What is currently the best device to use Serviio with?`

I've been using Serviio with my Sony S370 Blu Ray player for the last couple of years and I'm ready for an upgrade. I'd like something that natively supports embedded subtitles and alternate audio tracks on MKV files. A nicer, smoother ui with thumbnails and stuff would also be nice but not essential. The ability to play Blu rays isn't important to me, I'll still have my PS3 and PS4 for that. I've been considering the WDTV Live. What do you guys recommend?

Anyone?

[atc98092]

My best luck with the items you listed have been Sony products. However, I've stopped using my BDP-S3100 players for DLNA because they began acting weird a couple of months ago. Won't play a movie without freezing and having to stop and restart playback. Too annoying. But they do support selecting captions and different audio tracks. They also worked well for passing HD audio through to my AV receiver.

I bought a new Samsung TV a few weeks ago, and as far as movie playback, it's working fine. If the file contains VobSub captions, they display automatically. Can't turn them on or off. I also don't seem to be able to switch between audio tracks. And of course HD audio will not go back out over the optical output. It supports HDMI audio return, but my receiver doesn't, and I don't know if HD audio will pass through that either. Not a deal breaker for me, but disappointing. This makes me believe that a Samsung Blu-Ray player would have the same functionality.

The main reason I never tried the WDTV Live was the lack of support for Amazon Streaming Video. For me, that was a deal breaker. However, I've heard others say it plays well. Not sure how up to date it is, though. It's been on the market for quite a while.

Thank you so much for taking the time to reply.

Sounds like the s3100 would be perfect if it wasn't for the freezing problem. My s370 has a similar problem, if I pause for too long it freezes and I have to stop the video and start again, same thing if I fast forward too far. Part of the reason I want a new player is to avoid annoyances like that. Does anyone know if the s3200 has the same issue? Are the Serviio devs aware of these issues with Sony players and working to correct them?

I checked out some videos of the WDTV Live in action and I don't really like the interface. It looks like it would take ages to scroll through my huge movie and TV libraries.

Kind of stumped now. No idea what to get. Would the Roku 3 suit my needs?

[atc98092]

I'm fairly impressed with my Roku 2 XS, and I know the 3 has more power. The biggest issue with the Roku is limited file support. It plays MKV and MP4 natively, but only with H.264 or MP4 video. Everything else requires transcoding. It will not play a video with MPEG2 as the video codec without transcoding. Also, it won't play high bitrate video without constant buffering. Not an issue if it's being transcoded, as you can set a max bitrate. But if you are playing a file without transcoding, it can't be much higher than 14 Mbps for the 2XS and in the low 20s for the 3. Since I have some BD rips that can exceed 50Mbps, it can't handle them.

Thanks again for responding atc, I appreciate your input. Sounds like the Roku 3 may be an option then as I don't watch raw Blu Ray rips or anything. It would be quite expensive though, as I'd have to import it from the US. Can one of the devs here please comment on the current issues with Sony Blu Ray players? If there are no plans to fix the problems with them I'll have to get a Roku instead.

[atc98092]

I seem to be a majority of one with my Sony issues. Others are reporting no problems. And of course Sony has newer models than the S3100 that I have, so it may not be a problem with any of them. If you have a retailer that has a reasonable return policy, then I would suggest you try a Sony product. I was going to do that, but that nice new 4K TV was just calling to me...

[atc98092]

I just tried a new BD player today, the Toshiba BDX5500. I discovered it will play every kind of file I have, except for WTV (Windows recorded TV) and a couple of AVI files. I've tried all my high bitrate BD rips with HD audio, and it plays them all without issue. My AV receiver displays Dolby TrueHD or DTS Master Audio, so the audio bit stream is being forwarded correctly. My only issue is the user interface. it is terribly slow, and not very user friendly. But I may put up with it simply because it plays so well.