WDTV Gen2 stops playing .mkv after few seconds Options

[xtc.sanchez]

Hi guys,

today I received my WDTV HD (Gen 2) and it has the latest official firmware.
I have copied 3 .mkv files to my external hdd and wanted to play.

1. a scrubs episode (2 audio lines - german and english): after about 10seconds it just jumps back to the menu
2. a house, m.d. episode (1 audio line - german): plays just fine
3. a scrubs episode (1 audio line - english): plays fine

So might the problem be related to the fact that the .mkv contains two audio lines (german one is 5.1 DTS and english one is AC3). I tried switching between them but nothing changes. I guess it jumps back to the menu way too fast and therefore is not able so switch the audio line.

What do you think? To show you the media info, which program should I get to read it out?

Thanks in advance!

[WDUser]

MediaInfo as mentioned in the manual is one of the best programs to check the innards of most media files.

For the Scrubs episode, do you need both audio tracks? If not, you can easily delete one by using mkvmerge GUI (part of the mkvtoolnix package). Just open the MKV, deselect the audio stream you don't want, then mux using a different output file name. Within a few seconds you should have an MKV with only a single audio track, that you can then check.

If you want both streams, then try to open the MKV in mkvmerge GUI, ensure that one of the audio tracks is set as the default, then simply mux using a different output file name. Even if a default audio track is already set, mux it and test the output MKV. Sometimes on rebuilding the index etc., some playback problems are cured.

[xtc.sanchez]

Hey, thank you so much for your effort, but I found the solution or lets say I lost the problem. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)
I formated my harddrive and copied the episode again and it works flawlessly now! I think that the first time I tried, I pulled out the usb cable to soon after transfering. The WDTV is just awesome! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

Regards

[fadyissa]

hey guys .. have the wdtv gen2 with the fw 1.01.77 , everytime i try to watch a mkv movie 720p or 1080 m it plays for like 5 or 10 sec normally and then it freezes and goes back to the menu , i can watch avi movies normally but i really want to be able to watch hd movies .. any ideas what might be the problem here ? thanks

[WDUser]

@fadyissa: Read the posts above. Also, are you using an externally-powered HDD or a USB-powered one? Try a freshly-formatted NTFS externally-powered USB HDD and see.

[fadyissa]

im using a usb 4gb pendrive , when i try to format it to ntfs , says windows couldnt complete the format (using windows 7 32bit) ... what should i do ?

[WDUser]

1) Back up any important data that's on the pen drive.

2) Go to Control Panel > Administrative Tools > Computer Management > Disk Management

3) Right-click the pen drive's volume and delete all partitions/logical drives on it.

4) Create a new partition and format it as NTFS.

If this fails, your drive may be defective. Also, as stated above, can you try with a freshly-formatted NTFS externally-powered USB drive?

[fadyissa]

its working .. i did what u told the guy in the post above .. thansks

[vice86]

I'm having the same issue....it's only two movies so far both on different external drives. It plays for about 5 seconds and then stops. It plays fine on my computer.

This plus .mkv/.iso personal rips slightly pausing at chapter breaks is really annoying me. I've kinda had it with the WDTV Live box.

[Rev Drew]

you may be having a similar issue but since you mention the live, it is not the same, this is the WDTV GEN2 forum...
your computer uses software to play files, the wdtv series is a hardware player, it does not matter if it plays on your computer or how well it does or doesn't..

I'll give you 50 bucks and pay the shipping for your live if you don't want it anymore (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

as for the others, in my signature in red is the best utility to format flash drives, try it if you are having problems, it solved all my issues.

[RS443]

I have a similar problem with my Gen2-player Fw 1.01.77 . In some files the screen stays black, the chroma keying about the audio"details* is displayed but thats it. I can't format my drive as easily, it's a 3TB-cube (IMG:style_emoticons/default/huh.gif) Any ideas ?

best regards from Germany

[WDUser]

Can you then check with a freshly-formatted as NTFS pen-drive instead?

Also, what are these files? MKVs? See this topic for a possible fix for some specific MKV issues. If any other file type, let us know. Also, do all files of that type exhibit the problem, or only some?

[gcmospeada]

this happens to me too, and i notice this more on avi files.

the way i fix it is to take the hard drive out, connect to pc, and delete the WDTV folder , then plug the drive on the wdtv again

i doubt we will get a fix fot it, since last firmware was from december.

This happened to me more than 5 times already in the last 2 weeks.

[RS443]

Can you then check with a freshly-formatted as NTFS pen-drive instead?

Also, what are these files? MKVs? See this topic for a possible fix for some specific MKV issues. If any other file type, let us know. Also, do all files of that type exhibit the problem, or only some?

I tried muxing the movies with mkvtoolnix and it worked perfectly!
Thx!
Best regards