Excellent.

Will donate now – credit where it is due.

Mark

<<< edit: cheers! Thanks Mark –b-rad >>>

Hi, b-rad

Can you tell me if this firmware support +40 subtitle size and subtitle re-positioning ?

i *really* need this

Thank you very much for your work.

<<< edit: subtitle size can be set by booting your wdtv with S00custom-options on the root of a device with the desired size uncommented. Boot one time, confirm, then you can delete S00custom-options. As for subtitle re-positioning…if its possible point me to it and i’ll see about adding it, but I’m not really a subtitle user so I haven’t followed those developments. –b-rad >>>

B-Rad, your firmware just destroyed my WD HD.

After confirming the upgrade, the box rebooted and then the HDMI lost the signal. I waited for about 20 minutes, but nothing happened. When I now turn on the box, it displays the blue WD HD logo and nothing else. When I turn it on with the USB stick connected, the logo appears and then the HDMI loses the signal.

Any suggestions appreciated.

Regards,
Dan

<<< edit: Did you have many app.bin’s attached? Have you tried the emergency-flash recovery process? I have made a small update to disable all app.bins during the upgrade in case one of them did something wrong to cause this shituation. IF your wdtv is ‘bricked’ you can still bring it back to life relatively simply, but you’ll need a serial cable. You can find a way to contact me via the donate button, feel free to email for help. –b-rad >>>

Thanks for this!!

I was wondering:will this work with the “WD My Book World Edition 1 Terabyte (1TB) NAS External Ethernet Hard Drive”

I want to get one and use as the harddrive for this devise.

Will it work with your firmware? It certainly does not work without it.

Thanks for your time and help!

/Daniel

<<< edit: appears like it should from what I read. MBWE supports CIFS and NFS so you’d just need to use the appropriate app.bin and you’d be good to go. –b-rad >>>

i used the version 0.5.5 and now i wanted to upgrade to version 0.5.6!
i’ve had the same problems as Dan and at first i was really frustraded.
i’m lucky that i found a way to rescue my wd tv and now i will downgrade to version 0.5.5 because also version 0.5.6.1 doesn’t work with my system!
please try to fix the bug, because i think your work is awesome!!!

chris

<<< edit: To fix a bug that doesn’t exist for me I need much more detailed information than is being provided. I need detailed info on device/partitions/etc posted to wdtvforum. –b-rad >>>

hi brad, thank you very much for your work and the great support!
the update worked just fine for me, the only little bug (if u may call it that) is that i now always have a folder called sda1 showing. But i can live with that!

And Daniel: Yes it works fine with the mybook world, i have a nfs share mounted automatically on boot to stream videos directly from the mybook.

<<< edit: the sda1 directory might be there because the device has no label or UUID…I’ll look into that and see about a workaround sometime. –b-rad >>>

Hi B-Rad,

luckily, I was able to bring my WD HD back to life. It seems that it was trying to upgrade the firmware, but somehow wasn’t able to load yours. When I plugged in a stick with the normal WD 1.02.07 firmware, it flashed this one and everything was fine.

I had no other .bin files on the stick, just your firmware.

Since I don’t have a PayPal-Account, I’m writing you here. But be sure I will make a donation over my brother’s account as soon as your mod is running and supporting my USB hub now

Regards,
Dan

<<< edit: I just meant clicking on the link but donations are always welcome I’m trying to debug this issue affecting you & others, but I need detailed information that noone has posted yet…Soon as I can reproduce it I’ll get it taken care of. –b-rad >>>

< <>>

I don’t undestand if this file and directory I have to make myself or if your firmware is to make their.

Please let me undestand better this 2 step, thank you so much

<<< edit: make the directory yourself and it’ll be mapped to the cache directory. –b-rad >>>

Same problem here, my WDTV didn’t come back to life after/during the upgrade process with 0.5.6.
Had some other apps on the stick, like appletrailers, lilababe OSD mod, webserver, etc.

Will try the emergency-flash recovery process…

<<< edit: You could try a different device as well, seems some devices work–some don’t–for some odd reason. Until I know exact devices model/partitions/etc I won’t know whats going on. –b-rad >>>

Dan
August 10th, 2009 10:25
B-Rad, your firmware just destroyed my WD HD.

After confirming the upgrade, the box rebooted and then the HDMI lost the signal. I waited for about 20 minutes, but nothing happened. When I now turn on the box, it displays the blue WD HD logo and nothing else. When I turn it on with the USB stick connected, the logo appears and then the HDMI loses the signal.

Any suggestions appreciated.

Regards,
Dan ( quote) this has hapen to me lots of times with the old firmware of b rad it just takes a little time for it to boot up thats all its nothing to worry about but thanx for the new upgrade brad hopefully one day i can donate when i learn how to do the lan seetings its taking me for ever to do the nfs shares im trying to learn from this site http://mrlazy.wordpress.com/ lotta stuff i never read b4 but am learning just to make it clear for me how many bin apps can 1 have on the external harddrive with ur firmware after installing can i have all these on it like does all the dat files and config files have to be in it with the ver and bin

<<< edit: you can have 23 app.bins, which then leaves one empty loopback for the system. –b-rad >>>

Hi,
Thanks for all the great work! I had the same problem as Dan but resolved it. I followed instructions on the WDC site for a hung flash upgrade.

1) place the bin and ver files in a USB drive with nothing else in it.

2) unplug then replug the WDTV

3) the blue WDC logo will show on both composite and HDMI outputs but upgrade process will show only on the composite output

4) the light on the USB key and the USB light on the WDTV will intermittently flash. The upgrade process screen will stay at 0% for a LONG time.

5) I waited for at least 3 hours for the unit to right itself.

6) the default output will then be to composite. Both HDMI and composite must be connected. Go to options, watch the TV using the composite input, after selecting HDMI and the resolution the OK/Cancel screen to confirm the changes will flash for a split second on the composite output. To change outputs, after selecting the resolution, switch your TV to the HDMI input where the WD TV is connected. The confirmation screen will be there.

Hope this helps!

<<< edit: quite a strange report you have here! If I’m to debug this I need detailed information on device/partitions/etc posted to wdtvforum. –b-rad >>>

B-Rad, please see http://wdtvforum.com/main/index.php?topic=446.msg13323#msg13323

app.bin-packages don’t work in 5.6.1!

