WD Freezes with spinning wheel Options

[Duiker]

Hi I've had my WDTV Live for a few months now. About 3 weeks ago, around the time I upgraded firmware to 1.01.11 my unit started acting up. It's seems to randomly freeze up when selecting a movie to watch. I get the blue spinning wheel and have to disconnect the drive and the power of both the HD and the WDTV, wait about 10 seconds and then plug it all back in. Once I've done that it works fine for the first file played. Once I stop that movie or pause it for any period of time I have to repeat the process all over again. I can't even eject the drive, I have to manually pull out the cords and I really don't like doing that. Does anyone have any suggestions?

[WDUser]

I assume you've checked and confirmed that your USB drive's fine (chkdsk, defrag etc.)? You could try a hard reset and if that doesn't do the trick, a reflash. If there's no change, might be a hardware issue.

[Duiker]

How do you do a hard reset and/or reflash?

[WDUser]

Hard reset - Just push the button! Read the manual for more.

Reflash - If the player refuses to recognise the firmware (since it's already installed), you can try the trick mentioned here (editing the WDTV.VER file to fool the player).

[Weedhopper]

How long have you waited for the WDTV Live to recover once the wheel stops? I have a similar problem (it predates the current firmware) with some files, notably M2TS. Once selected the wheel stops soon after appearing and all remote control functions are useless. If I wait for 70 seconds or so, the video begins. I've learned not to touch the remote at this point because any attempt to alter playback (FF for instance) results in a control freeze and the last function selected is the one it stays in until powered down.

Just a thought ...

[fluffybundles]

I don't know whether this will help you but it worked for me.

I had a problem since last night with freezing and not being able to turn the unit off.

I run my files off an external hard drive and I swapped the drive over this afternoon and everything started playing again.

When I went to delete the .wd_tv folder that has been placed by the unit on the hard drive I got the message "cannot delete ph.db-journal: The file or directory is corrupted and unreadable"

I had to run the check disk on start up on the computer for it to delete the files and once I plugged the hard drive back into the unit, it replaced the file back on the hard drive and now it works perfectly.

Hopefully you might just have a corrupted .wd_tv folder too.

[Andreas vdH]

Similar problems here.

If I press "return" button while watching a movie the sound of the movie will never stop even if im going out to the menu, when im trying to start another movie the spinning wheel just appears in front and the old movie plays in the background. When hit pwr btn i must wait 20-30sec before the sound of the movie stop. When I start it again i couldnt get any movie started just hangs with the spinning wheel (waited for 5min now) The only thing is plug out the power cord and restart.

Ive tried al firmwares 00 11 17 Exactly the same problem with al. Tried the reset btn. But still same problems.

Doesnt happend everytime i press the return button. But this is REALY anoying. Wonder if theres a Hardware failure, my old device never suffer from this issue. (bricked and get a new one) Doesnt matter if im playing from wireless or USB, same problem.

And sometimes my WDTVLive Regonize my usb stick as a "camera1" instead of a "usb1" and find no media on it. Same procedure than just to pull the power and restart. And it will work again...(IMG:style_emoticons/default/sad.gif) (Sandisk Cruzer 16Gb Fat32)

Someone recognize?
Im so tired of it so i think i shall return this second unit aswell
and go for a blueray with built in media player.

[XopherTaylor]

I'm having a similar issue on a very regular basis. I was sort of living with it, and now it seems to be getting worse. My opportunity to return it expired two days ago or I'd be going back!

One cause of this seems to be if I video file is played through to the end, it leaves a black screen rather than returning to the file selection screen. At this point, you can press the back button, but selecting any file will result in the spinning wheel and no amount of waiting will resolve the problem. I once walked away from it for more than an hour to return to the screensaver, press a button, and still... spinning wheel.

It's growing increasingly aggravating as I have to pull the power several times a day. Not to mention the ease of use for my wife goes right down the tubes and she can't always troubleshoot the issue.

It seems a $160 device shouldn't be causing these issues. I really need a resolution to this!

[fluffybundles]

Did you try my advice of deleting the .wd_tv folder?

It happens to me regularly and once I delete this file (from the computer) and plug the item back into the WDTV Live, it records a new version of this file and all is fine again with the world.

