What is the best media player for MKV and 3D rips?

[captain]

I've been pretty happy with D-Link's Boxee Box (particularly the RF--not IR--remote control with the QWERTY keyboard! notwithstanding some really annoying "features" like crashing and audio dropouts and losing connection to AFP shares.... :-/) but I'm discovering that 1) I didn't properly rip my 3D content with MakeMKV, and 2) once I do re-rip it properly, Boxee won't play it back!

So, I've been reading that the only real solutions are boxes that incorporate the Realtek 1186 chip. I've discovered a couple of these available at amazon:
http://www.amazon.com/iconBIT-XDS1003D- ... 005O29F1O/
http://www.amazon.com/Arrival-KDLINKS-H ... 008CBQSKU/
but I really don't have much of a clue.

Is anyone else ripping 3D with MakeMKV, and playing those back with a media player that will also stream netflix and youtube, etc.? Perhaps we can help each other make smarter purchases in this regard.

[NodNarb012]

I'm not ripping (or buying or watching) 3D right now, but if I was, I'd probably put the Popcorn Hour A-400 at the top of my list. It's a new player, so they are still working out the bugs, but it seems like the most recent firmware update that came out a few days ago is looking good and I expect it to get better (and more stable) in the next few months. I believe they are working to explicitly support the 3D MKV files that MakeMKV generates; I think they even got some input from Mike, the developer of MakeMKV. Check out their user forum to keep up with their progress: http://networkedmediatank.com

It does NOT stream Netflix and it most likely never will. Not sure if that's a dealbreaker for you.

[captain]

There does seem to be a small Popcorn following, but even they admit that it's been very buggy. Two things I *really* like about the Boxee Box:
The remote control is the best ever! QWERTY keyboard on the back, and it's RADIO, not IR, meaning no BS line-of-sight required.
It plays EVERY format file I have thrown at it, AND it streams Youtube and Netflix.

Really, the only downsides to the Boxee are that it crashes more than I'd like, audio glitches about once per show (sounds like it randomly switches track, or gain, or something), and won't play back blu-ray native 3D (yeah, it'll play back split-screen 3D, but that's low res. ;-P) I wonder if D-Link has anything new in the works, that makes up for these shortcomings. I seem to recall reading that their latest Boxee Box was actually worse. :-/

[NodNarb012]

I think most of these media players are somewhat buggy out of the gate; I'm pretty sure the Boxee Box was no different when it was first released and it sounds like you're still dealing with some bugs. The A-400 is getting regular firmware updates and I'm sure it will be fairly stable soon. BTW, it does stream YouTube, just not Netflix.

The RF (my Popcorn Hour C-200 has one as well) and the Qwerty keyboard on the bottom are nice features of the remote, but I didn't care much for the limited buttons on the top. I've found that I rarely require a full keyboard, so plugging in a USB keyboard in those rare situations works just fine for me. I'll admit that the IR remote on the A-400 is disappointing, but it wouldn't be a deal breaker for me.

I had a chance to use a Boxee Box for a weekend about a month ago. It struggled to playback MakeMKV ripped Blu-ray movies from a USB hard drive. It was so bad that I just gave up and connected my WD TV Live Plus, which has been the most stable media player I've used, although it does lack features compared to other players, so maybe I just don't push it very hard. With all of the crashes and audio glitches, it sounds like the Boxee Box isn't really able to handle everything you throw at it.

D-Link and Boxee are no longer making the Boxee Box as far as I know. Their new box is more of a cloud based DVR (very stupid idea IMO) than a media player. I wouldn't hold out hope for a better Boxee Box anytime soon.

I don't know much about those Realtek-based players you linked to in your first post. They may work just fine. Maybe someone who owns one can chime in. WD is due to release updated Live Hub units this week; I don't know if they will do 3D. I'd say odds are good that they won't.