WD TV HD Media Player

[rithmetic]

There is a sync problem being addressed in the following DVDforum: DVD to Mobile My investigations into audio sync issue. This appears to be the same problem that is being seen when using the WD player with the MKV file. According to that forum the DVD to mobile is beig worked on and a new update should be done in the next couple of weeks. When that update comes out, I hope that it will fix the audio sync problem that I am seeing with the MKV file.

I have a question for IPopov50.

You ask the question, is this movie actually a file?

I use DVD to DVD and rip a movie to my hard drive. The rip will create a folder with the movies name. Inside that folder are two folders, one empty and the other filled with files.

Now I rip DVD to Mobile and create an MKV what? Is this a file? I thought MKV was also a container. Have I now created movietitle.mkv and that is the file the Media Player will use?

IPopov50 is on the road somewhere between Canada and Alaska with limited internet access for a few days.

So Maybe Gregiboy can reply to this question.

[Starlighterone]

I have a question for IPopov50.

You ask the question, is this movie actually a file?

I use DVD to DVD and rip a movie to my hard drive. The rip will create a folder with the movies name. Inside that folder are two folders, one empty and the other filled with files.

Now I rip DVD to Mobile and create an MKV what? Is this a file? I thought MKV was also a container. Have I now created movietitle.mkv and that is the file the Media Player will use?

[dperino]

Has anyone had much luck with the WD TV HD Media Player for playing back BD ISO's. I just purchased one unit and can get it to play the iso's but not in English. The player seems to play back the iso correctly but will not allow you to pick English as the playback language. the BD Isos I am using was created using the DVDFab Passkey (full rip) using Imgburn. Is there a HD media Player that will correctly play the BD .iso from the hard drives? Any suggestions. I thought I had it made with this device, but very disappointed with the languages that it will play back. The Isos will play back in English when I play them on my computer using Power DVD 8 with the DVDFab Virtual Drive. Anyone have any luck with this device or some other make.
Thanks.

Not sure about the WD player, but a lot of players have troubles with Blue-Ray files. MKV, ISO, etc. I have a Briteview HD player, and while it plays the video well, the audio can't seem to keep up. It will crackle and pop and go silent for a while. Some Blue_Ray files will play, but most will not. I have tried to rip them without HD audio, with, etc. Same problems either way. My software players play the same files perfectly, but several "media players" are too slow for all the information in a blue-ray format. Mine has gotten a little better with online updates, but it is still not right. The Brite_View HD will upconvert a standard dvd to 1080P, and it is close to Blue-Ray quality. Not there yet, but close. I have given up on Blue_Ray format for the time being,, until the media players can play them right.

Good luck

[AGJ]

can not fix a defect in firmware for a media player you need to wait for WD to release the firmware to fix that issue as nothing you do will help if it the WD Player causing the problem

[rithmetic]

It plays fine on the computer with no delays. I have found tht if I fast forward through the movie with the WD player to different scenes near the end of the film there is no sync problem. Does that mean the problem is with the newest WD firmware.

I have gone to the WD forums and it appears that a lot of people are also having the same problem with the sync issue. I guess I will keep watching their forum and see if anyone comes up with a solution or if you have any other suggestion.

[IPopov50]

rithmetic,
thank you for your patience.

[rithmetic]

I have played the file with the computer media player that you recommended. It seems to work fine and well in sync when jumping through the chapters with theMedia Player Classic Homecinema . With the WD player it's about 2 seconds behind by the end of the movie. The problem starts to be noticed in about the middle of movie and slowly works to about a 2 second lag by the end of the movie.

It is beginning to sound like the WD player is not keeping audio in sync with the frames of the video file. I will try the piece downgraded with the HD component removed to see if it makes a difference. I will get back to you on the results a little later.

[IPopov50]

I willcheck the file with the software player on my computer that you have recommended.

I already have been running the most recent update (firmware Ver 1.03 for my model WDAVN00) from WD for the player.

