HDSync 1.2

[Nutek]

(Also posted this at the Syncstarter Mailinglist)

Hello all,

trying hard to get this cool software to work. I´ve been reading all the the posts at the forum, the manual and all of the post in this mailing list archive — still without any success. I´ve been focusing on HDSYNC 1.3.

This is my setup:

2x WDTV LIVE (WDBAAP0000NBK-00) with firmware:

1.02.21_WDLXTV.COM_WDLXTV_LIVE-0.4.7.3 (also tried 1.02.21_WDLXTV.COM_WDLXTV_LIVE-0.4.5.3 with same results)

- 16GB Sandisk flash drives formatted to FAT32 (also tried EXT3, MacOS Journaled)
- The two WDs are connected directly by ethernet cable (for the sake simple trial and error)
- In the video folder I have used a 1080p HD file in .mkv / .m2t /.mpg containers with 5 sec black
- Using the no. 1 USB-port (tried both)
- 2x Dell screens connected via HDMI (also tried Composite, Component, seems they all display the same)
- Tried STATIC/DYNAMIC/MANUAL in hdsync.conf (tried different configurations, would imagine STATIC would work with two directly connected WDs)
- The network leds on ethernet-port of the WDs are blinking
- Have also switched out the WDTV units with two exact similar ones, so it´s not a hardware error.

hdsync.conf MANUAL:

WD1  IP 192.168.0.1
SUBNET 255.255.255.0
GATEWAY 192.168.0.1
DNS 192.168.0.10 (also tried 192.168.0.254)

WD2  IP 192.168.0.2
SUBNET 255.255.255.0
GATEWAY 192.168.0.2
DNS 192.168.0.10 (also tried 192.168.0.254)


Every time I turn the power on, they always boot, WDLXTV-logo shows, then it stops at the first menu option (Video) for some seconds, and goes black forever. No videos are playing. The players are sort of locked, do not react to the remote (not sure if this is part of HDsync).

Not sure where the problem lies:

- File format/container for the video-file (the videos can be read/played by WDLXTV normally)
- Wrong firmware/HDsync version 
- Wrong format on flash drives (have been experimenting less with EXT3)
- The flash drives themselves (do they need to be "slow" formatted every time I try something new?)
- Network configurations

I have also tried connecting through a d-link DI624 router, using the WDLXTV web interface. I can only access this when I boot without the flash drives. I´ve set a SSH password and can log in via Telnet. Would be nice though, to just get HDsync to work on 2 players directly connected at first.
 
My goal is to eventually make a 10-12 channel piece, so if someone has a good suggestion for a router/switch/hub that works with HDsync 1.3 that would be greatly appreciated. 

And a big thanks to the people at Dyne for creating this nice app!



Thanks,

Andy

[micthenic]

Hi everybody!

I am having exactly the same problem as stated above by Nutek >> Sun Mar 02, 2014 3:30 <<, i.e. black screens. Tried 2 WDs in differend configurations, with differend media files, and network constellations (connected directly, through various routers/switches).

It seems, player2 does not make a connection to the network, but why?

Grateful for all comments!

-micthenic



Infos:
IPs: Player1 for video 1: 192.168.0.1 Player2 for video 2: 192.168.0.2
Gateway: 192.168.0.* [same as IP adress of media player]
DNS: 192.168.0.254 [this is the Ip adress of the router]
NET: STATIC




Output hdsync.log files:

Player1:
HDSync app running on USB /tmp/mnt/71bd7313-589a-44ce-9fdc-b489b301820f/
Sat Jan 1 00:00:48 UTC 2000
args: start
config file found in /tmp/mnt/71bd7313-589a-44ce-9fdc-b489b301820f/hdsync.conf
UPNP port detected listening on 59255
Launching hdsync for channel 1 of 2

Command:

