1080P Video Advice

[pritchardavid]

Just Got an new LG 42 inch LED TV

 

It has a USB port to plug in an external storage unit, to play video, music, pictures

 

I have tested this, MKVs actually work

 

Ones I test, one could not disable audio commentery, some could not play the audio

 

So gusing some of my MKVs have different audio formats

 

So of course I want to play all my 1080P files on the big screen

 

Any advice what sort of device to buy?

 

Dont really want to keep connecting/dis-connecting my laptop to it exspecially has mine is a dvi, so have to plug in a audio cable to, to get sound to go to the tv

 

 

So any advice what sort of thing to buy to do this with?

[SimpleSi]

Unless you code up your own mkvs/avis from your own sources you'll find you get lots of similar problems.

 

Manufacturers tend to put in about 0.1% effort in playback of these type of files.

 

And torrent coders understand the word standard to the same degree

 

YMMV

 

regards

 

Simon

[RabbieBurns]

I used the netgear eva8000 units back home, the new model is the 9150 which is meant to be even better.

 

Full bells and whistles product, and as such is pretty expensive.

 

Ive recently picked up a WD HD TV Live unit over here. Fraction of the price of the NEtgears, and its played everything ive thrown at it - even .avi files that VLC has said it has to repair before it will play.

 

Also ive just discovered theres a custom firmware project for it which is pretty good.

 

Worth a look

 

http://www.westerndigital.com/en/products/Products.asp?DriveID=735

Edited January 5, 2010 by RabbieBurns
added link

[RabbieBurns]

torrent coders understand the word standard to the same degree

 

if you dont get torrents and get the proper 'scene' releases, they have strict standards about codecs and encoding*

 

*So Ive been told

[Danjns]

Mac Mini with Plex running on it!

 

You cant get better for home media centre - hopefully controlled with an iPhone!

[mattx]

if you dont get torrents and get the proper 'scene' releases, they have strict standards about codecs and encoding*

 

*So Ive been told

 

HA HA HA - nice get out clause Rabbie.....

[pritchardavid]

thnaks for the ideas guys

 

Mac Mini with Plex sounding good, most expensive through £510 from apple damn, that's an expensive movie player!

 

 

Does plex support all the codecs MKV that people tend to use?

 

The only things I tend to have to use and install for my MKVs is the divx bundle (Comes with MKV features now)

and the ac3 filter codec download

 

Dont know if quicktime is needed in any of my MKV, have not tried it without it, need quicktime on my computer for itunes to work because I have an iphone

 

 

 

 

-----------------

 

 

WD one doesnt seem to support ac3, which I know I need

 

 

-----------------

 

 

Netgear one doesnt seem bad, looks like it has all the codecs for it to work, I'll have a search for prices a little later

 

 

Any other suggestions?

Edited January 5, 2010 by pritchardavid

[Crowmanuk]

Must admit to liking the look of the WD piece of kit but I was thinking about splashing out on one of these

 

LG BD370 | Blu-ray Player | Richer Sounds

 

Plays divx and mkv files and is supposed to be a top notch bluray player as well. I recently got a new telly too so I might take a closer look at the WD gear. Thanks for reminding me

[ZeroHour]

If the video works then you could just extract the video and the correct audio channel and try playing that file back. I use a program to convert mkvs for ps3 playback called mkv2vob (Download mkv2vob Here) which is freeware. It should be very quick so if its say xvid video make sure you select xvid output and it wont transcode. You will know if the settings are wrong if it takes ages (aka more then 5 mins or so)

[RabbieBurns]

thnaks for the ideas guys

 

 

-----------------

 

 

WD one doesnt seem to support ac3, which I know I need

 

 

-----------------

 

 

Netgear one doesnt seem bad, looks like it has all the codecs for it to work, I'll have a search for prices a little later

 

 

Any other suggestions?

 

The netgear eva 8000 I used didnt support ac3 either. Not sure if the 9150 does.

 

But to be honest with 1080p content and a +40" screen, its so much better with a 5.1 amp and just passing through the audio from the media player to one of those. I picked up an awesome sony 5.1 surround from richer sounds in the jan sales in 06 or 07 for a £110. So I guess youll be able to get something as good cheaper by now.

[SimpleSi]

proper 'scene' releases

 

And what could be possibly be proper about stolen property

 

regards

Simon

[LosOjos]

Not the cheapest solution, but Popcorn Hour (Welcome To Popcorn Hour) make some really good HDD/Network media players

[AshF]

I picked one of these up:

Buy a Hisense 1080p HD TV Media Player (LAN UPnP, HDMI, Optical Audio Output, USB Port), #MP800H_Blue - eXpansys UK

 

I'm sure there are slightly more graceful solutions out there but at the end of the day this costs £60 and plays damn near everything you can throw at it. Even plays VIDEO_TS folders from DVDs with proper menu support. HDMI output and optical output. I regularly use it to play back 720/1080 video files. Supports multiple audio tracks and subtitles. I usually run all my media off a memory stick or a nice portable 320GB drive I picked up. It does support DLNA/etc via its built in ethernet port but I've just never got round to trying that.

