# Tversity, mkv files and HR20



## nino2469 (Mar 26, 2007)

I hope this is the right forum for this question. I am trying to get tversity to play mkv files through my DTV box and I cannot get it to work. The files will not play. I installed Playon and it works with no issues. 

I'd like to get tversity to work since its free and playon cost $80.

Any help would be appreciated.


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## jdspencer (Nov 8, 2003)

DirecTV needs mpeg2 files, so you need to convert the files or have Tversity do the transcoding (if possible). That's the limit to my knowledge on this as I use a WD TV Live HD box to view videos on my TV. It can handle almost all video file formats.


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## KyL416 (Nov 11, 2005)

Yeah, while the Media share function is nice in concept, DirecTV lacks support for the majority of codecs and formats. It doesn't help that all DirecTV's site says is "mpeg" which is just a container format, and doesn't mention the specific codecs they support. Hopefully DirecTV updates it down the road and adds support for the more widely used containers like avi and mp4, and codecs like xvid and H264.

Hardly anyone encodes their videos with mpeg anymore, that's like going back to 2002, by then most people switched to avi with xvid/divx.


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## maartena (Nov 1, 2010)

PlayOn transcodes MKV files so they play on a DLNA supported device using its OWN built-in codecs, whereas Tversity is relying on a codec installed separately.

Also, you probably want to play a .mkv file, that is really encoded with h.264, and from what I have been able to read so far it can be very frustrating to get h.264 files to work work with Tversity, because it only supports CERTAIN profiles of h.264.

Now, if you encode your own h.264 files, you probably only have to find out the right setting. If you download torrents, you are subject to what the uploaded encoded it as.

And quite frankly.... that's where paid software - in some cases anyways - proves why it might be better to spend a little.... I have bought PlayOn.tv myself, and it has played everything I throw at it..... even 1080p files, although my computer doing the transcoding isn't fast enough to keep up on the 1080p, so it stutters a bit.... but 720p MKV h.264 works marvelously!

By the way, It isn't $79.95, you can also pay for 1 year at $39.95.... and then $19.99 a year. The way I see it, there is a pretty good chance that in 2 years from now, better/new technology, and/or better software has become available, and perhaps I won't want to use PlayOn.tv anymore....

Personally, for me it is worth it. Think about it.... we all know you download movies you haven't paid for  And at $14.99 per movie (which is what a blu-ray or DVD would cost you), you will have made your money back if you watch a mere 3 movies a year.

I have actually gone through this on another forum as well.

User1: "THIS and THAT doesn't work with PS/3 server, but it works with PlayOn.tv".
User2: "Okay, then why not use Playon.tv".
User1: "But it costs monies.... and I want it all for free".


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