Blu-Ray Player with HD MKV, Divx and Xvid support vis BD-R

[jimmino]

Hello all,

I need help! I have been looking into buying an HTPC, but I would rather have a Blu-Ray player that will fill my needs. As I have about 400 BD-R disc's with Films and TV shows backup as data files (MKV, Divx, Xvid ect.) I do NOT plan on streaming anything.

Player must have:

Play BD-R files
USB for external hard drive

Thanks for any help!

[Moontrash]

why not just get an HD media player? Most play just about any format and with some of em you can plug an external USB dvd/BR player into USB and play discs from it.

[tkolt]

i have a phillips brand BR player and it does what your asking.

[jimmino]

Hi tkolt,

Can I get the model number from you...PLEASE.

Thanks for responding.

Cheers

[tkolt]

at work now, will tonight. also just as an FYI i dont think their are ANY bR players that support HD DVD.almost 100% sure of that. totally different laser needed. if that was what you were asking. wasnt sure it you meant HD DVD or HD mkv files.

[jimmino]

HD MKV files, not the old format HD. But Thanks for checking!

Cheers

[Kibble]

I recently was shopping for the same thing except usb for flash not hard drives. It seemed to me that pretty much all of the newer models I was looking at had the things you are asking for. It's just a matter of what other extras they had and price.

I ended up getting a Samsung BD-E5300. Had it for a couple months now and it works quite well. I have no complaints.

As I've only used the usb for flash drives, I can't speak to how well it handles a hard drive though.

[tkolt]

phillips bdp 3406/f7

plays everything

[Wanderlustus]

tkolt, I bought said player and I find it won't play larger (2+gig) MKVs and MP4s. It's got me befuddled as it was the main reason I bought it. Most large files will play about 1/2 - 3/4 of the movie and then stops, and goes on to the next file in the queue. Any ideas?

Oh, I didn't update the firmware nor connect to my network as I've no use for Netflix.

[jbloggs]

You may also want to look into Sony's NSZ-GT1 Blu-Ray player with Google TV. It has lots of features including Chrome browser, android apps, media streaming, 3D capable, etc

[tkolt]

always update the firmware, i reccomend doing that, just leave the usb network key plugged into the back of the unit and forget about it.its truly only needed for firware upgrades and BD live. also, ive burned 3-4 mkvs, obviously over 2gb each to a BR disc and they played fine off the bluray disc. are you using the front usb or back usb when trying to play files? it shouldnt matter, just curious. also are you playing them off a usb stick or usb external hard drive?

[Wanderlustus]

Thanks for the quick response, tkolt. Sorry if this is considered hijacking a thread, folks. I've not hooked up my external drive to it yet, and I've only watched stuff off thumb drives using the front port. The thumb drive I've been using is formatted NTFS.

Guess I should get around to updating that firmware, eh?

[tkolt]

even though the firware update may not actually help you it still is best to be current. once done try using an external drive if you have one. honestly, i have an MVIX unit that i play alot of stuff on it via network and external hard drives. i have not truly tested the max at which i can push the philips player, especially via its usb ports. but ive had ZERO problems playing 8gb+ mvk files burned on a BR disc. best i can say is just try different configurations.

[Wanderlustus]

Don't have a BD burner, so that's out for now. My external is formatted FAT32 as I was using it with my DVP5990, and though my tech guy says it's possible to reformat the drive with the contents on it, I'm loather to try it.

Will definitely try your suggestions though. Silly me, when I heard this player was networkable I assumed I'd be able to play things off the external hooked to my base computer via the router. I'm told this doesn't work. As I said, silly me. Thanks again.

[tkolt]

LOL, well thats the problem...FAT32. just copy your data to your pc, reformat the usb drive to ntfs and recopy the stuff back to it. FAT32 has a 4gb limit bro on files. that WILL fix your issue

only networkable thru netflix, bd live, firm ware updates.

[Wanderlustus]

Guess I should've made myself more clear, but I did say I haven't yet used the external with the player, so FAT32 is not the problem I was mentioning. In fact, I just tried a MP4 file which is less than 3gig in size (NTFS thumb drive) and the player popped up a screen that said video format not recognized. I've played other MP4s just fine. So confused.

Also have to pick up another external, as I've a Terabyte of data on the current one, and not enough space on my main box to cover it. Ah well.

[tkolt]

well ive never tried mp4 files so i cant help you their. could be the audio codec or something in the mp4 codec that the player didnt like. run a file that works thru mediainfo and run the one that doesnt thru it as well. compare the codecs for both video and audio. that should tell you what the problem is

[Wanderlustus]

Thanks, I'll do that. Cheers.

[Wanderlustus]

Ok, gave that a go and compared the file that won't play with two that do play. Seems the bit rate on the unplayable one is well over 2000, while the others are well under that. Could this be the problem, I wonder? I seem to recall someone saying something about files with high bit rates often being a bit dodgy.