on the network, or they see the PC and can’t see any files in the folders.

If I run Windows Media Player (which is just kind of weird now on Windows 8, since there is another primary player in the metro interface) it seems to solve part of the problem for about a week for one unit (the older of the two) but not the other (almost brand new, only about six months old), and then about a few weeks later something seems to reset on Windows 8 and the linkage is broken again and I’m back to square one on both of the units.  Incredible frustrating, especially since they both use to work so flawlessly for so many years. 

WD if you are listening, you’re about to loose a customer for life unless you do something to fix this and release some true documentation updates for Windows 8 users and tell us how to REALLY fix the problems once and for all. 

2

you might also have to admit that the problem could be windows 8

talkin with a friend of mine this weekend (a microsoft employee)

he said employees are required to install win8 on at least 1 machine they have access to

however, he said, most employees never use the machine with windows 8 because they have too many problems when running that OS

now that said, your above post does not give enough info for anybody to help, if you’re wanting it

3

The problem is quite simple

How are we able to use our share on a windows 8 PC so we can watch them using our WD TV Live

4

still not enough info

please specify

are you useing network sharing or media server from win8

and how does the problem present itself on WD

does the WD see the shares?

is there a password/access problem?

is this just an issue of studdering video’s from the share

etc …

5

Network Share

The WD doesn’t see the network share or the PC for that matter. Other computer on the network with windows 8 or 7 see the PC and the share.

I followed the windows 7 procedure down to the letter but nothing

6

I don’t have win8 to test, I’m a linux guy

but make sure all devices are in the same workgroup

it also might be good to check what device is the master browser on your network

that could be what’s causing the sporadic issues mentioned in your first post

when machine A is your master browser it works

when machine B is your master browser it doesn’t work

7

These are the window 7 steps

Follow these instructions to share on  Windows7

(1) Run Local Security Policy applet under Administrative Tools. If you don’t see administrative tools, enable it under the properties of the Start menu

(2) Under local policies → User Rights Assignment

When you see Deny access to the computer from the network, REMOVE user guest.

(3) Under Local Policies → User Rights Assignment, find Access this computer from the network → add EVERYONE’ and ANONYMOUS LOGON’

(4) Under local policies → Security Options → find Accounts: Limit local account use of blank passwords. Change the setting to disabled.

(5) Under local policies → Security Options → Network Access: Shares that can be accessed anonymously → type in the name of your shares

(6) Enable the guest account; set the guest password to blank

(7) Check the share permissions on your share and make sure it has EVERYONE read

(8) Check the file permissions on the files in your share and make sure it has EVERYONE read

Now for the linux guy - Master Browser is always the Router - there is only one network and it’s a wired one.

8

Romanian wrote:

 

Now for the linux guy - Master Browser is always the Router - there is only one network and it’s a wired one.

you might be surprised, while some routers can be configured as a master browser, usually a specific PC is the master browser and this can change

9

I dont think this is a WD issue but a windows 8 issue.

Ran in to to the issue of my boxes not being able to see windows 8 shares so i went into control panel/users and created a new user.

Went into that user and shared what i wanted in homegroup and that machines see it fine.

Something in the upgrade process seems to mess up the homegroup that worked in windows 7.

10

KAD79 It seems you were rignt

I changed my linksys E3000 with an older model which doesn’t have a USB port and the Router stopped being master browser - the windows 7 computer became the master browser and the shares worked.

Now I don’t want to use my old Router I’dd rather use the E3000, but I can’t make it stop being master browser and I can’t understand what in windows 8 prevents it from fullfilling it’s task correctly.

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Romanian:  I had the same experience with the E3000s even under XP and Windows 7.

However, I don’t need the storage function on the E3000s (of which I have two), so I just changed the E3000s to be in their own separate workgroup where they cannot possibly become the browser for the main workgroup.

Everything in my network except for the E3000’s is in the WORKGROUP workgroup.

Both E3000s are in the ROUTERS workgroup.

Works perfectly for me.

12

ah the E3000

I have one of those, had loads of network problems, until I installed DD-WRT on it

now it’s being used in my network as a wireless bridge only

main router now is RT-AC66U

13

dcb917 wrote:

KAD79 wrote:

you might also have to admit that the problem could be windows 8

 

talkin with a friend of mine this weekend (a microsoft employee)

he said employees are required to install win8 on at least 1 machine they have access to

 

however, he said, most employees never use the machine with windows 8 because they have too many problems when running that OS

 

 

 

 

 

well take it or leave

the point of the above was to emphasize that it’s probably not the WD that has the problem

and low and behold

my suggestions in this thread ultimately lead to a solution

and confirmed the problem was not the WD

14

Correct and your suggestion the issue  was related to W8 was utter rubbish.

15

dcb917 wrote:

Correct and your suggestion the issue  was related to W8 was utter rubbish.

Obviously it is utter rubbish to suggest that any problem with the WD TV units could be Windows’ fault.  I mean, it is not like MS has been found by a court of law to having purposefully changed their products to thwart competitors’ compatibility, let alone been fined big bucks for such behavior.  Oh, wait, yes they have.

