Comments on: WD TV Media Player does 1080P and plays MKV

By: Phil

Phil — Wed, 28 Mar 2012 00:28:00 +0000

Every chance the problem is either; the audio is ACC or the mkv has file “header compression” in it. Check another mkv file with AC3 dolby or DTS sound and see if you get the same problem?
Re-process the file using the free MKVMerge from MKVToolNix download (and turn off header compression). Works like a charm.

By: Achu

Achu — Tue, 27 Mar 2012 16:55:00 +0000

I have both WD media player and a WD 1TB passport drive. I have annoying incidence of frozen screen after a few minute of MKV movie playback. Happens everytime even after power off everything and re-boot. Performed all firmware update and didn’t help. Help, anybody?

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Mon, 08 Aug 2011 03:30:00 +0000

Hi Campbell, while a firmware upgrade may help, it is unlikley to eventuate now that WD treats it as a Legacy unit. WD state on their website that 2Tb is the current limitation for this unit (being the original Gen1 HD Player).
Note that the WD TV Live Plus latest Firmware does now handle drives over 2Tb limit (Firmware Version 1.06.16_B for WD TV Live Plus (8/2/11))
BTW I’ve now found that problems playing some MKV files (and freezing playback) is only if the file has “header compression” invoked. Simple solution is to re-process the file using the free MKVMerge sofware with “no compression” set for video and audio.
Phil

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Mon, 08 Aug 2011 03:30:00 +0000

By: Campbell Sinclair

Campbell Sinclair — Sat, 06 Aug 2011 06:00:00 +0000

Hi Phill

Just realized the no 3TB support as I bought a new 3TB HDD the other day and the media box would not recognize it. Do you think a firmware upgrade will fix it ??. I brought a Seagate GoFlex TV for a my 3TB drive and its a way inferior product. Really disappointing.

By: Cool_boi21

Cool_boi21 — Tue, 02 Aug 2011 23:03:00 +0000

Problem with audio channel selection, on pc it has 2 option but on wd hd media player only 1 option!

By: Phil181

Phil181 — Sun, 31 Jul 2011 04:07:00 +0000

I’ve had my WD Media player for over 2 years. Works a treat on most mkv files and all m2ts files. It only decodes AC3 in stereo for the old tv types with composite video. DTS works perfectly using an Optical Out cable. Straight into a multi-media 7.1 amplifier. It can handle DTS-ES (lile on LOTR) and DTS-MA on some movies but I found the high bitrate too much some times for the player and it froze. It was easy to play after stripping the DTS core for the movie.

Overall it is a really great media player for 1080p HD video files and everything else like FLAC music. I’ve recommended to my friends and they have really enjoyed it as well (a lot use the HDMI cable). Pity it has a 2Tb limit on external drives as I’m up to hard drive number 6.
Phil.

By: Murthy786m

Murthy786m — Wed, 06 Jul 2011 05:18:00 +0000

Hello All,

The WD player dosent support DTS audio files. The MKV file has the audio track written in DTS format. This Player supports AC3 audio format. So, the best thing to play audio files is to convert to AC3 format from audio converter. This software is available for free (http://www.videohelp.com/tools/PopCorn_MKV_AudioConverter) its easy and simple. If any issues kindly let me know. i will surely help…..WD player is worth buying. Instead of spending on Bluray players…

Thanks
Murthy

By: Payal

Payal — Sun, 03 Jul 2011 06:10:00 +0000

I have a similar issue with some MKV files not playing any sound,what is the remedy to that ,can anyone suggest?

By: Sbnetworking

Sbnetworking — Mon, 27 Jun 2011 20:54:00 +0000

Will knot step forward while playing video files like MCE or other software based PC players will do. Big disappointment having to fast forward for everything accept ISO and folders with the correct structure. Seems wrong to to include such a valuable tool. I know I like to make y guests wait while I fast forward like I used to do on a VHS! What gives?

By: Chris

Chris — Mon, 20 Jun 2011 16:49:00 +0000

Had no issues with the media player itself exept for some .mkv files not playing sound – But buying a WD External Hard drive… well that’s a whole other matter, Stay the hell away from those – I’ve gone through 4 this year, The built in software fails, the units fail, the plugs on the outer casing break off…. and I treat my electronics with the utmost care.