<<< edit: don’t work for you (and some others), they work just fine for me. If I’m to debug this I need more info than ‘they don’t work’ –b-rad >>>

Hi B-Rad,

thanks for the great work – because of it I can use the WD HD via NFS together with my Synology NAS!
I tried various times to upgrate to 0.5.6 and 0.5.6.1. Similar to Dan it just didn’t upgrade, but I could always go back to the official Version.
Here are my observations:
- after the confirmation to upgrade the system makes re-boot
- now USB-Stick is blinking a lot, and I can see the blue WD HD Logo.
- then after some time the screen gets blank. Now the USB-Stick blinks a few times more, but that’s it, the screen stays black. Also the USB-light on the front does not start (as usual at that time)
- I tried both USB ports, with .bin and without, with USB-Hub and without…
- Now I am back again to 0.5.5, working fine…

Thanks, Martin

<<< edit: If you guys want me to solve this you’ll have to post very detailed information about your device/partitions/etc to wdtvforum. –b-rad >>>

Hi Brad,

Thanks for working on WDLXTV. Can you tell me where i can find nfs.app.bin-0.2???

Regards
Marco

<<< edit: from the nfs.app.bin page… –b-rad >>>

Hey B-Rad – great work on WDLXTV! I especially love the fact we can change the thumbnail quantity and sizes now.

One suggestion (if it hasn’t already been mentioned) – is there any possible way to create a triple-tap search?

For example, say you’re viewing videos in the thumbnail view, then tapping the ’3′ key on the remote would jump to the ‘D’s, ‘E’s, and ‘F’s in succession with each tap.

Having a large collections of videos means that it currently takes quite a while to get to the middle of the collection with page scrolls…

Thanks!

<<< edit: dunno what remote you have, but mine doesn’t have a ’3′ key. –b-rad >>>

Hi Brad,

congrats on the great work!

My question to you is: how do you create the thumbs file on the root of the device? Which device, the WDTV or the usb stick?
Could you please write a couple of lines to show this?

Thanks again

Francis

<<< edit: All you do is provide a directory on the root of a device titled .thumbDB and it’ll be mapped to the system cache directory.

cd [wherever]
mkdir .thumbDB

–b-rad >>>

Hi B-rad.

I just upgraded from 0.5.5 (only had it on a week!).
I had the Samba App and the Webserver app working before but now they dont run – its as if the ability to run them after upgrade has been left off.
Have you come across this before? The .bin files are in the root as before. Maybe I am the first to have this problem as I dont see anything on the forum about it.
Cheers,
Dicky

<<< edit: Post the devices/partitions/etc that you are using to wdtvforum and I’ll try and get this taken care of. –b-rad >>>

Hi

I have just upgraded to your latest version, but now no app.bins are loaded anymore. How can I enable them again?

Kind regards

<<< edit: seems to be some issue with app.bins loading. It doesn’t affect me whatsoever, but if enough information about devices/partitions/etc being used is posted to wdtvforum I should be able to reproduce and debug it. –b-rad >>>

Hello again. I didn’t see this update!. I’m trying to update now, but I have the same problem as others… It freezes after reboot and the led of the USB doesn’t blink. I don’t know what you mean when yo say you want info in devices/partitions/etc. I don’t know how to connect to the WD and see Linux.

<<< edit: the info I desire does not require the device being plugged in to the wdtv, it requires you looking at it and telling me how its formatted & what it is. Post here that info. –b-rad >>>

Hello

Here were No installation problems.
But
now the WDTV dont reads the IP from the config
file.
System->Info says: WDTV -35436 : noIP
The same config file works with 0.5.5

Thanks for your Time and Ideas

Friedbert

<<< edit: post problems here and I’ll try to address them. –b-rad >>>

i useing the ext3 format is this what u using b-rad just so we all know

i updated from a 2gb fat formatted usb stick and it went fine like always. The app bin packs (samba and nfs->new version) also worked like they did before, i did not even have to create a new net.mounts file in /conf

But looking where?. I don’t see that Linux code anywhere. Perhaps yo mean I have to use the application log.bin and post the .txt
The fact is that I have used a HDD instead of the pendrive and the uptade of your firmware was perfect. It seems like if the other pendrive was not compatible enough to the update of firmware, but I hadn’t that problem with this pendrive when I upgraded to 0.5.5. I recommend to that people who couldn’t update that use another USB device and try again.
Although I powered it externally, my hub doesn’t work with this firmware either . I’ll do some other tests tomorrow.

I don’t have Linux, so I can not plug the device and go to that folder. Sorry!.

<<< edit: you don’t need Linux to look at your device and tell me its model & what type of partition it contains. Post your problems & hub test results in this thread. –b-rad >>>

I try to do xmount, but I downloaded the latest nfs app pack 0.2 version, but I get:

# xmount 192.168.0.131:/Shared Shared nfs
modprobe: module nfs not found
modprobe: failed to load module nfs

and in messages.txt:
Aug 12 22:21:18 WDTV-9e5c0 user.notice root: NFS mount failed! download nfs.app.
bin from http://b-rad.cc

<<< edit: Post problems here, including make&model of device with app.bin on it and any other info. –b-rad >>>

Hi B-Rad,

here are some additional information about the failed upgrade-process:

- empty USB stick (two different ones of different manufacturers, one 2GB, one 16GB), unzipped files for upgrading, nothing else
- FAT32

Reboot, blue WD logo, stick is blinking, screen turns black, stick goes to standby, no matter how long I wait.

Unplugging the WD HD, deleting the files on the stick and copying the original Firmware 1.02.07, plugging back in -> firmware installs

Glad I’m not the only one with these problems btw, what’s an emergency flash?

Regards,
Dan

<<< edit: Don’t worry about emergency-flash, this is a bug that requires fixing and not being worked around You need to post detailed info about your devices including model here. –b-rad >>>

Hi B-Rad,

Almost got your 0.5.6.1 firmware working perfectly, but running into the non-responsive remote problem (cannot pause/rw/ff) which makes the WDTV with this firmware pretty much unusable.

However, after playing with telnetting in and rebooting several times, it looks as though I can predict when the “unresponsive remote” problem occurs.

After a hard reboot, when the boot screen says “IP:No IP”, WDTV goes immediately to the screen saver and hangs when you try to do anything. A soft reboot solves the hang, but the unresponsive remote (even on local files) still happens.

