Special Release - Firmware Version 3.03.16 for WD TV Live Hub (4/4/12)

[Ray_JC]

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Nikoleta wrote:

I cant understand why WD issued new firmware which maybe fix something but ruin another.

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I second that.  In fact, with 2 WDTV Live Hubs and a recently purchased 3TB MBL I wasn't aware of any issues UNTIL this "update".  After this FW my hubs no longer see the MBL network share (but Windows PC's still do).  At least I was able to find another post describing how to add the Public folder to my Twonky server on the MBL so for now I can still play videos via the Media Server.  Oh the irony. 

Ray

[technomancer]

Upgraded to this from 3.01.19 and now when I page through a large directory it reboots.  Rolling back to 3.01.19.  Very dissapointed.

[DeVicious]

I have read all the posts in this thread and tried to reproduce the bugs and all I can say is that these bugs are no directly related to the firmware. It is in 99% of the case a problem on the user side but obviously it requires some pre-knownledge to know what to do.

Here a few things that will help soving the problem (after upgrading to the new firmware)

1) After upgrading the firmware delete your library and rebuild it again (ideally leave it off because it is logically broken)

2) If your external drive won't be recognized anymore you will have to run a scandisk via USB connection to your computer.

delete the Thumbs folder on your external HDD and delete all ".wd_tv" folders

3) duplicate entries after deleting are a mess the media library creates, this is why it is important to rebuild your library

4) Audio out of sync is not a problem of the firmware it is a problem of the source, there was a period of 7 weeks where packer /ripper software products caused this problem, the sound had to be adjusted by -300ms the same problem is happening on an older firmware version, for that matter not really fair to bring it up here.

I personally enjoy the improved thumbnail quality and other than that there is no difference to the prior version.
I don't think it is fair to be upset over the lack of updates, after all is was announced as a "Special Release" to fix the MLB issue, obviously they were about to loose their license and had to fix it. The other option would be to lose this feature and I know that would upset even more people.

In general I believe it makes a lot of sense to try to find occurring issues on the user side first and make sure things are all taken into consideration before complaining here. Obviously you have every right to complain but there is a bigger picture involved where you send a message to others that won't upgrade because of that. This results in lower downloads and Western Digital knows you are fine with an older version and won't work with the same pressure on a new version. I did the customer servive for my company for the first 8 years myself, believe me when I say at some point you stop listening with the same enthusiasm especially when the issues are mostly created by user behavior.

I think this is a really nice community with really awesome people and the Live Hub is an really awesome product (compare it to others) I am sure if the critique is rather constructive than negative when get your goodies faster.

I love all of you anyways (except of the library, lol)

[wdtvhub]

 A lot of sense there but...

Everything you just said gets written off when a firmware rollback fixes the majority of it. If as they claim this special firmware was to fix a service, why would it break other things. The same again for other firmware updates.

And if it did not break other things, then if you do not clean .wdtv folders etc, and the Box thinks it is actually upgrading a firmware, why does it all work again with the old firmware.

As I said you have made some valid points about what can be fixed and what is user created, but time and time again a user can be fine update, have problems, roll back and be fixed, all without deleting folders and the rest.

[DeVicious]

because there are less entries in the library in older versions I would assume, a library created with an older version will probably have missing fields.

[wdtvhub]

Thing is when you do a firmware update, rollback I think it wipes anyway, it goes through the full re-compiling library.

I rolled back from this one the other day, and I had a black screen with various languages saying insert a USB disk to update firmware for a Loooong time. I was quite concerned, I had never seen this before and I thought it was bricked.

I think we have all got to easy going with this product to be fair, if you had a car and there were re-calls, could you ever imagine saying ..nah its ok if I put it into the garage they may break something else.

That is the mentality of us on here, constant rollbacks to stop new problems which then get fixed in newer firmwares as if they are acheiving something.

[DeVicious]

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wdtvhub wrote:

That is the mentality of us on here, constant rollbacks to stop new problems which then get fixed in newer firmwares as if they are acheiving something.

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That's a typical customer mentality, it doesn't matter if you buy a media device, a telephone and whatnot. If something doesn't work right away it is always the developers fault. Take my theme just as an example, how many people said the movie sheets don't work when all they had to do was looking at screenshots. I am happy to help them and provide a solution but if they had paid for the theme the complaints would have been nasty. Basically anyone who had a problem needed 3 to 4 attempts and in the aftermath they realized it was all there right in front of them.

I can only tell you one thing, I always do these steps I mentioned above and I never had a problem but i can reproduce them anytime.There been some idiotic upgrades in the past with pixelating the thumbnails and getting rid off PNG functionality and this library is the worst of it's kind in the entire world on any media device period. ....but the last 2 updates been just fine and there is nothing that got worse and it angers me that people would say it is when it isn't true because this way we never get any developent because WD is trying to fix things they can't reproduce.

For me the newest firmware is a big step into the right direction because of the thumbnail quality displayed at 100% With a TV like mine this is an enormous improvement. There is still a lot of room for improvement though but if you compare the Live Hub with other devices it is simply the best in this price range.

[wdtvhub]

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DeVicious wrote:

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That's a typical customer mentality, it doesn't matter if you buy a media device, a telephone and whatnot. If something doesn't work right away it is always the developers fault.

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Haha and that's a customer service mentality.

Now I try and step back from this a little. Every day you see a new user turn up with an old problem, Why ? Well unlike my TV/Phone/Microwave I have no option to upgrade, it usually works straight out of the box.

This box has a firmware upgrade facility, and to maybe 75% maybe even more, they neither know of a forum or are interested in one. They will just see a big Firmware update on the box. They update as WD would never send out something that would break the box surely, but they do every time.

Lets look at the fix you say for the thumbnails, is this documented..No. And as far as the PNG fix goes, they have never ackowledged it, and as for reproduce it, they could do every time since they broke it I have no doubt.

So no I do not agree with you for this, the main reason you are happy is you are savvy and have no need for the media library, that is fine for you, but the majority want a working media library to say it is broken and not use it, is not a fix, its a step backwards in my opinion.

[DeVicious]

the media library has never worked properly it was and still is a desaster :-)

Honestely for someone who watches rather TV shows than Movies there is no other way but turning it off.

Yeah the WD folks should display a To-Do Screen prior to the upgrade, i agree the mainstream doesn't know how to do it but they dont know about roll backs either :-)

[Bill_St]

I for one do not know how to roll-back.

Got my WD with in-built 1TB drive just over one week ago.  First thing I did was connect it to my network, installed the discovery software on a PC an copied a number of video files to it. 

Next connected to my telly (and the network) via HDMI  the first thing it said was I have firmware v2.03 and there was  newer version 2.08).  I chose to upgrade.  It then

downloaded firmware and rebooted

installed 1/2 and rebooted

installed 2/2 and rebooted

It then, again, said there was newer firmware (I was now at 2.08 and 3.03.16 was available) I chose to upgrade.  It then:

downloaded firmware and rebooted

installed 1/2  NO reboot

installed 2/2 and rebooted

It then rebooted, rebooted, rebooted  - I could not use it until, eventually (having tried powering off etc) I disconnected the network cable.  I could then use the system but everytime I connected the network lead it rebooted.  

After much trial and error I found that if the WD had access to the internet it rebooted - connect to LAN alone with no route to the internet and it was OK. 

Tried re-setting to system defaults but no different.

Tried downloading 3.03.16 and putting it on a USB stick to try to re-apply the firmware but there does not seem to be an option to force the firmware install (presumably it sees the version on the USB as the same version as installed so dows not want to install)

Any help welcome. 

Bill