Mac Mini v Popcorn Hour A110 vs MKV/BluRay

["Dean Barrett" <dean@xxxxxxxxx>]

Whilst the pro's and con's of the Mac Mini vs Popcorn hour rumble on -
i
have both and am stuck working out the best way to play HD stuff.

My current setup is a PC that has a HD/BluRay combo drive and Slysoft
AnyDVD
HD on it - i can use the Slysoft Ripper to copy the Blu Ray disk to my
hard-drive. Getting them properly converted is where i'm falling down i
think.

I've tried MKVmaker and ToNMT with limited success...

Using MKVmaker i've created a folder with 30+ MKV files of varying sizes -
when i try to play them in PCH (A100) its stutters right from the start so
definately no go.

On the Mac Mini (older version) it starts of lovely and smooth, but i guess
at every transition between MKV i get a pause and sometimes what looks like
slow motion for 5-10 seconds, i managed to watch about 1hr of the Mummy 3
before Plex seemed to give up and just go back to the main screen.

Is it right that i end up with all these MKV's or should i be doing it a
different way.

Ideally i dont want 10 different programs to convert from Blu-ray to MKV i
prefer the one click methods like MKVMaker and ToNMT.

Finally i assume i do actually have to convert to MKV ? I've tried playing
mt2s files directly from A100 & Plex and nothing happens.

And finally finally - i'm using a 4TB Drobo connected via USB to my PC
which
is serving up the movies - i assume this is fast enough - i've never had
problems deliverying SD content to A100 or Plex, should i consider using a
Droboshare and putting it straight on the network ?



Thanks




Dean.



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