Will a Dreambox 800HD play HD MKV files? And file access methods

[MichaelR2]

Hello,

I would like to know the following things:

- Will a Dreambox 800HD be able to play HD MKV files? I mean ones with h.264 1080p video. The kind that my P4 single-core PC won't play as it's too slow; but the Dreambox already has that h.264 acceleration for the satellite feeds... This is my main question - if it won't, I probably don't need it.

- Will it stream media to play over the local network?

- Alternatively will it take two hard drives (over USB or otherwise) at once?

- Finally can it work as a file server? It's linux so samba should work?

[freck]

Yes it can play mkv's and also stream files over a network.
Dunno about your 2 drives at once but deffo handles 2.... one internal/external.
I'm not a linux head so cant answer your last question.
Freck

[markshore]

Hi set up samba services on your image under services and yes it shows up on the network, you can map to your Pc as another drive if reqd works fine.
Regards
Mark

[MichaelR2]

Wow - so it *can* play HD MKVs using its h.264 acceleration, right?

It being Linux, and using VLC, I presume I can also make it use a USB DVD drive to play audio CDs and video DVDs?

This would make it the complete media center that I need.

[markshore]

Hi got mine mapped to an external dvd on the network installed the DVD plugin and good to go, so see no reason why a usb dvd plugged into the Dreambox would not work, power may be an issue but if you go via pa powered usb hub should be ok.
As for MKV files have played back 720/1080p files ok, the only problem that i had was I ripped a bluray converted it but its all down to bitrate, this way far to high (20+GB file size) even my dual core 2.2 had trouble playing it back, done another using a program called RIPBOT and you can set the output size kept mine to 4-7 gb play fine.

Regards
Mark