Best mkv media player

[worknstiff]

I am ready to give up on blue rays because of all the encoding just to get down to a 23GB output. I have usually done a disk and then a backup of the disk image to a hard drive. I think I would rather use CloneBD or BD_Rebuilder, or even MakeMKV to create a lossless video & audio MKV that will play or stream from a USB hard drive. I have been disappointed by my Oppo93's ability to play some MKV forced subtitles and I'm ready to move on to a dedicated HD media player. I have read SO MANY articles and reviews about SO MANY different solutions ranging from really cheap to outrageously expensive devices that my head is spinning. I would really appreciate some advice from all you BD Rebuilder diehards. Thanks, worknstiff.

[stax76]

I don't have experience with hardware players, most likely I would use and HTPC and Kodi.

There is a passage in the forum rules suggesting not to ask a blind person what an elephant looks like.

[gonca]

I use a HTPC with JRiver, you could use one of the MPC variants (HC or BE).
HTPC doesn't have to be that expensive

[CV91913]

I too was looking for a way play MP4/MKV files from a USB drive. I came across something called an Android TV Box. There are a bunch of them out there. Many of these are Android 6.0 devices that support PlayStore and allow you to download/install apps from there. So, you can install your favorite media player. Most of these boxes come with an app called KODI. It will stream/play most anything. I tried 3 or 4 of them and finally settled on this one:

Android TV Box ZIDOO X8 Android 6.0 Quad Core 2G/8G Dual Band WIFI 1000Mbps LAN HDR USB3.0 HDMI IN Recoder SATA 3.0

Got it from Amazon for about $110 delivered. If you are going to stream/play stuff with higher bitrates, like BluRay structure (I think it will also play ISO), make sure you get one that has USB 3.0 input for your HDD. I use the KODI app that came pre installed to play everything. You can Google KODI and learn of its capabilities.

I hook the HDD to my PC and rip BluRays and DVDs to it. Hook it back to the box and I can use KODI to play those rips. I also have tons of MP4 and MKV files on the drive. You can set up Libraries and even retrieve media data if you wish.

It has HDMI in and out and will turn a non smart tv into a smart tv. I even have Netflix and Amazon prime video installed on it. You can do pretty much everything you can do on your Android phone/tablet with it.

My biggest complaint is navigation. It comes with a remote but it is pretty clunky. There is also an app installed on it that allows a phone, on the same network, to act as a remote. It works better. You can also get an "Air Mouse".

It has no issues with subtitles. The issue with forced subs is on the creation end, not the player. BDRB does a really good job with forced subs as long as they are implemented correctly in the original.

[worknstiff]

@ stax76, gonca, and CV91913. Thanks for the input. I have been leaning towards either an HTPC or an android box. I already have a windows 10 box in the living room but have been hating on it since Microsoft took away the Media Center. I was hoping to create a DVR box sort of media player but everytime I start to order an unencrypted cabe TV tuner it seems like a pain getting it all configured. Looks like Kodi is the way to go then, and I can order a Hauppauge WinTV-quadHD tuner to finish building it.

[gonca]

You can always use JRiver's free trial to check it out

http://www.jriver.com

[worknstiff]

thanks gonca, The jriver site has some useful info and I see it even has some dedicated remotes you can purchase for playing media, that's always been a sore spot for me when using a HTPC, or a media player like the WDTV I had once. Usually a bit of lag when you're flipping channels or selecting playback controls, at least compared to a cable box or a blue ray player.

[Mark_Venture]

I'm happy with Kodi on my Fire TV boxes. It performs well for MKV output from BDRebuilder, including pass through audio (note: my receiver is old and only supports DTS and DD 5.1, so I can't comment in HD audio pass through. ). Plex also works, however doesn't support greater than DD5.1 audio (DTS gets converted to DD5.1 by the Plex server app as it plays back).

I can use the FireTV's remote, or attach an FLIRC dongle (amazon) to use my Harmony 650 remote. If you have a Harmony that supports Bluetooth or their hub device, no FLIRC dongle is needed.

The only issues I have are with interlaced media I've recorded. Some don't play right, and I need to turn off hardware acceleration in Kodi, but it doesn't look that great. Plex has no fix, unless I tell it to use an external media player app (Kodi). They all used to play just Fine.

It supports Kodi, Plex, Amazon Prime video, Netflix, Hulu, HboGo, Showtime.... While it has MaxGo support, Comcast doesn't authenticate in the app. I side loaded the Android Tv Vudu app which works well for HDX playback with 5.1 audio.

[worknstiff]

@ Mark_Venture RE: It performs well for MKV output from BD Rebuilder.

We all KNOW that playing BD Rebuilder output is the gold standard in media playback, lol. Thanks for the input.

[von Suppé]

As a standalone, if 4K / HEVC / HDR isn't (yet) important to you, I can recommend two DUNE mediaplayers for full HD. I have both a HD Smart D1 and for 3d bluray ISO a HD TV-303D. Excellent machines, nothing fancy though. Google the specs if you like.

Superb picture quality and upscaling, and passthrough of all digital audioformats, including Dolby Atmos and DTS:X. Fast interface. Great performance via NFS protocol (you need a nfs server on your pc), I never encountered hickups with both high bitrate audio and video (over wired LAN, that is).
It however does not honour subtitles that are flagged forced within mkv. (At least, I couldn't get them to work, but as I do a lot with sub editing, I always mux them as a separate stream.

I understand the HD Smart D1 is not sold anymore, you can go for second hand if you're cool with that (even for the dune HD TV-303D). Eitherway, you'll have a great value/price. Read some reviews if you like.

