playing .mkv with 4K and Atmos

[OM_2K19]

After Netflix, I completely discontinued watching Movies using .mkv files.
I am considering that again to enjoy a better Audio.
What is the best and most cost effective way to achieve that? I should be able to stream in 4K with Atmos sound.
Thanks in advance!

Edit : I shall be using SSD to store .mkv files

Shield Pro is your best bet. If you are referring to an Atmos track from a ripped Blu Ray, I am not aware of any other media player that can do the trick. BD discs use Dolby TrueHD, which is a lossless audio codec. To best of my knowledge, only Shield Pro supports lossless audio codecs (TrueHD, DTS Master Audio) along with lossless audio with height (TrueHD/Atmos or DTS:X). Hope this helps.

 

[spirovious]

The sound quality in Netflix is close to 60-70% as compared to Blu-ray.

Amazon Prime has good sound quality.

 

[argho]

I use the Nvidia Shield. It works perfectly.

The closest replacement in terms of hardware and polish would be the Apple TV 4k. However, there is no Kodi available on the Apple App store. So finding an app to play mkvs may be a bit of a struggle.

 

[venkatcr]

I have been using two options with great success:

1. An HTPC with a 4K video card that passes sound to the AVR. I have not had any issues with it, excepting the fact the HTPC's gain to the AVR is always low. The HTPC has both a DVD player and a Blu-ray player.

2. A RPi4 with Libreelec and Kodi installed. This plays all files including MKV. In stereo mode, you can adjust the gain. When you send audio as pass through, you have no control and the gain is again low.

In both cases I have adjusted for the low gain by enhancing the AVR's sound levels using an SPL meter. Set all speakers playing at 85db with the AVR's volume set to 50%. Works for me.

When the TV guy came to install the TV, I ran a 4K version of Avatar. The poor guy was wide eyed, and did not believe the images he was seeing!

 

[edjamesx]

I have been using two options with great success:

1. An HTPC with a 4K video card that passes sound to the AVR. I have not had any issues with it, excepting the fact the HTPC's gain to the AVR is always low. The HTPC has both a DVD player and a Blu-ray player.

2. A RPi4 with Libreelec and Kodi installed. This plays all files including MKV. In stereo mode, you can adjust the gain. When you send audio as pass through, you have no control and the gain is again low.

In both cases I have adjusted for the low gain by enhancing the AVR's sound levels using an SPL meter. Set all speakers playing at 85db with the AVR's volume set to 50%. Works for me.

When the TV guy came to install the TV, I ran a 4K version of Avatar. The poor guy was wide eyed, and did not believe the images he was seeing!

Good that HTPC path works well for you. For me its not an easy task.

There's not much help / support we were able to get. First of all choosing the right media player was a bigger task. Since all media player were not supporting all media formats , and finally ended up with Kodi for my HTPC. Kodi works better than other media player but not without issues.

Also making it work for all audio support is also not an easy task. I needed to do special tweaks and setup to get proper DTS/DD sound.

For me i am getting still weird breaks/interruptions in Dolby digital formats for every 5 minutes. I tried all tweaks everything , but still the issue is there. I was living it up with the issue , at one point it was not bothering me much as i was used to it.

One more problem with HTPC to make it work for Netflix , amazon prime . Though i was able to get DTS/DD for netflix with some challenges , still not sure how to make it work for amazon prime.

Then i moved to xbox one x since i was interested in gaming part( though NVIDIA shield is my first priority) , It plays movies as i was expecting with minimal setup so far . And Netflix /amazon prime also works fine with DTS/DD.

But still Xbox does not have Apps for OTTs like hotstar , MxPlayer. I think these Apps will be available in NVidia Shield as its Android based.

 

[harryneopotter]

I have been using two options with great success:

1. An HTPC with a 4K video card that passes sound to the AVR. I have not had any issues with it, excepting the fact the HTPC's gain to the AVR is always low. The HTPC has both a DVD player and a Blu-ray player.

2. A RPi4 with Libreelec and Kodi installed. This plays all files including MKV. In stereo mode, you can adjust the gain. When you send audio as pass through, you have no control and the gain is again low.

In both cases I have adjusted for the low gain by enhancing the AVR's sound levels using an SPL meter. Set all speakers playing at 85db with the AVR's volume set to 50%. Works for me.

When the TV guy came to install the TV, I ran a 4K version of Avatar. The poor guy was wide eyed, and did not believe the images he was seeing!

Which TV? I tried to look for compatible GPUs that can pass Atmos data from remux downloads on the HD to the TV/AVR and did not get any success? Any ideas what is the minimum model/series that will work? My Dekstop has 710GT and Laptop has GTX1060.

 

[argho]

But still Xbox does not have Apps for OTTs like hotstar , MxPlayer. I think these Apps will be available in NVidia Shield as its Android based.