However, after some hard reboots the boot screen says “IP:192.168.0.103″ (i.e. the IP is set properly). When that happens (after a telnet reboot or full power off) then everything works great!

So, that leads me to suspect that there are timing issues with the initialization of the wireless USB dongle (a zd1121b type in my case). If the wireless initializes correctly and in the right part of the boot sequence, then everything works, but if it doesn’t (when it initializes too slowly perhaps?) then the WDTV system remains in a buggy state until you do another hard reset.

I can do some more debugging if you like — but I would like to know what I should add to my config files to give the best trace possible of the boot process. Of course, there could be a problem with the logging changing the timings, but if I can log a failing case and a successful case then perhaps I can get you enough information to nail this problem once and for all.

The only other problem I have been having could be related. Even when the unresponsive remote bug doesn’t happen, I usually get a permanent “Scanning the attached USB device…” message at the top of the screen and it never goes away.

Cheers, Mike

<<< edit: Good investigation Mike. You can use log-saver.app.bin to log your cases, then post them here and I’ll see if I can figure out if theres some sort of race condition happening. –b-rad >>>

Thanks b-rad.

One more question: should .thumbDB be placed in each hard drive, or just once on the usb stick?

<<< edit: just one device, preferably one that doesn’t get unplugged. –b-rad >>>

do I need to do anything to get a USB Ethernet adaptor working? My WD flashed fine but is indicating “No IP” for the adaptor. Any drive/config file work required, or is it just that the (cheap and nasty) adaptor I’m using isn’t compatible?

<<< edit: A compatible network adapter would help. Figure out what you have and check here –b-rad >>>

@b-rad

Can you please tell me for what the thumb cache is for?

I mean if i power off the device and turn it back on all thumbs show off imideatly.

So I created the folder on the stick (my movies are on my harddisk). So the only time the thumbs are reloadeing ist the disconnection and reconnection of the harddrive. So I thought this cache thing stops the reloading after reconnection. But it doesnt. The thumbs still have to reload.

So what is the exact reason for the thumbcache?

<<< edit: if you disconnect the device containing the thumb cache while the wdtv is on the thumb cache becomes invalid and will go back to being temporary. The thumb cache is only loaded upon boot of the wdtv, disconnect and its gone until reboot. If you leave the device containing the thumb cache always connected it should persist, mine does. –b-rad >>>

Mine doesnt. I have the cache on my stick and the stick stays in the box. Doesnt work

<<< edit: Doesn’t work for *you*. Use log-saver.app.bin, upload the logs to pastebin, then post links to them here. –b-rad >>>

Another question: should .addMounts be placed in each hard drive or folder that I connect via NFS?

<<< edit: .addMounts is an empty file to be placed at the root of any device which you’d like to contain extra mounts from other devices which the wdtv does not officially mount. You can make the file on all your devices if you wish, only the first one will be used if you have an .addMounts marked device in each slot. Your NFS would then be mounted in a directory on the .addMounts device, so that media library can scan its contents. –b-rad >>>

Hi

Great firmware, I had the issue that others were talking about not loading the .bin files on boot, in my case wireless-mod-seb.app.bin. I found that coping the files off the memory stick, formatting the drive and copying the files back on again fixed the issue.

<<< edit: strange finding. Post these details here for others, and include the device model & partitions it contained for my debugging. –b-rad >>>

Excuse me B-Rad, let me to undestand better.
I explain my situation:
I’ve a pen drive plugged to WDTV with firmware and apps (NFS, coreExtra, wifi module e proFTP).
Then we have a pc with 3 external hard drive connected. In my pc i’ve NFSServer, in which I share the three ext HD and the incoming Directory of my emule.This 4 shares are mounted in the file net.mounts.

I’ve created .thumbDB in pen drive that’s plugged directly to WDTV. Where exactly I must place the file .addMounts?

<<< edit: .addMounts goes on the pen drive with .thumbDB –b-rad >>>

To clarify on the ‘triple-tap’ search –

I use a Harmony universal remote. The number keys for changing channels have cooresponding alpha characters (like texting on a cell phone). In MCE, you can skip alphebetically through the title by tapping the number keys.

Just curious if this could ever be added to the functionality.

Wow!!!

Everything is working perfectly!!!

This release is a fantastic improvement on all levels.

PS I am using the Apple USB adapter, no conflicts, no issues.

Thank You!!!

PSS Apple ethernet usb adapter plugged in to Airport Express. Everything works.

b-rad!!
When i have problem after this firmware upgrade!!
My WD-TV don’t reboot!!
keep the wd logo
what is the problem??
please! help me
ㅠ.ㅠ

<<< edit: replace wdlxtv with an official firmware and it should upgrade. If it doesn’t go here to troubleshoot. –b-rad >>>

First I want to say great work on the firmware!

However, I’m hoping you can guide me in the right direction on a problem that is driving me crazy!

Basically I’m getting the dreaded No IP problem with my unit.

I’m using the Trendnet TU2-ET100. I’ve tried both the 5.5 and 5.6.1 firmware versions.

My understanding was you simply plug it in and it grabs an IP from DHCP. Am I missing something??

- Plugged a laptop into the same ethernet cable and it gets an IP immediately.

- Plugged the TU2-ET100 into my USB port on laptop, loaded driver, and it picked up an IP on same ethernet cable immediately.

- Added net.config file to my USB hard drive root with static IP settings to no avail.

So my setup is I have the Trendnet in one USB port and a 1TB USB HD in another.

both lights are green on the Trend TU2-ET100, and there is a light on the switch it’s connected to, so it’s showing full connectivity.

So why don’t I get either a DHCP address or my static address showing up and working?!

Is there something I’m missing? What else could be wrong!! I bought the Trendnet because it was on the list and had 4 starts.

Any help you could give would be appreciated.

Thanks,
Max

<<< edit: you’ll have to do the homework yourself, but I believe your adapter might be one thats labeled USB2.0 but in actuality is a USB1.0 device that is compatible with USB2.0. It might only work reliably through a powered hub and even then not so much. ASIX chipset based adapters are suggested. –b-rad >>>

hello b-rad awesome site please help me.. I have wdtv mounted in the car and the font is too small when searching titles of songs is there a way to fix this? please help me I will donate mail me back at anthony@vegaselitevip.com you can walk me through it I will pay you for your time.

