WD TV Play and MKV files.....YES or NO?

I emailed WD customer support (actually opened a case on this) about this issue two days ago and haven’t heard back from them yet. So before I box up this unit and return it, I just wanted to know if I was correct in saying that the WD TV Play will NOT play MKV files (as made by MakeMKV).

Is this correct or not?

I downloaded the manual and it confirms my suspicions. The manual does not mention MKV at ALL. However, I need to know for sure before I return this.

If it can’t play these files then Amazon better change their ad for this item. On Amazon it states that it CAN play MKV. Since most of all my videos are converted to MKV, that’s why I chose this particular model. Here’s a cut and paste from the ad itself.

Video Formats supported: AVI (Xvid, AVC, MPEG4, VC-1), MKV (h.264, x.264, AVC, MPEG4, VC-1) TS/TP/M2T/M2TS (MPEG4, AVC, VC-1), MP4/MOV (MPEG4, AVC), WMV9, FLV (AVC)

And here’s a link:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B008YDUTRO/ref=oh_details_o01_s00_i00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

By the way, I’ve also had issues with AVI and MOV files. About the only files this’ll play are MP4 or a variant thereof.

I feel pretty stupid because I gave this item a glowing review before I found out about this. It just hooked up to my network so EASILY. And it does show the MP4 files and my photos nicely. But I have a LOT of content that is MKV, MOV and AVI. If it’s can’t show this, then it’s a deal breaker.

I have over 100 MKV files and they play just fine, perhaps it is a settings thing

Settings? In the WD TV Play configuration?

I just noticed something when I was re-reading the manual. It states, 

The benefit of using a media server is that it aggregates the content together from
the device that is hosting it. The media server hosts a list of supported file formats
with metadata information that allows a client device like the media player to easily
browse and play back the content.

However, using a media server can restrict supported file types and you may not be
able to see all the files stored in the media server.

I am using Serviio on my Media Server (which is a Windows XP 32 Bit computer with a 1TB drive installed). Would THIS be what is causing the issue? Don’t you need some type of media server software running on your computer?

Edit to add: I just turned off the Serviio Software and the WD TV Play could not find the computer with the movies on it. So I guess that answers that question.

Dear Dgreco,

mkv is container, and its supported, but codecs used for compressing video, audio and other data might be NOT supported by Play. For example mpeg2 compressed video. Can check your mkv files with mkvinfo and see what type of video compression was used?

The Play is supposed to play MKV files according to the specs at the WD product website:  It is not as the OP suggested “a settings thing”.  Perhaps you should have not relied solely on Amazon for your info, and gone also to wdc.com, found  the media players and read up on the specs beforehand.  Maybe even asked a few questions here.  I would have imagined that someone making MKV files would have though to do that.

So that you know what the WD site for the Play says the specs are, here they are:

File Formats Supported
Video - AVIVA (Xvii, AVC, MPEG4, VC-1), MKV (h.264, x.264, AVC, MPEG4, VC-1), TS/TP/M2T/M2TS (MPEG4, AVC, VC-1), MP4/MOV (MPEG4, AVC), WMV9, FLV (AVC)
Photo - JPEG, GIF, TIF/TIFF, BMP, PNG
Audio - MP3, WAV/PCM/LPCM, WMA, AAC, FLAC, MKA, AIF/AIFF, OGG, Dolby TrueHD
Playlist - PLS, M3U, WPL, M3U8, XML, CUE
Subtitle - SRT, **bleep** , SSA, SUB, SMI, MKV (embedded sub)

WD media players use Media servers and Network shares to access files on a home network  to play them – except for the entry-level Play unit.  It only uses Media Servers and not Network shares.  To play certain types of media on the players, Network shares must be used.  Files like ISO and MKV come under this category.  Since the Play does not have this capability, you are stuck playing MKV files via your network, but what you can and should do is put these files on a drive that you connect to your Play and then you can play them.  (but not ISO files; they are not supported.)

