FreeAgent Theater and GoFlexTV

[saalten]

I have 2 GoFlex TV media players and portable hard drives with content (VOB). Both media players often fail to recognise content on, or hang while playing content from, my Backup Plus drive (STBU1000200). The content my other drives (FreeAgent GoFlex, STAA1000200) plays without any problems. The contents from the Backup Plus drive plays fine on my laptops.

This generally happens after the drive has been in use for a little while. The only remedy seems to be to unplug the drive, reboot the media player, plug the drive back in. After "indexing content" has completed I try to select a movie. I may have to repeat the process several times before my movie files are listed.

The firmware on both media players is up to date.

I can't establish whether the fault lies with the Backup Plus drive or with the media player. Given that the drive plays fine with my laptop, I guess the fault must lies with the media player?

[prairiedog]

Yep, most likely the media player. Two things to do.

1. Hook up the drives to a PC and delete the .theater folder. This is the index file that the media players use to keep track of the files on the drive. It's a common issue here. Then, attach back to the media player and give it time to reindex.

2. Conduct a cold method reinstall of your firmware - especially if you let the device auto-update itself. See the link in my signature.

The GoFlex and FreeAgent Theater+ are nearly identical and many of the issues are similar. Please read through the sticky thread (also in my signature) for other things to be aware of with this device.

Please post back your results.

[saalten]

Hi prairiedog,

Thanks for that. I followed those instructions but it does not appear to have made a difference. The player hung again after about an hour or so of watching a programme from one of my "problem" drives.

I have successfully updated the firmware on both media players using the COLD method v2.23. There was no .theater folder on any of the drives so nothing to delete.

My original note contains an error. I actually have three different kinds of drives:
1. Seagate FreeAgent GoFlex 1TB USB 2.0 (STAA1000200)
2. Seagate FreeAgent GoFlex 1TB USB 3.0 (STAA1000201)
3. Seagate FreeAgent GoFlex 1TB USB 3.0 (STBU1000200)

I have no problems playing content from drives of the first type in that list, but both of the latter "hang" from time to time (as per my original note).

So I'm now wondering whether it is something to do with the nature of the USB 3.0 drives, or the way the media player reads from them?

[bodhi78]

Could be the Backup Plus drive. If you can, move the files somewhere else and reformat the drive using full format. I believe there is Seagate SW on the Backup Plus drive (probably hidden).

[prairiedog]

Yeah, the 3.0 looks like it's raised a new issue. Keep us posted on any solutions you try and their results.

I just want to follow up on a comment - you said there was no .theater folder. This is a hidden folder - do you have the option to view hidden files/folders turned on? I assume you are using Windows - it's not turned on by default. If you already have done this, sorry, I just don't know for sure what your seeing and I want to confirm.

[Jer01]

Hi saalten,

If finding & replacing the .theater file does not work [It helped me a bunch] - you might want to look at my symptoms when one of my HDD's went bad.

http://forums.seagate.com/t5/FreeAgent-Theater-and-GoFlexTV/Thought-my-FAT-was-going-bad-It-was-a-HD...

It did not go all at once - it went over a period of weeks and the symptoms gradually got worse.  Even when it was pretty much dysfunctional on my FAT+, It worked pretty well on my pc. But I doubt if you could have 2 dvd's going bad at the same time.

I recently bot and hooked up a 3 TB Seagate Expansion USB 3.0 ext HDD to my FAT+ and it works fine. It indexes a little slower than the WD 2TB USB 2.0 ext HDD I had there before.  I also have one other 2 TB HDD connected and 2 flash drives connected.

Good luck.

Jer01