HD .mkv files to play on TV from NAS drive

[mrDave]

What application/accessories would I need to play videos (mainly in .avi & .mkv, 720p & 1080p) directly from my NAS drive on my HD TV through my iPad 2?

 

[Tim SPRACKLEN]

I moved this to the Help section as I thought it might receive better attention there. I hope that was OK.

Tim
iPad Forum Moderator

 

[mrDave]

Thanks Tim! I'm new to this forum

 

[DrHouse]

Is your NAS drive shared using samba, FTP or http? For now, to stream movies, only http seems to be supported. With FTP and samba, you need to download the movie first to your iPad to play it.

Since you have your movies in AVI/Mkv format, AirPlay is out of the question so an apple tv would not help. You can get a tv out cable so you could play those AVI/Mkv files over http with your iPad connected to your tv. But buy the real Apple tv out cable to avoid compatibility issues.

You could have a look at Boxee device or any that can connect to some NAS drive and control the device with your iPad.

In my case, I converted all my movies to mp4 format because I have an apple tv 2. So I can use iTunes home share feature on a PC and the apple tv is able to connect to it.

For apps, have a look at OPlayer HD. Free and pretty good...

VicoPad addict!

 

[Lusid]

The problem you're going to have is getting mkv to play on the ipad. Going out to the tv isn't that big of a deal.

If you convert to a compatible format, and sometimes thats just a remux depending on whats in the mkv container, you can use FileBrowser from the app store to play videos off the NAS (not sure about the tv out on that app).

If the NAS does DLNA, you can try a DLNA/UPNP client. there are several apps out there but none of them do a particularly good job on HD MKVs.

If you want to stick with apple devices, you'll have to stick with apple formats. Like the previous poster said, just convert everything to mp4 and share it out of itunes.

If it were me, I'd buy a front end box that could play my media on my TV. ATV2 and iPad are both great devices, but they aren't designed to play everything you throw at it. They are designed to play everything apple wants to sell you.

 

[justinmg]

You would need a decent PC to act as an airvideo server, then airplay to ATV2.
This brings the resolution down a little.
When I have streamed high bitrate 1080p, there is some stuttering, but the ATV2 is wireless not wired, which would help.

If you want to get full HD streamed to your HDTV, no iPad (or wireless network can keep up with that at the moment).