I have been reading up looking for a Blu-Ray player that could play MKV (Matroska) files for some time now. Most reviews say its hard to find one that plays them…but really it seems its simply hard to find one that “prints” the fact that it will play them in the specs. I have this Toshiba (cheap…usually $60-$100) only because for the price it was a steal and I needed an extra blu-ray player in the house. I didn’t find out until now that it played MKVs (randomly tried to see what would happen if I stuck a disc in). HD quality…yep, digital sound…yep! Two thumbs up from me!
So all of your MKV formatted anime and whatever else…..here’s your solution to bring it to your TVs and home theaters without having to hook a PC up to them!!
Toshiba Blu-Ray Player — Amazon
(free shipping too ^_^)
UPDATE 09-25-2013
I figured it was a good time to update some of these posts. Here are a few more options for good MKV playback via Blu-ray player. Some of these options are pricey and some more than affordable. It all depends on the general over-quality of features you are looking for:
- Samsung BD-F5900 3D Wi-Fi Blu-ray Disc Player (most affordable when on sale and best app store)
- Philips BDP5012/F7 Blu-ray Disc Player
- Panasonic DMP-BDT320 Blu-ray Disc Player
- Panasonic DMP-BDT500 Blu-ray Disc Player
- Panasonic DMPBDT330 with 4K Upscaling Blu-ray Disc Player
- Panasonic DMP-BDT220 Blu-ray Disc Player
- Sony BDP-S380 Blu-ray Disc Player
What about softsubs embedded in MKV? Can it play over a network connection? If I find one that does that, I forever retire my HTPC lol!
That is very true….I’ll have to try that! To be continued on that extra feature!
No, it will not play files over the network from other PC’s. Only what you burn to data DVD, data Blu-ray or USB. I don’t have any series that have separate files that contain the subs (i.e., “.sub”) as all of my files are encoded with the subtitles or multiple audio/sub tracks. It plays those ok, although a few of them error on the audio format (I don’t see a pattern yet on that…could simply be how it was encoded and not so much the format in terms of DTS, AC3, etc). The rest, the remote has an option for both subs and audio, and both bring up the multiple tracks available. Pretty cool. Plays reg movies perfectly too….haven’t had one error on me yet on the ones I have tested (i.e., dvds/blu-rays I have converted to MKV to save on the network…as well as…other….stuff…only in this use I’ve burned them to disc obviously). 😀
For what you get its a hell of a feature for the price! What’s even better is the bluray obviously accepts firmware/software updates so they can always increase the functionality in the future with am update to support even more.