MKV, DIVX, HD player Where?

viv.ie · 30-11-2008 08:05PM

PowerHouseDan wrote: »

Have you tried any 1080p mkv files? Heard they can be a bit sluggish.

Hi Got mine Friday,tried two 1080p files(iMax The Alps)it looked quite pixelated, however it was on a 32inch Sony which is not full Hi Def so maybe not quite fair to comment on that.I will try it tomorrow on my full 1080p 40inch Sony and see what its like.I already have a popcorn A100 and I think euro for euro the WD HD is better value,I only really want it to play 720p MKV files with decent audio and apart from not having a DTS encoder built in it is a great media player.I use a home theatre system with DTS support so I don't have a problem with DTS.The WD HD has one great advantage over the Popcorn in that is creates a bookmark on every file you play so if you stop a movie halfway the next time you open it ,it asks you if you want to start from where you left off,if only my popcorn had that:rolleyes:.Picture quality on 720p files are nothing short of brilliant,hardly any buffer time when loading a file.The software interface while being quite basic is on par with the popcorn if anything looks a bit more polished.If anyone else has a WD HD and knows how to display jpeg as thumbnails they might post the info,there is a software disc with it but I have not bothered running it.Does not recognise ts files ( I have a 1080p video ts files on my drive and the WD HD does not see it!I am using a WD Passport drive and the player comes with a nifty stand to hold it.By the way I ordered mine from Pixmania and took about a week to arrive,I buy quite a bit from iBood so 1 week was nothing was fast from what I am used to!

MediaTank · 01-12-2008 05:36PM

Here's the first review I've seen - pretty complimentary. http://maddhat.com/?p=31

Auvers · 01-12-2008 05:41PM

just got mine today I will post back with some results later, I have lots of 1080p rips to try it out on :cool:

MediaTank · 01-12-2008 05:53PM

viv.ie wrote: »

Does not recognise ts files ( I have a 1080p video ts files on my drive and the WD HD does not see it!I am using a WD Passport drive and the player comes with a nifty stand to hold it.

Rename the .TS file to .MPG and it should work.

Auvers · 02-12-2008 12:08AM

Right gave it a quick test run tonight and I am very impressed

picture quality is very sharp on my 42" LCD TV connected via HDMI. Seems to handle fast action scenes in 1080p bitrate 11580 kbps (The.Dark.Knight.ESiR) with no problems. I tried a number of other video file types and all worked flawlessly so I really think its steal at 100 quid.

oh there is one downside that the WD TV HD can't decode DTS to stereo. DTS only sounds through the optical connector and an external DTS amplifier, and all the subtitles must be in .srt format (UTF-8) in an external file. Subtitles inside MKV don't go. You have to extract it with MKVExtract

But only if it had an ethernet port this would made the WD TV an absolutely fantastic product instead of just a great one.

Vic Vinegar · 02-12-2008 03:25AM

Auvers wrote: »

and all the subtitles must be in .srt format (UTF-8) in an external file. Subtitles inside MKV don't go. You have to extract it with MKVExtract

I was wondering about that, nice one!

MediaTank · 02-12-2008 11:01AM

At that price point, there are a number of limitations but there are work arounds

Shamo · 02-12-2008 11:40AM

Yeah if it had an Ethernet connection and could view shared folders then it'd be brilliant but as was said before they're probably wanting to sell more WD Passports! I doubt the price would jump much in order to support this.

I use the xbox 360 and a server to stream HD media but there's limitations with the xbox as well (Only supports 5.1 in WMVHD, other codecs need their audio converted to stereo). Only takes a few minutes to do this though.

For a 100quid you can't go wrong with what you get, according to what it has been reported to play.

Seriously thinking about getting one myself to go beside the 360 as having 5.1 in HD movies would be nice for a change.

MediaTank · 02-12-2008 01:33PM

Shamo wrote: »

Yeah if it had an Ethernet connection and could view shared folders then it'd be brilliant but as was said before they're probably wanting to sell more WD Passports! I doubt the price would jump much in order to support this.