Well, to be honest with you, you puzzled me a bit. I will wait for your experiment with mediaplayer.
The only thing I can think of is HD sound. That's the only thing we have different. I afraid to ask you for too much, but if you can and willing, please try process that piece with sound problem, downgrading (removing) HD component and see if that would make a difference playing with WD TV

[rithmetic]

I willcheck the file with the software player on my computer that you have recommended.

I already have been running the most recent update (firmware Ver 1.03 for my model WDAVN00) from WD for the player.

[IPopov50]

Ok, I have followed your advice for making copies bo Blue ray and playing back with a WD TV HD Media Player and have excellent quality video and DTS-HD sound using blu-ray to mobil making up a MKV file. However, when playing back the movie, the audio starts out in sync and evenually as movie is played, the audio starts getting delayed so that by end of movie, the audio is a few seconds behind the lip movment. What can I do to solve this problem?

First, try to see if it's actually in a file. I can give you 80% - it's not. So, try to play it on software player on your computer. If you don't have, here's a good one: http://mpc-hc.sourceforge.net/downlo...lassic-hc.html

However, most likely cause of it - WD TV having a difficulties to digest HD audio. I have had this issue long time ago, and I solved it with firmware update. Please visit WD website, download and install current firmware as instructed.

[rithmetic]

Audio gets out of sync part way through movie

Ok, I have followed your advice for making copies bo Blue ray and playing back with a WD TV HD Media Player and have excellent quality video and DTS-HD sound using blu-ray to mobil making up a MKV file. However, when playing back the movie, the audio starts out in sync and evenually as movie is played, the audio starts getting delayed so that by end of movie, the audio is a few seconds behind the lip movment. What can I do to solve this problem?

[rithmetic]

Great Essay and great advice. I am sure other people will need this advice again and again as the WD HD TV player becomes more attractive. I already know of several people waiting to see how my expereicne works out with it.

I have purchased both the DVDFab Blu-ray to Blu-ray and Blu-ray to Mobile this evening. I have just started making a mkv file of a movie from an iso that only had the main movie on it. It will take another 10-15 minutes for it to complete. If everything works out (which I am sure it will) I plan to purchase a second WD for the 2nd theater and basically do what you are doing and having a backup soucrce on the second theater.
Thanks for your great help. I'll let you know how everything works out for me.

[IPopov50]

I just got the WD TV HD player this week and started experimenting with it. I would like to store my blu-rays on one or two large hard drive (2 gig) disks and use the wd hd media player. I am using HDMI calbles. The device seems to play my DVD .iso (Created with DVDFab DVD to DVD and just started experimenting with Blu-ray .isos with the freeware that was available. The WD seems to work great with DVD.isos. I am running the newest firmware on the WD. I hope to be able to use this device on my out door theater and in my indoor theater for the Blu-rays. I would like to watch the movies from the WD HD player in the best resolution that is reasonably possible. I would prefer to copy just the main movie and leave everything else on the blu-ray behind. I don't care for the commercials or Bluray Live. I have an HD audio system in both of my theaters and would like to utilze HD sound if poosible, and if not I am willing to settle for 2nd best (surround 5.1). So, how and what do I need to get started in creating a blu-ray library on hard disk that will play correctly on the WD unit. If you believe I need some other type of equipmet, please let me know. Your help and guidance is appreciated.

rithmetic,
no offense, but this post makes much more sense to me than a first one, and I think, I have solution for you. However, I want gradually walk you to a conclusion. Firstly, lets go through some ABCs of video content.
All video that you play in any of your suitable devices mastered, packaged into containers, and written on media.
aa. there are several containers to choose from where most known and popular are: DVD, Blu-ray, AVI, MKV, MP4, etc. Container is a holding structure for number of streams, with overhead that allows to manipulate those streams.
bb. Streams are elemental components of video/audio presentation. These are video stream, sound stream, subpicture stream (subtitles). All these streams are packaged into container and managed by container's overhead.
cc. Overhead could be interactive (menu, like in Blu-ray) or functional (through player's menu, like MKV).

