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deaded
02-16-2013, 09:37 PM
I have been streaming to my Samsung TV, a Samsung BD player, a Sharp Aquos, and a Sony BD player. The Samsung TV likes to give up in the middle but I don't have that with the Sharp Aquos or Sony so I blame Samsung. I'd like something more reliable.

Another problem I've been having is this. I rip by BDs to a hard drive and use ANYDVD but some copy protection stays. When I stream through the DVD player it often recognizes the copy protection and 20 min into the movie the sound cuts out. I'm assuming it's because the DVD recognizes the copy protection. No problem with the TV alone. So I was thinking that if I had a Boxee or an Apple TV or a Roku or a Western Digital box it might not do that.

Has anyone else had these problems?

What do people use to view their ripped blueray discs?

What works the best with Mezzmo now that I'm committed? I was also thinking about asking the same question at the AVSforum but since I have Mezzmo I wondered what works the best with this server.

Thanks for any insight people can provide.

SLPopp
02-17-2013, 12:43 AM
This sounds like it is the Cinavia protection kicking in, the Cinavia protection is encoded into the soundtrack somehow. Are you transcoding your audio into a different format when you rip i.e. DTS-HD to Dolby Digital 5.1? I have used DVDFab to rip some of my Blu-ray movies and when I do there is a pop-up warning about the Cinavia Protection and that the file may not play back in some players. So far all my rip's have played back on my Sony BDP-S590 (the firmware is up to date), but I have been changing the audio from DTS-HD / True-HD to Dolby Digital 5.1, I haven't tried it yet with an audiocopy (non-transcoding) rip.

Look on the box or jacket for the movie for the "Cinavia Protected" logo, it is purplish in color and look like C)) . If it has this logo, this is where your problem lies. Whatever your choice for a media player search the net about it's support of (preferably non-support of) the Cinavia protection.

Steve

deaded
02-17-2013, 08:51 AM
Yep. That's it. The movie case does say it's protected by Cinavia. That will certainly be a requirement when I get a new media player as I'd like to eventually get rid of my DVD and BD players and only play from the server. Looks like the Western Digital players don't but all the DVD/BD players do now.

SLPopp
02-17-2013, 02:37 PM
The Western Digital players seem to be a pretty good player and there are a lot of people on this forum that really like them. I have been looking at the WD myself because Sony's DLNA streaming formats are so limited. The Western Digital players look like they will play a wide range of formats native. I haven't really considered the Roku players because I could not find info on what formats were supported through DLNA streaming.

Steve

deaded
02-17-2013, 02:52 PM
Roku does not support DLNA so I guess that's out. Mezzmo won't work with it.

Does anyone know if Mezzmo supports the "WD TV Play?" It's not listed on the site in the supported devices though the other WD media players are. Since this one does not list MPEG 2 I just wanted to make sure before I went and got one. Some said that the WD TV Live was being discontinued but I don't see any info about that on their site.

edit: I can't spel

SLPopp
02-17-2013, 03:17 PM
If it doesn't work out of the box, you can bet Peter and Paul can get it working fairly quickly. Conceiva's tech support is some of the best out there, they will work with you through E-mails and get it working relativley quickly. It may work just fine using the profile for the WD TV Live - as long as you don't feed it any MPEG2 files. If the MPEG2 is the only difference it may be as simple as tech support creating a profile based on the WD TV Live and adjusting it to transcode any MPEG2 files to a compatible format.

Tech support are the only ones that can say for sure if the WD TV Live profile will work as long as you don't try to play any MPEG2 files. Either way, tech support will work with you to get the device functioning properly.

Steve.

Bodders-11
02-18-2013, 07:33 AM
Personally I would opt for the Streaming Media Player rather than the WDTV Play. The Streaming Media Player is (was?) only a small amount extra, but is far more capable e.g. support for USB HDDs as well as MPEG2. The Play was designed for accessing on-line content - though they have retained DLNA.

The WD Community have started discussing it - http://community.wdc.com/t5/WD-TV-Live-Streaming-Discussions/WD-TV-Play/td-p/542561, which may help you make your mind up.

Bodders

Paul
02-18-2013, 07:47 AM
Just to confirm - WD TV Live media players are excellent for DLNA streaming. If you have any problem with any WD TV model (e.g. WD TV Play), let us know and we'll fix the issues you are having.

deaded
02-22-2013, 10:51 AM
OK, so I bought two of the new WD TV LIVE boxes and ordered a WD TV HUB which should arrive tomorrow. I **LOVE** the boxes! Streaming is SO much better and more convenient than through the Samsung TV and Sharp TV. Works great with my Harmony One remotes as well. I'm excited to get the hub. I'm not totally clear on which WD TV device profile to use as it seems to be transcoding things that play natively on the box. Any suggestions on a device profile? It's the newest version with the updated firmware.

SLPopp
02-22-2013, 01:59 PM
I also picked up two of the WD TV Live Streaming Media (Gen 3) players (then ones that still have the USB ports on them front and back) and love them also. Much better than the Sony Blu-ray players, although they seem to be very picky about the connectors on the HDMI cables (I had to try a few before I found some that worked). I believe Mezzmo defaulted to the WD TV Live profile but I changed it to the WD TV Live Streaming Media (or was it WD TV Live Media Streamer???) profile and it is working perfect - no transcoding at all. Plays back MKV files ripped from blu-ray using DVDFab set to MKV Remux with DTS audio - now I just have to see what happens when I remux a TrueHD disk that has Cinavia on it.