<<< edit: Is this what you’re looking for?
config_tool -c LISTNUM=4
boot your wdtv with that line uncommented in S00custom-options, the font size is quite large. Donate away –b-rad >>>

I truly appreciate your effort. This alternate Firmware has made this WDTV useful beyond anything WD has been able to produce to date.

One minor issue …

After applying 5.6.1, my LaurentG app pak seem to not be loading. Worked great w/ 5.5. All I can speculate is that the 5.6.1 change where app paks are temp disabled during flas may have stayed disabled.

Any way to download 5.6.0 to give it a try?? I really want the advances of 5.6 along with the LaurentG app pak.

BTW — USB Hub support is DEFINITELY now working doe me (wasn’t in 5.5) and the boot times of 5.6 are very good.

Again — Thank You!!!!

<<< edit: Cheers The only difference between 0.5.6 and 0.5.6.1 is that app.bins are disabled only during upgrade. Look up the 0.5.X thread at wdtvforum for a preview of 0.5.6.2. –b-rad >>>

I’m running the latest version of WDXLTV, but when I put any kind of app.bin in the root of my USB stick the machine just boots up like usual and doesn’t recognise the apps or my ethernet adaptor. It worked fine on the old firmware. I tried Samba, NFS and the Pureftp bin files and nothing happens, please help?

<<< edit: Refer to the 0.5.X thread at wdtvforum for a preview of 0.5.6.2. –b-rad >>>

I did a little research and I the issue w/ app-bins not loading exists with NTFS formatted storage devices.

Also found a .5.6.2 version which resolves the issue (confirmed via my use and by the change-log file included). I won’t post the link here as I’m not sure the author wants it out for public consumption via this site yet, however, a quick Google may bear fruit for those wanting to try it out.

Hi everyone,

I was wondering if there is a MAME app.bin for the WDTV?

Together with two USB gamepads, it would be a wonderful add-on to already great experience.

Thank!

Hi Dan,
Have you looked into the possibilty of adding a time-search function into .mkv files? E g use the fast forward buttons to jump 10, 15? minutes forward/back with each press of the FF button?
(or is this feature something that has to be added by WD in their part of the firmware?)

<<< edit: who’s dan? you do realize that if you press left or right while fast forwarding / reversing it’ll skip 10min, right? –b-rad >>>

Hi. I have tried the new firmware 0.5.6.2 and it’s great, but I have a problem with the wifi usb. I have a rt2570 and I use the wireless-rt.bin. The problem is that, after upgrade the firmware, the wdtv starts to recognize the wifi and then the wallpapers appears. After that I have to reboot and after the reboot I can not rev., ff., pause or stop the movies, but the wifi and all other work fine. I have reflashed at least 8 times, but always the same. The messages.txt doesn’t seems to reveal anything important or strange.

<<< edit: if you do not use the wireless app pack do you experience the issues? –b-rad >>>

B-Rad,

A few days ago, you asked for some tracelog info for my reboot problems (see my previous comment in this thread).

I collected 11 tracelogs and found a pattern between the successful and failed boot sequences. I have documented them in this thread — I hope they will help.

http://wdtvforum.com/main/index.php?topic=1793.0

MikeW

Javier — do you have “sleep” commands in your net.config file? The problem you describe sounds like the same one I was having. I added “sleep 10″ after the insmod and wpa_supplicant lines (no idea if you need both of them).

See this thread for more info:

http://wdtvforum.com/main/index.php?topic=1793.0

Hi B-Rad,

I tried WDLXTV-0.5.5, 0.5.6.1, 0.5.6.2 firmware,
none of them can play ISO file, the WDTV Pre-Release FW 1.02.10 and WDLXTV-0.5.3.2 play ISO file without any problem.

Thanks

<<< edit: Mine plays ISO files just fine. Post your bugs in the 0.5.X thread at wdtvforum, including your full setup such as models of attached devices and all attached app.bins. –b-rad >>>

<<>>

No, it seems a bit of incompatibility with that chipset or with that pack-rt (Ralink). I will try with older versions of your firmware and I’ll see if it runs ok, altough I couldn’t use hub.

Thanks.

MikeW, I looked for a solution but I didn’t find it. I’ll see that tread, thank you.

With that rt app pack I don’t have to use wpa_supplicant neither insmod… it’s easier, but It has a sleep command and I tried with sleep 1 and sleep 2. I’ll try to increase it more!.

Moreover, when I’m seeing movies by wifi, the WD logo appears and I have to press some key in the remote control to have the image again.

Hello again. after using “sleep 10″ the fixed IP (dhcp=no), wich din’t work for me, now works ok. Nevertheless the other issues continue, so that I can not ff, rev, pause… the same as MikeW said.

I’m using now zorander ext3-boot and my hub is recognised and I don’t have problems with wifi neither remote control. By now all is OK.

Anyway, I think that B-rad is doing a GREAT job. I would preffer the firmware were in the wd memory instead of in an USB. I’ll wait for futures updates of your firmware!.

shood we go back to the WDLXTV 0.5.5 alot of mkv movies are laggy now with this 0.5.6.2

<<< edit: Nothing lags for me. If performance is not up to par for you, then yes revert back to another version if you desire. I would appreciate posting your exact setup, including models of attached devices and connected app.bins to the 0.5.X thread at wdtvforum though. –b-rad >>>

Hi from Greece
I faced the same problem with many persons as they told here (freezing in HDMI mode etc.)

Well the problem is that your firmware 0.5.6.1 (in otherways excellent), enables the NTSC (USA TV system), and for a strange reason the PAL TV’s goes on a looping state, only in HDMI mode.

Solution: connect your WD with composite way, with a flash only with official firmware (upgrade the wdtv.ver file to some 1.03.10 for example), make the upgrade and after a reboot, change the status to PAL system, and done.

<<< edit: Quite odd, I don’t change the value myself. –b-rad >>>

Hi from Oz,

Thanks for 0.5.6.2! It works perfectly in the way that I use it. (NFS share served from my Mac through to the Apple USB-Ethernet adapter plugged in the WDTV)

It’s a HUGE improvement on the UI since I last upgraded several months ago. I think the last update of your firmware I tried was 0.4.x.

I’m loving the 21 thumbnails and persistant thumbs!

NFS is working perfect with the nfs-apps.bin ver.0.2. I haven’t noticed any funny things yet but will let you know.

It took me a while to figure out that the .thumbDB should be created on the usb key that is always plugged in. I thought the NFS share needed it’s own .thumbDB directory. Hope this helps anyone with that issue.

