Blu-Ray Player that plays .avi (and other) with external hard drive?

[RushMaster]

Hey, I don't know if this is a stupid question or not, but I've researched all over Google now for about an hour about this, and I figure you guys would be the best people to help me with this.

Basically I need to know WHAT is a decent blu ray player that will allow me to simply plug in my external hard drive to it, and be able to scroll through all my different video files (.avi, divx, mkv, mpg, .ts etc) and just be able to play them so they will display on the tv. All the Blu Ray players mention all their different disc support but don't talk too much about my random standard definition .avi files. I use my ps3 right now but I want to get a blu ray player for my parents so they can also watch external files on their tv. Anyone have any ideas what I could do? It would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

[thegeeman]

If money is not an issue, then the world is your oyster; so to speak. Personally, i'm skint so i went with a cheaper model. I have a LG BD560. Plays everything i throw at it; blu-ray, DVD, MKV, AVI, AVCHD and more. External hard drive works off it too (whether FAT32 or NTFS). Quality is pretty decent for a budget model.

[RushMaster]

So what your saying is pretty much every current model, although expensive, will play these media types? It's funny because I want a blu ray player basically for the sole purpose of just playing standard definition .avi files. like xvid/divx. but yet no one seems to be able to tell me any players that will do that. I HAVE noticed a few older models that support those files, but all the newer ones dont say anything about it aymore. Is it because it's obvious by now? Or because they are taking the function away?

[jman98]

thegeeman's comments, though well meaning, are not right for North American consumers to imply that they could basically buy anything. There are plenty of players in North America that absolutely will NOT play ANYTHING via a USB connection. End of story.

I've seen some LG model recommended for playing from external sources in North America but I don't remember any model numbers. Do realize that BluRay and DVD players are always somewhat more fussy about what they will play than media streamers like the various Western Digital players. No one can promise you that all of your various video file will play perfectly on any BluRay player without knowing what settings were used to encode them, but some LG model might give you the best chance. Maybe someone from the US or Canada can post to the thread with specific recommendations. I can tell you that AVI support is pretty common. Philips makes some BluRay players that should also meet your needs. I've read some stuff that seems to indicate that many Sony BluRay players don't support AVI playback so I would not buy Sony for sure.

[RushMaster]

Yeah I'm not seeing too much with the sony models, however after geeman's comment I've checked out a few LG models and I'm seeing a lot of them listing several video formats including mkv, avi and divx etc. So I might have to look into one of those. Maybe Best Buy will be kind enough to let me bring a usb stick in with some test files and play them on one of their blu ray setups haha. I need to know for sure that the blu ray player i purchase will play the files i usually play on my ps3.

[Noahtuck]

I have a LG BD560. Plays everything i throw at it; blu-ray, DVD, MKV, AVI, AVCHD and more. External hard drive works off it too (whether FAT32 or NTFS). Quality is pretty decent for a budget model.

I picked up 2 - LG BD610's on black friday and they do the same thing, even from a USB thumb drive & DVDR, BD-RE, BD-R & a 400gb external HDD.
Great picture through the HDMI connected to my 46" LED.

Maybe Best Buy will be kind enough to let me bring a usb stick in with some test files and play them on one of their blu ray setups haha.

They should not care, way back in the day before players would even play other formats than a standard DVD, i used to bring in DVDR's (PAL & NTSC) and walk down the isle popping them into the players to see which ones would read them.

[RushMaster]

Yeah for sure. I'll have to go check them out on boxing day and just do some testing of my own. LG is looking most promising at the moment though. Thanks for the help guys.

[dudesforhire]

Just picked up the Sony BDP-BX58 from Sam's Club ($114) this past Friday (Dec 23rd).
Wanted something that would do Amazon "Prime". The free content Prime was recently added to Sony's Internet Apps,
enhancing the already included Amazon Video on Demand (pay for content).

It WAS ABLE to play mkv files as well as XviDs quite well from the USB (front port).
I used a flash drive for the initial test. Then hooked up an external WD 500GB (My Book) HD.
It's packed with XviDs, a couple mkvs and and complete DVDs. They all played well. The DVDs
were played as individual VOB files sequentially (typical).

My data dvd discs played well, including 720p MKVs.

All xvid and mkv file names were fully displayed- no matter the title's length:
And you know how long some of those file names can get

Pressing the subtitle button returns a strange display of numbers then the word "off" to
indicate whether the subtitles are ON/OFF. 1250 = ON also 1251, 1252, 1253, 1254 preceed each hit
of the button followed by "off".

Sometimes the subtitles won't display and one must cycle thru the numbers to "off" and then onto 1250 (on)
to see subtitles. quirky!

But the subtitles themselves display nice and crisp. About the right-sized font with a nice sharp edging to the letters.

From the Sony instruction manual (BDP-S480/S580/BX58):
"PLAYABLE TYPES OF FILES" --
Video
mpeg-1 video/ps and
mpeg-2 video/ps,ts:
(.mpg, .mpeg, .m2ts, .mts)
mpeg-4 avc:
(.mkv, .mp4, .m4v, .m2ts, .mts)
wmv9 (.wmv, .asf)
avchd (*4)
xvid (.avi)

Music
mp3 (mpeg-1 layer III): (.mp3)
aac ( but not lossless)
wma9: (.wma)
lpcm: (.wav)

Photo
jpeg: (.jpg, .jpeg)
***************
***************
Discs that cannot be played:

BDs with cartridge
BDXLs
DVD-RAMs
HD DVDs
DVD audio discs
Photo CDs
Data part of CD-Extras
Super VCDs
A disc recorded in a color system other than NTSC ( such as PAL).

Internet Apps setup is just short of a nightmare.
Maybe Sony servers were overwhelmed this Christmas weekend.
Not sure as I'm new to this internet apps thing.

Finally got Amazon and YouTube working.
Amazon Prime thru Sony seems to lack what is available on the Amazon Prime website directly.
Maybe more content wil become available.

I bought to try but it might end up replacing my Philips 5970? machine. Or might research this LG BD570
further.

[handyguy]

PS3? It can do 3d films & 3d games, 2 USb ports, Netflix, etc.