File format requirements on hardware side?

[costero]

I'm shopping for a new Blu-ray player, and would like to get 4K.

Contenders at this point are the Samsung UBD-K8500 and the Philips BDP7501. Price is roughly the same, and I like the form factor (small) of the Philips, but it does *not* support .mkv playback. (The Samsung does.) A lot of the movies on my PC are .mkv.

So, dumb question: Does this matter? I.e., if the .mkv files are being streamed by Mezzmo, will they play on the Philips, or not?

(At this point, I have to stream Mezzmo through my DVD player, because it has an ethernet connection and my TV does not. Maybe I should buy a 4K TV with an ethernet connection to get the DVD player out of the equation, I don't know...)

[Peter]

Mezzmo can always transcode files to get them to play on the device if it does not support the format, so using Mezzmo with either Bluray player you should be able to get your files to play. Transcoding may result in the inability to fast forward and rewind when transcoding on the fly so this is something to consider if you require that functionality. I would recommend looking at an Android based player such as the NVidia Shield if it is in your price range or a FireTV stick for a more budget conscious solution, using Android means the supported formats are not locked in and can be expanded by using different apps (The Mezzmo app supports most formats and has a nice metadata display).

[costero]

OK, thanks. I read your recommendation of the NVidia Shield in another thread, but a) I have no use for games (and with NVidia I think part of the price is based on that), and b) I was hoping to find a machine that would also play DVDs from my 2,000-disk collection. So, I think that's out. But I still may opt for keeping my old, non-4K player and instead upgrading my TV to one that a) is 4K and b) has an ethernet connection, so that I can play directly to it from Mezzmo without going thru the bluray. Thank you for your input & education.