All the best & will donate soon,

Stephen.

joe
August 20th, 2009 10:00
shood we go back to the WDLXTV 0.5.5 alot of mkv movies that are over 4gb are lagggy now with this 0.5.6.2

by the way can u get ur hands on this movie … and try on your WDLXTV-0.5.6.2′

xmount //8.0.0.1/GXT3 GXT3 cifs user=
xmount //8.20.0.2/NBHD NBHD cifs user=
xmount //8.20.0.1/WDHD WDHD cifs user=
xmount //8.20.0.1/Rima Rima cifs user=
xmount //8.20.0.1/FTP FTP cifs user=

here is my setup threw LAN usin a 16gb kingsten usb stick in the wdtv using the trendnet usb adapter works freaking awsome and connected app bins are —> pure-ftpd.app.bin , nfs.app.bin , samba.app.bin WDLXTV-0.5.6.2′
wdtv.bin’

<<< edit: if you find 0.5.6.2 too unstable, then revert back to 0.5.5. I’m doing a bit of research to try and take care of things, but I am very busy this time of year. I’ve got some 8+GB mkv’s I’ll see if any lag for me….is this local or net share lagging? –b-rad >>>

b-rad: Awesome work! I’ve been using it since 0.5.5 with NFS. Just upgraded to 0.5.6.1 and it’s great! Thanks for your hard work, donation is on it’s way!

A quick question, or bug report if it is indeed a bug. I use subtitles in our MKV files all the time. Bitmapped subtitles from the DVDs. If I have one subtitle in the MKV, it plays by default all the time. It can be turned off through the Options button, but it’s not set as a default subtitle track in the MKV, so I’m not sure why it plays by default. If I have several subtitle tracks defined in the file, it doesn’t play any automatically, which is the proper operation. I can then select which one I want to view. If I have multiple subtitles defined, and have one set as the default track, it doesn’t play by default, which is not correct.

Also, as it displays the subtitles, it flashes them up for what looks like 3 or 4 frames, and then they disappear. It’s far, far too fast to see the words, nevermind read them! The next subtitle appears when it should, but also just flashes up quickly and then goes away. The whole files plays in the same manner. I have played these same files in mplayer and VLC and they function properly.

Could you shed any light on these problems? Thanks a bunch for your great software and the time you put into it!

–Justin

<<< edit: Cheers, thank you. The subtitle issue is not me (i don’t think), theres an option in the video settings to turn subtitles off by default. I’m not sure if the wdtv respects the default subtitle flag or not atm, I believe it didn’t used to. –b-rad >>>

Hallo b-rad

To use the WDTV only on trade fairs i have a question.
Is it possible to play a playlist in loop after power on?
Is it possible to hold the last picture of a film
till the next film in the list starts?
No need for a menue and other features.

Thanks
Friedbert

<<< edit: Friedbert, click on a donate button and send an email to the address on the page. Answers to your questions: 1) yes 2) no. –b-rad >>>

love ur firmware man i am net sharing the files i tried it with the hard drive in the wdtv and it works fine. i realy appreciate all ur work man if it wasnt for ur firmware then i would have never bought this wdtv keep up the awsome work. how to delete files with the remote ?

<<< edit: Thanks. You cannot delete files with the remote & stock wdlxtv, perhaps with a 3rd party add on though. In some future firmware update WD will enable file management and then it’ll be a reality. –b-rad >>>

Dear b-rad, WDTV firmware 0.5.6.1 is fantastic.

My only problem is that i can’t see ext subtitles on dvd rom. Will you enable this feature in a new firmware?

Thank you very much for this fabulus work..

<<< edit: thats a limitation with their firmware. I look into working around it occasionally, but I don’t watch enough material with external subs for it to be such an issue = not priority. –b-rad >>>

Is it possible to incorporate the RMVB playing ability from the new WDTV mini into the customer firmware, so we can play RMVB as well thru the WDTV?

Greatly appreciate all the work you’ve done with the WDTV, you’ve made it into a very cost effective all round media player. Thanks a million.

<<< edit: short answer: no. Cheers. –b-rad >>>

wow thats a wicked ass reality

Can you help me ?
Why does not WD HD TV support quick time photo jpeg movie files which most camera use this this format ?

Can you develop software to supoort this files.

help please
Please

<<< edit: I could probably write an overlay to support them, but I doubt what it’d cost would make it worth your wild. –b-rad >>>

b-rad,
Great work. Using the 0.5.6.1 software and it fixed the thumb issue I was having with 5.5. The only problem I still have is with using HFS disk. Almost every time I touch the disk with FTP it ends up Read Only and I have to bring it back to my Mac to clean up; kinda’ defeats the purpose of the FTP doesn’t it? Any ideas on getting around this? Any ideas from you or anybody else on the easiest way to use the WDTV with a Mac? Love the WD and your software just makes it that much better.

Oh yeah, I just donated. Thanks.

<<< edit: Cheers, thanks for the donation! I’ve got an HFS+ drive sitting around so I’ll look into the ftp issue soon. I’ll be out of town the next 3 days, but when I get back it’ll be a priority. –b-rad >>>

very KOOL app! any thoughts on adding webcam/ipcam support?

<<< edit: Probably possible, but could turn out to be an expensive endeavor as its of little interest to me. –b-rad >>>

Hey Rad I was installing the new firmware and I don’t know why something happened…now my wdtv won’t work anymore…I have the logo on for about 1 minute and then it loses the signal!!
Please write me an email i need your help…and i dont have a serial cable and i work on mac!!!Thanks

I had to reinstall the original firmware from the wd…and i tried again to install yours…but nothing it freaks out and won’t work!!
I really don’t know why!

I must be doing something wrong but don’t know what !!!?

I installed your firmware but on any of the version my ip address on DHCP is 192.168.0.4 but the device is not regocnized by my fritzbox.

When DHCP is off and i filled out all the vars in net.config the device is seen by the fritzbox but seems to looae contact when being put on standby.
When woken up the device the network connection is lost.

First i used a Belkin gigbit adapter but that one broke down.
Now i tried a WE adapter for a while with the same newtwork results and now this is broke too. How can i get DHCP to work properly so my fritzbox and your firmware can talk ?

