WD TV Live HD Media Player won't play my .avi-files Options

[atahualpaFX]

I have had the original Western Digital TV HD Media Player for almost a year now and it has played EVERYTHING beautifully. Now I have given my 'old' one to my 10-year old daughter and bought the new WD TV Live HD Media Player.

I connected the new player as described, I upgraded the firmware, everything went fine, I plugged in a 16 GB USB-stick containing a lot of .avi files, the player recognized them as being .avi-files lying in their respective folders but opening each and every folder and selecting a file gives me the below error message:

Unable to play the selected file. Please refer to the user manual for a list of supported file formats.

I have therefore tried to connect the exact same USB-stick to the 'old' player and the .avi-files are both recognized and play just fine on that one.

What am I missing/doing wrong?

[Rev Drew]

depending on what's inside the avi container they may not be supported.
I do not know the supported format differences off the top of my head, sorry, the firmware foopah is taking up everybody's time around here right now..

[atahualpaFX]

.avi-files ARE supported both by the 'old' WD TV and the new live one - but only the 'old' one will play the files (IMG:style_emoticons/default/unsure.gif)

I didn't test the new live one before I accepted the firmware upgrade, so maybe it's that upgrade which is now causing all the trouble?

[WDUser]

Run MediaInfo on some of the unsupported files and post back here.

[atahualpaFX]

I found out what it was (IMG:style_emoticons/default/rolleyes.gif)

For some reason this particular USB-stick doesn't work on my new WD Live Player (it STILL works on my 'old' WD Media Player) (IMG:style_emoticons/default/angry.gif)

Luckily for me I have more than one USB-stick - and they all seem to work well with the new one (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

Sorry about the trouble (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

[neverlift]

Sorry about the trouble (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

No worries and no trouble. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

Cheers!

[WDUser]

Actually this is a first. So the player actually recognised the files fine and displayed their names, but refused to play them saying "unsupported format"? And a simple change of media fixed that? Frankly, the player's not supposed to do that! If it has problems recognising the media (as it sometimes does with some makes/models), then it should refuse to show the files on it completely, as has been the case with everyone else so far. The behaviour you describe is just plain weird I must say!

P.S. Just as an experiment, can you reformat that USB stick as FAT32 (even if it already is) and see if the files display fine on your player? Do try both USB ports and see. Also, which firmware do you have?

[nien1]

Well if it's a first then call me the second. I reformatted my USB stick for FAT32 and still no dice. Like this user, my files actually show up, but ALL the AVI files say they are unsupported. I have NEVER had this problem playing these AVI files using on different computers. My files are straight DV NTSC with basic capture and NOTHING plays. Does it really come down to the files won't play unless they are on WD Passport drives? I've tried 3 different USB drives (stick and external) and I'm getting zero results. MOV files won't play, AVI Files won't play.... I even downloaded the latest firmware today and still nothing. Thus far this box really stinks and am thinking of returning it to build an HTPC. It shouldn't be this hard for such a simple device.

[WDUser]

nien1, seems the OP managed to solve his problem by using a different USB drive. Have you tried that yet, since your drive may be causing the problem too. Also, post the output of MediaInfo for a few of your non-playing AVI files and we'll see if they're indeed supported by the player or not. Also, do try the reset button once.

[atahualpaFX]

WDUser, I now use the WDTV Live HD Media Player over my cabled network and it works like a charm (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

But I DID reformat the USB-stick several times back then and I also tried to use both USB-ports (not at the same time, mind you (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif) ) - but to no avail (IMG:style_emoticons/default/unsure.gif)

[WDUser]

Oh well, as long as everything works now...! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

[smrtalex]

I am having this issue as well. Using WD TV Live via our LAN. Using the most recent firmware (Updated 01/12/2010). Here is a copy of the MediaInfo of one of files I am trying to play:

Attached File(s)

 mediainfo.PNG ( 102.29K ) Number of downloads: 50

 

[WDUser]

smrtalex, your file looks quite similar to the one mentioned here. Since I don't see DivX or Xvid mentioned anywhere, is your file also a DV AVI created by your camera? If so, the reason for not playing and the solution are most probably the same as those mentioned in that thread.

P.S. Next time, please paste the text and not a screenshot.

[graeme]

nien1, seems the OP managed to solve his problem by using a different USB drive. Have you tried that yet, since your drive may be causing the problem too. Also, post the output of MediaInfo for a few of your non-playing AVI files and we'll see if they're indeed supported by the player or not. Also, do try the reset button once.

You can call me the third here, because there is no doubt that the WDTV Live will not read my Kingston datatraveller 16GB stick whether it is formatted FAT32 or NTFS. It is fairly clear that the problem lies in the WDTV Live because the memory stick functions perfectly in all other environments. Same symptoms, it can read the file names but it can't run any files.
Stupidly I also tried to upgrade to the latest firmware with this USB stick and the process froze at 0%. I had to power it off and copy the upgrade files to another USB stick to get my WDTV LIve working again.

[WDUser]

@graeme: Have you tried reformatting the stick as FAT32/NTFS (try both) and checked?

