Second hand WDTV Options

[BusterB]

Hi guys,

Just picked up a working second hand gen 1 WDTV off ebay.

Just reading some of the posts on firmware and receviers, audio issues etc and would like to ask for some feedback or suggestions if I may.

My set will be either:

WDTV > HDMI > Pioneer 519 receiver > HDMI > 1080p TV

or

WDTV > HDMI > 1080p TV > OPTICAL > Pio receiver.

The reason for the second set up is for evenings when the kids are in bed I can use the TV pseakers instead of home theatre, what if any issues am I likely to encounter with optical from the TV to the receiver rather than HDMI to recevier from WDTV.

Also would you suggest I update to latest firmware or stop at the previous one ?

Many Thanks

BB

[neverlift]

Hi BB, The only problem you will run into with this set up is the decoding of any DTS files you might have, the first gen WDTV does not decode DTS. Running your WDTV Gen1 through a receiver that decodes DTS is the only way to get DTS to play, besides buying a WDTV live with built in decoder. Hope this helps.

Cheers!

[ToJa92]

While on the subject, will WDTV pass on DTS if connected to a receiver directly via HDMI (and then receiver from TV)?

Think I've heard the answer before, but can't remember... (IMG:style_emoticons/default/tongue.gif)

[neverlift]

Something I cant do since I do not have a receiver that has HDMI, so someone please report back if I was wrong.

Cheers!

[WDUser]

I'm not able to locate the exact topic right now, but I do remember reading that HDMI will allow DTS pass-through. But many TVs won't, so WD TV to receiver should be fine, and the receiver should then decode and send the appropriate signal for the TV to play back via its speakers. Of course, YMMV according to the exact hardware setup you have.

@BB: Do update to the latest FW version. Still has lots of bugs of course (that will remain forever unfixed), but it does fix a few that plagued the earlier releases. Plus you can always downgrade (see Tutorials section for more).

[BusterB]

Hi guys,

Thanks for the feedback.

Just one other issue I'm encountering (and I have searched for this on here) I have the following folder set-up.

Folder (Action)
Folder.jpg

9.mkv
9.jpg

I have the WDTV set up for thumbnail view with firmware 1.02.07.

However, when I go to the Action folder I'm seeing the image for the movie 9 as the folder image....

Thanks

BB

[WDUser]

Try renaming the file to folder.jpg (maybe the capitalisation is significant since it's Linux and not Windows). Also, maybe the single-character filename is causing issues. How about other files? Do all thumbs exhibit similar issues?

Like I said, also update to the latest FW release, for it's possible some of the issues you're facing were fixed in that version.

[BusterB]

Hey WD User,

Just thought I would check back to let you know I worked it out, came down to the file size of the image, although both images are 120 x 180 for some reason the file size for the 'action' folder was 6.85kb but the image for the movie, whilst still 120 x 180 came in at 16kb.

As soon as I found a 120 x 180 image that was 7kb or slightly less it shows up.

I must say that all the images I downloaded have come from various WD forums, so cleary some images work and some don't even though they are the correct 2 x 3 calculation type.

As it is running stable for the time being I won't update the firmware until I have read through all of the notes on what updates contain what.

Thanks again for the assistance.

BB

Oh by the way, I didn't rename the images either to .jpg, they were named the same as the movie:

sci-fi
folder

star trek 720p 2009.mkv
star trek 720p 2009

And it works

Cheers

BB

[WDUser]

Glad it works, but I must admit I'm confused as to that last bit. You mean the thumbnail files have no extension whatsoever (i.e. you deleted the existing ones, since they must have had them at some point)? Or is it just that you're viewing them via Windows Explorer, which has a stupid default of hiding all file extensions? 'Cos if they work even without extensions, that's a new one to me!

[BusterB]

Hi WD,

The images are jpeg's but when I view them in Windows 7 I cannot see the file type/extension unless I right click on the image and then check the properties.

The thing that got me was I understood that if the image was 120 x 180 or 200 by 300 they would or should all work, but I tried it a few times with 120 x 180 images that were greater in file size than 10kb and the images would not show.

As soon as I found 120 x 180 images below that 10k threshold they show up.

Hope this helps, if there's anything you want me to try out let me know.

BB

[WDUser]

Yeah, as expected, the files have extensions all right, but you're viewing them in Windows Explorer which by default hides all extensions (which IMO confuses people and is also a security risk). To always show extensions, in Explorer go to Organize menu / Folder and search options / View tab / Uncheck "Hide extensions for known file types".

Anyway, as long as you got it to work, it's all good. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)