Blu-ray player w/ USB for MKV playback?

[ima49311]

Does anyone know of any relatively inexpensive (under $60) blu ray players that have a USB port and are capable of playing mkvs WITH SUBTITLES that are ripped with MakeMKV? I have a good sony player (only a year old) but it surprisingly doesn't have a USB that likes mkvs.

I picked up a cheap LG BP125 last year for my dad for like $30 from walmart and it plays anything i can throw on it. Unfortunately I can't find it anymore...especially at that price. I've seen players list that they can play MKVs but they never really say if that includes Subtitles or not.

Does anyone know any they can suggest (preferably from experience)? Thanks in advance!

[crowfax]

The chipsets in DVD / Blu-ray players are usually pretty awful. I'd suggest picking up a WD TV for media player playback. You can get them second hand for around $50, then just buy a cheaper disc player.

[ima49311]

i already have a WDTV but it doesnt play subtitles with my makemkv rips... hence the bluray player. thanks tho

[crowfax]

Do you have the latest WD TV? Mine worked without issue, I did have to run the MKV files through MKVmergeGUI to get the picky WD TV firmware to display them, but it worked great!

Thanks tho.

[Chetwood]

You don't have to run the subs through MKVmerge when you simply use MakeMKV's WDTV profile which also compresses them with zlib which is what the WDTV requires (as has been mentioned here on the forum various times). @OP: you know all BD players are infected with Cinavia, right?

[ima49311]

You don't have to run the subs through MKVmerge when you simply use MakeMKV's WDTV profile which also compresses them with zlib which is what the WDTV requires (as has been mentioned here on the forum various times). @OP: you know all BD players are infected with Cinavia, right?

The profile is actually news to me. I didn't even realize that was an option. Do all I have to do is activate the advanced section and select the WDTV profile or is there more to it than that? and "Cinavia"??? What's that?

If this profile thing works, I'd still like to get a cheapo bluray for my bedroom that plays these tho. So i'd still appreciate any suggestions on that as well.

Thanks again

[ima49311]

You don't have to run the subs through MKVmerge when you simply use MakeMKV's WDTV profile which also compresses them with zlib which is what the WDTV requires (as has been mentioned here on the forum various times). @OP: you know all BD players are infected with Cinavia, right?

The profile is actually news to me. I didn't even realize that was an option. Do all I have to do is activate the advanced section and select the WDTV profile or is there more to it than that? and "Cinavia"??? What's that?

If this profile thing works, I'd still like to get a cheapo bluray for my bedroom that plays these tho. So i'd still appreciate any suggestions on that as well.

Thanks again

nevermind about the "Cinavia"... i just saw the other post about it. thanks

[ima49311]

so i tried the WDTV profile in MakeMKV for World War Z and every language shows up as jibberish.. just a bunch of symbols that dont even go along (switch way too fast to follow the audio of the movie)... when i say symbols i mean something like almost looks like ASCII code but its not.. but really wierd.. any idea how to get this fixed? thanks in advance!

[Romansh]

so i tried the WDTV profile in MakeMKV for World War Z and every language shows up as jibberish.. just a bunch of symbols that dont even go along (switch way too fast to follow the audio of the movie)... when i say symbols i mean something like almost looks like ASCII code but its not.. but really wierd.. any idea how to get this fixed? thanks in advance!

Update to the latest WD TV firmware.

[Chetwood]

Yeah, I remember this bug from some years ago on an old firmware of the old WDTV Live.

[ima49311]

ok. i will try that.. never updated the firmware since i bought it years ago..i never had any issues with mine and i heard a bunch of people bricking their wdtvs with firmware updates.. so i skipped it. thanks tho. i will try.

[crowfax]

I think people only brick them when they try the 3rd party firmwares. I had 3 generations of the WDTV and they were all rock solid.

[jinx100]

Back to the Blu-Ray player question. I use an LG BP325W and their BP125 lacking WiFi is in your price range. It plays MKVs perfectly but you do need a powered hard drive as the 5 volt supply is too weak for most portable USB hard drives. I do compress the movie using Handbrake (20GB Blu-Ray shrinks to 1-2GB) and burn-in any foreign language subtitles.

[Chetwood]

Sorry, but burned in subs do not qualify as 'perfectly' by a longshot.

[ima49311]

thanks for all the suggestions/help. so i updated the firmware and it works great. Still looking for a cheap bluray player for my bedroom that can handle mkvs off a USB drive tho. like I said originally the BP125 worked great running a WD passport with MKVs but i cant find one anywhere at a decent price. so, the question still stands... does anyone know of any OTHER player that would work as well in the same price range? Thanks again!