.mkv files on tv from Hard Drive through Bluray player to TV?

[xxnonamexx]

How can I get .mkv, .avi, dvd files from my hard drive to play through my tv? Would a Blu Ray player play it? How else can I do it.

[neomaine]

The easiest would be to get a media player like the WDTV Live, which I have and does a wonderful job. There are media players to look at as well, Seagate, Popcorn.... You should be able to do a search for user experiances.

Chances of getting a BR player to play all those formats are slim.

[xxnonamexx]

a BR player with a USB won't connect to an external HD to play?

[cal_tony]

A BR player with a USB port will play some of what you asked about but not all. Br players are limited to Fat32 Hard Disks so files larger than 4gb cannot be loaded. For files smaller than 4gb you would have to read the BRs specs to see what the mfg says the device will play.

Tony

[xxnonamexx]

popcorn looks the best the Seagate got slammed in a review I read and WDlive is missing HDMI. What do others think?

[cal_tony]

I have the WD and the Seagate. Seagate is much better at playing movies than the WD. It has menu support and more options for playback. However, both do an excellent job just playing movies. The WD is more popular, but I don't know why.

Tony

[xxnonamexx]

So you like the seagate reviewers made it seem worse then popcorn. What seagate do you have?

[cal_tony]

I have the Free Agent Theater+ (FAT+). Bothe the WD and the Seagate have user forums

http://forums.seagate.com/t5/FreeAgent-Theater/bd-p/fatheater

http://community.wdc.com/t5/WD-TV-Live-Media-Player/ct-p/wdtvlive;jsessionid=B43C590D1...54223A7789A13E


Lots of info on the players there. The WD and the Seagate are still very much in the Beta stage. New firmwares have improved both but the WD because of its chipset is more primitive.

A good place to go to find out more would be to:

http://www.iboum.com/artkill/chipsets.php


Hope this helps.

Tony

[xxnonamexx]

how about the popbox?

[neomaine]

popcorn looks the best the Seagate got slammed in a review I read and WDlive is missing HDMI. What do others think?

I've got HDMI on mine. You sure you weren't looking at the original WDTV? I've never had the original but the WDTV Live has built in networking and HDMI. Works like a charm.

[xxnonamexx]

The HD Live has anew firmware release looks very promising. Not liking the seagate sinc eyou need a PC but the POPbox looks promising and the older popcorn hour looks nice.