Perhaps this from the WD Knowledge Base can help explain things further:

WD TV Live Media Player does not play ISO files from a WD network drive

Bottom line: You bought the entry level WD media player, and you should have bought “up” to the Live Streaming (or Hub) model.  Even so, you still cannot access your MKV files on say, your PC or PC drive, via Media Server access, but you can via Network shares.  You also can then access ISO files which are another popular format used on WD players.

So, go easy on WD, Amazon, etc – it’s not their fault for what you bought.

Return the Play and get one of the other two units mentioned, and remember the constraints mentioned above. 

 

 

 

If you use Windows Media Player as media server there is a way of adding mkv extension to library. Just search for it on web.

I saw you mentioned you used Serviio as you DLNA server. I had this exact same issue when I got my Play. For some reason Serviio hides MKV’s from the Play, it has to do with the profiles on the first page, but I could not find a profile that would work. I know the profiles can be customized though, but I found that to be mroe involved then I wanted and Serviio seemed slow to find new media as well, so swithed to Plex which is another free DLNA server, turned off transcoding and could not be happier as it syncs with online databases to pull in cover art and such. 

That may be the source of you problem, if you want to check on the PC with Serviio you can usually see “Serviio” listed as a network location/media player, if you navigate to it and look in the files it has available MKVs will not be there, at lesat thats what mine was doing.

Thanks for the reply. Actually Serviio allows me to “see” the MKV files just fine. It’s when I try to play them that I get the “Unsupported File Format” message.

Last night I uninstalled Serviio and tried using Windows Media Player as my DLNA server. I had a hard time finding the movies even after adding/sharing the directory to the list in the Library.

Just out of curiousity I think I will give Plex a shot and see what it does.

Yes, I realize now that I should have done some more research in regards to this purchase. Oh well, no one is born an expert in any particular field of knowledge. I was unaware that there were hidden caviats associated with this particular product. But now I know.

I have used MakeMKV for a while now to convert DVDs and store them on a shared drive on my network. I can play these MKV files on any computer connected to my home network. I would have never guessed that there would be such an issue with a networked device like this.

Now that you’ve explained it (and I’ve had a chance to re-read it and translate it into terms I can grasp) I believe I understand. If I understand correctly, in order for the WD TV Play to work I must have a  Media Server program (DLNA) installed on my Media Server Computer. BUT even with that the TV Play would never be able to play MKV files stored on the shared directory. If I wanted them to play I’d need to connect a drive directly to the WD TVPlay

Try PS3 MEDIA SERVER… it’s DLNA Compliant, Almost No Setup Required, Easy to Use  … and it’s Free

(I have personally tried it with my smart tv, ps3 & live hub … works great … see’s all files and trancodes ones that are not supported by my tv and the hub)

http://www.ps3mediaserver.org/

Don’t try to use PlayOn from MediaMall. This box can’t do it at all.

You could also post the media info of the mkv files. 

http://mediainfo.sourceforge.net/en (free)

Untick the boxes if you don’t want the ‘extras’

You wrote:

"Try PS3 MEDIA SERVER … it’s DLNA Compliant, Almost No Setup Required, Easy to Use  … and it’s Free

 

(I have personally tried it with my smart tv, ps3 & live hub … works great … see’s all files and trancodes ones that are not supported by my tv and the hub)"

Yeah, sounds awesome. But will it work with a TV Play? It looks like you are using a Live Hub

DGreco63 wrote: 

I have used MakeMKV for a while now to convert DVDs and store them on a shared drive on my network. I can play these MKV files on any computer connected to my home network. I would have never guessed that there would be such an issue with a networked device like this.

I can only play MKV from:  1) a drive connected to my Live Plus,  2) on a computer with VLC installed on it,  3) on my iPad with the VLC Streamer twin-apps installed on iPad and PC.