All streams packaged in containers either interleaved (like in AVI) or multiplexed (like in MKV). (By the way, process of streams multiplexing is called "muxing", for short).
Out of all containers, my favorite is MKV. Unlike Blu-ray, MKV have very straight forward and efficient overhead. As a result of it - small size, very user-friendly, and very efficient. Yet, MKV demonstrates a remarkable flexibility in formats of elemental streams. WD TV (like any other media players) loves MKV.
I hope you would agree that MKV is the way to go.

Another aspect of home theater arrangement to consider is media storage. I think we are in agreement here that storing files on HDD is a way to go. However, you have to understand that average size of uncompressed HD movie these days is around 20-25 GB. So, on you 2TB HDD you can squeeze around 80 movies, and if you have say 400 movies, we're talking about 5 or more HDDs. Is it scary for you or not is for you to decide.
I too have two TV/theatre sets, and I choose to have two WD TVs and two identical sets of HDDs. Some people prefer to use single centralized network storage and stream content from there anywhere on their network. I choose my set because it serves as back up on back up (crazy hah. Yea, I'm freak).
With your settings you would nee every bit of your bitrate, so compression isn't an option for you, and the only way to save on space is get rid of all garbage, impressive presentations stupid one-time-see trailers.
Downgrade HD sound to a core, if you have HD sound set, would be also kinda not smart.

So, here's conclusion, and I hope you understood how I get to this conclusion:
For you to have quality content for your marvelous HD video theatre, you should use DVDFab "Blu-ray to Mobile" mode (Just in case you don't know, to have functioning "Blu-ray to Mobile" you MUST have to purchase "Blu-ray to Blu-ray" mode as well).
In "Blu-ray to Mobile" mode your option of choice would be "to MKV", and your profile in that option is "mkv.remux". Please DO NOT check "Remove HD audio" box, this way you will preserve HD audio. You will also have a chance to select Audio tracks (just one, main) or all, or anywhere in between; as well as subtitles. Couple other things for you to remember:
(1) if there are more than one English tack to choose from, main one is usually HD and it first on a list, the others most likely descriptive (for blind) and commentary.
(2) You selecting desired audio by checking box in "Audio" column. Immediately on left from that checkbox, another column without any header, and if you click there, little blue triangle will appear (or disappear). This is "default flag" presence of this flag will tell your player what sound to play by default. You can set it for subtitles as well. If you will set it for subtitles, they will appear by default, and if you don't need them, you have to turn them off via player's menu. If you do not normally watch your movies with subtitles, do not set "default flag" on them.


Now, about your source and output.
Source. It's highly recommended to rip BD to your HDD first and use that rip as source for remuxing. You can delete it after your process is done.
Your output could be directed to your external drive to avoid extra transfer, just from time saving perspective.

I really hope my essay will help you, and please let me know how it goes. Don't be a stranger.

[rithmetic]

I just got the WD TV HD player this week and started experimenting with it. I would like to store my blu-rays on one or two large hard drive (2 gig) disks and use the wd hd media player. I am using HDMI calbles. The device seems to play my DVD .iso (Created with DVDFab DVD to DVD and just started experimenting with Blu-ray .isos with the freeware that was available. The WD seems to work great with DVD.isos. I am running the newest firmware on the WD. I hope to be able to use this device on my out door theater and in my indoor theater for the Blu-rays. I would like to watch the movies from the WD HD player in the best resolution that is reasonably possible. I would prefer to copy just the main movie and leave everything else on the blu-ray behind. I don't care for the commercials or Bluray Live. I have an HD audio system in both of my theaters and would like to utilze HD sound if poosible, and if not I am willing to settle for 2nd best (surround 5.1). So, how and what do I need to get started in creating a blu-ray library on hard disk that will play correctly on the WD unit. If you believe I need some other type of equipmet, please let me know. Your help and guidance is appreciated.