 

El Reg review is here: Hisense 1080p Media Player ? Register Hardware

[ZeroHour]

I picked one of these up:

Buy a Hisense 1080p HD TV Media Player (LAN UPnP, HDMI, Optical Audio Output, USB Port), #MP800H_Blue - eXpansys UK

 

I'm sure there are slightly more graceful solutions out there but at the end of the day this costs £60 and plays damn near everything you can throw at it. Even plays VIDEO_TS folders from DVDs with proper menu support. HDMI output and optical output. I regularly use it to play back 720/1080 video files. Supports multiple audio tracks and subtitles. I usually run all my media off a memory stick or a nice portable 320GB drive I picked up. It does support DLNA/etc via its built in ethernet port but I've just never got round to trying that.

 

El Reg review is here: Hisense 1080p Media Player ? Register Hardware

 

Nice looking device for that money!

[AshF]

Nice looking device for that money!

 

Build quality is a case of 'cheap and cheerful', It's solid, but neither it nor the remote are going to win any major design awards, but y'know, they work. It has one LED on it. It's Red in Standby and Green when on. It was absolutely diamond over christmas, combining it with 720p MP4 files aquired via Get iPlayer Automator... Christmas TV Never looked so good!

[Domino]

playstation 3 does it for me, use Vuze on the macs to distribute media across the lan via DLNA and robert's your mothers brother.

[sidewinder]

MKV's usually have either AC3 or DTS, sometimes (ideally) both

 

I have the original WDTV and it doesnt support DTS decoding, but it does of course output it if you have an AV receiver that can decode it. It does decodes AC3

The WDTV Live decodes both.

 

I would imagine the TV is similar to my WDTV, and the ones you arnt getting sound from have a DTS audio track

 

There is an application called Popcorn MKV Converter or something which will downsample a DTS track to AC3 and let you keep both in the MKV file so it will play on anything. Only takes half hour or so per movie

[SpuffMonkey]

Wiouldn't it be easier to build your own media centre PC - then you'd have control of all the codecs etc ?

[pritchardavid]

Was thinking of that last night

 

Anyone know of a similar sized case to the Mac Mini?

 

Seems any codecs thay Windows Media Player uses, works with Windows Media Centre, so that good! Was testing that last night

 

So need a similar sized Mini Mac case size that fits at least 2 3.5inch hard drive or more if possible

[tonyd]

These guys, www.mini-itx.com, do some pretty nice small case & pc's to go inside them.

[somabc]

And what could be possibly be proper about stolen property

 

regards

Simon

 

Depends on which 'rules' you are following?

 

Standard (warez) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[mac_shinobi]

thnaks for the ideas guys

 

Mac Mini with Plex sounding good, most expensive through £510 from apple damn, that's an expensive movie player!

 

 

Does plex support all the codecs MKV that people tend to use?

 

The only things I tend to have to use and install for my MKVs is the divx bundle (Comes with MKV features now)

and the ac3 filter codec download

 

Dont know if quicktime is needed in any of my MKV, have not tried it without it, need quicktime on my computer for itunes to work because I have an iphone

 

 

 

 

-----------------

 

 

WD one doesnt seem to support ac3, which I know I need

 

 

-----------------

 

 

Netgear one doesnt seem bad, looks like it has all the codecs for it to work, I'll have a search for prices a little later

 

 

Any other suggestions?

 

FOr mkv to work with quicktime you would need to install perian but not sure how good playback would be , otherwise yes plex does support mkv and a multitude of other things Plex Media Center for OS X

[adhutton]

I've got a WDTV which plays most things. However, it won't play DTS encoded files (no sound). You either need to convert the DTS track using something like Popcorn (PopCorn MKV AudioConverter - Video software and downloads - VideoHelp.com) or buy a WDTV Live box which will play the DTS audio.

 

An alternative might be the Sumvision Cyclone MKV Media Player which looks like it plays everything including DTS. Ebuyer has them for about £65 - Sumvision Cyclone MKV Media Player Version 2 Divx, ISO, Rmvb & MKV HDMI USB/SD Media player HDMI full 1080p Supports DTS and Youtube - Ebuyer

 

Hope this helps?

 

Andrew

[sidewinder]

Wiouldn't it be easier to build your own media centre PC - then you'd have control of all the codecs etc ?

 

I wouldnt say so anymore, no. Several devices cost far less than a PC would and play every format you care to throw at them, its only the cheaper ones like the WDTV that cant downmix DTS (note that if you have an AV receiver its a moot point as it can do it). The Popcorn Hour is only a few hundred, can put an internal disk in it, and it plays everything with reliability far above a home built PC most likely