WDTV recognises directories, but will not play any files!, Please help! :) Thanks Options

[montanajr]

All of a sudden my WDTV Gen 2 has stopped playing all file types. I watched a 720p MKV on it last night (as I do most nights, and it was fine.) But tonight when I turn it on it loads all my directories/files but as soon as I try to play a file the blue wheel just spins on the screen rotating for ages and nothing plays. All of the files play on my PC off the WD external HDD and the WDTV can recognise all my folders and thumbnail images etc but just cannot play any movie files.

Any idea what this could be? Very strange to start all of a sudden. It has the latest firmware and the ext HDD works fine when connected to a PC. I have tried restoring factory settings and pressing the reset button on the side of the unit. Any other ideas?

Thanks.

[Rev Drew]

have you tried running a scan disk on the drive with it hooked up to a computer?

did you add any media before it quit?
try a flash drive or another hard drive.

[montanajr]

Thanks for your reply.

I did a health check on the drive which came back fine. I also tried using a 1GB Flash drive that I have used many times before and I get the same error! So it is definitely the WDTV and not my external HDD. What else could be causing this? Latest firmware, restored to factory settings, plugged in the HDD and it loads all my thumbnail pictures and directories but as soon as I play a file the blue wheel spins on the screen constantly and nothing plays! Waited for about 15mins so far and nothing...any ideas?

[Rev Drew]

if it's under warranty I would contact WD, they suck but perhaps they have an answer or maybe RMA it..

I can't think of anything else if it does it with a flash drive and hard drive in both USB ports.

[flyerdie]

you have tryed to disable indexing? or just delete indexing directory from the HDD...
Maybe it's corrupted the index reading from the WDTV

[aztec]

same exact issue here.

blue spinning wheel of 'nothingness.'

This now happens to 2 WDTV Live units I have.

Going back to WD unless someone has a solution.

And yes...have tried firmware (old/new), hard reset, power cycle, etc. etc.

[Rev Drew]

as was stated in another thread on the forum, try blowing it out with compressed air or an air compressor (preferably with a drier or a good filter).
seems they can act up when they get to warm..

[aztec]

Not heat. though I have tried compressed air suggestion.

Envrionment is neither hot nor dusty...and as mentioned....have tried power-cycle. Turning unit off for 15 mins.

If it was heat, the problem would occur after some time playing a file. The wheel comes up, as many have mentioned....EVENE BEFORE...any files have been played.

[Rev Drew]

if you have it plugged in and 'powered off' with the remote, it is still on and at operating temperature.
playing a file, not playing a file has very little effect on the temperature..

best bet, contact WD directly..

[aztec]

I'm sorry, I wasn't more expilicit. Power-cycled...IT was unplugged. the power adapter was DISCONNECTED from the unit. There WERE NO electrical current going into the unit. NOT form ethernet, from HDMI, or power cable.....NONE. ZERO. NO VOLTAGE.

[montanajr]

I found out what was causing this, and it was a specific file I had put on the WDTV! If I reset everything and played any other file it would play fine, but if I then played this particular file it would hang and cause the WDTV to hang on every different file. Very strange...I deleted said file and have not had a problem since. I wonder what this could be though? A WDTV virus? lol

[renn]

actually i also have the same problem as here!so how is the solution?

[bumrocks]

I have noted this in another thread as this is most often the actual issue...

If you try to play a MKV with Compressed headers the WDTV will freeze at the loading screen and keep this information in its ram making it impossible to play any files whatsoever until a reboot by pulling the power plug. Not a normal power cycle which for most devices only needs 30 seconds...Read on!

A couple things I would recommend. First, leave the unit unplugged for 10+ minutes as WD suggests (most electrical devices only need about 30 seconds for such a reset but it appears that 10+ minutes is the key to success for this particular device...At least for me it was). Next, delete the .wd-tv folder in the root directory of your USB drive. Next, attempt to play a movie that you have played before with no issue. If it plays properly then problem is resolved. If you have a newer movie that seems to trigger this issue again then you have mkv header compression issue.

It is only recently that this issue has popped up for people because of a newer version of encoding software or something of that nature. Apparently, a newer version of an encoding program has an option to "Disable Header Compression" which is by default unchecked which is causing a rash of these encodes to come out. The users of this software are learning later that it is best for them to go back and check and enable this option.

In short (as mentioned at the top)...If you try to play a MKV with Compressed headers the WDTV will freeze at the loading screen and keep this information in its ram making it impossible to play any files whatsoever until a reboot by pulling the power plug, which is why I recommend doing the steps I mention above.

Fixing this issue is a whole nother subject...If it is a file with compressed headers then the easiest thing to do is to remux the file. It is painless and literally only takes minutes to a 4.4 GB file. I will not go into all that unless requested...

Hope I helped or possibly someone else in the future!

//bum