By: Ed

Ed — Sat, 28 May 2011 11:35:00 +0000

Hi Brian, I am about to buy a WD Media Player,(my friend has one and evwn though he is having heaps of trouble with it ) I am going to take the plunge.
So here is my question would you please tell me exactly how you go about updating it.I tried my friends whilst connected to my TV – No Joy. So should I be connecting it to my computer if so HOw.
Regards Ed

By: Brian

Brian — Sat, 07 May 2011 18:25:00 +0000

Well I have had my W.D Live for about eight months now and never had a spec of trouble with it. It has gone through 3 hardware updates and improves it’s performance each time. I have a 1 TB Hard drive on it and I use it daily. I would recommend this item to anyone

By: Brian

Brian — Sat, 07 May 2011 18:25:00 +0000

By: Brian

Brian — Sat, 07 May 2011 18:25:00 +0000

By: Joe

Joe — Wed, 04 May 2011 09:47:00 +0000

Well this is not the best product, im afraid Fgterer is right. Too many problems with this.

By: Annoyed

Annoyed — Wed, 23 Mar 2011 14:26:00 +0000

Wont Play Audio On My AC3 / MKV Files Plugged Into My Panasonic 5.1 Blu ray Player everything else is fine

By: Henry_juenks

Henry_juenks — Fri, 18 Mar 2011 14:57:00 +0000

Grow up. WD product only the best compared to many other companies.

By: Fgterer

Fgterer — Sun, 06 Feb 2011 06:33:00 +0000

Be wary of this unit. As soon as you install it, it asks you if you want to upgrade the firmware. if you do, kiss it goodbye – it won’t boot up anymore. The thing is junk. avoid.

By: Paul

Paul — Sun, 23 Jan 2011 17:10:52 +0000

Dude
Big thank you – can play mkv files with sound through western digital media player now, excellent tip, you are a star, cheers m8
regs
Paul

By: dj

dj — Tue, 11 Jan 2011 23:37:27 +0000

ok the cinavia thing on the ps3 is p''''''g me off. so i was thinking of getting this to try play my blu-ray's but as most of my files are 'm2ts' files will they play on this baby?

By: JenChai

JenChai — Tue, 28 Dec 2010 21:25:31 +0000

Seriously I bought the WD TV Live player and had no issues with MKV file with 5.1 Dts sound. I dont have a home theatre, but I used both RCA and HDMI input and it played fine. I am thinking of buying a home theatre soon to use the optical out (Digital Audio) to get the 5.1 surround sound. Its an amazing piece of hardware that can play almost everything including switching between audio channels and subtitles.

Now for those who are complaining, change your audio to stereo if you dont have a home theatre and stop complaining.

By: Twisted

Twisted — Tue, 21 Dec 2010 23:16:18 +0000

Nicely said! Get out of the dark ages or watch some old VHS movies.

By: Pauly

Pauly — Thu, 16 Dec 2010 19:37:24 +0000

Those of you with mkv sound problems, stop blaming the wd box for your stupidity. Most of you with mkv’s are downloading them off the internet. These files don’t include stereo audio, only digital 5.1. So the only way you’re going to hear it is if you have a digital receiver, there’s nothing the box can do for you. So convert the audio to stereo or buy a receiver. Problem solved.

By: mike

mike — Thu, 04 Nov 2010 03:04:14 +0000

No sound on my vmkv videos. I am returning this piece of crap.

By: ilyas

ilyas — Sun, 10 Oct 2010 20:00:51 +0000

hi,

i likw to share one thing about WD player that you can use this device as wirelss device for such online videos, plus point you can access also your device or attached HDD via the wireless.

By: jimmy8765

jimmy8765 — Fri, 02 Apr 2010 11:57:04 +0000

It’s an amazing experience to watch HD movies on a home theater system in the living room with your friends or family. WDTV HD Media Player is a reliable gadget to realize this goal, since it can play just about any video format you throw at it, including Full HD video up to 1080p.

Now I would like to share my own experience about how to play Blu-ray movie on HDTV via WDTV HD Media Player

Pavtube Blu-Ray Ripper would be a good assistant, it is able to remove almost all kinds of copyright protections of BD discs, no matter BD+, or AACS, even MKB Version > 10 is supported as well.

To enable Blu-ray movies to playback on HDTV via WDTV HD Media Player, you can select “Directly Copy” from output format profile. This process will remove BD protections only, and the output .m2ts files will fully match the original files, which will keep high definition totally, but your removable disk should have enough space to save the output files, because the generated file size would be as same large as the original.

By: Frederikil

Frederikil — Sun, 16 Aug 2009 18:21:03 +0000

Sounds great – witch russian site are you using?