I'd expect it to double with the extra circuitry and software support required - SMB, NFS, HTTP, FTP and browsing capability for a start.

MediaTank · 02-12-2008 01:35PM

Auvers wrote: »

oh there is one downside that the WD TV HD can't decode DTS to stereo. DTS only sounds through the optical connector and an external DTS amplifier, and all the subtitles must be in .srt format (UTF-8) in an external file. Subtitles inside MKV don't go. You have to extract it with MKVExtract

But only if it had an ethernet port this would made the WD TV an absolutely fantastic product instead of just a great one.

At that price point, it will never do DTS downmixing because of licensing costs. But at least it passes it through the SPDIF. No spupport for Master Lossless DTS or TrueHD at any level though.

PowerHouseDan · 02-12-2008 06:34PM

SOrry i got a bit confused with the Whole DTS sound, Most of my movies are in DTS for my z-5500 now i plan of using this in the bedroom just hooked up to tv, Does DTS not work or just not just in Digital Output?

Auvers · 02-12-2008 07:21PM

PowerHouseDan wrote: »

SOrry i got a bit confused with the Whole DTS sound, Most of my movies are in DTS for my z-5500 now i plan of using this in the bedroom just hooked up to tv, Does DTS not work or just not just in Digital Output?

its works fine with optical out, so if you have an optical port on your TV your sorted

MediaTank · 03-12-2008 11:31AM

No TV that I know of has a built in decoder. DTS licensing is costly, so it's usually just available in AV receivers or special decoder boxes. In other words it's unlikely to work even if your TV has SPDIF in.

MT

Shamo · 03-12-2008 11:39AM

All PowerHouseDan has to do is connect the optical cable from the WD HD device into the z-5500s isn't it?

MediaTank · 03-12-2008 12:09PM

Shamo wrote: »

All PowerHouseDan has to do is connect the optical cable from the WD HD device into the z-5500s isn't it?

Yes, but he wants to connect the WD HD just to the TV, which won't decode DTS.

PowerHouseDan · 03-12-2008 12:30PM

Yeah i have a media Centre Downstairs which is connected to z-5500 etc but wanted to buy the WD for another hd tv in bedroom. So will DTS ie mkv with dts soundtracks play in standard sound or is there anyway to get it to play, via hdmi etc.

MediaTank wrote: »

Yes, but he wants to connect the WD HD just to the TV, which won't decode DTS.

MediaTank · 03-12-2008 12:45PM

OTOH, I believe that the latest firmware for the Popcorn Hour includes DTS to stereo downmixing which could be an option.

PowerHouseDan · 12-12-2008 09:45PM

anyone?

Auvers · 12-12-2008 10:22PM

PowerHouseDan wrote: »

Yeah i have a media Centre Downstairs which is connected to z-5500 etc but wanted to buy the WD for another hd tv in bedroom. So will DTS ie mkv with dts soundtracks play in standard sound or is there anyway to get it to play, via hdmi etc.

Thers is no way of playing DTS sound without a decoder. I converted the DTS soundtracks to AC3 sound with this freeware tool PopCorn MKV AudioConverter using this Turorial

it works great

GigaByte · 13-12-2008 02:21PM

This was just posted over on avsforum by ScottWD from Western Digital

The new firmware update is just about ready for primetime. We've made significant improvements based on community feedback. I will stop by and let you know when it's ready. We expect to have something to you before the end of the year!

There's a thread over there with a lot of useful information that you might like to read. I bite the bullet and ordered one.

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=1080840

If you're unsure what format the sound is using you can use Media Info to find out

http://mediainfo.sourceforge.net/en

dcom · 13-12-2008 10:23PM

Im sorry if my question is off topic but Im curious,
If i bought one of these western digital machines and attached an external hdd would it be possible to download dvds say some box sets (the shield etc) onto the hard drive so that we could watch them without having to change discs etc???

