Xbox One DTS-MA MKV Workaround?

[sierra419]

I'm new to everything involving codecs, transcoding, ripping, etc. so please take it easy on me here. Anyways, I purchased a 4Tb HDD, turned it into a NAS, and ripped my entire blu ray collection through MakeMKV onto the HDD. I did this so I could watch uncompressed movies on my home theater through my Xbox One over the network without having to worry about disks. Unfortunately, after doing all this work, the Xbox One media center does not support DTS-MA in MKV containers. Since all my blu rays are their standard DTS-MA and in MKV containers- I cant play any of these movies. I really need help on a workaround to this. Can someone please help me?

These movies are going to be played on a 7.1 system that's taken me years to build (money is tight and I have expensive tastes) so I'm not looking for any kind of compression workaround. I want a full 1:1 experience of the original disk. I really need help with this.

FYI - I would use Plex but it would transcode the audio to a lower quality and I have to pay a monthly subscription for the Xbox One app. The Xbox console also doesn't support FLAC. Any thoughts or opinions?

 

[getochkn]

Buy a cheap slim PS3 for it? lol.

http/www.digitaltrends.com/home-theater/demystifying-the-audio-settings-on-your-playstation-3/

I actually have a PS3 but don't think I have anything DTS-MA to test with. If you have a link to a sample online I could test with. I have a Denon 7.1 E400 which supports DTS-MA, so if the PS3 passes it properly from a networked movie file shared on my network, then my receiver should show me on the LCD.

Let me know if you want me to try this route for you.

 

[photonboy]

Hi,

Actually your BEST bet at this point is to buy a media player that supports this natively. I definitely would not get a PS3.

I use a WDTV Live device and it's awesome. The Roku 3 should work well though I've not tested it.

I think the best future-proofing is to get one with:
- 4K (hardly a deal-breaker though)
- H.265 support
- XBMC/Kodi (community driver. can test Kodi for Windows. Many recent updates for v15 Beta 2)

Example only (still researching):
http/www.amazon.com/Element-Android-Streaming-Player-Pre-Loaded/dp/B00TEEXJQA/ref=sr_1_3?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1431118308&sr=1-3&keywords=xbmc

Summary:
If this is getting far too confusing, then I suggest using the ROKU 3. It's probably fine for you, but just note I can't confirm compatibility to your rips. Other models like the XBMC/Kodi approach with newer SoC designs usually have much broader support but are more complicated to research and more expensive.

*If you can find a store with a Roku 3 on display you could try taking a video on USB to the store and play it to see if it works fine.

There's also some newer devices that can use XBMC/Kodi which are quite awesome.

 

[photonboy]

Update:

It appears MOST devices don't support DTS-MA (only DTS basic) so investigate carefully.

Apparently the "WDTV Live SMP" box now supports this natively after a firmware update.

http/www.amazon.com/Western-Digital-WDBGXT0000NBK-Recertified-Streaming/dp/B00FHREVBK/ref=sr_1_fkmr0_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1431119067&sr=8-2-fkmr0&keywords=wdtv+smp

Not sure if this is the best choice only that it seems to be a choice that will do what you want for not too much money. I don't have time to research further. If interested here's what I did:

1) Bought WDTV Live Hub (older)... played all my vast range of cough legal videos!! Yay!
2) Added USB drive to the Hub for more storage
3) Bought a WD MyCloud to STREAM video content to entire house (4TB)
4) WDTV Hub died... waaaah!
5) Tried replacing WDTV but no Netflix support. Argh...

6) Bought Samsung BluRay player with Netflix/Media support
7) Samsung player won't play about 30% of my content (and won't allow my rip of Spider-Man and a few others.. it mutes the audio part way due to CINAVIA copy protection. Argh...)

8) Looking for the "perfect" media player to future proof (Netflix not required but is desired).
- XBMC/Kodi using an Android style device with quad/eight-core SoC is my plan.
- H.265, possibly 4K

Cheers!

 

[getochkn]

Perfect media player is PC. lol.

 

[sierra419]

I ended up giving up on the Xbox. The Xbox One Media Player App will not have DTS-MA MKV support any time soon. It's been a requested feature for years now and most devices outside of AV receivers do not support DTS-MA, only regular DTS just as PhontonBoy stated. There's no workaround for truly lossless bluray quality playback from ripped bluray MKV files on the Xbox One.

To all of those in the same boat as I was, those who want to go out of their way to not be burdened by discs, here is my solution that works perfectly: Use a PC. here's how: I ended up downloading Plex Media Server on my PC (its free), setting that up took 5 minutes. It turns your PC into a DLNA Server which just means you're able to access content from your PC from other devices on your home network. Then I downloaded the Plex Desktop App, went into settings and set the streaming quality to "Direct", and ran a 40" HDMI cable from my PC to my receiver. Now I'm able to watch lossless bluray quality content from lossless rips stored in MKV containers with no issue. I have full DTS-MA 7.1 support and picture quality never looked better. Suck it physical discs.

FYI, the Xbox One Plex app requires a monthly subscription and will transcode the DTS-MA to something inferior because it doesn't offer direct streaming for MKVs. And it costs money.