Can't FF or Rewind with WDTV Live (but wait, there's more)

I have been using Serviio for a while now (a year or so) with no problems at all and I love it.

I use some well know apps to encode [genuine] DVDs to H.264 mkv files and have had no problems until recently. Anything I encode now won't fast forward or rewind on my WDTV Live - the file does not support "trick mode". Old files work correctly, it's only new ones that are a problem.

I assumed that the files were not encoding properly. I have recently moved to Windows 8 so I thought that might be the problem so I tried encoding files on a different PC with Windows 7 - still the same.

I tried playing the files "directly" to the Sony TV (rather than through the WDTV Live) using Serviio. That works okay.

That points to the WDTV Live being the problem - I have two of them and both exhibit the same problem. Still points to the WDTV Live.

I tried running Serviio on Ubuntu - everything works fine. All files fast forward and rewind correctly.

So, the WDTV Live and Serviio no longer seem to work together for the new files but is okay with the old files. The only difference I can see between when it worked and when it didn't is Windows 8. I find that weird.

Has anyone had problems with Windows 8 64 bit or any idea what the problem could be?

Doh! I also recently installed Serviio 1.2.1.

I tried re-installing that, no difference.

I re-installed 1.2 and everything works perfectly.

But why does that only effect new files? They are encoded exactly the same as the old files.

I need to do more testing before I'm happy (or unhappy) that it really is 1.2.1.

[slyguy42o]

under v1.2.1 try upgrading your copy of ffmpeg and see if that helps

Thanks slyguy42o. That fixed the problem.

I still don't see why it would play old files but not new. The were encoded using the same version of the same application.

[slyguy42o]

the copy of ffmpeg included with 1.2.1 is... "a bit temperamental"

I'm curious, is there any reason the WDTV Live would need transcoding in the first place?

So far since I bought mine a week ago its been using the Generic DLNA Profile (I hadn't noticed it chose this) and played every file I have thrown at it, including several MKV files which neither my LG TV or Sony Bluray player would play. The only reason I continue using Serviio at all is to try and get meta data working, plus its useful to be able to browse the most recently added files.