Sony -v- Samsung Blu Ray Players MKV Compatibility

[ayjaycee]

I use my Sony BDP-S790 Blu Ray player primarily to view video (AVI, MP4 & MKV) files from an external USB HDD but am getting increasingly frustrated by its inability to play the MKV files properly. If I just press the play button, everything works as advertised but as soon as I try to either rewind or fast forward, the MKV file stops playing and automatically goes on to play the next file on the disk. I had exactly the same issue with my previous player which was also a Sony (BDP-S390).

MKV files play, fast forward and rewind perfectly from USB disks plugged into my Samsung UE46F8000 TV and I am therefore assuming that they would also play OK on a Samsung Blu Ray Player and was therefore considering either a Samsung BDH 6500 or BDF 7500 as a replacement for the Sony and was wondering whether anybody has any experience of either and, in particular, could comment on MKV compatibility. That said, I am a bit put off by the fact that both of them only seem to have front USB input and any other suggestions would be much appreciated.

Before anybody suggests simply using the TV as the MKV player, it's OK as a temporary fix but a bit of a pain in the long term due to the numbers of buttons that need to be pressed when going between TV and paused video files.

Thanks in advance.

 

[ayjaycee]

Is anybody there? Sorry to bump but if I am to buy a new player, I really want to do it next week.

Cheers.

 

[bigboss]

I would expect Samsung to play MKV. Return it if it doesn't.

Oppo definitely will, but is expensive.

 

[bigboss]

Check this:

http://www.samsung.com/au/support/skp/faq/1045295

Also read this bit in the page:

Note: Some DivX, MKV and MP4 format discs may not play, depending on their video resolution and frame rate.

 

[Paul.]

MKV is a funny one. It is a container format that has an huge number of supported codecs within it. The problem arises that manufacturers will list the player as supporting MKV, but that does not mean it will play all the possible permutations of codec. For instance, you can have an MKV file that is video encoded in Apple Prores with audio in Vorbis. It would be daft, but you could do it. And nothing other than a computer could play it. 99 times out of 100 you will have no problems, but every now and then an MKV can be encoded in something your player won't understand. Samsungs do seem to have excelent codec support, my 2012 Samsung plays pretty much anything bar some subtitles.

 

[cheeseboy]

what's your budget? Some of the new android boxes running Kodi or the Western digital WDTV will probably be a much better bet than a blu ray player.

 

[ayjaycee]

I just wanted to wrap this up but also thank everybody for their inputs.

Big Boss - Thanks for the link to Samsung and sorry if I did not make my original post clear but Samsung was not the issue and, indeed, I have not yet found a video file that my Samsung UE46F8000 would not play, including all those that caused the Sony BDP to throw a wobbly. Your spot on about the Oppo being expensive, particularly for my requirements.

Cheeseboy. Budget was never really an issue but, out of principle, I was never going to pay over the odds for my relatively simple requirements. I've already been down the WDTV route (albeit a few years ago) and never really found it to be much cop. It played video well enough but I thought the firmware (or is it software?) was a bit 'clunky' and never really got on with it. In the end, it found it's way to ebay and some sucker paid £5 more than I originally pain new - never really understood why people do that but I wasn't complaining. I had already thought about an android stick or similar but decided to stay away from them as they are not generally as simple to use as a vanilla blu ray player and there would probably also been issues using it with an infra red universal remote.

In the end, I went in to a Richer Sounds and the guys there let me plug a USB stick into a few blu ray players. The USB stick was loaded with a selection of 720 and 1080p MKV (all of which had given my Sony BDP-S790 problems), MP4 and AVI files. A little Sony BDP-S 4500 passed all the tests with flying colours and I bought it. A bargain at only £72 and even more so as my universal remote is already programmed to a Sony blu ray payer so I don't even need to re-programme that either. It evens does a very creditable job on blu ray and DVD so I'm chuffed.

Again, thanks for the replies - I've been away from this forum for a while now but it's good to find that it's still as valuable a source of advice as it has always been.