<<< edit: i have no clue what you’re talking about, and don’t have time to support infinite devices I’ve never heard of. It sounds to me like your device is on the fritz :-p –b-rad >>>

Yeah, you are very proud on your hacked firmware and you should be ! But what i am missing too is a very clear step-by-step manual for those who are no wizzards like yourself but would like to get the most out of the WDTV. So please,please, pretty please with sugar on top, write a manual for Dummies.

<<< edit: I’m extremely busy right now, in another month when all the bike parks have closed I’ll be freer I’ve planned a walk through on my exact setup and what not for a long time, just have to actually get around to it. –b-rad >>>

Hi Brad,

I know you are not using subtitle, I encounter the subtitle issue, I am using 0.5.6.1, seems this firmware doesn’t support subtitle in a seperate .srt file. Do I miss something to show the .srt ?

<<< edit: external subs work everywhere except from optical drives. –b-rad >>>

@William

I’m using 0.5.6 and I’m able to watch .mkv and .avi using external .srt with no problem – if it doesn’t load it automatically, I enable them through Options menu in the film.

Version 0.5.6.1 should be pretty much same as 0.5.6, except for not loading app.bins during upgrade.

Just wanted to mention: I have two USB drives connected over a hub. Using 0.5.6.2. The main menu shows
DRIVE A – OSD Settings – DRIVE B – DRIVE A
or the same thing with 2x DRIVE B
Can anyone confirm this?

@B-Rad: As soon as your new firmware is released and I can use the thumbDB with special characters/HFS+ I will make a donation instantly

Cheers!
Dan

was wondering if u can make some kind of softreset in ur next update would be beter then the power off button more like standby rite

Thanks for the awesome firmware. I have a little problem I have a USB 2.0 to Fast Eithernet device using ASIX 88772, I get an IP address (but not everytime) when I do it only last for about 1 or 2 minutes then I get host unreachable ??? Do you have any idea. Thanks

<<< edit: if its not defective is it plugged into an unpowered hub? Maybe it needs a powered hub for some weird reason. –b-rad >>>

Hi B-Rad,

I have seen different behavior when I was going back to a previous version comparing to the case when I installed it from the first time.
Is there any way to reset flash memory, to start again like a new unit?
PS: going to the original FW doesn’t fix the issue.

Thank you,
Gabi

<<< edit: factory reset in system options is as good as you can get. –b-rad >>>

Anyone know if the WDLX firmware works on the new WDTV mini?

<<< edit: probably not, but if one was bought for me I could see what I could do –b-rad >>>

Can the latest firmware read an AVCHD dvd burned using UDF 2.5 properly?

I popped one in, browsed to the M2TS file, started playing it; however, the length of the M2TS is completely off on the wd tv. It reports it as 18minutes long when it’s really over an hour.

<<< edit: UDF formatted discs are read fine, dunno if perhaps 2.5 discs are not and therefore reverts to something else. –b-rad >>>

Hi I realize a pach for mount.watch process
see http://wdtvforum.com/main/index.php?topic=2029.msg15925#msg15925

could you examine it and include it in your next fw

Bye
JC

<<< edit: I’ll review it for inclusion, cheers! –b-rad >>>

Hi B-RAD
I’m using 0.5.6.2.
It is don’t make trouble!
very good
but I have one suggest!!
My only problem is that i can’t see KOREA subtitles on dvd rom.
(English subtittles is O.K – I think don’t support Asia subtitles!!)
Will you enable this feature in a new firmware?
thank you!

I have 3 units of 1TB MyBook drives connected through an USB hub.

I tried 0.5.6.2, 0.5.6.1 and 0.5.5 but they doesn’t detect all the drives, just one of them. I tried also switching ON and OFF the media library unsuccesfully.

Any idea?

Thanks a lot

<<< edit: if they all contain the same disk label it might throw off my mounter. –b-rad >>>

Hi B-RAD
I’m using 0.5.6.2.
It is don’t make trouble!
very good job more thank.

i want to bye Playon!HD
http://www.playonhd.com/
http://www.acryan.com/forums/viewforum.php?f=38

Your hack is possible for this HD player.
Thanks, best regard.

<<< edit: if you’d like to buy me one of them I’d definitely try to hack it up –b-rad >>>

INCREDIBLE. I installed official firm from WD (1.02.07) and now the HUB works whothout any change in the cables or hardware ¿?

It figures that b-rad firm improves the USB HUB support it isn’t? ¿?

Hi b-rad

Thanks for all the great work, tried your firmware for the first time today and its great. Managed to get wireless-usb working and can FTP stuff to the usb-hdd connected to the WDTV.

I can boot up with a usb-key connected with all the app.bin files, and that works, and I can then eject it and reconnect my usb-hdd. However do I need to do this every time the WDTV is rebooted? I tried copying all the .app.bin/net.*/.dat files to the usb-hdd and rebooting but then the wireless-usb doesnt work?

Can your firmware load all the apps off a usb-hdd on bootup, or does it have to be a usb-key?

Thanks, DaSandman

<<< edit: devices containing app.bins should be attached while the wdtv is on to function correctly. I suggest a small usb hub to plug your network adapter and the app.bin device into. –b-rad >>>

Hey B-RAD,
I can’t come close to thanking you enough for all your hard work. I’m running 0.5.6.2 and have a headless Centos 5 server running with multiple NFS shares that stream to a few different WDTV boxes.

I’m looking to cut my electric bill and write a script that would send a magic packet (Wake on LAN) to my centos server when the WDTV box is turned off and on. Are you aware of any location that i could toss in a WOL Ping that would run not only on boot but also run when the system is turned off and on using the remote?

Thanks Again!

<<< edit: first part definitely possible, requires Optware and a bit of custom scripting. Part 2…doable, but in a hackish way. –b-rad >>>

Hi…
I’m using 0.5.6.2. and I don´t have problems with the USB adapter, but the Lite-On eSAU108 doéns´t recognized… Any advice???
Thxx for all the job

<<< edit: is that an optical drive or something? If so not all optical drives work. –b-rad >>>

Hey Brad!

I would love to see how great WDLXTV is. But it simply does not work – and I have no clue why. Please – could you or anybody help??
I installed the firmware and installed a supported USB/Network adapter (Wintech LAU).

My router (AVM Fritz!Box) sees the wdtv and assigns an IP adress which is also shown on the WD TV About screen.

Seems fine.

BUT: I cannot access the box in any way! Ping does not work (destination host unreachable) nor does telnet!!

Why? What do I have to do to get access??
Other than the About screen, nothing changed at all.