If I had a dollar for every post on this forum where somebody talks about having made Windows changes/upgrades and now the WD TV unit isn’t working and then proceeds to blame the problem on “stupid WD,”  well I would have a nice chunk of change to play with.  Good luck with that attitude as Windows becomes less and less relevant.

16

Wd can and does make mistakes.

The problem is so does everyone else so tracking the problem down takes some detective work.

In the case of windows 8 upgrade messes with homegroup and often getting around that issue requires a reninstall fresh or adding a new user to share folders.

17

Well in this case the issue had nothing to do with Windows 8 as it turned out so I stand by my comment.

The real issue here is that these forums are filled with people complaining about WDTVs and networking issues.  Do you really think cmd line work to jack with the master browser, turning off home groups, turning on/off services, ip assignments, etc etc are par for the course and reasonable to get these things to work?  We can ridicule Apple and MS for how bad their networking is, but at the end of the day isn’t that pretty myopic?  Blaming the main OEMs that you HAVE to support to be successful?  How many of these boxes would WD sell if they dropped support for MS?  Lol.

The other thing is that I have all kinds of things connected to my network that are a lot more sophisticated than the WD box…none of them took the gymnastics that WD took to get working…and the real issue is that anytime I introduce a new device to the network I have to remember about how easy it is to break the WD.  I bought 2 WDs, but after that got smart and went with Roku/Plex, better and an easier to set up.

I still use my WDs as they now work, buy you guys are in denial if you think there are not serious networking issues with them.  Maybe you’ll believe me when WD rolls out the replacement product and you see it networks like a champ.  Then you can sit around here and tell newbies how hard it was in the old days.

18

really do you have nothing better to do

the original poster was helped and is not complaining about how he got helped, his problem was resolved

and while there are issues with the WD, some of which I’ve personally submitted as idea’s that are being reviewed

The majority of posters here having network problems are due to incorrect network set up of either their windows PC or their routers

I’ve suggested a mod close this thread it’s going nowhere

19

dcb917 wrote:

Well in this case the issue had nothing to do with Windows 8 as it turned out so I stand by my comment.

 

The real issue here is that these forums are filled with people complaining about WDTVs and networking issues.  Do you really think cmd line work to jack with the master browser, turning off home groups, turning on/off services, ip assignments, etc etc are par for the course and reasonable to get these things to work?  We can ridicule Apple and MS for how bad their networking is, but at the end of the day isn’t that pretty myopic?  Blaming the main OEMs that you HAVE to support to be successful?  How many of these boxes would WD sell if they dropped support for MS?  Lol.

 

The other thing is that I have all kinds of things connected to my network that are a lot more sophisticated than the WD box…none of them took the gymnastics that WD took to get working…and the real issue is that anytime I introduce a new device to the network I have to remember about how easy it is to break the WD.  I bought 2 WDs, but after that got smart and went with Roku/Plex, better and an easier to set up.

 

I still use my WDs as they now work, buy you guys are in denial if you think there are not serious networking issues with them.  Maybe you’ll believe me when WD rolls out the replacement product and you see it networks like a champ.  Then you can sit around here and tell newbies how hard it was in the old days.

You said it was “utter rubbish” to claim that Windows 8 should be considered as the possible cause for the problems.  I stand by my position that that is ridiculous.  The fact that Win8 did not happen to be the cause in this particular case is completely irrelevant.  You can easily find many cases on this forum where Windows most definitely was the cause of the problems.  Most Windows users do not understand Windows file sharing and file security settings, so it is far from unlikely that bad Windows settings are to blame for issues.

I have encountered absolutely zero problems with the two SMPs that I have on my network.  Absolutely zero.  Took me literally less than 5 minutes to have my first SMP streaming from my (existing) Samba server.  Wired networking auto/DHCP, change workgroup, select Windows/SMB server.  Done.  Yeah, what a lot of gymnastics, huh?  Of course I am knowledgeable about computers and networking (CS PhD), so had a properly setup network with carefully selected and properly functioning network gear.  This is clearly not the case for many people–as the source of the problem for the OP in this thread demonstrates yet again.

The fact that you seem to be suggesting that any networked device like the WD TV units ought to be able to function in spite of any set of incorrectly setup and/or functioning network equipment shows that you do not understand the basics of network protocols.  It is trivially easy to render a LAN severely non-functional.  My experience with every networked multimedia device that I have owned is that the vast majority of problems users report on the forums are related to network issues, with the vast majority being due to improperly setup or functioning network gear.  Are you saying I won’t be able to find any people reporting network-related issues with Roku devices?  I doubt that is true.

Saying that users shouldn’t have to deal with what machine is the master browser and similar network setup details is all fine and good, but it displays your ignorance of the fact that these are inherent elements of protocols like SMB, so there is no choice but to deal with them.  Wecome to the realities of networking:  it is often not plug-and-play and almost none of the protocols were designed to be configured by non-technicals users–as is frequently being done today.  If you don’t like that fact, then stick with using an external drives plugged directly into your media players.

20

Can I say a couple of things,

The original poster was not helped as he never came back.
I don’t know how dcb917 got into the thread as he was quoted without actually posting anything.
Can we not call for threads to be closed just we don’t agree with what people say. This is user to user discussion area and its not just a place for solving problems.