JVC XV-PB1 Blu-ray player surprises with 1080p MPEG-4 MKV support

by Richard Lawler posted Apr 25th 2009 at 7:43PM

The first Blu-ray player to come to the U.S. from JVC, the XV-PB1, hasn't received a lot of hype since its CES reveal, but that might change now that it appears to be one of the first supporting MKV playback, following the Oppo BDP-83 and LG BD390. EHD reader Bill picked one up on the humble and lets us know he's had no problems playing 1080p video with DTS audio from a burned DVD. The manual on JVC's website indicates official MKV and AVCHD support, but surprisingly, not DivX although the spec sheet on the same website says it does. We're reached out to JVC to confirm what buyers can expect from the XV-PB1, but with MKV on top of BD-Live, network streaming from PCs and reportedly extremely fast load times this $299 player might reshuffle the list of most desired Blu-ray hardware.

Filed under: Blu-ray, Media streamers, Players, JVC

Tags: avc hd, AvcHd, bd live, BdLive, blu-ray, dctp-ip, divx, jvc, mkv, mpeg 4, Mpeg4, streaming, xv-pb1

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Highly Ranked

Erik Stroud @ Apr 25th 2009 8:13PM

If only Sony would add MKV support to the PS3 so I wouldn't have to have on the fly conversion with my PC.

Neutral

Mark Wilcox @ Apr 25th 2009 9:35PM

The PS3 can run linux, why don't you set up a linux home theater system to play all your shit and then switch back when you want to play games?

Highly Ranked

S4Rs @ Apr 25th 2009 8:53PM

Because Linux OS's on the PS3 dont have access to the video card (Sony did this to protect from possible game pirating software). Therefore all video has to be processed from the cell. Now that may be possible (as of right now you cant even play 720p files i think), but seeing as MKV is pretty much the only container the PS3 doesn't support, and all the possible codecs are, there isn't much of a point in someone making a video player that can do this.

Neutral

lakersin2025 @ Apr 26th 2009 10:28AM

I use MKV 2 VOB to play all my movies. Seems when I don't the PS3 freezes the playback and I have to go to the menu and then hit play again to resume.

Neutral

domerdel @ Apr 26th 2009 12:57PM

linux runs software emulation... MKV = HD files = wont play on PS3 other OS very well

Neutral

Extinction @ May 3rd 2009 12:26PM

The SPUs were meant to make up for the lack of RSX access. Just get coders to use them instead.

Neutral

L3 @ Apr 25th 2009 8:33PM

I'm no 'math-expert' or 'language-analyst,' but I'm guessing that limiting the subtitles to a maximum of 50 characters will only get you about 45 minutes into the average film...

Neutral

shawnmos @ Apr 25th 2009 8:45PM

Uhh, what? They are talking about the file name length.

Neutral

John @ Apr 25th 2009 9:45PM

If this is a joke, I must be slow because I really don't understand what the hell he's talking about.

Neutral

S4Rs @ Apr 25th 2009 8:55PM

if this thing has 1080p 24 playback and HD audio support via streaming with DLNA, sold!

Highly Ranked

JayC @ Apr 25th 2009 11:24PM

I think it's USB only which is quite a shortcoming...

Neutral

EatingPie @ Apr 25th 2009 11:42PM

FTA: "...network streaming from PCs and reportedly extremely fast load times this $299 player might reshuffle the list of most desired Blu-ray"

Streaming of some kind. DLNA seems like a pretty good bet.

-Pie

Neutral

kcmurphy88 @ Apr 26th 2009 2:50PM

The manual (on the JVC site) makes no mention of ANY streaming other than BDLive. No DLNA, no Windows shares, no Netflix.

You can burn a disc (even a BD disc) or use USB. Then again it gives full trickplay with MKV, which not everything has.

Neutral

Jeff C @ Apr 26th 2009 7:44AM

The Panasonics have been able to play MKV files in all types of resolutions with a little help from a program called multiAVCHD. And the author just got MKV files to convert over to an SDHC card so you can play your MKV files from either a DVD or the SDHC card on the Panasonic BD players

Details here. Works great on my BD30
http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?t=143744

Neutral

hey hey @ Apr 26th 2009 12:05PM

Thanks for the info/link, I have a DMP-BD35 and I am going to try this app.

Neutral

Melao @ Apr 26th 2009 12:44PM

Guys, for streaming I suggest one of these:
http://www.popcornhour.com/onlinestore/

No Blu-ray player though.

Neutral

kcmurphy88 @ Apr 26th 2009 2:51PM

Still no trickplay with MKV on the Popcorns.

Neutral

Gekke Henkie @ Apr 26th 2009 12:48PM

The HDI Dune's also play MKV files (and do streaming, and internal or external storage, and recording(!), and all audio formats over bitstream and decoding, and, and, ...)

By the way, thanks Jeff C! MultiAVCHD seems to work with EVERY BD-player; great!

Neutral

miiGz @ Apr 26th 2009 3:02PM

Dual format dvd player?

Highly Ranked

DVD4ME @ Apr 26th 2009 7:01PM

Does it resume play after you press stop?
The single most frustrating problem with HD discs other than the ridiculous DRM infested load times is no resume play, what a joke after all this time, they still haven't caught up too DVD.
Why is this frustrating issue not resolved?!

Neutral

kcmurphy88 @ Apr 26th 2009 11:03PM

By the way, the manual is at

http://resources.jvc.com/Resources/00/01/15/LVT2007-001B.pdf

Neutral

Pip @ Apr 27th 2009 4:30PM

Wonder how the image quality is. The reviews of all the new 2.0 Blu-Ray players are showing HUGE image quality differences between them all.

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