How easy is it to just play an .mkv?

by superjona

I've been thinking about buying a Shield to replace my LaCie mediaplayer because it can't handle HEVC content and I want a box that also supports HDR and 4K for a future tv purchase.

One thing I always liked is that the whole process was plug and play - put a file on a thumbdrive and it just plays. How easy is this on an Android TV device? Is there an integrated mediaplayer that handle .mkv's and subtitles or would I need to install Kodi for that? Does it also support NTFS thumbdrives?

Andrroid

Stock player, Kodi/spmc, archos, VLC, Plex.

Theyll all do what you need.

mr_yuk

Pretty much the same. There is no pre-loaded media player that will do it but VLC and Kodi are free and will play the MKV straight off a USB drive. Plex will as well but you have to install the server component.

The Shield TV will read USB drives in a number of formats including NTFS.

brp

Kodi or SPMC downloadable via play store.

Plays any size MKV or full ISO on my NAS w/o stutter via gigabit LAN. Dolby Atmos/DTS-HD/TrueHD Audio Pass through if you use SPMC or beta build of Kodi. You can setup subs and whatnot as well as thumbails for movies/TV shows if you make a library.

JimboLodisC

Buy it now. Don't even hesitate.

PolaresBears

If you don't game much the mi box is an option. I'd still recommend installing kodi over VLC.