New Smart TV and Converted Films

cloud_dog

Hi.... Was hoping someone with experience of newer smart TVs could just confirm my query....

At the moment I play my converted movies (H.264, MKV container) to the TV via my WD TV Live box (from a NAS).

If I got a smart TV would the TV be able to directly render the movies, I.e. could I do away with the WD TV live box? I'm not concerned with connectivity, more with the ability for the TV to decode (if that's the correct term) / render the movie.

enfield_freddy

dunno , my tv wont even look at MKV or avi files , but will play mp4s , I use a sumvision micro 4 media player wired into the network , it will play anything

cloud_dog

OK, so after some more digging I've found that generally Samsung smart TVs after 2012 will support MKV files. I say generally because MKV is a container which supports numerous audio and video formats and usually playing of the files is dependent on available codecs for the playing device.

As my films are converted using H.264 and AAC I should be OK.

JJ_Egan

Depends upon the TV usually its a limited range of formats .

cloud_dog

Yes but, from my reading the audio and video formats I use are common / standard for Mp4 which most devices support.

cloud_dog

The reason I posted my original query was that as a good MSEr it all comes down to costs.

I don't need a smart TV as Sky pretty much covers all the catch up options etc but if I can re-use the WDTV Live box elsewhere then that saves costs there and can be offset against the additional cost of a smart TV.

Just trying to get a better handle on how I can adjust things and buy what is needed.

wongataa

cloud_dog wrote: »

Yes but, from my reading the audio and video formats I use are common / standard for Mp4 which most devices support.

You will have to check if the TVs your are looking at will accept a MKV container. Just because the actual compression formats used are common ones doesn't mean it will work for any container format.

Cycrow

H.264 should work on pretty much everything as its a standard video format.

Same for AAC.

so its only really the container to worry about. But even then you could simply use ffmpeg and change the container to one that is compatible

S0litaire

If it's in a standard format (H.264) then the Smart TV will be able to play it.

My LG smart TV plays virtually anything I throw at it, but saying that I DO have it hooked up to my Media box running PLEX Media Server most of the time. My Smart TV came preloaded with the Plex media Client but I hardly use that, I just access it from the shared folders Plex creates.

roonaldo

My Samsung Series 5 LED TV plays movie files through the USB port such as MKV, AVI, MP4 with no issues

bridgedino

My WD Mycloud streams my converted DVDs in MP4 format to my Samsung smart TV and plays them no probs.

My iPad, PS3 and Smart home cinema system also streams them easily but for some reason my smart LG tv ends up with the sound and audio out of sync after about 10 mins

Strangely enough although the LG tv has the lip sync issue, streaming via my PS3 on the same LG TV works just fine