What am I doing wrong?

THANKS A LOT!
CU!

<<< edit: have you tried the adapter plugged into a powered hub? –b-rad >>>

WHAT HAPPEN TO BRAD ?

<<< edit: work mostly :-\ out of town too much too. Plan to be back in swing soon. –b-rad .>>>

Hi, b-rad;

Great work – I tend to “Patch” just about every device I have to see what REAL (enthusiastic) developers are doing !

I have a couple of questions I hope you may be able to help me with… FYI, I am running 0.5.6.2 with an NTFS formatted WD Elements 1Tb drive with hundreds of movies, thousands of songs and pictures etc. so…

1 (and most importantly). I have a .thumbDB directory at root level on the NTFS drive, but the thumbs still seems to take an age to load-up each time I first visit a folder on the drive in “Movies” mode… Am I supposed to MANUALLY populate the folder and if so what do I put in there / following what dir structure / naming conventions etc.? Are the thumbs “Persistent” by default or should I be changing an option in a settings file somewhere? Will it cache thumbs for MUSIC as-well? (and as an aside, is there a way of having SONGS show the album artwork rather than the default “CD” picture? The FOLDERS show the image, but the SONGS dont, so depending on which view mode you choose when selecting your music you either will [but slowly without the cache!] or wont see the album artwork)…

2.) Is there any way of stopping the “Scanning USB device” taking so long (Or would I be better of disabling the media library – which could be a shame for the music categorisation). I would be quite happy to TELL it when I have changed content to trigger a scan if that is possible…

Many thanks again for your hard work; hope your recent absence doesn’t mean youv’ve left the scene for good…

- Doombar.

<<< ntfs drives are slow and I don’t recommend using it for thumbDB. my drives drives are ext3 and my thumbs load near instantly off my thumbDB. Any thumb that is generated by the osd is cached. You can get the ‘scanning usb device’ message to go away by cycling media library on & off.

Work has happened to me…Just have had no time as of late, being out of town every weekend doesnt help either. I am working on some advanced wdtv topics and new stuff for wdlxtv, just at a really slow pace. I’m still here and still love my wdtv –b-rad >>>

Not meaning to ignore the community – I just tried what was suggested by another poster and put the .thumbDB on a pen drive and found that it worked ONCE… Subsequently after a reboot I get no speed boost from the cached thumbs. Power off the WDTV, take the pen drive out and check the contents on a PC and YES – it is populated. Put it back in the WDTV and re-apply the power (…wait for the boot to finish!…) – I still seem to get no benefit from the thumbnail images having been cached (I have now removed ALL my music from the drive as it was taking too long to index at startup each time – is now literally only seconds to do so).

The speed of thumbs being displayed is the ONLY bugbear with the system for me – I haven’t networked it yet (But will once I have the thumb speed licked!) – I just…need…some guidance!

Any takers?

FYI – have around 650 movies. Thus-far I have tried categorising into directories be genre to cut the number of items in a single directory; seems to make no difference to the speed.

Come on people – I know someone has the key to this!

Oh yeah – whilst messing with configs, I fired the unit up with a DIFFERENT drive and noticed that the “Theme” without LaurentG’s extensions is quite nice – any way of getting that WITH LaurentG? I know I can disable the theme options via Laurent’s config file which might give b-rad’s default back – but don’t want to lose movie sheets… I will try tonight but if anyone has the answer to save me a half hour (precious time with 3 kids to amuse / help with homework / put to bed and 650 movies to watch!) I’d appreciate it (Will log my findings here otherwise).

Hopefully yours…

- Doombar.

<<< edit: thumbDB is a beta feature, too bad to hear it doesnt really work for you. –b-rad >>>

HELP! Everyone is screaming for WDTV Mini Firmware!!!

My main issue (and I imagine many people are in the same boat) is that I’m using it in the car, and I can’t read the text because it’s too small.

The ability to customize the OSD would make the WDTV Mini a dream.

Also some sort of “Memory” so that the WDTV Mini will continue playing where it left when the power was switched off would be amazing.

Can you help?

<<< edit: buy me one –b-rad >>>

Hmmm…

OK – changed things around a little.

Made sure there is no .thumbDB on the HDD itself, and swapped them around so that the HDD is USB1, the pen drive in USB2. Cleared out the .thumbDB on the pen drive. Fired everything up; browsed a few of the category directories in movie / folder mode then removed power and put the pen drive in the PC. The .thumbDB is populated EXACTLY as I would expect it to be if it were working correctly – the directory structure of what I browsed is replicated properly, with thumb files for each movie that I had waited to draw on-screen when I was browsing.

Plugged the pen drive back in and re-applied power to the WDTV…
Browsed…
Still as slow as it was previously.

What am I doing wrong here?

Please note that my directory structure is (sample!):
—snip—

Each of the folders now has both a folder.jpg and a {moviefilename.jpg}

I am hoping that the FOLDER.jpgs are going to cache properly. I dont know if the actual {moviefilename.jpg} are cacheing properly or not – I dont want to have all the movie files in a category folder – I NEED the movie specific folders so that the LaurentG movie sheets work properly.

Can somebody who actually knows whether folder.jpg cacheing SHOULD work please let me know? Or is it just the {moviefilename.jpg} files?…

- Richard.

<<< edit: everythings cached. –b-rad >>>

Hello B-Rad!

Many forums speak about version 0.5.6.2 but there is no information about it on this site.

What are the new functionalities and bug corrections in this version comparing it to 0.5.6.1 ?

Thanks a lot for your great job!

<<< edit: oops, guess I never released it I’m working on the next revision when I have time, which I haven’t had much of last couple months…soon. –b-rad >>>

I would like to be able to autostart the last video playing on the drive in case the power goes out on the drive.

is this possible?

<<< edit: not currently possible, i don’t think, but would be doable with the right expertise. –b-rad >>>

If I donate an xstreamer media player to you, will you promise to hack the linux firmware on it as well?

<<< edit: I promise to try same goes with any other media players out there. –b-rad >>>

Discovered that this problem is not since this firmware!
There is a old problem with reading *.sub type of subtitles.
WDTV don’t work with *.sub files as it should.

