Unintended pauses Options

[Jackblob]

When I first purchased my WDTV Live I purchased a cheap SimpleTech 1Tb usb drive. The combo worked flawlessly. Then I upgraded to a 2Tb My Book Elite. This is when my trouble started.

During the viewing of a movie, the video would pause for approx 10 seconds, speed up for 5-7 seconds, and then resume normal play. During this pause, the usb light on the wdtv would flash as if reacquiring the My Book. At no time did these pauses happen when playing from a network media server. I contacted Western Digital, explained the issue and they sent me a replacement drive. The problem did not go away.

I put the SimpleTech drive back in operation and once again thing worked flawlessly.

Question: What is it about the My Book Elite that causes these pauses?

[Rev Drew]

no idea, I was expecting to see you were having network issues and not a HDD issue..

try reformatting the drive and putting media on it again and see if that helped, it could be something already on the drive when it was new..

[WDUser]

Frankly, if WD can't get their own hardware to cooperate, what else can be said... (IMG:style_emoticons/default/huh.gif)

As mentioned above, try to delete all existing partitions, repartition and reformat as NTFS. If it still doesn't work, buy something else, such as maybe another SimpleTech drive.

[Jackblob]

Thanks for the replies.

While I didn't bother to format the first My Book Elite drive, I did format the replacement drive. I had a long discussion with the WD tech about how formatting was not the problem anyway. The pauses were random. If a movie pauses at a particular time point, I could reverse and play that section again without issue. If the drive was somehow improperly formatted, the pauses would occurs at exactly the same time points.

The key here is the link/activity light on the WDTV Live would go solid and then start flashing when these pauses occured, as if it is renegotiating sync with the usb drive.

Also, it didn't matter which usb port I used. I tried different usb cables. I tried different power sources. Nada. The only think I didn't try is a different WVTV Live and I think it's too late for that as it is nearly 2 years old.

All this because I wanted a usb drive that would turn on and off with the WDTV Live. Sheesh!

So here's my last question: If I could find a usb enclosure that turns on and off with the WDTV Live, I would gladly remove the HD and transfer it to the new enclosure. I'm fully aware that, in doing so, I would have to reformat and reload my videos. Any suggestions?

Again, thanks for the replies.

[WDUser]

If it's possible, I'd advise you to simply return the My Book Elite for a refund rather than break it apart (which will probably also void the warranty) and take out the HDD, only so that you can put in into another enclosure. Why bother when you can get a bare-bones internal 3.5" HDD (probably better/faster than the one inside) and an enclosure combined for possibly less than what you paid for the Elite?

Also, why should taking the HDD out of the Elite's enclosure and putting it into another involve reformatting and reloading all your videos?

Since the SimpleTech drive seems to work fine (is that externally powered too like the Elite?), your player should be fine. Probably just another example of WD's non-existent QA.

As for the HDD turning off, there's an option you can enable with custom FW (WDLXTV-Live) that works with many USB drives/enclosures. You might want to look into that once you get a new drive/enclosure combo.

[Jackblob]

I got the My Book dirt cheap so I'm willing to remove the drive. I was told that the My Book does "something" proprietary that makes the HD unreadable to a computer. I certainly can be wrong on that one.

I'll look into the WDLXTV-Live custom firmware. Thanks for the suggestion.

You've given me more that enough to go on. Thank you.

[EtherZa]

Although I can't confirm the LED activity; I have the exact same issue with a seagate freeagent 1tb. Only difference is that the video freezes for between 2-3 minutes before streaming ahead and catching up with the original play time.

The OSD is usually responsive when this happens :(

[WDUser]

@EtherZa: Same drive, no issues ever. Of course, I did this immediately after buying it. Also, this might happen if the bitrate's too high for the player. Does this happen with every single file? Have you tried a fast pen drive or other drive to confirm whether it is indeed the drive's fault or the player's?

[EtherZa]

I have tried to use a pen drive without a problem but can't conclusively say that it is fixed as I did not spend several hours playing off of it.

The player can go for hours without an issue and then can hang on the same file when replayed later. This happens on both HD and SD files which should rule out bitrate as the problem. I have noticed that it seems to happen more once a video is paused and then resumed, though this is not always a precursor for the problem. It also happens when using either s-video and HDMI (analogue audio); and doesn't seem to be influenced when connected to a 3g router. The LED does not flicker as with JackBlob's post.

I did delete all the partitions on the drive and formatted (NTFS) with the default windows7 options.

At this stage, I am looking at rolling back to the first firmware and progressively updating if I don't find the issue - I don't remember it happening when I first bought the device but have updated several times since then...

[ProZak]

Hi there,,Has anyone found a true solution for this random pause, then ff issue?
wd live with wd1TB mybook, does this for every .mkv. Latest firmware on the wd live player,,,
Not a network share issue as it does this when Ethernet connected or not.
:Reformat of drive had no effect. Updating the firmware for the 1TB WDBAAF0010HBK-01, has cut the issue in half, but has not solved the problem,,, random pause,ff issue once or twice a movie now instead of 5x or more. Bottom line tho,,,junk this drive? (IMG:http://wdtvhd.com/style_images/web2englis1237732730/folder_post_icons/icon8.gif)

P.

[WDUser]

Can you try with a fast pen drive or another USB HDD (preferably one that's externally and not USB powered)?

[ProZak]

.MKV playback from an 8 gig usb stick ,,,, flawless.
After defrag, chdsk,,,same issue. When reformatted, i left the original partition table in tact with the wd utility,, will try dumping and reformatting again wiping out that partition. As you linked in post#8,, thanks for your reply!

P.


edit: just wanted to confirm the unintended pause's were caused by the drive and the only solution is to not use wd my book essentials 1tb drive with my wdlive player.