BUG v1.03.01 Videos not playing at all!

[Gonik]

Hey ppl, Happy New Year!... Just yesterday i copied a video file on my portable HDD, in order to play it through WDTV...

The video (codec: divx, container: avi) refused to start playing. After i select it from the menu a blank screen appears in the TV and .. well, that's it.
After that, i tried some more videos (avi, mkv, mpg, both SD and HD) all having the same issue. They won't even start.

I tried using my usb thumb drive instead of the portable HDD, same problem. I really don't know what's wrong. The device never had another issue before!

Images and Music are OK.

Any ideas? I'm driving nuts here!

[toddy]

same (or similar) here - all movies were playing perfectly until a couple of days ago, nothing since.  When connecting a different hard-drive it is recognised and all movies are listed - but also just a blank screen after selecting one.

I am using Seagate Barracuda 2TB HDDs in an eSata removable hard-drive enclosure - all were working fine for month and although I've (only yesterday) read on the WD website that they are not able to handle 2TB HDDs yet.  I am using different HDDs for different categories and none has been full - until a couple of days ago as I filled the first one up to the limit.  I believe the trouble started as I reconnected the full HDD, but I cannot be sure, could be coincidence or I am just recalling a wrong impression. 
Anyway, there is no difference now if a HDD is full or not (tested: a new 2TB HDD with only one movie on it won't play as doesn't a movie on a 250GB HDD). 

I 'refreshed' the firmware, but no change.  Oh, I am having the WD TV HD v. 1 with FW 1.03.01   

It has nothing to do with the turn of the year, does it?   

Thank you

[guinnes]

hey guys,

I've the same problem ... since 2 days I'm not able to play any kind of video (avi, divx, mkv)
Videos I watched a week ago - I can't played now ...

I already tried : system restore, power off, remove .wdtv folder, fresh formated usb device, upgrade to b-rad firmware (same problem), reinstall latest wdtv

any ideas?

thanks and best

[toddy]

after reading for hours through other forums I finally found a solution:

it is a known problem for a couple of month and obviously is caused by the header compression in newer mkv-files.  To be exact, mkv-files created with MKVMerge v. 4.1 or later because since version 4.1, MKVMerge has set the header compression to default and the WDTVHD firmware cannot handle compressed header information.  There are more brands having problems with the new setting of MKVMerge, just most other companies (did) react to it with firmware updates....  WD will probably release a fix with the upcoming firmware update, but sadly not for the WDTVHD gen.1 or 2.


So, here comes what did solve the issue for me:

- disconnect all drives from your WDTVHD
- reset the box (small pinhole on the side)

- connect all your drives to your pc
- find .wdtv folder on all drives and delete it; each hard-drive will have such a folder if it ever was connected to the box (enable hidden files to see the folder if necessary)
- run chckdsk to fix possible file problems

- if you don't have it already get and install MediaInfo (http://mediainfo.sourceforge.net/en) and MKVtoolnix for your system (http://www.bunkus.org/videotools/mkvtoolnix/downloads.html)
- now check your mkv-files with MediaInfo and sort out those with writing application newer than mkvmerge v.4.0 (any other writing application should be fine, but no guaranty here, depends on the manual settings done by the encoder regarding header compression)

- open mkvmergeGUI (installed by mkvtoolnix and probably on your desktop) and add one of those mkv-files (file appears in Input and separate tracks in tracks)
- click on each track and go to Extra options to change the Compression to none (nothing else needs to be changed!)
- choose output filename and location or go with the default
- add to job queue if you have more than one file to fix or start muxing right away
- once done delete the old mkv-file(s)

That's it!  Takes some time, especially if you have a lot of newer mkv-files ;-(   but will solve the issue, at least did it for me.  I just checked with 4 files and it is working like a charm, will queue all other files and let it mux during the night.  From now on every mkv-file will be checked and if necessary treated as above before it goes on the movie hard-drive!!!

perfectly explained with some screen shots here (but needs registration, I think):  http://wdtvhd.com/index.php?showtopic=18896


Anyway, hope it helps.  Good luck! and damn WD for discontinuing support on the gen.1

[guinnes]

hey toddy,

thanks for your reply and the great tutorial.
i've checked the files i watched a few days ago and they are all merged with mkvmerge 2.x or 3.x.
the latest files with 4.x ...

i tried your tutorial and it works ... you're right ... it sucks to convert all new ...

thanks

[toddy]

glad it worked! 

It is my understanding that having just one compressed-header file on the HDD and trying to play it is enough to screw up your box.  If you have about 1200 movies on HDDs as I do (varied mp4, m2ts, ts, mkv, some avi) - 1 wrong file and darkness all over    and nothing really you can do about it.  Although you might check every new mkv-file, no one can be sure that other applications won't cause the same trouble or even worse.

And WD isn't doing anything to solve this...how sad.  I don't like the thought that I have to re-mux almost every mkv-file in the future as you can assume that the newer versions of mkvmerge will overtake the scene as encoders update their tools, of course.  And who knows what else will come up in the future because everyone is developing except WD?  I for one will take a closer look at the competition. ASUS perhaps - the new HD2 has already USB3 or their mini in a couple of weeks.  But their support is reportedly not the best either...at least regular firmware updates there...

In any case, WD is pretty much dead for me.  They are to slow to react to market developments - if they provide support at all.  Discontinuing support for a product after only 2 or 3 years is not very consumer friendly.  Moreover, knowing what they did (or better not did) - how can anyone trust them again and buy for example the new live! with the risk that they simply stop supporting it in a year or two? 

[Gonik]

Thanx for the reply toddy! Really appreciated. It's a LOT of work to sit and remux all the mkv in the future.

Let's hope that a custom firmware (b-rad.. please take the hint ) can solve this issue...

UPDATE: Since we found out the nature of the issue, i found a lot of relavent websites & tools:

Official workaround (compressed header removal tool) from Matroska itself. (It took ~10' to remux a 2.8GB movie in my Core2Duo 1.8GHz, 2GB RAM). Batch file by adrian

Petition on User Voice for the implementation of the new Matroska features.

Exiftool. With this tool you can find out if your .mkv file has compressed headers. Simply drag'n'drop the mkv file on the exe. If you find an attribute named "Content Compression Algorithm" then headers are compressed.

[toddy]

I too found the mkvclean tool but have to admit that I am completely useless if it comes to command line applications, simply don't know what to do if there is no install or setup.exe. I am just a 'click-here' user, that's why I went with the mkvtoolnix solution.  Guess I have to wait until someone writes a GUI

I will definitely use the Exiftool next time - drag'n'drop seems simple enough   thanks for that

[roffels]

I too found the mkvclean tool but have to admit that I am completely useless if it comes to command line applications, simply don't know what to do if there is no install or setup.exe. I am just a 'click-here' user, that's why I went with the mkvtoolnix solution.  Guess I have to wait until someone writes a GUI

I will definitely use the Exiftool next time - drag'n'drop seems simple enough   thanks for that

You can just drag the file into the mkvcleanwd.exe file and it will do the work for you.