Vob Files Choppy Options

[Wamblej]

I am new to this WDTV thing and very excited about the capabilities of this device.
Unfortunately, I am having a problem playing vob files across a wired network connection. When I go to play them they startup fine, however after a few minutes they get choppy and sound cuts out. Sometimes it will catch up and sound will kick in, but most of the rest of the time it does not play correctly.
Now before you say it is my network connection I will tell you that 8gb MKV files of my blu-ray movies play without a problem.
Is there a known problem that explains this - or any suggestions on things I can try? Thanks in advance for any help.

[Rev Drew]

an 8GB mkv would be 720p quality so that's likely a non issue / moot point.
without knowing anything about the vob files you're trying to play, my guess is it's network related.

try streaming a good size 1080p mkv, say 15GB or larger, if that's okay then we'll see what else we can come up with.

[Wamblej]

I didnt think it was a moot point as I though streaming an 8gb 720p file over the network was more taxing than a 1gb vob file... But I have tried a 12gb 1080p and it seems to be streaming fine.
Today I did a couple resets of my wdtv and it played a vob ok for a while tonight. I need to do some more tests to see if it always has this issue or if it is intermittent. As I said I am new to wdtvs and I usually just stream to htpcs. Hopefully this can be a cheaper and quieter future solution for me.
I have the latest wdtv firmware so I expected these issues to be corrected, but it would be nice to know if it is just a problem for me or if others have this problem. If it is just me I need to isolate it to a network vs bad unit issue. Any input is appreciated. Thanks.

[Rev Drew]

just a little tip for you, when saying you have the latest firmware, please provide the firmware revision as listed in the about screen of the menu, there have been way to many cases of people thinking they have the latest firmware when it's months old.
if my memory serves me I think there was a vob issue a while back but I never noticed it, most of my media is in mkv format, hopefully someone who was effected or remembers it will chime in here.

I found this, may be worth a try...

Solution for me was to rename all of those titles to .m2ts and I removed all files around them (IFO,BUP, TS). This way only episodes stay and can be played continuously. I think if I left unused files it did not play back those m2ts subsequently.

apparently there will be a pause / skip when changing form one vob to another, you could try moving all the other files out of the folder leaving just the vob files.

all this info is about 2 years old so one would expect that newer firmware should have addressed this by now but with WD, who knows ...

[Wamblej]

I appreciate the response. My firmware is 1.06.16-b. I have considered converting all my media to mkv because it does play so well however i like the purity of vob or ISo and the ability to burn a DVD again from my backups if necessary. I will keep testing it. Thanks again.

[Rev Drew]

if you can convert them into their own ISO you should have less problems, from what I remember ISO's work quite well.

[Wamblej]

Iso's are working quite well but I also use windows media center on my main tv and it isn't as friendly with isos as it is vobs. It Just adds a few more hoops with mounting sofatware, etc. Tonight I did a few more tests. Earlier I had a vob that was really struggling on the wdtv and now it is working fine. That leads me to believe that it is more a network issue. It is almost like The wdtv needs to warm up though. I thought it might be the ac3 audio file or something but if it was then it would always have the problem and not work sometimes with the same movie and not others times. Who knows? I will update my progress if I can figure anything out. Thanks.

I'm debating switching to b-rad fw to see if I get improved reliability but I dont want to till it has the latest wd fw.

[Rev Drew]

WDLXTV will always be behind WD firmware, when WD releases firmware it is checked and tested, right now the official 1.06.** release is to buggy for the developers to bother with.