Roku 3 vs. WD TV

[jlenny]

I have a Roku 3 on the way. I only plan on using it to watch blu ray .mkv rips from a external drive via USB. From what I gather I can't play it right away without encoding it with handbrake/whatever.

Would WD TV be a better choice or does it have the same issue? Or is this a non-issue since I'd be better off using handbrake to reduce file size since picture quality is pretty close?

[Chetwood]

No, the WDTV does NOT have this issue, there's no need to recode files.

[jlenny]

Thanks for the response.

Would encoding the original file to be playable on the Roku impact video quality much? If not I might end up keeping it.

[BaronVonJ]

What encoding do you need to do? I have a Roku 2 XS and haven't had to do any re-encoding with my BD -> MKV rips. It doesn't decode or pass-thru DTS-HDMA, but the disc has the DTS-HD so I just rip that rather then encoding from DTS-HDMA.