[MKV] Playback queries for HD DVD/BluRay media rips

[Beastie Boy]

Hello all. I am looking for some advice regarding the playback capabilities of the current NMT based media players.

What I want it to do is play files ripped from my HD DVD and BluRay discs. At present, I am using my PS3, but the the format limitations niggle me.

Therefore my requirements are:
1) That the player can play both h264 and VC1 video codecs straight off the HD media without re-encoding.
2) I am able to use an audio format that preserves the quality of the lossless codecs. By this I mean play back a format that is transparent to the listener but not necessarily lossless. I don't want to use WAV/LPCM as this takes up too much disc space. Idealy I would like to use multichannel FLAC, which I don't think is currently supported. Failing that, high bitrate AAC would be a good space/quality compromise.
3) Support for subtitles which I gather is easily acheived by placing an srt file of the same name in the folder.
4) Chapters would be nice, but not essential if the navigation features are good.

My ideal container would be mkv, but will a NMT player decode straight HD video (h264 & VC1) and audio in this container?
Would .TS container meet my requirements regarding audio ie, AAC + h264/VC1 with a seperate subtitle file?

Is anyone currently doing the above and can confirm it works OK?

For info, I have a gigabit network that goes PC -> router -> switch -> player and currently stream HD video with peaks upto 50Mb/s without any problems.

Many thanks in advance for any info.

Cheers, Beastie.

[EPiPHON3]

1. Yes, but not in MKV only TS/M2TS

2. Multichannel FLAC is not supported. You will need to use WAV/LPCM.

3. Yes, external SRT

[chris57]

Hi welcome to the forum.

Have a read of Epi's guide for bluray/HD processing:-
http://www.networkedmediatank.com/viewtopic.php?t=2921

The PCH cannot access BluRay or HD-DVD directly due to the menu structures requiring java etc.

It will play the HD rips that are out and about on the internet well especially mkv format. Embedded subtitles aswell as external subtitles are supported. No chapter support but a nice timeseek and GOTO function 1,2,3...10%,20%,30% via the remote.

TS only uses the hardware in the PCH whereas mkv requires software aswell. Both are supported. VC1 in an mkv container is at beta stage presently.

Are you going to use an AV receiver or not. The PCH does not decode DTS so passthrough to receiver or encode to AC3 are required.

[Beastie Boy]

EPiPHON3 Wrote:2. Multichannel FLAC is not supported. You will need to use WAV/LPCM

No AAC? I see AAC listed as a supported codec. Will this work inside a container such as TS or M2TS or is it for audio only files?

@chris57

My player would be connected to an HDMI receiver which can decode all current Dolby and DTS formats, as well as accept multichannel PCM over HDMI.

The files that I use will be ripped directly off my own discs, so I am free to choose whichever format works best. None of my stuff is downloaded.

I will have a read at that guide you linked.

Many thanks for the replies guys.
Cheers, Beastie.

[chris57]

AAC is supported I have a few mkv's with AAC audio. AC3 is another option I think they arent lossless though that's why if you want lossless you have to go WAV/LPCM.

[Beastie Boy]

chris57 Wrote:AAC is supported I have a few mkv's with AAC audio. AC3 is another option I think they arent lossless though that's why if you want lossless you have to go WAV/LPCM.

That's good to know. I was looking at AAC because I think it is a good compromise between AC3 (inefficient and too lossy) and WAV (too large but perfect quality). How about AAC within TS/M2TS? Or even mp4 container if that would support video direct from BluRay?

I know I'm being picky here, it's just that AC3 isn't very good and WAV is just too big. Although if necessary I would choose WAV format. Is 7.1 supported or just 5.1?

Thank you for your patience

EDIT: Reading through your guide I read this:

You can play 5.1/7.1 LPCM loseless HD audio tracks on the NMT via HDMI. SPDIF will only give you 2ch. For some reason you need to have two audio tracks when using LPCM or you will get no sound.

I see 7.1 is supported, excellent. Is the requirement for a second audio track a temporary bug, or more of a feature that is likely to be permanant.

[EPiPHON3]

Beastie Boy Wrote:

chris57 Wrote:AAC is supported I have a few mkv's with AAC audio. AC3 is another option I think they arent lossless though that's why if you want lossless you have to go WAV/LPCM.

That's good to know. I was looking at AAC because I think it is a good compromise between AC3 (inefficient and too lossy) and WAV (too large but perfect quality). How about AAC within TS/M2TS? Or even mp4 container if that would support video direct from BluRay?

I know I'm being picky here, it's just that AC3 isn't very good and WAV is just too big. Although if necessary I would choose WAV format. Is 7.1 supported or just 5.1?

Thank you for your patience

EDIT: Reading through your guide I read this:

You can play 5.1/7.1 LPCM loseless HD audio tracks on the NMT via HDMI. SPDIF will only give you 2ch. For some reason you need to have two audio tracks when using LPCM or you will get no sound.

I see 7.1 is supported, excellent. Is the requirement for a second audio track a temporary bug, or more of a feature that is likely to be permanant.

I don't think the 2 audio track requirement is a bug but more of a limitation of Sigma's code. It's not a big deal, I just need to find a way other then Scenarist to put dummy AC3 files in M2TS cause tsMuxeR won't take any of my dummy AC3 files.

[Beastie Boy]

I guess the best thing to do would be to use eac3to to produce a low bitrate version of the audio from the movie.

eac3to inputFile.wav outputFile.ac3 -down2 -192

This would produce a 192kbps stereo ac3 file that would be relatively small. I'm not sure what the lowest bitrate is that ac3 supports, perhaps 128k. Maybe someone else knows.

Cheers, Beastie.

[EPiPHON3]

Beastie Boy Wrote:I guess the best thing to do would be to use eac3to to produce a low bitrate version of the audio from the movie.

eac3to inputFile.wav outputFile.ac3 -down2 -192

This would produce a 192kbps stereo ac3 file that would be relatively small. I'm not sure what the lowest bitrate is that ac3 supports, perhaps 128k. Maybe someone else knows.

Cheers, Beastie.

Yeah but to save time you can just use a commentary track.