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[vifa84]

I have had the 750 hooked up for a few weeks now without much success.  I originally bought it to use as an extender as I like sifting through the thumbnail view of video files, but now I just would be happy with it streaming HD mkv files from my computer via a upnp server like twonkyvision or tversity.

1.) Dlink says in FW update 1.02 it now supports mkv conatiners(the reason I finally went and bought it)
2.) Windows media center does not work streaming HD h264 mkv files to the 750, you get audio and no video.
3.) Twonkyvision and tversity both support mkv
4.) streaming HD mkv h264 from twonkyvision and tversity to the 750 both result in unwatchable, hanging, choppy playback and loss of audio.
5.) the 750 is directly wired to the router
6.) All of the files stream perfect to the other media player I have which is a Popcorn Hour A-110 connected to the exact same network via netgear powerline adapters, so it's not a network speed issue.
7.) Yes, supposedly you can play mkv ok by connecting an ext drive to the usb but is that really the prime function of this media extender? I would think it's primarily designed to receive streams over a network.
8.) When I say HD h264 mkv files I'm talking about files that are around 4.5gb 4,500kbs for  a 720p movie and 8.5gb 10,000kbs for 1080p movies.  Again, these files play back without one pause or studder on my other media player through the network.

Please report your setup, computer, network etc if you can play 720p and 1080p h264 HD mkv movies streamed over your network to the 750 without any hanging, studdering or loss of audio.

If the only possible way to do that at the moment is to connect a hard drive to it's usb port then I will just wait to tinker with it after they do another fw update.

[klein]

I an not using it as an extender, but i did put it on a usb key and it would still studder and couldn't keep up. 

I have now converted all my mkv files to hd 1080p avi files and trying to stream it from my dns-323 nas and it still won't keep up, if i fast forward a bit i lose the audio

i have tried wireless and wired, i am on a gigabit network.

i have on issues streaming to my ps3 which is also wired.

overall very frustrating

anyone have any ideas???

[eman]

Guys..I have the same problems. Matroska works only when I use the USB facility on the 750. Tversity does support it but it gets choppy at one point or another. I have a Dlink N network that pumps 240 mbps to the 750 without relief. Looks like we are stuck. Dlink's NAS DSM-G600 does not even see the .mkv extension, so running .mkv on the DSM-750 native over my network is not possible. 1TB USB drives are cheap. This is how I am solving my connectivity problems..
CE

[slyder]

SUre... I run a pair of 750's over my network.  MKV's are stored and served from my DNS323 on which I have installed Twonky Server and disabled the less than functional UPNP Media server installed by Dlink.

I have no trouble watching my MKV's on my 750's with the added benefit of not needing a TVersity computer server or such to do it..  Its one solution and reasonably inexpensive.

[Arvald]

I have not had a chance to test the larger files.  My largest mkvs at the moment are 1.5GB and I have the same setup as Slyder.
though just the one 750.

I'd be thinking that the network bandwidth is the issue even though you discounted it. 

[vifa84]

I have not had a chance to test the larger files.  My largest mkvs at the moment are 1.5GB and I have the same setup as Slyder.
though just the one 750.

I'd be thinking that the network bandwidth is the issue even though you discounted it. 

If your mkv's are HD movies x264 ripped from blu-ray disc then they wouldn't be 1.5GB.  A two hour movie at let say 1280x544(720P) would be somewhere around 5GB and stream at an average of 4500kbs.  the 750 is directly wired to my router and remember, I have another player that plays these exact same files with not one problem steamed over the same network. 

SUre... I run a pair of 750's over my network.  MKV's are stored and served from my DNS323 on which I have installed Twonky Server and disabled the less than functional UPNP Media server installed by Dlink.

I have no trouble watching my MKV's on my 750's with the added benefit of not needing a TVersity computer server or such to do it..  Its one solution and reasonably inexpensive.

You say your not using the bundled Twonkyvision media server so do you have the DNS323 directly connected to the usb port on the 750 or are you streaming the files over a network with another media server or using it as a media center extender?

Again, are you sure the mkv's yo are watching are HD? Have you tried streaming an HD mkv file that is around 8GB in size and 1920 x 1080p? or 5GB in size and 1280 x 544?
Are you guys sure your streaming HD - high bitrate movies? 

[Arvald]

I have not dug into them to see what the mkv setup is for them but they are 720p videos of 43 minute TV shows, and weigh in at 1.5GB which is fairly close to your estimate.  I'm still learning about matroska... neat format but info until recently has been very vague.  I started running the 323 to be able to add storage to run larger files.

Just some other network thoughts... your direct wired... are you gigabit set up?  if you are are you using a cat6 cable?  if you are 100 mbs you'd be using about 1/3 your total bandwidth just on the streaming... round up to half of that for any other overhead.  are you running anything else on the computer serving this up? 
it just seems odd, the only other issue could be the size over the network... are you running anything that might impose a QoS on you?

the DNS323 is a network device (not USB).  the Twonkyvision is installed on the 323 itself using funplug (running right off the NAS unit no computer)

[vifa84]

I have not dug into them to see what the mkv setup is for them but they are 720p videos of 43 minute TV shows, and weigh in at 1.5GB which is fairly close to your estimate.  I'm still learning about matroska... neat format but info until recently has been very vague.  I started running the 323 to be able to add storage to run larger files.