GigaByte · 14-12-2008 12:04PM

dcom wrote: »

Im sorry if my question is off topic but Im curious,
If i bought one of these western digital machines and attached an external hdd would it be possible to download dvds say some box sets (the shield etc) onto the hard drive so that we could watch them without having to change discs etc???

Thats the idea!

dcom · 14-12-2008 03:46PM

Thanks Gigabyte. I was going to start my post with 'i know this is probably a stupid question but.......' in the end I didnt but your smiley face makes me think I should have

I was concerned that a dvd of the shield would be coded so that it couldnt be copied or transferred so then the hdd idea would be out the window and i would be back trying to source a muti region mega changer dvd!!!

GigaByte · 14-12-2008 08:10PM

dcom wrote: »

Thanks Gigabyte. I was going to start my post with 'i know this is probably a stupid question but.......' in the end I didnt but your smiley face makes me think I should have

I was concerned that a dvd of the shield would be coded so that it couldnt be copied or transferred so then the hdd idea would be out the window and i would be back trying to source a muti region mega changer dvd!!!

You don't have to worry about region codes with this HD player.

Anyway even if you where making a backup of your DVD you can remove/change the region code using something like DVD Shrink.

DVD Shrink is a great free program for ripping/backing up your DVD's. You can download if from here if you don't already have it.

http://www.softpedia.com/get/CD-DVD-Tools/CD-DVD-Rip-Other-Tools/DVD-Shrink.shtml

MediaTank · 15-12-2008 01:18PM

GigaByte wrote: »

You don't have to worry about region codes with this HD player. Anyway even if you where making a backup of your DVD you can remove/change the region code using something like DVD Shrink.

DVD Shrink is a great free program for ripping/backing up your DVD's. You can download if from here if you don't already have it.

http://www.softpedia.com/get/CD-DVD-Tools/CD-DVD-Rip-Other-Tools/DVD-Shrink.shtml

DVDShrink hasn't been developed in quite a while and so won't back up newer discs (since 2002 I believe). You need something like AnyDVD or DVDFab to do the backup.

zt-OctaviaN · 17-12-2008 02:35AM

Would you consider putting together a PC?

350 euro will get you what you need

Dual Core intel at 3.0Ghz, Mobo with HDMI, Cube Case with 380W PSU, 2Gb Ram

That will playback 1080P MKV aswell as whatever codec you update it with!!!!!

Run Vista Media Centre or XBMC! Job done!

GigaByte · 17-12-2008 03:29PM

zt-OctaviaN wrote: »

Would you consider putting together a PC?

350 euro will get you what you need

Dual Core intel at 3.0Ghz, Mobo with HDMI, Cube Case with 380W PSU, 2Gb Ram

That will playback 1080P MKV aswell as whatever codec you update it with!!!!!

Run Vista Media Centre or XBMC! Job done!

He's looking for something affordable, the WD unit is 100 euro's.

You've left out a few items as well, like wireless keyboard and mouse, but more importantly there's no hard drive either?? I'm guessing the mobo doesn't have an optical out connection on it for sound?

Obviously a Media PC would be the best option, but you're not going to build the one you're talking about for 350 euro’s.

MediaTank · 17-12-2008 04:13PM

GigaByte wrote: »

He's looking for something affordable, the WD unit is 100 euro's.

You've left out a few items as well, like wireless keyboard and mouse, but more importantly there's no hard drive either?? I'm guessing the mobo doesn't have an optical out connection on it for sound?

Obviously a Media PC would be the best option, but you're not going to build the one you're talking about for 350 euro’s.

Agreed. You've also got to buy the Vista software if you go down that route.

dcom · 18-12-2008 01:57AM

Thanks guys
I will give the WD a go.

D

Shamo · 23-12-2008 11:15AM

Firmware update has been released. Embedded .mkv subtitles now work and various other stuff.

MKV, DIVX, HD player Where?

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