Yes - all these apps are available on the Nvidia Shield

 

[venkatcr]

Which TV? I tried to look for compatible GPUs that can pass Atmos data from remux downloads on the HD to the TV/AVR and did not get any success? Any ideas what is the minimum model/series that will work? My Dekstop has 710GT and Laptop has GTX1060.

Let us set some assumptions straight here.

We are talking about playing an .MKV file from a player with the capacity to process Atmos data. There are three ways of doing that.

1. Connect the player to the TV.
1. Connect the player directly to the TV, and the TV to the AVR.
2. Connect the player to an AVR, and the AVR to the TV.

In the first two cases, capability of the TV becomes relevant. In One, the TV will convert all audio formats to stereo as that is the only capability it has.

If you are looking at the TV passing on audio format to the AVR (point 2 above), you must have a TV and AVR both with ARC capability. Most modern TVs (post 2016/17, shall we say?) do have ARC capabilities. Similarly most modern AVRs do have ARC capabilities. In the TV, look at advanced audio settings after the ARC connection is established. There you will find options for (a) Passthrough (b) PCM (c) Auto. If you choose (a), the TV will send the audio data unprocessed to the AVR.

In the third case, the TV capability to process sound is irrelevant. All it has to do is receive the video signal and process and display it. The AVR will hold back the audio data and process it itself.

Cheers

 

[skumar]

If you are looking at the TV passing on audio format to the AVR (point 2 above), you must have a TV and AVR both with ARC capability.

And eARC is required if you want any HD format audio (> DD+) to be streamed from TV to AVR. ARC - eARC

 

[harryneopotter]

Let us set some assumptions straight here.

We are talking about playing an .MKV file from a player with the capacity to process Atmos data. There are three ways of doing that.

1. Connect the player to the TV.
1. Connect the player directly to the TV, and the TV to the AVR.
2. Connect the player to an AVR, and the AVR to the TV.

In the first two cases, capability of the TV becomes relevant. In One, the TV will convert all audio formats to stereo as that is the only capability it has.

If you are looking at the TV passing on audio format to the AVR (point 2 above), you must have a TV and AVR both with ARC capability. Most modern TVs (post 2016/17, shall we say?) do have ARC capabilities. Similarly most modern AVRs do have ARC capabilities. In the TV, look at advanced audio settings after the ARC connection is established. There you will find options for (a) Passthrough (b) PCM (c) Auto. If you choose (a), the TV will send the audio data unprocessed to the AVR.

In the third case, the TV capability to process sound is irrelevant. All it has to do is receive the video signal and process and display it. The AVR will hold back the audio data and process it itself.

Cheers

sorry for my confusing post. My question was in two parts. One - asking the TV that you are using. Second- was for HTPC and the GPU capabilities.

I have a C9, and I am looking for the best solution to play movies with Atmos, that are stored on my PC hard drive.

 

[venkatcr]

sorry for my confusing post. My question was in two parts. One - asking the TV that you are using. Second- was for HTPC and the GPU capabilities.

I have a C9, and I am looking for the best solution to play movies with Atmos, that are stored on my PC hard drive.

I am using a 55inch TCL with 4K and ARC capabilities. My AVR is Marantz SR 5010.

I terms of HTPC, you need to have a GPU that can understand and send 4K video with Atmos and other sound formats. That is the reason I was mentioning RPi 4 with Kodi. That understand H.265 and all sound formats to just passthrough. Libreelec is still working on improving the use of the in-built GPU in the RPi.

 

[ankitbhargava]

Amazon Prime has good sound quality.

Bought a Shield Pro 2017,
Amazon Prime is streaming 4K and Atmos titles out of box.

I have setup Plex to play .mkv files (Blu-Ray Rips) ... so far so good.

HDD plugged into Shiled directly is not helping a smooth streaming through, movie jitters in-between

 

[ankitbhargava]

Yes - all these apps are available on the Nvidia Shield

Amazon is streaming a great quality out of box not compared to streaming on Xbox One S
Netflix isn't supporting 4K and Atmos out of Box, looks like I might need a Kodi Plugin of Netflix?

 

[ankitbhargava]

I have been using two options with great success:

1. An HTPC with a 4K video card that passes sound to the AVR. I have not had any issues with it, excepting the fact the HTPC's gain to the AVR is always low. The HTPC has both a DVD player and a Blu-ray player.

2. A RPi4 with Libreelec and Kodi installed. This plays all files including MKV. In stereo mode, you can adjust the gain. When you send audio as pass through, you have no control and the gain is again low.

In both cases I have adjusted for the low gain by enhancing the AVR's sound levels using an SPL meter. Set all speakers playing at 85db with the AVR's volume set to 50%. Works for me.

When the TV guy came to install the TV, I ran a 4K version of Avatar. The poor guy was wide eyed, and did not believe the images he was seeing!

