Sony BDP S370 issues

Hello all, I'm looking for some help getting mkv HD files (with DTS sound) to play on my Sony BDP S370. Standard def ones appear to be fine (or I can play them natively instead via USB Hard disk.

Running the latest version of Serviio, correct profile selected for Sony players to transcode to m2ts
My issues are as follows:

1) For many movies, it plays fine for most of the movie, but then towards the end starts to stutter. I pause for a few secs and it plays then stutters again. I've watched the whole movie through in the process and I think the transcoding has finished so not sure what the problem could be. Happens both with 720p/1080p.
2) Recently after encoding movies with Handbrake 0.9.4 (various profiles) then the Mbps rate doesn't show on the Sony player. Not the end of the world but useful to know if something starts to stutter what the bitrate is at the time.
3) I've also tried remuxing the files to m2ts and then playing them through a USB hard drive directly plugged into the Sony 370 but I cannot fast forward them or rewind.
4) When streaming some mkv files (with transcoding to m2ts switched on) from Serviio to the Sony player I cannot fast forward/rewind at all. Get the 'operation prohibited for this disc' message. This happens with both HD and SD content.
5) If the bitrate goes above about 25Mbps, stuttering starts.

I suspect the issues have nothing to do with Serviio but are due to me trying to get the Sony player to handle more than it was designed to do (particularly stuttering on HD content), but if anyone has any ideas that would be great. And thanks in advance!

I'm only running a dual core processor (1.99 Ghz) so transcoding video and audio and maximising bitrate for both not an option. That said if Serviio could include cuda (I think it is this) to support graphics card doing hard work this would be great. Although I suspect this is an FFMpeg limitation, not Serviio.
Finally, if Serviio (Zip?) reads this, excellent server - by far the best one I've tried.

[Illico]

Look at this:

Q: With the new version of Handbrake (0.9.5), encoded video does not work.
A: The new version of Handbrake (0.9.5) uses a variable framerate with some encodes. Sony does not appear to be able to handle these.
The latest builds include a handy checkbox that allows the user to force a constant framerate – if this is checked, Handbrake will work fine with Sony.
Here's a Handbrake developer's reply on the Handbrake forum:
“The problem is with your player. In 0.9.5, HandBrake started producing correct variable framerate h.264. Prior to 0.9.5, HandBrake produced variable framerate timestamps, but did not set the correct flags in the encoded video. The tbc value you are looking at is the codec time base. With variable framerate h.264, the codec time base is *not* the same thing as the framerate. 180k is the right value. So to make your player happy, you are going to have to select constant framerate. In recent nightly builds, there is a checkbox for this. In 0.9.5, picking a specific framerate instead of “Same as source” will force constant framerate.”

Thanks Illico. Trying those settings now (but it's taking a while to encode).

For the moment I'm trying the hard drive route for movies. Don't get me wrong, Serviio is brilliant but I think the Sony player just has too many limitations to get the best out of Serviio...at least for High Def files.

For those who have a Sony, ensure your mkv file has an AC3 track (you can remux DTS to AC3 using Handbrake if needs be) and split it into less than 4GB chunks using MKXToolNix 2.9.9 (later versions support header compression which the Sony does not) so that it fits on FAT format drives.

I've got a full 1080p file split into to 3.5GB chunks with AC3 audio playing just fine through a hard drive plugged into the Sony. What's more I get to keep subtitle and chapter support too, very useful if you rarely get to watch a movie all the way through.

Will be continuing to use Serviio for online stuff and audio (particularly internet radio) however.

Further update. A couple of movies I've converted and put on the hard drive won't fast forward either. Trying different combinations of settings on Handbrake to try and hit right ones. Sticking with constant frame rate too.

Update number 2. By using a constant frame rate of 25 when encoding this has fixed the fast forward/rewind problem! Thanks again for advice Illico. All movies no matter what bitrate are playing fine off the hard drive. Been playing 45Mbps 1080p HD video without any trouble at all.