Strange Problem with 1G HDTV Player, Black screen, no video Options

[eclea]

Hello there,

I was using my first generation hdtv player since 2009 with no problem at all. Several months ago, I bought a brand new 1TB WD external hdd with usb 3.0 and it was working fine with my player as well.

Two days ago, I was watching an episode of panam and wanted to watch another one...hence I got black screen...I thought it might be overheating so I turned my player off and went bed.

Last night, it was still giving me black screen even I wanted to watch files I did before. So I think;

1) HDD might be damaged
2) USB cable might be damaged
3) Player might be damaged

I plug my HDD into my laptop and it worked fine, I was able to play any file I wanted (and my player did recognize the hdd and files). So first option is out of question as well as second one.

I had two other external hdd from WD (both 1TB with USB 2.0), I plug them to my HDTV player and I was able to play any file I wanted, so third option is out of question as well.

At this point I got confused. I looked for an answer in the internet, they were saying that a remuxing issue can cause that, but with mediainfo software I looked the files they don't have "header slimming" or something like that which most of people were talking about as a source of the problem.

I also reset my player twice, once from the menu, once by pushing the reset button, still having black screen. I decided to leave the player alone for 24h.

Any other suggestion ?? I plan to delete .wdtv folder from my external hdd, but I don't know what result I should expect by doing this.

I know I have an old player, but it is working with my two external hdd but not the recent one (which is the only different based on usb 2.0 vs. usb 3.0) and thus I can't justify myself to buy a new player.

Can anybody help me ??

[Rev Drew]

it could be header compression, software players on a computer are immune but the hardware player like the Gen 1 WDTV aren't and you will likely need to follow this procedure

http://wdtvhd.com/index.php?showtopic=18896

[eclea]

thanks for comment...hence I checked with mediainfo and can not see "header compression"...i was downloading mkv files, so don't know which mkv merging software was used, but today I will delete .wdtv folder and check it again whether it works or not...if it doesn't I am planning to use mkWDclean...

I can not be sure about "header compression" thing, but I think the reason of this problem is not that, it even didn't play old files that I played in that particulat external hdd with usb 3.0...that's why I'm looking any different comment available...let's see...I will keep posting with the results...my steps would be

1) wait 24h
2) delete .wdtv folder from external hdd
3) copy files to another external hdd and try to play
4) check files with mediainfo, sort them out based on mkv merge 4.0 or higher, and use mkWDclean

[WDUser]

Also check the HDD thoroughly for errors (chkdsk /r), especially if you ever disconnected the drive from the player without safely ejecting it first.

[eclea]

waiting 24h, deleting .wdtv folder and doing chkdsk-r didn't help...

so I would mkWDclean as a next step...

and I have another option now, I can use my father's player to give a try (even though I do not think it is because of the player)...

edit: and I will do a virus scan as well, just to be sure...

[eclea]

I only found two file created with higher than mkvmerge 4.1 (based on mediainfo)...I used mkWDclean it worked fine, delete the older files, reset my hdtv player...still having black screen...

so tonight I will clean all other files with mkWDclean which doesn't take too much time. hope that time it will work...

is there any possibility that, mkWDclean isn't working properly ?

[WDUser]

You can always confirm by checking the 'cleaned' files with MediaInfo.

What about the player's cables? Have you tried changing those?

Can you also try connecting the player to another TV?

[eclea]

my media player works perfect with the tv, since last night I watched a movie using another external hdd I have...

I checked every single file in my hard drive to see whether they are created with mkvmerge 4.1 or higher, and cleaned them with mkWDclen...and rechecked with mediainfo...

hence I had trouble deleting .wdtv folder (unaccesible)...so I was doing chkdsk /f then defregramentation...

if I will still have same problem, I will use mkv merge gui file for remuxing...and i will not take any chance, i will copy all my video files into one folder and remuxing all of them (probably with my 5 years old laptop, it will take whole weekend)...

[WDUser]

hence I had trouble deleting .wdtv folder (unaccesible)...so I was doing chkdsk /f then defregramentation...

This seems to indicate some sort of problem with the drive (or messed up permissions). Were you able to delete the folder after running chkdsk?

[eclea]

well, I use MKVFix which I found here and scan all my files...

first it founds all the files with header compression and mkWDclean...and I choose "clean files" it processed all the files I applied mkWDclean...

still i was unable to play it with my hard drive...

then I rescan all the files and it only finds one file with header compression (actually the last file I played on my WD HDTV player)...I again choose "clean files" option...

then my problem solved...I tried couple files and all them were OK to play with my player...

it's been a long week for me...but with an happy ending (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)