Play Full HD (20-30GB) MKV Files on my TV

[thealliance43]

Hey Guys,

I've been searching for a player that'll play either from a network or from my harddrive my collection of blu-rays I Ripped. I usually play them on my computer with Mac BluRay Player and it works fantastic. I pretty much want the same capabilities with a device to play FULL BLURAYS (30GB) on my TV instead of my computer. Anyone have any thoughts?

I've tried WD TV PLUS. It doesn't play big files without glitching

[VideoGuruDude]

I have an LG BD player, that plays files off data disk, Ive yet to have it NOT play a (properly formatted) video.

It was around $100 IIRC...

Andrew

[thealliance43]

damn really? So the bluray player you have plays MKV full ripped blurays? They're all like 20-30gigs (at least mine are).

[jagabo]

I have no problems playing high bitrate MKV files with my WDTV Live. Were you using a wireless connection? Wired ethernet is better. Or a USB drive.

[thealliance43]

i just read up on it...my harddrive is currently formatted to mac journaled so I may have an issue.

[thealliance43]

jagabo, I had my harddrive plugged in via usb to WD TV LIVE. Don't get me wrong I loved the player. But I have full HD .mkv (20-30GB) files and its but such a hassle for them to be played without a TERRIBLE glitch (unwatchable).

[ErichV]

My WDTV Live HD Streaming Media Player doesn't play such big files smoothly either.
The new WDTV Play may satisfy your needs.

[jagabo]

I have full HD .mkv (20-30GB) files and its but such a hassle for them to be played without a TERRIBLE glitch (unwatchable).

Like I said, I play high bitrate (full blu-ray rips) all the time with no issues. On a WDTV Live, over gigabit (the WDTV Live is on 100 Mb/s though) ethernet. From a Linux based NAS, Windows shares, and a USB hard drive. Mabye the WDTV Live Plus is different. But I thought it was the same device with the addition of HDCP for the HDMI port.

By the way, the issue isn't how big the file is but how high the bitrate is. A five minute video at 50 Mb/s isn't big but may have problems. A 6 hour movie at 10 Mb/s may be big but won't have problems.

I also have an LG BD670 Blu-ray player bit it has problems with high bitrate files over the network. Watch out for newer Blu-ray players. They have Cinavia detection and will stop playing audio when Cinavia is detected.

Another thing you can try is a DLNA server on the computer and a DLNA client on the playback device (the WDTV has one, some Blu-ray players have one). DLNA uses UDP rather than TCP so there's less overhead. Also, the DLNA server only sends the streams the client asks for. That cuts down on the amount of information sent over the network.

[VideoGuruDude]

damn really? So the bluray player you have plays MKV full ripped blurays? They're all like 20-30gigs (at least mine are).

I am only burning DLDVDs, so I cannot speak for a full 20+ gig size file. I hope that clarifies it better... However I am assuming it WOULD play a 20 gig M2TS without problems.

If you want to send me a disk with data on it, I can try it for you.

HTH,
Andrew

[_Al_]

I have WDTV Live Plus also and 100Mb/s LAN (router and switch are still 100Mb/s), I stream BD rips in mkv format (original 1:1) and no problems, streaming from NAS.

[poisondeathray]

Clarify what you mean by "Terrible glitch (unwatchable)"

Clarify if you really meant a "rip" (1:1 copy of the video +/- various audio streams) , or did you re-encode it ? The reason is certain encoding settings can cause problems with blu-ray players, and devices like WDTV , but play "normally" on a computer

[thealliance43]

posiondeathray,

sorry for the confusion... basically this is what I do.

I have a collection of purchased blurays. I ripped them to my Mac Pro using MakeMKV. I only rip the main audio and Video. No Subtitles etc.
On average the movies come to around 20GB. I have them all stored on an internal 3TB drive.

I've been playing them on my mac with Mac Bluray Player. They play flawlessly. I can skip through the movie, just like any other video.

I basically would like the same functionally for my TV.

Ideally I would like to setup a network and have everything stream to each TV in my house. But if that can't happen I'd be content with having a USB harddrive hooked up to ANY player that'll give me the same results.

I'm not sure what MakeMKV rips the bluray MKV files to as far as BitRate is concerned.

[thealliance43]

I have full HD .mkv (20-30GB) files and its but such a hassle for them to be played without a TERRIBLE glitch (unwatchable).

Like I said, I play high bitrate (full blu-ray rips) all the time with no issues. On a WDTV Live, over gigabit (the WDTV Live is on 100 Mb/s though) ethernet. From a Linux based NAS, Windows shares, and a USB hard drive. Mabye the WDTV Live Plus is different. But I thought it was the same device with the addition of HDCP for the HDMI port.

By the way, the issue isn't how big the file is but how high the bitrate is. A five minute video at 50 Mb/s isn't big but may have problems. A 6 hour movie at 10 Mb/s may be big but won't have problems.

I also have an LG BD670 Blu-ray player bit it has problems with high bitrate files over the network. Watch out for newer Blu-ray players. They have Cinavia detection and will stop playing audio when Cinavia is detected.

Another thing you can try is a DLNA server on the computer and a DLNA client on the playback device (the WDTV has one, some Blu-ray players have one). DLNA uses UDP rather than TCP so there's less overhead. Also, the DLNA server only sends the streams the client asks for. That cuts down on the amount of information sent over the network.

Thanks for the reply. I'm really interested in doing the DLNA idea and just use my Mac Pro as a server and use the WDTV as a transmitter to watch the movies. If that's correct and it won't destroy my bandwidth for the rest of my family I would 100% look into that.

Maybe there's hope for this WDTV LIVE

[thealliance43]

Just did a quick google search on DLNA with my Mac Pro. I came across a website TVmobili Do you guys have any experience with this. I'm going to give it a shot now. If you recommend something else please let me know.

[johns0]

I'm not sure what MakeMKV rips the bluray MKV files to as far as BitRate is concerned.

Makemkv just rips the files to mkv with no re-encodins so the bitrate is unchanged from what is on the disc.

[jagabo]

DLNA servers:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_UPnP_AV_MediaServers

[ErichV]

My blu-ray rips have an average bitrate of approximately 35 Mbps.
According to this thread it is not suprising that the video stutters.
All my tests refer to WD TV HD Streaming Media Player.

[krohm]

blurays ripped unencoded on a wired connection to a ps3 with ps3 media server play smoothly. they very rarely stutter,.. like one in 30. but most dont.

but if you dont have your ps3 plugged into an receiver that does dts it wont play the sound. i dont have a receiver that does dts so i convert the dts sound to ac3 and they play through ps3 media server then. if they ever did stutter i just copied it across to the ps3 and was able to play the file cause transcoded dts to ac3 and put ac3 with h264 and tsmuxer'd to m2ts,... if you follow ..

all avoided if you have amp receiver and ps3 media server on wired connection to windows

[krohm]

really im going to be in the same situation as purchasing a new tv and want to be able to play my blurays too..

i want my pc on my tv but i want it on my monitor as well in a different room

probably going to try and get like hdmi network and usb solution so the tv can affectively just run as another monitor from another room

dunno how im going to do this..

[thealliance43]

so the problem i've noticed so far with PLEX DLNA and MobilTV is that it does indeed work. But it destroys the quality of the video. Its pixelated. It seems it ALMOST does what I want. I just want my FULL Quality or its useless.

Anyone try the Harddrive solution? ever hear of this product?
http://www.ebay.com/itm/250884780512?ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1423.l2649