My title pretty much says it. I wouls like to watch a blu ray file on my pc and it has an mkv file extension on it. does anyone know a player that might be compatable with it. it's a .mkv file extension.

KM player plays .mkv files the best, at least that I've found :


http://kmplayer.kde.org/

Care to elaborate a little? I clicked on the link and click there download catergory but the only things i could download were there open sources. Im not a dev. so I dont know how to get it to work. Is there some codec i could download for windows media or winamp and such that i might be able to play it with?

Sorry :

http://www.kmplayer.com/forums/showthread.php?t=8351

The VLC media player is a popular player that just so happens to support mkv files. I have not tried it on mkv files, but the player is nice.

I would go with the KMPlayer for HD movies, but if you notice stuttering use VLC. It has a much better interface than VLC. Plus VLC subtitles are fat pixel squares on my screen. Where as on KMPlayer they are smooth and round.

This is also assuming you have a good enough PC to play HD movies smoothly. A video card with a built in HD decoder and at least a dual core processor. I have an AMD Athlon 3800+ X2 and an 8800 GTS 640mb, which doesn't have the built in HD decoder . Most HD movies it plays fine, others stutter a little. So I just mostly use Mkv2Vob to transcode mkv files to vob files. Then transfer them to my PS3 400gb hdd and watch it on the HDTV.

VLC player is not bad, but I often get stuttering on 1080p files. I like SM Player because there are various settings you can edit to increase performance, such as dropping frames to keep audio in sync if necessary. And just so you know, the .mkv file is probably ripped from a blu-ray, but it isn't really a blu-ray file.

Ha ha ha. Why am I laughing? because when I tried to play the prologue to Dark knight, the still shots that changed every five seconds looked beautiful on VLC, but im looking for something that plays high def files a little smoother than .2 frames a second. Somehow I think Im not going to be able to enjoy my PJ to the fullest without upgrading. Just a shot in the drak, Has anyone else been able to get high def files to play on a lower end system? I think I maght be able to get better speeds if I translate the 1080p files to 720p but I dont know how, and even then Im not sure it would work. Just in case here are my PC specs:

2.0 ghz. Celeron proccessor
756 mb DDR ram
G-force FX 5200 128mb video card

Anu body with a slower system been able to push 1024 x 768 video files out?

I doubt you can play any HD movies on that computer. It's hardware is outdated by quite a few years now.
Here's AVSForum's HD HTPC guide.
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=940972

oh man yeah that PC has got to go...for a low cost HD option you could buy the AMD/ATI 780g boards and a nice dual core amd processor. You'd need some ddr2 memory and a case/ps and you'd be all set. The 780g boards have integrated video that is probably better than your video card and also does hardware decoding of HD signals.

Go to the Egg now and get:
Motherboard - 99
Memory - 39
Processor - 77
New Case/Power Supply - Around $50

Stick your old drives in there and load it up with XP. good to go for about $275.

Or you could get Popcorn Hour A-100/110. They are like $190-200. Plays HD video and audio.

I thought that to watch Blue-Ray on a computer you had to use Vista... something about DRM not working on anything less. Being able to watch Blue-Ray disks via Windows XP / pro would be killer!

Don't believe all that Vista BS. I used to use Vista and I had zero problems with it. An OS is just as bad as the user. If you can't troubleshoot your going to think everything sucks.

Yes you can watch HD content on XP/Vista/Linux. Yes you can watch them without a HDCP monitor using AnyDVD. Yes, you do need a HD drive to watch HD movies from a HD DVD or Blu-ray disc. Yes you can watch downloaded HD movies without issues.

The thing with watching HD movies on a PC, is if you don't have an up to date PC as within last year. You most likely won't be able to play any HD movies smoothly. Even my gaming rig has trouble playing some HD movies, so I just transcode them and sent to my PS3 to watch. Specs: Athlon X2 3800+, 2GB Ram, 8800 GTS 640MB (doesn't have the built in HD decoder, which makes a lot of difference in watching HD movies).

Ive finally found a solution cheaper than popcorn player. an xbox 360! I bought one on craigslist for 100 bucks, and it was one ofthe newer ones with the ability to link to any xp or vista, not just media center.

So I simply translate my mkv files into mpeg4's and stream them through my older pc to my 360.
viola. HD> no upgrades. take that microsoft. uhmm sort of....

Combined Community Codec Project -- used heavily by the anime comminuty. I've never run across a .mkv, .ogg, .avi .mp* that it can't deal with.

Blu-Ray and XP: Not a problem, as long as you have a decent software player. Output to any monitor in the best definition that the monitor/graphics card can handle.

Blu-Ray and Vista: Not a problem provided that your video card and monitor are HDCP compliant. If they are not, then Vista will downgrade the content to standard def. Vista will also spend a LOT of clock cycles checking DRM, instead of decoding content. Running a good player on XP (Or better yet, Linux) for Blu-Ray content will provide much smoother playback on less CPU.

Translating high def to the xbox has turned out to be more of a headache than i thought. I dont know what file types it takes and what program to use to translate the high def files i download. I wonder how many people use their 360's as multimedia devices?

I do. The 360 takes a standard HD .wmv file. Most are at 720p and are around 8gb large. You need to burn it to a DL Dvd using Nero and burning as a data Dvd disc (UDF) . Make sure to check the box "enable Xbox compatibility mode".

Is there a conversion program i could use to convert .mkv files to play on my xbox? im not having much luck finding a high def .wmv sample for it.

As far as I know it isn't easy , it requires re-encoding the video. So several hours per video.

You might want to try Total Video Converter. You may or may not be happy with the results.
If you want to try it out (for free), you can find pretty much anything on Rapidshare.

I find the best are:
WMPC
Arcsoft TMT