A small suggestion, can implent a feature to force a screen resolution? My WDTV like to reset it, and then my tv tells me unsupported mode. Forcing the resolution I want would be great. Assuming it could be done

<<< edit: boot your wdtv with a file called S00custom-options (on a device plugged in at boot) containing the following:
#!/bin/sh
config_tool -c VIDEO_OUT='HDMI'
config_tool -c VIDEO_OUT_RESOLUTION='1080p24'
change the resolution to whatever you desire. –brad >>>

Hi, b-rad – great that you got some work; an annoying but necessary evil! Hope it is making good use of your talents.

Thanks for replying to my posts – I have another question though… Just to clear-up a little ambiguity…

You say that your drives work well with ext3 for .thumbDB; do you mean just the pen drive on which the .thumbDB sits? My main drive (WD Elements 1Tb) is formatted as NTFS and I guess as I dont have a “Spare” 1Tb drive that would be difficult to convert to ext3… but I can certainly have a go at making the 2Gb USB stick where I put the .thumbDB ext3 if there is a chance that will improve things?…

Any hints on what you’re working on for the next release?

- Richard.

Hotpluggin ?

I would like to use de WDXTV as follow :
A USB key always plugged with app bin packs on it and an external EXT3 harddrive self powered (3″5 unit).
I would like to switch off the hardrive unit when I go out and switch it on when I come back.

Currently I must unplug/plug the WDTV power supply after switching on the harddrive as
it seems WDXTV doesnot support hotplug or does not remount device.

Is there a way to configure the firmware or a script to alter to address this need ?

NB: WDXTV version : 0.5.6.2

helo brad have u seen new update

Prerelease 1.02.11 (includes all previously released updates)

Resolved Issues:

•Resolved issue where UI Language displayed as OFF when English is selected.
•Resolved UI issue where “ContainsWWW” shows up in the search menu instead of “Contains”.
•Resolved MKV audio/video sync issues.
•Resolved issue where songs were displayed in alphabetical order instead of track order in album view.
New features:

•Added video playlist support.
•Added support for unlocking locked WD external drives http://www.wdc.com/wdtvprerelease/

<<< edit: i’m on it thanks for pointing out…gimme a bit. –b-rad >>>

xmount 10.0.0.41:/Testmuziek MuziekLeo nfs (net.mounts) is working for nfs. The xp-folder is visual on de wdtv in the folderview but not the files. Do you now what’s up?

Sorry for being such a noob. Can you please tell me why rmvb cannot be support by WDTV Live at all? Is it because of hardware issue?

<<< edit: Because a codec does not come with it. –b-rad >>>

Hi b-rad,
Posted here earlier but it seems to be gone, sorry if I messed up somehow – finally got around to installing 0.5.7, but only for the thumbnail support, and that’s where I hope you can help out.
I didn’t really need to try it out, as the official 1.02.11 fixed all my mkv audio sync problems, and I only use a 1TB drive hooked to the WDTV so I’ve no need for all the LAN stuff, but this caught my eye:

* ability to relocate/have persistent (+++fast) thumbnail database on a device
*** requires directory named .thumbDB on root of attached device ***

and I thought, hey, I could _really_ use that, I hate how slow the thumbnails are. Installed with no problems, all seem fine, so first of all thanks for all your work.

BUT.

1. I can’t seem to create a directory named .thumbDB on the root of my HDD. WinXP tells me to stop mucking around and remove that dot from in front of the name, it won’t let me create any folder named .thumbDB, but rather thumbDB without that dot. Not good.
2. I also tried creating a Thumbs.db file and put it in the root directory, and am about to plug the drive back into the WDTV, but get this feeling it won’t work either.

Would it be terribly stupid to ask how to make this work? All I want is faster loading times, and faster (+++fast would be even nicer) thumbnail loading times.

Any help would be much appreciated, thanks in advance.
D

<<< edit: Sounds like you’ll need to telnet in and make the directory, dunno why windows has to be so lame as not not allow dotted directories. –b-rad >>>

SOrry, how long does this upgrade take. The power light is on steady, and the screen shows rectangle blue WD. been a good 10 minutes so far.

Excellent work! Any way to make this thing decode DTS and pass audio through HDMI? It would be awesome.

<<< edit: not a chance. –b-rad >>>

This is awsome work!

One question though, concerning startup time.

Is there a way of speeding the startup time up when you have alot of networked folders?

I have at least 12 vista shared folders that are being loaded (when my PC is turned on). But even when it’s not turned on it seems to take forever to start WDXTV.

The net.mount file is on root level at the bootup device (usb hd) together with a lillibabe.osd.

Thanks for any pointers on this matter.

<<< edit: place an ampersand at the end of each xmount line, that will execute it in the background. –b-rad >>>

Hey B-rad… love your stuff.
am trying to share the USB HDD, attached to the wdtv, gen1, to my iMac. I have set up an /exports file as per your instructions on this site. I have copied the nfsappbin pack to the root of the drive. I have started the nfsd, and I can verify it’s running… but no matter what I do, my iMac doesnt see the share. I can telnet in fine, and I can share from the iMac to the wdlxtv, but not form the wdlxtv back to the imac… aka I want to nfs mount the usb drive, which is attached to the wdtv, on my imac. I have entered the unique device USB device ID for my hDD… etc… not wokring. any tips? does a certain user have to exist on the imac for it to work? I am thinking it’s got something to do with user accounts… any tips welcomed

<<< edit: You’ll need to setup /etc/exports & /etc/hosts.allow –b-rad >>>

Pardon me asking a noob question…
i understand that codec doesn’t support rmvb. But any possibility to load a software media player to play rmvb(ie. decode via software say via debian?) while the rest of video format leave to to chip to decode?

<<< edit: you wouldn’t be playing it through the chipset that route. –b-rad >>>

I see that some ppl are interested in custom firmware for the WDTV Mini. I can’t say it has the same hardware as the Live… More info here: http://blog.dev-pv.com/?p=1

Any luck with hacking the wdtv mini firmware yet?

<<< edit: mini is not currently hackable, I tried but the entire device and firmware format is unlike any of the other wdtv’s and the chipset isn’t the same either. –b-rad >>>

Hi Brad, I’m about to buy a WD TV live, Please tell me – will i be able to tether/bridge or connect other devices (laptop or cable box) to the ethernet port on the WD TV live – after initially connecting the WDTV live to the internet using a USB wireless adapter?

Hi

I’m trying to get my WDLXTV-Live to see my shared drive connected to my AEBS. It worked once with the original WD firmware, but never again. I know theres been a lot of people with this problem. Do you have any suggestions?