Just some other network thoughts... your direct wired... are you gigabit set up?  if you are are you using a cat6 cable?  if you are 100 mbs you'd be using about 1/3 your total bandwidth just on the streaming... round up to half of that for any other overhead.  are you running anything else on the computer serving this up? 
it just seems odd, the only other issue could be the size over the network... are you running anything that might impose a QoS on you?

the DNS323 is a network device (not USB).  the Twonkyvision is installed on the 323 itself using funplug (running right off the NAS unit no computer)

I misunderstood your post above, I thought you disabled twonkyvision but you said you disabled the media server that came with the 323 and installed twonkyvision.  I already have a 5.0 twonky license, do they have a NAS setup already for the 323?  I bought a Linksys WRT610n router which comes with twonkyvision preinstalled and has a usb port. However, the version of twonky they have installed is dated and doesn't support mkv and of course, they can't tell me when they will update it, if ever.  I am looking for a NAS that streams mkv but I kind of wanted one that had a usb connection also, as I already bought a 2TB usb2.0 ext drive and loaded it with some 450 movies.

The 750 isn't gigabit so unless I had several other devices streaming at the same time that wouldn't be and issue, the wrt610n is gigabit though and I have cat6 connected.  Also, it does the exact same thing whether I have the cat  6 connected or going wireless through 5ghz connection. Again, it does this with tversity or twonkyvision and streamed from two different computers.

[Arvald]

you need to fun plug the unit first
http://wiki.dns323.info/howto:ffp

here is the link to the site with the 323 setup.
http://www.twonkyforum.com/unsupported/4.4.11/

My thought is gigabit to the router and as fast as I can get to the 750.  The wireless N was too flakey for me so I wired it.

[rob_t]

I use MediaTomb as my server running under Mandriva Linux on a low spec 64 bit Athlon X2 server.

720P hi def encoded at 4.5Mb video (plus audio at about 500K) works well. I have 2 DSM750s one wired and one wireless (5GHz wireless N). Both systems work equally well with this file format. I have one movie length file that is 6GB and plays OK (I think that was encoded at about 9Mb)

I've tried 1080P but can't get satisfactory results. The wired system can work with low bit rates, but wireless always seems to stutter. If I try using the sort of data rates used on Blu-Ray disks then even the wired systems fails miserably, even though my server can deliver the file about 3 times faster than needed. (ie I don't think the problems are at the server end!)

[vifa84]

I use MediaTomb as my server running under Mandriva Linux on a low spec 64 bit Athlon X2 server.

720P hi def encoded at 4.5Mb video (plus audio at about 500K) works well. I have 2 DSM750s one wired and one wireless (5GHz wireless N). Both systems work equally well with this file format. I have one movie length file that is 6GB and plays OK (I think that was encoded at about 9Mb)

I've tried 1080P but can't get satisfactory results. The wired system can work with low bit rates, but wireless always seems to stutter. If I try using the sort of data rates used on Blu-Ray disks then even the wired systems fails miserably, even though my server can deliver the file about 3 times faster than needed. (ie I don't think the problems are at the server end!)

What kind of container are you using? mkv? or something else  I assume your using the h264 codec?
I have unplugged my 750 and shelved it in the closet.  It seems some of you may have had a good experience, but after messing with it for over a month now I am moving on and just ordering another popcorn hour A-110.

I did go and buy a DNS-323 and installed twonkyvision on it with two 1TB drives and am very satisfied with the results.  It serves mkv files to my popcorn hour with no problems at all, even 1080p files with dts audio.
Never studders a bit.

I'm not sure why some of you guys can get the 750 to play HD x264 encoded mkv files over a network with no studdering or audio sync problems but I cannot.  It even studders and loses audio sync streaming xvid files.
What is funny is that I have two DSM-520's and one popcorn hour and even the 520's have no problems streaming xvid files.  The 750 reminds me a lot of the 320 that I used to have in that it has hanging problems that upon first glance would seem to be network speed related but, in the 320's case, firmware updates eventually fixed.  I can literally take a 520 and stream a standard xvid file with no problems, unplug the ethernet cable and plug it into the 750 and it hangs and has audio sync problems with the same file, same connection and won't even start to play HD mkv stuff.

maybe i could try installing mediatomb on the DNS-323?

[Arvald]

Sorry to hear you've given up on it...

For mediatomb... yes you can run it on the 323... just yahoo "mediatomb DNS-323" and there are a few good sets of instructions that come up.

[johnnyv5]

Here's how I am getting my "MKV" files to play on the dsm-750.  I use MKV2VOB to transcode the video to XVID AVI's.  It's funny because the bitrate on the XVID Avi files is over 40mb/s and it plays perfect on the 750.  If I don't configure MKV2VOB to transcode always, if  the AVC video is over 1.5mb/s studder badly!  I know there is some video quality lost, but I really don't see it.  I have my 750 connected to a 50" Plasma and the pic is great.  The good thing about transcoding these files is that I also can use them on my PS3, which mkv2vob is actually for....  One issue I've come across is if the MKV has DTS audio I have to use popcornaudioconverter to convert the audio stream to AC3 before transcoding using mkv2vob.  sux but it works.....

jv

[rob_t]

Some more info about my setup.

I only use medialounge mode (no vista allowed in this house  ). I use Handbrake (see http://handbrake.fr) for all of my encoding. For high-def you need the latest pre-release - I built from source, but that is not a trivial task.

[ECF]

I use my DNS-323 UPnP AV media server it streams my mkv files great.