By: Ewdison Then

Ewdison Then — Sun, 26 Jul 2009 23:26:11 +0000

Digital media is the way to go noways, I wish they would sell media on a thumbdrive :)

By: mrac1973

mrac1973 — Sun, 26 Jul 2009 13:21:38 +0000

i got the wd tv for my birthday. I all ready have 2 160gig wd passport. I wish it came with hd wires seeing that its a hd player. I ‘ve got a 12 foot hdmi cable going to a 40 inch V series sony. looks great. but i have to say. I download a 10 gig movie THE MUMMY and it was perfect. Download is a lot of trial and error. But it still beats going to the video store. Now with the hd player I just plug and watch. I see that people are having issues with MKV files Me personally MKV’s are no problem I download from a russian site so most of my movies have more than one audio, just hit that options button and select audio. NEED TO BURN NO MORE THANK GOD!!!!!!!

By: mrac1973

mrac1973 — Sun, 26 Jul 2009 13:12:23 +0000

wow i am going to go out and buy the mg-m2tv because it play asian video ……..not

By: mrac1973

mrac1973 — Sun, 26 Jul 2009 13:09:47 +0000

On your remote there is options button hit that to change youraudio

By: brianbuys

brianbuys — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 19:27:53 +0000

It’s true this is a very good player for the money though it does have buggy issues as many have reported. Too bad western digital has not released a firmware version yet to fix these problems. once they do this will be a hard to beat player since it can do ALMOST everything you would want it to do. Seems there are two types now: with and w/o hard drive. those with HDD like the Mediagate or Popcorn hour are a good choice. those w/o hard drives like the WD TV, IOMEGA Screenplay are good too but you have to attach some sort of external usb storage anyway. So choose wisely. If you are looking for something that may be better than the WD TV, search for this: “Mediagate MG-M2TV”. this is the newest player from Mediagate which can do everything the WD TV can but actually supports more formats like RMVB (real video) for many Asian videos. so this is one item i’m really looking forward to. hoping the reviews are good on this one.

By: naveedindubai

naveedindubai — Sat, 27 Jun 2009 10:04:34 +0000

HELP! I have just bought a WD Media player; connected to the TV using HDMI cable and the sound to my home theatre with an optical cable. The DVD ripped movies work fine; however the BluRay ripped movies (5.1) doesn’t have any sound! The setting on the WD for sound is set as digital. Somebody please help.The movies are in MPEG-4 format.

By: Brabazon

Brabazon — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 16:36:50 +0000

Anyone with mkv audio issues. Download mkv2vob for free at http://www.mkv2vob.com

This will convert your mkv’s for free. Set the config options to convert DTS (and DTS HD) to 5.1 AC3 and it will pretty much convert any MKV to a perfect Mpeg – and your problem is solved.

I use this all the time with no issue. 99% of the time the video is left and not transcoded – it simply rebuilds the Audio and remuxes it to the video – a very simple tool to get over your audio issues.

By: DrEvilBetty

DrEvilBetty — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 15:05:25 +0000

I purchased one of these myself and ran into the same problem. After a little looking online, I found a free program that converts the digital audio in the MKV file to either standard AC3 or stereo audio. You can leave the digital track in the MKV file or replace it with the new audio track.

It’s simple to run and is much cheaper at $0 than the gefen converter.

Here’s the link to the authors site and the tutorial on using the converter along with the download link for the program:
http://audioconverter.heartware.dk/Tutorial/

By: Boris

Boris — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 01:59:35 +0000

I had the same problem with some but not all mkv’s I wonder what the difference is…

Anyway, a quick work around for those who have an older TV or no optical audio input; there are converters avaiable from optical out on the the back of the WD TV HD multimedia player to an analog rca stereo output that can be connected to any tv. The converter is made by a company called Gefen Digital Audio to Analog Audio Converter model #: EXT-DIGAUD-2-AAUD, the cost is $79.00+Shipping not bad if you don’t wanna spend a bunch of money but get your player to work.

Take a look at 360 pic’s of the device at: http://www.gefen.com/kvm/include/prod_html/ext-digaud-2-aaud-closeup.shtml

Take a closer look at the spec’s and ordered at:
http://www.gefen.com/kvm/dproduct.jsp?prod_id=4907

If anyone finds a program fix for the actual WD player lemme know.

Thanks

By: wade

wade — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 05:42:33 +0000

I had the same problem with the audio! I returned it today. It was a cool little device but i don’t have the money for a new receiver as well and half my files had problems with the audio.
But to be sure, is there any other way to hear the audio on those files? (other than buying a new receiver or converting the file)

By: Reimon Osh

Reimon Osh — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 13:58:39 +0000

This is the biggest crap i seen.. somebody should have mentioned that it doesn’t play MKV files with audio!!!! no one suspects that it will only play the sound of a mkv file through the optical out.. geez wat a piece of shit.. am returning it

By: Kostas

Kostas — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 17:14:01 +0000

I too have the same problem with the Digital Audio thing….i have the Sony 32W4000…but no home theater…so i cant do nothing?