Beware of latest Gen1 firmware update

[MR654]

Below is a tech support request I sent to WD. Might be relevant if you have a device with multiple drives.

I have had a WD TV HD Media player (generation 1) installed for about a week and am very happy with the performance. I do have an issue that has me puzzled.
I did the firmware update to version 1.03.01 and want to revert back to the previous version. I have a Sandisk Fuse MP3 player with a separate slot for a micro SD card. Before the update I was able to plug in the player and the WD TV box saw both drives and I was able to access either and play the content on each one. After the update it does not see the SD card, only the built in memory. If I take the card out and put it into an external reader is will function normally in the WD TV player. How do I get the previous firmware version back in the WD TV? I cannot find it in your archives. Having the ability to see both drives in my MP3 player is important to me and updates are supposed to add features not take them away.

My response from WD is sorry, once you upgrade the firmware you can't go back. Thanks guys, I just might return it.  Nice to see that they have thoroughly tested their firmware.

[JaredZ]

There is another reason to beware of the new firmware.  If you use you WDTV as a music player the new firmware will render it essentially useless for this purpose.  After upgrading to version 1.03.01 you will no longer be able to shuffle between all the tracks within a genre or by a particular artist.  You can only shuffle between tracks in the deepest subfolder, which will likely be by album.  If you want to be able to shuffle among various tracks by various artists or on various albums DO NOT INSTALL THE NEW SOFTWARE.  As the previous post indicated, you can't go back.  Let's hope WD fixes this quick.  Otherwise I've wasted my time and money, as I can get the same music playing capability from a single disc CD player. 

[JudyP]

Updated this morning and lost my multi drive capabilites. Found a link to the older version so am going to try to revert back. Here's the link if you want to try also. http://support.wdc.com/download/wdtv/WDTV_FW_1_02_07.zip

[JudyP]

In order for the system to recognize the older files, you have to open the wdtv.ver file and rename it 1.03.02

Restart your system and it will start the process. Delete the files from the drive as soon as it's done or it will try to go thru the process again since the system will have been reverted to the 1.02.07 files and it will still see the newly renamed 3.01.02 file.

[WD_Forum_Ninja]

First off, you can most certainly revert back to older firmwares! Secondly, if your WDTV does what you want it to do, DONT upgrade... dont fix it if it is not broke..lol I have 2 Gen 1's, and they are running firmware 1.02.7 and it does everything I need it too... play 1080p movies perfectly with cover art. I just bought 2 WDTV lives, and they work just fine, apparently a new firware for that one is causing problems??? I only add firmware if something really needed is added, like when they added cover art for mkvs.... if you read the rellease notes, there hasnt been anything really significant in a long time...

Anyways...sorry for the rant... all you have to do to revert to old firmware is rename the wdtv.ver file(open with notepad) firmware that worked for you, or download it, and rename the file version with notepad to a higher number than the current one installed....only then will the player see it... so if you have 1.03.01 just name it 1.03.02 and it will tell you new firmware detected.. Any questions, let me know.... I have been testing these players for a long time

*Edit-Seems JudyP beat me to the punch while I was typing.... The main reason I stayed on 1.02.07 is that this version was the last firmware to suport usb hubs!! i have a 4 port usb  hub, so all together i have 5 drives hooked up to one player, and it can read from all 5TB;s just fine

[rominacampos]

Is there some place on this forum where one can report this bug? I would really like to have the play by genre/artist/etc feature fixed instead of going back to the old firmware

[kevinjr]

hi can you tell me how i can get the old firmware 1.02.07

[JudyP]

I included a link in my post above to the old software.

[kevinjr]

Thanks I put it in the WDTV and it only seeing 1 hard drive and I have 4 what can I do.

[Tigerelric]

I agree with Rominacampos, there should be a place to report this bug as it isn't just an isolated occurrence.

I too have a problem after updating the firmware in the WD HD Media Player it now has issues reading my External Storage Device. I have a Nexstar MX (NST-400MX S2) dual bay enclosure with two 1TB Samsung hard drives. The older firmware 1.01.02 read both bays perfectly, although it is one USB connection it saw both hard drives and showed them as two separate entities. Firmware 1.02.07 and above only recognizes one of the hard drives and I am unable to access the other one. Initially I thought it was an issue with the Dual Bay Enclosure, but it still works fine when connected to the PC showing both hard drives as separate entities. I know it worked with the original firmware, so something has changed in between.

I emailed the WD support and they responded initially with a list of compatible hard drives. When I told them that my hard drive had worked previously I got the response of "Thanks for your feedback".

I know I can revert back to the older firmware, as posted here, but would also like a solution in the newer firmware.

Surely they know what was changed to stop the unit seeing multiple hard drives.

Is Western Digital aware of everyone's concerns?