Can I bypass the need of a streamer (nVidia shield etc) by watching movies from a USB?

Gil111000

Gil111000

Audioholic Intern
I have a 5.1 setup with a Yamaha reciever and am enjoying it, but I want to watch movies from my USB flash drive too, since Netflix doesn't have certain films.

I downloaded Pulp Fiction in a MKV file, with DTS-HD audio. Yet when I plug the flash drive to my Samsung TV and play the content, the TV says the sound format isn't supported, so I can only watch it muted.

I tried converting the MKV files' audio from the original to AC3, and now it works, but the sound is horrible. Also the file size dropped from 10GB to 5.5GB.
Then I remembered my AVR can decode DTS-HD for sure... So I set my TV to "Pass through" (It was on Automatic so I forced it into Pass through anyways), but the message persists. It's like the TV insists on decoding the DTS while it can't, instead of passing it to the reciever.
Using Netflix or any other streaming app, I get proper 5.1 sound. Just this flash drive method is troublesome. Why is it?
Yamaha RX-V373
SanCruzer 32gb 2.0 USB (I know it's not a good flash drive but shouldn't cause this problem)
 
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NINaudio

NINaudio

Audioholic Samurai
Have you tried plugging the USB stick into the receiver instead of the TV?
 
Gil111000

Gil111000

Audioholic Intern
Have you tried plugging the USB stick into the receiver instead of the TV?
I now tried it and the reciever says the USB is empty (access error). I read that I need to have a FAT32 formatted USB.
Now, prior to connecting, I formatted the USB from FAT32 to NTFS so I can fit the 10gb movie.
If I can only use FAT32, the movie won't fit because FAT32 supports files smaller than 4gb.

Any idea?

EDIT - I now read that the reciever doesn't even support MKV files. Almost all recievers don't.
Does that mean I have to purchase an nVidia Shield or a similar streamer? There's no workaround?
 
panteragstk

panteragstk

Audioholic Warlord
I now tried it and the reciever says the USB is empty (access error). I read that I need to have a FAT32 formatted USB.
Now, prior to connecting, I formatted the USB from FAT32 to NTFS so I can fit the 10gb movie.
If I can only use FAT32, the movie won't fit because FAT32 supports files smaller than 4gb.

Any idea?

EDIT - I now read that the reciever doesn't even support MKV files. Almost all recievers don't.
Does that mean I have to purchase an nVidia Shield or a similar streamer? There's no workaround?
The entire point of something like an Shield TV is so you DON'T have to carry around a flash drive with what you want to watch. If your TV supports multiple media player apps (plex, emby, MX player, vlc, etc.) then you'll be able to find one that will play files from a USB drive. If you only want to do this on a single TV, then it's not so bad.

If your TV doesn't support media playing apps, then that's where something like the Shield TV comes in. You don't have to go with the highest end streamer to get simple mkv support. A cheap amazon fire stick will do that, BUT you won't get DTS-HD and other losless codecs out of a fire stick. The shield is king when it comes to playing everything you can throw at it. HTPC is the only thing that'd be more powerful in that area.

Dune is also still making players, so that might be an option, but the price might not be.
 
T

Trebdp83

Audioholic Ninja
Unfortunately, Samsung ended support of DTS a few years ago. So, no “passthrough” of it to a receiver and the Shield sounds like your next best option. Keep in mind also that the older Yamaha does not support eARC so no lossless codecs would be passed from the TV to the receiver via ARC anyway so a separate device is necessary.
 
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