Random audio stuttering Options

[ashurek]

Have not had this unit too long, but its a very handy little device. I do however have one major issue with it, when watching a movie, the audio will simply stop for a moment, maybe half a second, then continue with no loss of sync.
The unit is connected to an almost brand new Sharp LCD via hdmi, and am on my 2nd or 3rd cable.
The oddest thing is, if I power off and unplug everything, these files (mainly avi and divx) will play perfectly for 2-3 days, then this audio interupt will begin again, slowly at first, maybe every 30 minutes, gradually increasing in frequency until its every 3-5 minutes.

I have installed the latest firmwear and am using a maxtor 500gb portable drive with no seperate power supply.

I'm at a loss as to why it does this, so any suggestions would be appreciated.

[WDUser]

Things to try:

1) An externally-powered drive (freshly-formatted as NTFS if possible), since some USB-powered drives fail to get sufficient power from the USB port.

2) Does this happen with the composite cable as well?

[ashurek]

1) An externally-powered drive (freshly-formatted as NTFS if possible), since some USB-powered drives fail to get sufficient power from the USB port.

Do not have a powered hard drive at the moment.

2) Does this happen with the composite cable as well?

I've connected it up with the comp cable, so far its been fine after 24hrs, wont know for sure one way or the other for a day or two, as it usually takes 2-3 days to start acting up.

Also to note, I've tried 3 different HDMI cables and all three HDMI inputs on the TV, all with the same result, intermittant sound loss after 2 or 3 days.

[WDUser]

If composite works, then I'd be inclined to say that it's a problem with the HDMI port on either end or maybe the cable. Since you've tried other cables, maybe you can try the player with another TV? Still, that doesn't explain why it works fine for a few days after a power recycle. Try getting hold of an externally-powered drive and confirm that that's not the source of the problem. Other than that, try a hard reset and maybe a firmware re-flash.

You could also try an older FW version and as a last resort, even hacked WDLXTV FW. If nothing works, then I'm pretty sure one can say it's a hardware issue, so either stick to composite (and no HD), or RMA the unit.

[ashurek]

The unit works perfectly through the comp cable, so its down to the HDMIs.
I'm starting to think its the units HDMI output socket. When I unplugged the comp cable and put the HDMI back in today, I had no output from the unit, after fiddling with the cable and making sure it was completely pushed home into the back of the unit, it started working again, but an hour later the sound started playing up, power off the unit, play with the HDMI again and its working fine again.
So, looks like I have to replace the unit, the HDMI is either glitchy or sat a fraction to low.

[neanderthal]

If that can help I have the exact same problem with my wdtv (v1 firmware 1.03.01) connected to a Sharp 42DH77. So I don't think that your unit was especially faulty, it may be some kind of incompatibility with sharp. I don't have the problem with the same file if I play it via a PC connected to the Sharp through HDMI.