[VinceC333]

I just got my book world edition with 2TB HD. Copied all my AVI files from my SONY TRV900 DV. None of them can be played. Not sure it is format issue since it is not USB stick. Here is my MediaInfo. Please help, thanks. I got 8 years of them. My WD TV live has the latest firmware.

CODE

General
Complete name                    : Y:\Shared Videos\DV_Backup\scene'20020305 12.07.19.avi
Format                           : AVI
Format/Info                      : Audio Video Interleave
Format_Commercial_IfAny          : DVCPRO
File size                        : 63.8 MiB
Duration                         : 17s 885ms
Overall bit rate                 : 29.9 Mbps
Recorded date                    : 2002-03-05 12:07:19
TAPE                             : sclive
TCOD                             : 18018000
TCDO                             : 196529667
VMAJ                             : 4
VMIN                             : 0
STAT                             : 0 -1 3500.000000 1
DTIM                             : 29475902 1279899008

Video
ID                               : 0
Format                           : DV
Format_Commercial_IfAny          : DVCPRO
Codec ID                         : dvsd
Codec ID/Hint                    : Sony
Duration                         : 17s 885ms
Bit rate mode                    : Constant
Bit rate                         : 24.4 Mbps
Width                            : 720 pixels
Height                           : 480 pixels
Display aspect ratio             : 4:3
Frame rate mode                  : Constant
Frame rate                       : 29.970 fps
Standard                         : NTSC
Color space                      : YUV
Chroma subsampling               : 4:1:1
Bit depth                        : 8 bits
Scan type                        : Interlaced
Bits/(Pixel*Frame)               : 2.357
Stream size                      : 61.3 MiB (96%)
Encoding settings                : ae mode=full automatic / wb mode=pre-set / white balance=incandescent lamp / fcm=manual focus

Audio
ID                               : 1
Format                           : PCM
Format settings, Endianness      : Little
Format settings, Sign            : Signed
Codec ID                         : 1
Codec ID/Hint                    : Microsoft
Duration                         : 17s 884ms
Bit rate mode                    : Constant
Bit rate                         : 1 024 Kbps
Channel(s)                       : 2 channels
Sampling rate                    : 32.0 KHz
Bit depth                        : 16 bits
Stream size                      : 2.18 MiB (3%)
Interleave, duration             : 497 ms (14.89 video frames)

[WDUser]

Sony dvsd? Hmm, no wonder. See the following topics for more:

http://wdtvhd.com/index.php?showtopic=10118
http://wdtvhd.com/index.php?showtopic=12037
http://wdtvhd.com/index.php?showtopic=12963

Best thing to do would be to contact WD Support. They're beta testing new FW now (you can see if the latest beta is better with these files), so maybe they can include better support for this codec in the next stable release.

[Dorian Black]

I just got my new WD TV Live and have the same issue.
The WDTV will show the names of the avi files but will NOT play them.
I checked the files on my computer and they are playing with VLC player.
here is the MediaInfo log:

CODE

Format                           : AVI
Format/Info                      : Audio Video Interleave
File size                        : 700 MiB
Duration                         : 1h 38mn
Overall bit rate                 : 997 Kbps
Writing application              : Nandub v1.0rc2
Writing library                  : Nandub build 1852/release

Video
ID                               : 0
Format                           : MPEG-4 Visual
Format profile                   : Advanced Simple@L5
Format settings, BVOP            : 2
Format settings, QPel            : No
Format settings, GMC             : No warppoints
Format settings, Matrix          : Default (H.263)
Muxing mode                      : Packed bitstream
Codec ID                         : XVID
Codec ID/Hint                    : XviD
Duration                         : 1h 38mn
Bit rate                         : 857 Kbps
Width                            : 608 pixels
Height                           : 256 pixels
Display aspect ratio             : 2.35:1
Frame rate                       : 23.976 fps
Color space                      : YUV
Chroma subsampling               : 4:2:0
Bit depth                        : 8 bits
Scan type                        : Progressive
Compression mode                 : Lossy
Bits/(Pixel*Frame)               : 0.230
Stream size                      : 602 MiB (86%)
Writing library                  : XviD 1.2.0.dev47 (UTC 2006-11-01)

Audio
ID                               : 1
Format                           : MPEG Audio
Format version                   : Version 1
Format profile                   : Layer 3
Mode                             : Joint stereo
Mode extension                   : MS Stereo
Codec ID                         : 55
Codec ID/Hint                    : MP3
Duration                         : 1h 38mn
Bit rate mode                    : Variable
Bit rate                         : 128 Kbps
Channel(s)                       : 2 channels
Sampling rate                    : 48.0 KHz
Compression mode                 : Lossy
Delay relative to video          : 984ms
Stream size                      : 88.9 MiB (13%)
Alignment                        : Split accross interleaves
Interleave, duration             : 24 ms (0.58 video frame)
Interleave, preload duration     : 1457 ms
Writing library                  : LAME

any suggestions?

[WDUser]

@Dorian: You can try this suggestion as well.

[Dorian Black]

@Dorian: You can try this suggestion as well.

so, basically, there is no way to play AVIs without recoding them first?! I am amzaed the WD didn't come out with FW update for this problem. I think I'm going to return my unit (sadly i bought another one for my mother but i cannot return it because it was over 30 days ago). any recommandations for a streamer that DOES play AVIs?