Now that you’ve explained it (and I’ve had a chance to re-read it and translate it into terms I can grasp) I believe I understand. If I understand correctly, in order for the WD TV Play to work I must have a  Media Server program (DLNA) installed on my Media Server Computer. BUT even with that the TV Play would never be able to play MKV files stored on the shared directory. If I wanted them to play I’d need to connect a drive directly to the WD TVPlay

 No.  For all the WD players except the Play, any media you want to play to the TV using the WD player, the media is accessed by one of three ways from the WD’s main menu:

Local Drive :  media is played directly from the attached drive by the WD player (This same drive can also be accessed by the other devices on the network.)

Media Server:  media is “pushed” to the player and is “played” by the server (e.g. PC)  Files such as ISO and MKV cannot be played to player this way, unless some “tweaking” is done, (perhaps by adding codec for WMP to play MKV files as some have said.  I have no reason to want to do this, so cannot attest that this works.)

Network Shares :  media is “pulled” by the WD player from a drive on the network, and played by the WD player

This is how I can access ISO and MKV files with the WD player to play them from somewhere on my network.  This access feature is NOT available with the TV Play.

If you want to do what I have described, you should return the TV Play and get one of the other WD Players:  Live Streaming or Live Hub – one has a drive inside; the other doesn’t.

 

If I have not stated things correctly, I am sure someone out here will correct me, but I think this is the correct situation.


You wrote:

Network Shares :  media is “pulled” by the WD player from a drive on the network, and played by the WD player

This is how I can access ISO and MKV files with the WD player to play them from somewhere on my network.  This access feature is NOT available with the TV Play.

Thank you for explaining this in more detail. If I understand correctly then I would NOT have to install any type of Media Streaming software like Plex or Serviio on my Media Server. Right?

I took a look at the WD TV Live Media Player. The $128 price tag isn’t really that bad. I mean, it’s a bit less than twice the amount I payed for the TV Play. But if it does what it says, it’ll be worth it.

Out of interest are you using makemkv to rip DVD’s or blu-ray?
If you are ripping DVD’s then the video codec within the mkv file is not supported by the WD Play.
That’s why I suggested posting the media info of the files.

Yes, I am ripping DVDs and not Blue Rays

Will this be a problem if I switch to a TV Live?

Ok the reason you cannot play your mkv and probably your avi / mov is because the codec within the mkv is not supported by the WD Play. If you play these files over the network you will also find a problem with most media servers actually serving mkv files. The Play only allows you to use media servers so that is a second problem. The latest WD Live streaming player will play most files including makemkv DVD files and you can connect to your network disc via network shares which see’s and plays mkv files.
The WD Play is more centred on Internet apps and is limited in playing certain files. On the other hand the Live Streaming Player plays most files and has limited Internet apps.

Thank you for confirming this. I’ll be looking into returning the TVPlay and getting a TV Live

No need to install any server softwares.  If you have a Live Streaming media player (aka around here as SMP) you would be a happy camper.)  Those of us with “full-featured” WD players are in that camp, too. 

Since I have two Live Plus units, I don’t want a newer model UNTIL WD comes out with one with more NEW features, such as true gigabit connection, USB 3.0 connections, 5Ghz wireless, and faster processor.

(Well, I can dream can’t I?)

Right now today, you just need a “good” full-featured media player.

The best online price I could find today for the Live Streaming is at MacMall (I have purchased from them; great prices and service; they are same company as PC Mall) and they are selling the Live Streaming right now for $89.99 w/free shipping and no tax (depending upon the state you live in).  Anyway, the best price I ever saw on it is $79.99, and that was a special price that lasted for 24 hours or less on Black Friday, or something like that.  See the link: 

http://www.macmall.com/p/WD-Video/product~DPNo~8873775~pdp.gjaadeg?source=MWBGOOGLEBASE

Hmmm. looks like it is a new product for them, so hence the good price, plus you should receive a “fresh one” right from WD to MacMall.

Good Luck!