[Jar]

Hi All.
Similar Problems here. My WD worked great for about a month, then I setup a NAS to stream media to the WD. I can see all the files on the NAS (Media server or Network share) and play them. For about the first 5 minutes i have full control of the unit, can stop, pause, ff, etc. I can even stop that movie and play another. However, if i let a movie play beyond about 5 minutes and I press any button the movie returns to the files list yet the sound continues. if i select a new movie it returns to the original movie but the spinning wheel is ontop of the movie. Also If i turn the unit off/on then try a new movie it just shows a blank screen with the spinning wheel.

The only option is to pull the power.

I also now get the problem with USB drives.

I tried updating the firmware to latest WD firmware, then B-Rads custom firmware, still no luck

I would love to try deleting the .WD_TV folder, but i can't find it on the network drive.

Any ideas.

[ryga160]

Similar problem for me, only started happening after upgrading to 1.01.24.

Switch on and menu fine, try to play any .mkv and the screen just goes black for over a minute, but then starts playback. if i try to use remote to pause it wont unpause immediatly, it seems to ignore all remote actions for 20sec or so then quickly does anything that was pressed during the ignore period.

Tried the menu reset option, tried going back to 1.01.17.

This is also my second unit that was sent to me in december after my original got bricked with the bad firmware end november/beggining devcember 2009.

Im going to test with a 8gb usb pen and see if the problem occurs across media devices.

UPDATE:
After deleting the .WD_TV folder things seem to have went back to normal, although it dosent seem as if FF is working the same, it seems to glitch when i want to return to play and takes around 5seconds to start playing again.

just applying 1.01.24 again to see if it still ok.

UPDATE2
After applying 1.01.24 everthing is normal. FF now working as before.

I was wondering.. Anyone else who had this issue, did you upgrade firmware with storage disconnected? I did as i thought it was something to do with the stroage being connected that broke my unit a few months ago and though better if left disconnected. But now im wondering if being disconnected prevents some update/patching of the .WD_TV folder thus causing these issue. Deleting the folder causes a rebuild of expected version and resolves??

[Rev Drew]

.wd_tv is the folder where it creates a small library of what is on the attached media, it 'should' rebuild it every time it is ejected properly and then reattached. I have always deleted it and let it do a full scan every time and it works for me. I have more experience with the original wdtv though, I tend to not use my live, I don't care for it..

[chugger93]

I have the same problem as everyone above...exact same issues! It's so great to hear these issues so I didnt think I was crazy.

Has anyone figured this out? I've upgraded to the latest firmware, and it was still same issues. How do I delete this folder that you guys speak of? Do I have to show WDTLIVE on the network? Cuz now I currently have it turned off.

I don't know if I should return the device or what! It's so dam frusturating.

[odd fellow]

I have the same problem.. Even Youtube videoes refuse to play after the spinning wheel refused to stop..
My WDTV Live has never been connected to an USB drive, only to a read only NAS server.
So where should I find and delete this .wd* file?

This issue was never a problem with the old FW.. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/dry.gif)

[Rev Drew]

the .wd_tv folder would be on attached storage. I don't think it will be on a NAS or a computer share..

seems there is more than one issue in this thread so if you are confused, welcome to the club.

so if you think you are having the same problem as everyone else here, my question is simple, which problem are you experiencing?

[Jar]

So it would appear that people who are using directly attached USB drives can overcome this problem by deleting the wd_tv file. For those of us who are using NAS drives (wired or Wireless) we have to live with this problem until WD comes up with a fix. I'm considering returning my unit and trying with a new one. If the problem continues I guess i haven't lost anything...

[Zandergraphics]

Have been fighting this issue for a couple days now and was beginning to make plans to return the player to the store as nothing seemed to work. Deleted the .wd_tv folder as suggested above and rebooted and all seems to be good so far. It's played a number of shows in a row and before the most it would tolerate was maybe two or three before it froze. So, thanks a ton for the tip, it just saved me from a major pain in my a**. Excellent.

UPDATE: It's back to the same old story again. Deleting that folder seemed to work for a while, but a few hours later, it's locked up again. Maybe it will have to go back to the store. I hear Brite View players are nice....

[suction]

same here. I like the WD TV Live but it's going back, with this kind of bug the wife acceptance factor is near zero. only thing I wonder is what player to get now.

[VBP2004EP3]

I'm in the same boat, I had WD replace my Live and the first one they sent was DOA and the second one is still doing it. Gonna call them now to see what the other options are.

[VBP2004EP3]

Anyone have any updates on this issues?