Should you have any questions about the two, I'd be happy to answer or test. I have both players hooked up on Panny plasmascreens.

cheers

Edit: I just learned that DUNE has a latest beta firmware that should work with forced subtitles. Interesting. I don't know in which cases this will work, as forced subtitles can be muxed/authored in different ways.

[worknstiff]

@ von Suppé; RE: I just learned that DUNE has a latest beta firmware that should work with forced subtitles.
That sounds promising, especially since the Dune's were almost at the top of the price list for media players. I just wish that my Oppo would honor the forced subs and would still let me play ISO's. thanks for the info.

[von Suppé]

I will have to clear some time to test the forced sups in various ways. Right now I'm busy trying to figure out how the heck I can make *.ass and *.ssa subs to work in my Dunes. I also recently found out that assa support is there since the first firmware. But for the life of me, I can't get them functioning though.
The online manual says next to nothing about subs or to handle them and I have to gather information from everywhere. Should you know how to make mediaplayers work with assa, I'd be happy to hear from you.

Maybe another issue you may want to consider is Cinavia. Or the absence of it, that is. If a mediaplayer is featured with this you can encounter difficulties with HD audiostreams from your back-ups.

I let you know when I learn more about forced subs support.

[von Suppé]

Before I forget, also beware that not all mediaplayers have full BD-ISO support, only so-called "BD-lite" where you have to choose a playlist.
FYI, DUNE Smart D1 has full BD-ISO support, whereas the TV303D has only BD-lite.

[Mark_Venture]

Originally Posted by worknstiff

@ Mark_Venture RE: It performs well for MKV output from BD Rebuilder.

We all KNOW that playing BD Rebuilder output is the gold standard in media playback, lol. Thanks for the input.

I should say that Kodi on the Fire TV also plays AVI's, M2TS, MPG, and a few others

Oh and forced subtitles are not an issue either..

[meadrocks]

I have an Amlogic 905X android boxes on every TV, they all NFS mount my ubuntu media server that serves up all my Bluray ripped BD disks that have been run thru BD Decrypter using x265 to a mkv file. If you have a Windows server it'll also mount SMB shares. Works fantastic, both x264 & x265 content play flawlessly, subtitles work great too, also pass thru audio to your 5.1 receiver. I use SPMC app installed from the Play Store, SPMC is an android optimized version of Kodi. These boxes can be found on Amazon, search for 'android tv box'. I currently have a Probox2 Air, as well as several of the $40 Chinese manufactured boxes. If all you're doing is local streaming over the network or from a USB mounted hard drive a 1Gig RAM 8Gig nand 100 MB network connection is more than enough. They all work great with SPMC. As a bonus you can install yatse on your android cell phone & it'll act as a remote control to either Kodi or SPMC.

[hubblec4]

There is NO BEST MKV player out in the world.

The "best" at the moment is MPC-HC and LAV Filters, all others like KODI and so on, have a normal standard MKV support only.
I use a "small" PC which is connected to a (damn)Smart-TV.

[worknstiff]

@ hubblec4; RE: There is NO BEST MKV player out in the world.
Looks like some one should step up with a rasPi box and some dedicated software like my favorite android player MX Player. It plays everything MKV and allows soft subs.

[gonca]

Originally Posted by hubblec4

There is NO BEST MKV player out in the world.

The "best" at the moment is MPC-HC and LAV Filters, all others like KODI and so on, have a normal standard MKV support only.
I use a "small" PC which is connected to a (damn)Smart-TV.

Not to beat a dead horse (here comes tiny Lathe)
but Jriver uses LAVFilters and MadVR and can handle MKVs just fine, along with a bunch of features that MPC-HC doesn't have

[varekai]

Originally Posted by hubblec4

There is NO BEST MKV player out in the world.

The "best" at the moment is MPC-HC and LAV Filters, all others like KODI and so on, have a normal standard MKV support only.
I use a "small" PC which is connected to a (damn)Smart-TV.

My choice best of: Daum PotPlayer + madVR

Daum PotPlayer: https://potplayer.daum.net/
madVR: http://madvr.com/

[soneca]

Originally Posted by von Suppé

As a standalone, if 4K / HEVC / HDR isn't (yet) important to you, I can recommend two DUNE mediaplayers for full HD. I have both a HD Smart D1 and for 3d bluray ISO a HD TV-303D. Excellent machines, nothing fancy though. Google the specs if you like.

Superb picture quality and upscaling, and passthrough of all digital audioformats, including Dolby Atmos and DTS:X. Fast interface. Great performance via NFS protocol (you need a nfs server on your pc), I never encountered hickups with both high bitrate audio and video (over wired LAN, that is).
It however does not honour subtitles that are flagged forced within mkv. (At least, I couldn't get them to work, but as I do a lot with sub editing, I always mux them as a separate stream.

I understand the HD Smart D1 is not sold anymore, you can go for second hand if you're cool with that (even for the dune HD TV-303D). Eitherway, you'll have a great value/price. Read some reviews if you like.

Should you have any questions about the two, I'd be happy to answer or test. I have both players hooked up on Panny plasmascreens.

cheers

Edit: I just learned that DUNE has a latest beta firmware that should work with forced subtitles. Interesting. I don't know in which cases this will work, as forced subtitles can be muxed/authored in different ways.

I agree, I have the Dune HD Max and the Smart D1 and I already tested several players (hardware) but so far today I have not seen anything better to play full HD.