Sony Bravia TV (2011) doesn't play .mkv files

Hello all

I have a Sony KDL - 37EX720 (2011) TV and recently I started to use Serviio to watch movies, that are stored on my PC, on my TV.
Before that I just used the windows library to stream movies to my PC. As most of the movies on my PC where
documentaries that were ripped from DVD, and converted to .mp4 via Handbrake. That worked fine.
But now I want to watch .mkv movies on my Sony TV. I know that Sony does not support .mkv directly, so it is not possible
to put the .mkv files on a USB stick, plug it in the TV's USB port and watch it (as this is possible with .mp4 files).
So I tried to use Serviio which transcodes the .mkv files on the fly so that it should be possible to watch it on a TV
that does not support .mkv. But when I play a .mkv file, all I get is sound without image.
This is for all the .mkv files that I have. Some .mkv's are re-encoded with Handbrake, just to burn in the subtitles.
But also mkv's which have not been re-encoded will not play on my TV.
On the other hand, a friend of mine has a more recent Sony TV: a KDL-50W685A and this TV plays all the .mkv files fine via Serviio!

I searched this forum and found some info on changing the profile.xml file.
My TV uses the Sony Bravia (2011) profile. So I changed the original profile's code to (acoording to this thread http://forum.serviio.org/viewtopic.php?f=11&t=2079&p=11654&hilit=37ex720#p11654)

  Code:

<Profile id="14" name="Sony Bravia TV (2011)" extendsProfileId="1">
      <Detection>
         <UPnPSearch>
            <FriendlyName>BRAVIA.*</FriendlyName>
         </UPnPSearch>
      </Detection>
      <MediaFormatProfiles>
         <MediaFormatProfile mime-type="video/vnd.dlna.mpeg-tts" name="AVC_TS_HD_24_AC3,AVC_TS_HD_50_AC3,AVC_TS_HD_60_AC3,AVC_TS_HD_EU">AVC_TS_MP_HD_AC3</MediaFormatProfile>
         <MediaFormatProfile mime-type="video/vnd.dlna.mpeg-tts" name="AVC_TS_HD_24_AC3,AVC_TS_HD_50_AC3,AVC_TS_HD_60_AC3,AVC_TS_HD_EU">AVC_TS_MP_SD_AC3</MediaFormatProfile>
         <MediaFormatProfile mime-type="video/vnd.dlna.mpeg-tts" name="AVC_TS_HD_24_AC3_T,AVC_TS_HD_50_AC3_T,AVC_TS_HD_60_AC3_T,AVC_TS_HD_EU_T">AVC_TS_MP_HD_AC3_T</MediaFormatProfile>
         <MediaFormatProfile mime-type="video/vnd.dlna.mpeg-tts" name="AVC_TS_HD_24_AC3_T,AVC_TS_HD_50_AC3_T,AVC_TS_HD_60_AC3_T,AVC_TS_HD_EU_T">AVC_TS_MP_SD_AC3_T</MediaFormatProfile>
         <MediaFormatProfile mime-type="video/mpeg" name="AVC_TS_HD_24_AC3_ISO,AVC_TS_HD_50_AC3_ISO,AVC_TS_HD_60_AC3_ISO,AVC_TS_HD_EU_ISO">AVC_TS_MP_HD_AC3_ISO</MediaFormatProfile>
         <MediaFormatProfile mime-type="video/mpeg" name="AVC_TS_HD_24_AC3_ISO,AVC_TS_HD_50_AC3_ISO,AVC_TS_HD_60_AC3_ISO,AVC_TS_HD_EU_ISO">AVC_TS_MP_SD_AC3_ISO</MediaFormatProfile>
         <MediaFormatProfile mime-type="video/divx" name="AVI">AVI</MediaFormatProfile>         
      </MediaFormatProfiles>
      <Transcoding>
         <Video targetContainer="mpegts" targetACodec="ac3" aBitrate="384">
            <Matches container="matroska" vCodec="h264" />
         </Video>
         <Video targetContainer="mpegts" targetVCodec="mpeg2video" targetACodec="ac3" aBitrate="192">
            <Matches container="matroska" />         
         </Video>
      </Transcoding>
   </Profile>

but no succes...
Is it possible to play .mkv files on my 2011 Sony tv via Serviio? Is there something else I can try?

Thank you very much for your time!

