Sony S370 and mkv files

Simon

Simon

Simon

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Being as the Xbox cant play mkv streamed from a PC i assumed I would need a PS3 to be able to watch films in my lounge without having to use Vuze.

Sounds like the S370 blu ray player can do everything though? Anyone got any experience of how well this works, currently have an S350 and would like to be able to play films directly from a network HDD.



Network your heart out
You may be pleased to know that Sony is going to release a firmware update that will allow the BDP-S370 to interact with other devices on your network. That means you'll be able to watch media shared from PCs on your TV via this player.
Sony has also decided to finally include support for MKV files, and a plethora of other file types commonly found on the Internet. We love this feature, and got good results in our tests. Although one of our MKV clips didn't play as smoothly as on other players, it was still perfectly watchable.

iPod touch and iPhone tie-in
If you own one of Apple's touchscreen devices, the BDP-S370 has a treat in store for you. Via a free download from the iTunes App Store, you can turn your mobile device into a basic virtual remote control for this player. You might find this more convenient than adding yet another physical remote control to your stash. Perhaps one day all AV equipment will be controlled via a touchscreen phone, and we'll be able to chuck our messy remote controls away.
 
Hi Simon, I've got a Sony BDP-S570 and mkv's play flawlessly on it, albeit if I stream wirelessly it does get choppy sometimes but with a wired connection or external usb storage I can't fault it. I'm guessing similar performance will be available on the S370.
 
If you install PS3 media server you can stream mkv to your xbox I believe? I don't know whether it transcodes or reencodes for the 360.
 
nayan89 said:
Hi Simon, I've got a Sony BDP-S570 and mkv's play flawlessly on it, albeit if I stream wirelessly it does get choppy sometimes but with a wired connection or external usb storage I can't fault it. I'm guessing similar performance will be available on the S370.
Click to expand...

Do you stream from a NAS? I've been looking at these over the last couple of days and everything I've read suggests streaming (via DLNA) supports many file types but not mkv or mp4.

I was hoping to stream from my Synology DS209 to the S570 but as far as I'm aware, this would work with .avi files but not mkv's.
 
I have Tversity on my laptop which streamed blu rays to my xbox360....it wasnt good enough even with a wired connection...the stream would stutter every 10-15mins.

Replaced my setup with the AC Ryan playon miniHD network streamer which is flawless...have my external usb hd connected to it which has my blu ray rips on it...thats then connected to my tv via a hdmi cable....flawless streaming and no stuttering whatsoever and the picture quality is superb.
 
Having looked into this model for exactly these purposes, my findings were that MKV streaming can be flaky over DLNA but fine via USB. Due to the relative newness of DLNA, performance can vary depending on how the MKV was encoded. I.e. it's unlikely to be a plug-and-play affair, despite Sony's recent attempts with the firmware.

But if you weren't referring to DLNA at all, then it should be fine.
 
Im a bit of a Noob with streaming etc. Not planning to use DNLA as far as I know, rather use the S370 to read files from a network hub that has a harddrive plugged into.

branddaly said:
erm...If you have windows 7, then install the latest Divx Plus, and then it will stream mkv's to the xbox.
Click to expand...

I dont have windows 7 unfortunately and i cant get WMP to connect to XP due to my laptops firewall settings.
 
I just recently installed PS3 Media Server and gave it a go over a wireless-N/powerline network to the Xbox 360.

Works a treat! It does take some processing power on your machine through, as it encodes on the fly.

I have a BDP-S350 - wish they'd update that one to play mkvs. :(
 
Simon said:
Im a bit of a Noob with streaming etc. Not planning to use DNLA as far as I know, rather use the S370 to read files from a network hub that has a harddrive plugged into.
Click to expand...

Just done some more Googling around as I am interested in this topic.

It seems that this model will only support FAT32 network drives, which brings a file size limit of 4GB. This would be fine if your rips were all below this, but if you wanted to play a lossless Blu-ray rip, not so fine. The file could always be split and played sequentially, but this is hardly a hassle-free solution.

I know you asked for direct experience but, in the mean time...
 
batfink said:
Do you stream from a NAS? I've been looking at these over the last couple of days and everything I've read suggests streaming (via DLNA) supports many file types but not mkv or mp4.

I was hoping to stream from my Synology DS209 to the S570 but as far as I'm aware, this would work with .avi files but not mkv's.
Click to expand...

Nope just with windows media player with divx codecs installed
 
I was looking for the best (preferably all-in-one) solution with high wife-friendly appeal (ie. easy to use, minimal number of boxes) that will do blu-ray, streaming mkv plus iplayer but I don't think anything is quite there yet. The Sony comes close, but there are still issues from what I've read.

The WDTV sounds great, but doesn't do blu-ray or iplayer so I would still need a 2-box solution.
 
You could build a HTPC batfink, that way you'd get best of both worlds; bluray drive and internet for iplayer, and a graphics card with hdmi out possibly.
 
Sure why not, not many things to show her, mainly just how to put on movies and turning the htpc on etc :)
 
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Robbie G said:
Just done some more Googling around as I am interested in this topic.

It seems that this model will only support FAT32 network drives, which brings a file size limit of 4GB. This would be fine if your rips were all below this, but if you wanted to play a lossless Blu-ray rip, not so fine. The file could always be split and played sequentially, but this is hardly a hassle-free solution.

I know you asked for direct experience but, in the mean time...
Click to expand...

Sounds good, 4gb should be fine for what I need it for.

Thanks
 
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