EDIT: also updated firmware via USB thumb drive to latest as of 2-20-2013

Steve

Paul
02-22-2013, 02:19 PM
deaded: For your Hub, choose the 'WD TV Live Hub' device profile.

deaded
02-22-2013, 04:02 PM
Thanks. For the hub I will use the hub profile. However right now the WD TV LIVE defaults to the first gen profile and this is a 3rd gen box, so I'm not sure it's transcoding optimally and I'm not sure it recognizes that the player does many of these formats nativly so does not need transcoding.

Should I still be using the 1st gen profile? To clarify, this is the newer device, not the PLAY, but LIVE that was just released about a year ago. There are only 3 they sell now, this one, the hub, and the PLAY.

Paul
02-22-2013, 04:29 PM
I would stick with the WD TV Live device profile. Hopefully, other WD owners join in on this thread and post their experience.

SLPopp
02-23-2013, 08:44 AM
Should I still be using the 1st gen profile? To clarify, this is the newer device, not the PLAY, but LIVE that was just released about a year ago. There are only 3 they sell now, this one, the hub, and the PLAY.

If you have the same ones that I have, box says the part number is WDBHG70000NBK-02, model is WDBHG70000NBK-HESN, use the "WD TV Live Streaming Media Player" profile. This is the profile I am using and Mezzmo hasn't had to trancode anything yet.


If you don't have the packaging, the Gen 3 Live players have a USB port on the front and one port on the back. It looks like the older Live and Live Plus players have the USB port on the side, not the front; they also look like they have a power button on the unit itself. The newer Live Streaming Media Player does not have any buttons on the unit itself, only a reset button underneath. Here is a picture of the Gen 3 Live Streaming Media Player from the WD website.
424

You will be gald you bought this unit for streaming media, it beats the heck out of the Sony Blu-ray player options. Mine has been staying fairly cool, it does get warm - but not hot (I've heard the older ones run a little hot).

I've been ripping my blu-rays just using the Remux option in the DVDFab software, so the video and audio are a straight pass through (no re-encoding - Video & Audio remain untouched) to an MKV file. The WD player is working perfectly for playing back these files, best of all - HD picture with NO TRANSCODING BY MEZZMO;) .

Steve

deaded
02-23-2013, 11:05 AM
Thanks SLPopp! That's the one. I am using that device profile now and it works much better. I'm able to watch without transcoding now. Also the FF and skip-to features work much better for some reason. They were a bit sketchy before and I chalked that up to my various formats. Maybe it was the device profile. I'm also going to try ripping Amazing Spiderman today with the remux option and see how it goes.

One question since you have the same device. Are you able to see info about the movies on the WDTV? I get a ton of info with the metadata captured with Mezzmo but it does not show up on WDTV. All I get are the names and the artwork. I'm thinking about getting ThumbGen as others seem to say good things about it.

SLPopp
02-23-2013, 02:45 PM
One question since you have the same device. Are you able to see info about the movies on the WDTV? I get a ton of info with the metadata captured with Mezzmo but it does not show up on WDTV. All I get are the names and the artwork. I'm thinking about getting ThumbGen as others seem to say good things about it.

I too only purchased the WD players a couple of days ago, I was sick of Sony's limited DLNA support. I haven't messed around with getting extra metadata to show up on the WD player, I am happy with just the title and thumbnail. I did look up the ThumbGen software you mentioned and it looks very cool, but it's just extra bling I am not looking for.

It might be a good idea to start a new thread asking about getting the metadata from Mezzmo to show up on the WD player (make sure to mention it's a Gen 3 player).

EDIT: Did you see this post about the WD Media players and metadata??

http://forum.conceiva.com/showthread.php/3076-Metadata-not-showing?highlight=Live

Steve

SLPopp
02-25-2013, 03:01 AM
After reading on the WD site it seems the Live players need to have a M2TS container for playing back Dolby True-HD soundtracks. I remuxed a True-HD film into an MKV container and Mezzmo transcoded it play back on the Live (Gen 3), this didn't go well; the movie started stuttering about four minutes into the film. Don't know what caused it as the transcoding was taking place at 500+ fps. I am know remuxing the same movie into an MT2S container to see what will happen.

Also, the live players will not play back the original DTS-HD soundtrack from the film, they will use the DTS core. You will still have DTS sound but will will be the older DTS lossy format.

Steve


EDIT: Update - Just remuxed the film in the M2TS container and True-HD plays fine with no transcoding. Receiver indicates it is decoding a True-HD multichannel soundtrack.

Paul
02-25-2013, 09:31 AM
If you need us to tweak the WD device profiles regarding TrueHD, email us at support [at] conceiva [dot] com.

SLPopp
02-26-2013, 07:44 AM
If you need us to tweak the WD device profiles regarding TrueHD, email us at support [at] conceiva [dot] com.

Paul,

I mentioned the M2TS as more of a "heads up" to deaded. It's the way the WD firmware is set up. It will only accept a True-HD audio stream from an M2TS or TS container. If his main media streamers are going to be the WD players it might be easier to just rip into the M2TS container right from the start and not have to worry about transcoding. I think the file sizes were the same between the MKV and M2TS rips. I plan on ripping my True-HD films into the M2TS container and ripping the others (Dolby Digital 5.1, DTS 5.1 & DTS-HD etc.) in the MKV format. I'll have to do some checking though, maybe the M2TS is more widely accepted verses the MKV.

Ahhh.... Wait....... You must be refering to my remark about the MKV file I ripped with the True-HD track, the one that was stuttering. I am not certain it was a Mezzmo issue as the Hard Disk the file was located on has started coming up with random file errors on Windows startup that trigger the scandisk function on startup (Windows 7 Home Premium). The Disk checks out O.K with the WD tools, going to re-format and see if that changes anything.

Paul
02-26-2013, 11:28 AM
Understand now - thanks. Let us know if any tweaks are required, and we'll apply them.