Here is the mediainfo of a .mkv movie which won't play on my TV:

  Code:

General
Unique ID                                : 54136396016661958006753821005537533246 (0x28BA4A65DFABB9D065FDC54D2762DD3E)
Complete name                            : H:\thuis\nieuw\marina (2013).mkv
Format                                   : Matroska
Format version                           : Version 2
File size                                : 3.16 GiB
Duration                                 : 2h 2mn
Overall bit rate                         : 3 680 Kbps
Writing application                      : HandBrake 0.10.0 2014112200
Writing library                          : Lavf55.12.0

Video
ID                                       : 1
Format                                   : AVC
Format/Info                              : Advanced Video Codec
Format profile                           : High@L4.1
Format settings, CABAC                   : Yes
Format settings, ReFrames                : 4 frames
Codec ID                                 : V_MPEG4/ISO/AVC
Duration                                 : 2h 2mn
Width                                    : 1 920 pixels
Height                                   : 802 pixels
Display aspect ratio                     : 2.40:1
Frame rate mode                          : Constant
Frame rate                               : 23.976 fps
Color space                              : YUV
Chroma subsampling                       : 4:2:0
Bit depth                                : 8 bits
Scan type                                : Progressive
Writing library                          : x264 core 142 r2479 dd79a61
Encoding settings                        : cabac=1 / ref=3 / deblock=1:0:0 / analyse=0x3:0x113 / me=hex / subme=7 / psy=1 / psy_rd=1.00:0.00 / mixed_ref=1 / me_range=16 / chroma_me=1 / trellis=1 / 8x8dct=1 / cqm=0 / deadzone=21,11 / fast_pskip=1 / chroma_qp_offset=-2 / threads=6 / lookahead_threads=1 / sliced_threads=0 / nr=0 / decimate=1 / interlaced=0 / bluray_compat=0 / constrained_intra=0 / bframes=3 / b_pyramid=2 / b_adapt=1 / b_bias=0 / direct=1 / weightb=1 / open_gop=0 / weightp=2 / keyint=240 / keyint_min=24 / scenecut=40 / intra_refresh=0 / rc_lookahead=40 / rc=crf / mbtree=1 / crf=20.0 / qcomp=0.60 / qpmin=0 / qpmax=69 / qpstep=4 / vbv_maxrate=62500 / vbv_bufsize=78125 / crf_max=0.0 / nal_hrd=none / filler=0 / ip_ratio=1.40 / aq=1:1.00
Default                                  : Yes
Forced                                   : No
Color primaries                          : BT.709
Transfer characteristics                 : BT.709
Matrix coefficients                      : BT.709

Audio
ID                                       : 2
Format                                   : AAC
Format/Info                              : Advanced Audio Codec
Format profile                           : LC
Codec ID                                 : A_AAC
Duration                                 : 2h 2mn
Channel(s)                               : 2 channels
Channel positions                        : Front: L R
Sampling rate                            : 48.0 KHz
Compression mode                         : Lossy
Delay relative to video                  : 1mn 5s
Title                                    : Stereo
Language                                 : Dutch
Default                                  : Yes
Forced                                   : No

Menu
00:00:00.000                             : :00:00:00.000
00:09:28.484                             : :00:09:28.401
00:18:53.465                             : :00:18:53.382
00:28:30.792                             : :00:28:30.667
00:38:24.176                             : :00:38:23.968
00:50:34.323                             : :00:50:34.156
00:58:05.106                             : :00:58:05.023
01:05:52.448                             : :01:05:52.365
01:16:23.787                             : :01:16:23.704
01:25:07.227                             : :01:25:07.144
01:35:01.153                             : :01:35:01.070
01:45:56.516                             : :01:45:56.433
01:59:22.238                             : :01:59:22.072



[Illico]

With original 2011 profile, the h264 video will be remuxed in a new mpegts container with audio ac3. H264 track was not changed.

There were probably something on handbrake h264 encoding setting that your Sony model does not support.

So I suggest to transcode your file.

You can create a custom profile that you can manually select on serviio console when you want to see such files.

Edit the ./serviio/config/profiles.xml file (make a backup before)

Add the following lines at the end of file, just before the last </Profiles> element.

  Code:

   <Profile id="custom" name="Sony Bravia TV (2011) *custom*" extendsProfileId="sony2011">
      <Transcoding>
         <Video targetContainer="mpegts" targetVCodec="h264" maxVBitrate="12000" forceVTranscoding="true" targetACodec="ac3" aBitrate="384" DAR="16:9" forceInheritance="true">
            <Matches container="*" vCodec="h264" />
         </Video>
      </Transcoding>
   </Profile>


Save the file, then restart serviio service or simply reboot your PC to reload profile.

You can now either select custom profile or select default 2011 profile for your device on serviio console.

[NX3]

I have the exact tv and it plays mkv with serviio doing transcode. It usually only needs to change the container so light work.

Illico: Thanks alot, a created the new profile and my TV plays mkv files now.

NX3: did you manage the play .mkv files with the original Sony Bravia 2011 profile?
Like Illico said, there has to be a Handbrake setting that is not compatible with the TV...