Haha, I liked that reaction of TV guy

This whole downloading and streaming scene is little complicated

I have started using Shiled Pro 2017 with Plex and HDD latched to Shield directly.

Now the question is downloading from torrents directly to HDD and also streaming 50 GB file off the HDD isisnt that smooth so far

 

[ankitbhargava]

Good that HTPC path works well for you. For me its not an easy task.

There's not much help / support we were able to get. First of all choosing the right media player was a bigger task. Since all media player were not supporting all media formats , and finally ended up with Kodi for my HTPC. Kodi works better than other media player but not without issues.

Also making it work for all audio support is also not an easy task. I needed to do special tweaks and setup to get proper DTS/DD sound.

For me i am getting still weird breaks/interruptions in Dolby digital formats for every 5 minutes. I tried all tweaks everything , but still the issue is there. I was living it up with the issue , at one point it was not bothering me much as i was used to it.

One more problem with HTPC to make it work for Netflix , amazon prime . Though i was able to get DTS/DD for netflix with some challenges , still not sure how to make it work for amazon prime.

Then i moved to xbox one x since i was interested in gaming part( though NVIDIA shield is my first priority) , It plays movies as i was expecting with minimal setup so far . And Netflix /amazon prime also works fine with DTS/DD.

But still Xbox does not have Apps for OTTs like hotstar , MxPlayer. I think these Apps will be available in NVidia Shield as its Android based.

Yes Xbox is the easiest and by far the best performer for me too for streaming
I use Firestick 4K for Hotstar

 

[ankitbhargava]

Let us set some assumptions straight here.

We are talking about playing an .MKV file from a player with the capacity to process Atmos data. There are three ways of doing that.

1. Connect the player to the TV.
1. Connect the player directly to the TV, and the TV to the AVR.
2. Connect the player to an AVR, and the AVR to the TV.

In the first two cases, capability of the TV becomes relevant. In One, the TV will convert all audio formats to stereo as that is the only capability it has.

If you are looking at the TV passing on audio format to the AVR (point 2 above), you must have a TV and AVR both with ARC capability. Most modern TVs (post 2016/17, shall we say?) do have ARC capabilities. Similarly most modern AVRs do have ARC capabilities. In the TV, look at advanced audio settings after the ARC connection is established. There you will find options for (a) Passthrough (b) PCM (c) Auto. If you choose (a), the TV will send the audio data unprocessed to the AVR.

In the third case, the TV capability to process sound is irrelevant. All it has to do is receive the video signal and process and display it. The AVR will hold back the audio data and process it itself.

Cheers

I have Shield Pro > AVR > Projector
Able toplay .MKV using Plex (using inbuilt Plex Server of Shield) and output 4K + Dolby
However HDD is connected to Shield directly and there are jitters in between playing a 50GB file

 

[ankitbhargava]

I am ready to experiment more
Would RPi4 + Liberlec+Kodi+Any Torrent Download client serve the entire chain of -
1. Downloading the Torrents directly to HDD connected to RPi4
2. Output 4K and Atmos (passthrough?) from suitable .MKV rips

 

[ankitbhargava]

I do have Xbox one x . I am able to play .mkv files cleanly with the latest Media player from microsoft. You can try updating the App and try playing the mkv file if you already have it , or you can download player from microsoft store.
You can try with VLC player, Kodi player also.
Kodi player has some issues while forwarding/rewinding movies with xbox otherwise it plays the mkv files cleanly.


If you are looking for Android box , then Nvidia shield is the best option . But its not available in india and its little expensive.
You can try with amazon.in and there are lot of android boxes available , you can go through their specifications /reviews and pick up one.

You can check with Xiaomi Mi Box S . Seems to be decent player. But not sure it supports dolby atmos.

Unable to play .MKV directly from the Media Player on Xbox, it says file type not recognised.
Yes I have updated version

Just tried Plex on Xbox and it played .MKV

 

[Tuhin Lavania]

I have Shield Pro > AVR > Projector
Able toplay .MKV using Plex (using inbuilt Plex Server of Shield) and output 4K + Dolby
However HDD is connected to Shield directly and there are jitters in between playing a 50GB file

There should be no jitters in movie playback. I always watch a movie from the HDD connected to the Shield and no problems.
Files are 2160p HDR remuxes which most of the time are 50gb plus and some even 70,80gbs.
Two 4TB External HDDs are always connected to the Shield and it works perfect.

 

[edjamesx]

Unable to play .MKV directly from the Media Player on Xbox, it says file type not recognised.
Yes I have updated version

Just tried Plex on Xbox and it played .MKV

May be Microsoft Media player support mkv only on xbox one x... ? .For me it plays any mkv file.
Good that Plex worked for you.

You can try VLC/Kodi as well.