# What MKV streamers are worth installing



## aiwa2child (Apr 16, 2013)

I am trying to finish up my theater and have a question on streaming from my server to my AV equipment. I have a high-end Onkyo receiver and a 7.1 surround sound system installed in the room already. I also have a server room with all my Blu-ray movies backed up on a central computer. They are all in MKV format with multiple sound formats for each. I currently have 2 Western Digital TV Live boxes and several Smart Samsung TVs. When I built the house I hard wired every room with at least two CAT-6 outlets. I have no problem streaming the video but I am worried that I am not getting the DTS-HD sound I want from my theater through the Onkyo receiver.

The theater has one of the Western Digital TV Live attached to it using HDMI. When I play a movie from the server through the WD TV Live box then through the receiver and then out to the projector and speakers, the receiver automatically picks a sound type. Usually DTS Neo 6. I know the WD TV Live cant play DTS-HD audio. Am I getting the best sound possible when the receiver picks the sound type?:help::help:

I am asking whether or not the WD TV Live is a good fit for a home theater 7.1 HD audio set-up? If not what is better?

Thank you:help:


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## jimbodude (Jul 26, 2011)

If your computer is capable of hosting a Samba (Windows file sharing) or NFS (Network File System) share of those movies, then I would suggest some small cheap hardware running XBMC. I believe it should support the HD audio codec or be able to pass them through to the receiver. The only issue is you will likely need a GigE connection, or better, if the video streams are not compressed sufficiently.


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## Infrasonic (Sep 28, 2010)

There are media streaming devices that support DTS-HD MA but since DTS asks for a licensing fee the lower priced streamers (Roku, WD Live etc.) do not support it. I can't say which would be the best for you but I know the Dune HD Media Players and the Popcorn Hour players support DTS-MA.

Will you notice a difference between DTS-HD MA and the down converted DTS? Who knows, but if you invested a lot into your equipment you will probably want to have the best source material as possible.


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## mpompey (Jan 5, 2007)

What did you use to back up your movies to mkv format. I've built a NAS to do they exact same thing. Currently I'm running MediaTomb on a linux box to share out to my PS3 but am interested in building a Raspberry Pi/XBMC build to test it as a DIY streamer.

What RAID architecture are you using for your ripped discs?


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## jimbodude (Jul 26, 2011)

If you're looking for RAID in Linux, mdadm is probably the easiest way to go. Software based, very stable, good documentation. There are probably even some GUI tools to run it, but I have never needed more than the CLI.


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## mpompey (Jan 5, 2007)

I'm currently using SNAPRAID to handle the various shares. I'm running a "RAID 5-esque" setup with that software. I like the ability to expand without affecting other disks. And in the event of a multipe disk failure above my parity level the other disks are still good. Hasn't happened yet. May add second parity drive in the future.

Granted its not on the fly RAID as it syncs on a schedule, but since these shares only hold static information that doesn't change, it works fine for my needs. Command line interface is better than any of the GUIs out there for it. I tried the one, but was disappointed with performance. So I just buckled down and learned the command line for it.

I've considered ripping my disks and storing them in electronic format. But I want 1:1 ratios I don't want the video or audio compressed. DVDs aren't that bad as they are around 4.5 GB in size. But aren't blu-rays around 50GB? 15 moves and that's a HD drive itself!


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## fschris (Oct 31, 2009)

Unraid!!


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## ericzim (Jun 24, 2012)

I use an LG Blu-ray player with DLNA, the BP-320 handles multiple video and audio formats and codecs. With the exception of some Dolby HD titles, it's fantastic.


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## Sevenfeet (Feb 2, 2009)

Good MKV support is like the holy grail of media players. I for one would love to bury my Blu-Rays in a box forever and still have quality video/audio. I'll have to check out the LG.


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## NBPk402 (Feb 21, 2012)

I have 2 WDTV live boxes and I am happy with them since I installed WXLTV on them.


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## MrAngles (May 1, 2012)

ellisr63 said:


> I have 2 WDTV live boxes and I am happy with them since I installed WXLTV on them.


What is WXLTV? Couldn't find it in a google search.


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## RTS100x5 (Sep 12, 2009)

I was a long time XBMC user til I tried JRIVER..... by FAR the best Media player I have ever used ... My WDLive is so so....ehhh :yawn:


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## NBPk402 (Feb 21, 2012)

MrAngles said:


> What is WXLTV? Couldn't find it in a google search.


