Home theatre system

biswasanirup2

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Aug 29, 2017
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I need a home theatre which includes a Blu-ray player , 5.1 system surround. It can be seperate components or in a box. My budget is 40k(INR) India. My main necessity is that I have many video files in mkv,mp4 format with aac, dts encoding. I want to play these on my home theatre with surround sound. ( Via usb I think) . This is my main need. So what type of system should I buy ? ( Seperate, In a box ) ..
 
Solution


Sony has a long history of non or extremly limited support of mkv. In your situation, I would stay away from Sony. This from a forum on that Sony all-in-one (5/ is very problematic for you):


"Below are the current issues which I have with Home Theater System (BDV N7200W) and SONY responses on each of the issue.

1/ The system takes more than 20 seconds to start up and then immediately switch off. It need to press Power button again in the remote control to switch ON. There is a normal and quick start setup option in the setup menu, setting any of these two option will take same...
It's always better to buy separate components if you can afford that. A surround sound receiver, 5.1 speakers, and android media box to play files would be my choice. You can chose each part of the system to fit in your room and to your taste. If you want to upgrade you can do so without having to get rid of the entire system.
 

biswasanirup2

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Aug 29, 2017
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Well I'm thinking of this, http://www.onkyoindia.com/ht_hs-hts3800.html.
And this Samsung Blu-ray player http://www.samsung.com/in/audio-video/blu-ray-player-h6500/. Will these suffice my needs ?. ( Specially the surround sound of usb pendrive files connected to the usb port of the Blu-ray player , which in turn connected to the av receiver)
An alternative option I found is this
http://www.sony.co.in/electronics/all-in-one-home-cinema-systems/bdv-n7200w which is all in one . So which of them will suffice my need ?
 

robert600

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Personally I would stay away from all-in-one. Also Sony is unlikely to support the mkv container.

That onkyo looks quite good - nice that it will passthrough 4k and HDR. The samsung blu-ray looks good as well - it will play both mp4 and mkv containers BUT ..... it will not decode X265 (HEVC) encodes. You neglected to mention what codec was used to encode your mp4s and mkvs - most likely they are x264 which will work fine but if they are x265 they won't. Do you know what I am talking about? If not ... write back and I can explain in more detail.

My thoughts are - unless you have a bunch of blu rays - why bother with a blu ray player? I'm a big fan of 10 bit HEVC (x265) encodes and blu ray players can't decode them. A good inexpensive alternative to the blu ray player would be an android media box as 'americanaudiophile' suggested. What I use is my laptop.
 

biswasanirup2

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yeah i know that x265 wont be decoded by any bluray players. most of my files are in this format.
General

Format : MPEG-4
Format profile : Base Media
Codec ID : isom (isom/iso2/avc1/mp41)
File size : 1.77 GiB
Duration : 1 h 56 min
Overall bit rate : 2 174 kb/s
Writing application : Lavf57.48.101

Video
ID : 1
Format : AVC
Format/Info : Advanced Video Codec
Format profile : High@L4.1
Format settings : CABAC / 4 Ref Frames
Format settings, CABAC : Yes
Format settings, RefFrames : 4 frames
Codec ID : avc1
Codec ID/Info : Advanced Video Coding
Duration : 1 h 56 min
Bit rate : 2 050 kb/s
Width : 1 920 pixels
Height : 800 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
Bits/(Pixel*Frame) : 0.056
Stream size : 1.67 GiB (94%)
Writing library : x264 core 148
Encoding settings : cabac=1 / ref=4 / deblock=1:-1:-1 / analyse=0x3:0x133 / me=umh / subme=9 / psy=1 / psy_rd=1.00:0.15 / mixed_ref=1 / me_range=24 / chroma_me=1 / trellis=2 / 8x8dct=1 / cqm=0 / deadzone=21,11 / fast_pskip=0 / chroma_qp_offset=-3 / threads=12 / 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=2 / b_bias=0 / direct=3 / weightb=1 / open_gop=0 / weightp=2 / keyint=250 / keyint_min=23 / scenecut=40 / intra_refresh=0 / rc_lookahead=60 / rc=2pass / mbtree=1 / bitrate=2050 / ratetol=1.0 / qcomp=0.60 / qpmin=0 / qpmax=69 / qpstep=4 / cplxblur=20.0 / qblur=0.5 / vbv_maxrate=31250 / vbv_bufsize=31250 / nal_hrd=none / filler=0 / ip_ratio=1.40 / aq=1:1.00

