Watching .mkv files on a 40PFL9705

Hi there,

Sorry if this is in the wrong place but I can't seem to post a new message in the Streaming forum.

I have just purchased a 40PFL9705 and have connected my laptop to it via a wireless connection. I have several .mkv files on my laptop that I would like to watch on the TV but they don't play (most of the files aren't even recognised and the ones that are keep getting an error message "file format not supported".

I've been looking around here all morning nad think that they are not in the right codec format (they need to be h.264) but I don't understand what this means as I'm very new to this!! Also does the bitrate (again I don't know what this means!) and frames per second figures matter?

Any advice anyone can give me on getting this to work I'd be very very grateful.

Thanks

Hi,

see: http://www.supportforum.philips.com/...HTS-and-BluRay).

Toengel@Alex

Unfortunately all Philips TVs will not play the vast majority of mkv files, as 99% of them have DTS sound.
They do not even support playing the file, and sending the DTS stream to HDMI (ARC) or SPDIF.
In reality, what is offered has no to very limited practical use...

Hi,

and 99% of all MKV are illegal copies of Blu-ray-Discs... Who can create DTS streams for home videos? Think about that... ;-)

Toengel@Alex

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Toengel

Hi,

and 99% of all MKV are illegal copies of Blu-ray-Discs... Who can create DTS streams for home videos? Think about that... ;-)

Toengel@Alex

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...yeah and i bet 99% of all car owners are speeders and philips never broke any laws.

Even if that figure is right, which i seriously doubt, then who are you/is philips to judge? Not everybody lives under US laws, and not everybody is a pirate because he wants to play DTS audio. Usually a company thinks what can i do to make more money -> what the customers want.

anyway..
for all fellows who can't read moronic formats (because they don't want to pirate MS Office just to see a file, because the publisher was too lazy to put it in a standardized format), here's the unofficial supported format list:
https://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?...=0&output=html

Well, denial is n easy fix... :)

Who needs DTS in MKVs? All MKVs with DTS are illegal...
Who needs subtitles in MKVs? All MKVs with subtitles are illegal, let alone that everyone should know English.
Who needs DVB-T EPG? What will happen to TV program magazines, and sites like tvtv then?
Who needs DTS pass-through from the SPDIF output? Go buy a new amplifier that has HDMI or see a movie with DD (if you can find one)...
Who needs a better UI? You have time to watch TV (instead of working) and you complain because you have to press 6 keys to switch to HDMI?
Who needs better DVB-T image quality? There are so many HD movies, and you want to watch SD in DVB-T from local channels?
Who needs to correct the menu spelling mistakes? You can understand the menus as they are, and if not, just try all possibilities till it works...
Who needs a keyboard? The most popular youtube videos are already in the front page, why do you need to search?
Who needs to search youtube in Greek? English videos are better than Greek ones, no need to see them. If you insist, use your laptop...

You, the never satisfied customers, you don't appreciate what we have provided at a real bargain (a 46" 9705 for only 2.500 euros): a TV that shows an image, and most of the times has sound! The rest of your requests are illogical or illegal, so nothing needs to be fixed, our firmware team can finally enjoy some vacations...

My post is a humoristic one, but I am puzzled at how much it differs from reality... :rolleyes:

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Originally Posted by petasis

My post is a humoristic one, but I am puzzled at how much it differs from reality... :rolleyes:

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true, true..

just for the record: IT'S NOT ILLEGAL (certainly not in switzerland) TO CREATE BACKUP COPIES OF DVDs, BLU-GAYs, and HighDubiosity-DVDs (for solely personal usage of course) - EVEN IF THIS MEANS CIRCUMVENTING DIGITAL RESTRICTION MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS.

Simple show-case: i _have_ to rip BG-Discs to watch them because some industry morons thought that i should not be able to play them on unrestricted systems (such as linux, xBSD, ...) and i don't have and don't want to use a restricted system. Thanks to some smart guys there's at least some way to play it now :)

Btw. where can i get the firmware of those linux-running TVs? Might just hack in subtitle support myself if philips would let me..

You are not alone. I have proposed to Philips to help them improve their firmware, free of charge and willing to sign a confidentiality contract if they want, and they never replied...

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Originally Posted by petasis

You are not alone. I have proposed to Philips to help them improve their firmware, free of charge and willing to sign a confidentiality contract if they want, and they never replied...

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seems you can get the sources here: http://www.p4c.philips.com/files/5/ (if you have a 50-59" TV, probably replace 5 by 4 for 40-49" TVs)

but i doubt you'll be able to patch your TV with a changed firmware as it most probably needs to be signed.. (the GPL3 and a few lawyers will help with that if there's any such licensed software in the package)

might just ask..

philips: please post (or PM me/us) the signing key for your firmwares - all of them if different - so that we can help you improve your products.
thanks

Quote:

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Originally Posted by foo

but i doubt you'll be able to patch your TV with a changed firmware as it most probably needs to be signed..

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Yes, the keys are holded inside of NAND flash. You cannot therefore even replace this flash with new programmed one because of that.

I think that Philips can solve all problems by allowing users to write any new software while having a read-only first boot loader that never erases and can help to restore original software in cause of bad user soft.
Why not, Philips?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by foo

philips: please post (or PM me/us) the signing key for your firmwares - all of them if different - so that we can help you improve your products. thanks

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Hmmm, interesting thoughts guys :cool:. I have forwarded your idea's to development.
But things are probably more complicated then simply adding some SW code..... :(
I'll let you know here when/if there is any news.

This sounds interesting... if it would be possible to keep some kind of bootloader and just patch software... i bet it would be much easier and faster for philips to add something into SW when u just review some code which seems to be working :)

..well at least that sounds like we could stop ranting and get coding - given it's not just rose-water poured over the mob.

Give our best to the coding and especially the legal team ;)

I mean if AMD can do it with their graphics drivers, you can probably do so too with the TVs (release specs/code and in that case signing keys (or provide a signing infrastructure)).

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Philips

Hmmm, interesting thoughts guys :cool:. I have forwarded your idea's to development.
But things are probably more complicated then simply adding some SW code..... :(
I'll let you know here when/if there is any news.

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I have tried to make some progress a few months ago through jointspace:
Getting the code to see the TV and draw something on it (like an EPG table) was easy.
But what I miss is the space libraries, the described API to control the TV, like the ability to change channels and most importantly get EPG data from DVB-T. But I don't know where to find these libs.
I have posted a question here, but no answer yet:

http://sourceforge.net/projects/join.../topic/3960832
(The plan was to develop an EPG application, and donate that to include in the firmware, but I cannot test if I cannot use the API in a simulator like the jointspace provided one).

Also, there is no need to give the ability to users to change the firmware. You can try what DLink does in its NAS devices:

Provide a hook in your software, so when a usb flash is plugged to the TV, if a file with specific name is found, it is executed as an sh script. (DLink calls this file "funplug" :-) )

This way, the TV can execute software from the usb flash disk. I used this on my DLink NAS to run a subversion (svn) server. Very useful...

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Philips

But things are probably more complicated then simply adding some SW code..... :(

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Why are you saying that? For example, the firmware already contains code for EPG, but is locked for some countries only. How difficult will it be to just add a few more countries, with the proper time offsets?
I have tried using Germany as DVB-T country in Greece. The DVB-T EPG worked, but the time was wrong (so I was seeing programs that aired 3 hours ago). So, it is a simple time fix to get the EPG the 9705 now offers for Germany.

Although the DVB-T EPG offered is not good compared to other makers (looks like an excel table actually), it can be fixed as a second step...