/apps/hdsync/bin/hdsync -p 59255 -s localhost -l 62
1 2
"/tmp/mnt/71bd7313-589a-44ce-9fdc-b489b301820f//video/Video 1.mpg"

hdsync version 1.2 distributed by Montevideo/NIMk
Copyright (C) 2011-2012 Jaromil @ Dyne.org, License GNU AGPL v3+
This is free software: you are free to change and redistribute it
HDSync starting for channel 1 of 2
will sync and play video: /tmp/mnt/71bd7313-589a-44ce-9fdc-b489b301820f//video/Video 1.mpg
Handshake on LAN
UPNP connected to 192.168.0.1:59255
looking to connect 2 peers
Offering on pgm://eth0:5555 from address 192.168.0.1
Shouting "OFFER;192.168.0.1;"
Shouting "OFFER;192.168.0.1;"
Shouting "OFFER;192.168.0.1;"
...

Player2:
HDSync app running on USB /tmp/mnt/d88f5ac9-56e4-46fd-8c4c-003785ce6cb3/
Sat Jan 1 00:00:48 UTC 2000
args: start
config file found in /tmp/mnt/d88f5ac9-56e4-46fd-8c4c-003785ce6cb3/hdsync.conf
UPNP port detected listening on 59255
Launching hdsync for channel 2 of 2

Command:

/apps/hdsync/bin/hdsync -p 59255 -s localhost -l 62
2 2
"/tmp/mnt/d88f5ac9-56e4-46fd-8c4c-003785ce6cb3//video/Video 2.mpg"

[crookpoo]

I'm experiencing the exact same problem as stated above.
Any solutions yet?!

[jaromil]

Development of HDSync has stopped years ago, due to cultural funding cuts that have completely erased the whole Netherlands Media Art Institute (Montevideo/Time Based Arts).

At Montevideo R&D between 2005 and 2012 we have always published free and open source software that benefit artists and producers at large, it is a pity that no other institution in the sector has taken any initiative to further support our development. After loosing my employement, I was forced to go forward and find other sources of revenue.

Most funding for the video-art research sector is gone to the EYE institute in Amsterdam https://www.eyefilm.nl/en
If you think that the efforts at Syncstarter.org should be continued, feel free to write them an email explaining why they should support this research.

If you like to seek support from the old user community, a good chance is also writing on the mailinglist https://mailinglists.dyne.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/syncstarter

Thanks for appreciating this software and what has been capable of doing - and it may still be able, but you are really alone with that, since its impossible for me to tell now, don't even have the lab setup anymore.

[mad_ady]

Hey man, that was hard . Sorry to hear you got wiped out

[crookpoo]

I'm sorry to hear that too, and it's a pity there's no more funding. All the more reason to keep topics like this one alive, maybe some of the users who encounter the same problems come up with a solution that can be shared. Unfortunately, this is the only support possible when funding stops.

So this is why I was just wondering if some user of the forum here found a solution for the screens-going-black issue yet? Please lemme know if you do! <3

[TPB]

Dear humble B-Rad,

Sorry for intruding, since I noticed that the WDLXTV webpage has not so much recent post anymore since 2016.
I am guessing you are probably somewhere else in your life right now.
I am still very much appreciating your work on the WDLXTV software. Thank you.

Well, here is my thing: Since 2010 I am gladly using WDLXTV Software (live 1.02.21_0.4.7.3) together with the HDSync v0.6 Software in numerous art installations.

Nowadays I come across more and more Videoprojectors or TV Screens that don't want the HDMI signal from the players.
At startup normally the WD Logo appears and then there is no more signal and the Screens show "No HDMI".
I narrowed it down to the EDID information, which means the misunderstanding happens during the HDMI information/resolution handshake.
I used a small EDID emulator hdmi plug between the cable and player. Which then does work.
I am mostly still working with the version 0.6 of HDSync tweaked by Mr Rosmalen.

During my research I am reading that Wester Digital adressed this problem during some updates of their firmware.

So here is the question:

Is the long list of Firmware updates for WDTV live still available somewhere as the wdlxtv webpages does not provide working downloads anymore?
And are there chances that the firmware might work with the HDSync software?

I would love to hear your thoughts on this.


Best wishes,

Torsten