Audio
ID : 2
Format : AAC
Format/Info : Advanced Audio Codec
Format profile : LC
Codec ID : mp4a-40-2
Duration : 1 h 56 min
Bit rate mode : Constant
Bit rate : 117 kb/s
Channel(s) : 2 channels
Channel positions : Front: L R
Sampling rate : 48.0 kHz
Frame rate : 46.875 FPS (1024 SPF)
Compression mode : Lossy
Stream size : 97.5 MiB (5%)
Default : Yes
Alternate group : 1

Why do you say the sony system will not probably play the mkv flies?. i checked the manual of the all in one system. mkv is listed there.

Also is the aac codec 5.1?? It has only 2 channels... will i get surround sound with aac?
 

biswasanirup2

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Is this electrpolis a good brand ?. ( I dont know much about hd media players). I had considered this https://www.amkette.com/product/entertainment/amkette-evo-tv-2-4k-streaming-media-player/.
 


The one I listed is cheaper,newer,higher spec.
 

robert600

Distinguished


Sony has a long history of non or extremly limited support of mkv. In your situation, I would stay away from Sony. This from a forum on that Sony all-in-one (5/ is very problematic for you):


"Below are the current issues which I have with Home Theater System (BDV N7200W) and SONY responses on each of the issue.

1/ The system takes more than 20 seconds to start up and then immediately switch off. It need to press Power button again in the remote control to switch ON. There is a normal and quick start setup option in the setup menu, setting any of these two option will take same time. There is no solution from SONY on this issue.

2/ Return functionality is not working – While playing the video/audio files, if I press the return button, as per user manual, it should go back to previous display, but it is not happening. There is no way to go back to the previous screen. As per SONY customer support, This is by design (even though manual says it should go back to previous display) and they can’t do anything on this and I need to bear with this problem.

3/ Stop functionality works only if the video files are in the root folder. If video files are in sub folder, the system get hanged for more than 30 seconds. As per SONY, they support only lower disk space and few files in the disk. If you have a huge collection of Audio/Video files in Hard disk (more than 500 GB), make sure to verify it is supported.

4/ Resume functionality is not working – While playing the music/video/FM, if I switch off/power fails, when I switch on the system, it should resume from the original input, but it is not happening. There is no solution from SONY on this issue.

5/ Some of the AVI/MKV files are not playing even though the file formats and bit rates are in according to the SONY specifications as specified in the User Manual. I’m able to play these files in my Mobile phone and my old LG/Samsung BDV/DVD players, but SONY doesn’t support. As per SONY, they will not support Personal/unauthorized media files and it support only authorized content. SONY suggest to verify all the media files which you have in your collection before buying and this is not possible in real-time scenario. So if you have any personal video or downloaded videos, make sure each of them are playing before buying.

6/ The performance of the system very slow while navigating to files. There is no solution from SONY on this issue.

7/ I had setup a media server in my computer and I’m able to see the same in the BDV. After sometime, I have un-installed the media server. There is no way to remove the menu items from the screen. I have tried reset option in the Setup mode, it removes only internet related menu items. There is no solution from SONY on this issue.

8/ The FM reception of the system is very poor. I’m able to play my personal Bluetooth FM speaker without antenna. As per SONY, antenna need to be increased.
 
Solution
Onkyo has slightly better specs & has bluetooth extra over the yamaha.

Not something I'd pay a lot extra for though & on a personal level I've always preferred yamaha , theyre the masters at getting big sound out of small packages.