I am sorry this is the correct name... http://wdlxtv.com/


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## NBPk402 (Feb 21, 2012)

RTS100x5 said:


> I was a long time XBMC user til I tried JRIVER..... by FAR the best Media player I have ever used ... My WDLive is so so....ehhh :yawn:


Sometimes I stream from JRiver with the drives hooked up to the WDTV Live boxes... Other times I go and stream from the WDTV Live box. I love the JRiver interface! The WDLXTV interface is very nice and in some ways you can do so much more than the JRiver. But the JRiver is my fav except for TV viewing... For some reason I prefer Media Center for that.


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## fitzwaddle (Aug 25, 2010)

ellisr63 said:


> The WDLXTV interface is very nice and in some ways you can do so much more than the JRiver.


I checked the site for it, but couldn't find any screen shots to give me an indication of what it does - do you have any links you could provide? Also, what state is it currently in, stable, beta, alpha quality, is it still supported / developed? I have a WD TV Live I'd like to get more out of it - works OK, but the UI is spartan, and since I have XBMC running in another room (my HT), I'm kind of spoiled - also considering getting an AppleTV to mod with XBMC as an another option.


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## MrAngles (May 1, 2012)

fitzwaddle said:


> I checked the site for it, but couldn't find any screen shots to give me an indication of what it does - do you have any links you could provide? Also, what state is it currently in, stable, beta, alpha quality, is it still supported / developed? I have a WD TV Live I'd like to get more out of it - works OK, but the UI is spartan, and since I have XBMC running in another room (my HT), I'm kind of spoiled - also considering getting an AppleTV to mod with XBMC as an another option.


I was trying to figure out the same thing. The most important thing I figured out was that the most recent version of WDTV is not supported. I really like the interface in XBMC but trying to find reasonably priced hardware that will allow it to stream full-bitrate blu-ray mt2s files seems to be difficult.


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## lcaillo (May 2, 2006)

What do you consider to be reasonably priced hardware?


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## ericzim (Jun 24, 2012)

MrAngles said:


> I was trying to figure out the same thing. The most important thing I figured out was that the most recent version of WDTV is not supported. I really like the interface in XBMC but trying to find reasonably priced hardware that will allow it to stream full-bitrate blu-ray mt2s files seems to be difficult.


Had the same trouble with M2TS files. Issues were fixed with TVersity media server and my LG Bluray player with native support of AVCHD.


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## NBPk402 (Feb 21, 2012)

fitzwaddle said:


> I checked the site for it, but couldn't find any screen shots to give me an indication of what it does - do you have any links you could provide? Also, what state is it currently in, stable, beta, alpha quality, is it still supported / developed? I have a WD TV Live I'd like to get more out of it - works OK, but the UI is spartan, and since I have XBMC running in another room (my HT), I'm kind of spoiled - also considering getting an AppleTV to mod with XBMC as an another option.


Here ya go...
http://www.moviesheets.ca/


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## fitzwaddle (Aug 25, 2010)

Thanks that gives me a lot better idea of what it offers


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## MrAngles (May 1, 2012)

ericzim said:


> Had the same trouble with M2TS files. Issues were fixed with TVersity media server and my LG Bluray player with native support of AVCHD.


I've been using tversity with my ps3 for years and it works great for streaming high bitrate stuff, the problem is it doesn't play vc-1, doesn't support soft subtitles, and is crippled by cinavia copy protection. Also I like the interface, but it would be great to have something that shows cover art and details like XBMC does. The WDTV also plays full bitrate blu-rays, and supports vc-1, subtitles, and ignores cinavia, but the interface is clunky, it has trouble fast forwarding and rewinding, and at least once a week locks up to where you can't do anything with dlna until you restart it.

Between the two of them I can play anything, usually, but it would be great to have one device that plays it all, and is reliable.


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## ericzim (Jun 24, 2012)

The PS3 has cinavia in firmware not tversity.


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## MrAngles (May 1, 2012)

ericzim said:


> The PS3 has cinavia in firmware not tversity.


Right, I realize that. Like I mentioned, the WDTV ignores cinavia. Does your LG player support cinavia? How does it compare to the codec and subtitle support of the WDTV?


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## ericzim (Jun 24, 2012)

Yup the LG ignores Cinavia via DLNA. On AVCHD disk is another matter however. I use an older Insignia BD player for those. External subs are hit or miss but every single codec I could think of for video has passed without issue. Only Dolby HD 7.1 is not supported via DLNA, LG says it is a limitation of the player.


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