Playing .MKV files on my TV from my PC, equip?

[Tyche]

So I have this amazing HDTV, and no blu ray player until the PS3 metal gear solid bundle. I want to play the 720p and 1080p video files on my HDTV. What kind of PC/video card combo do you need/use?

[Robert]

Not sure exactly what you're asking, but here goes..I use a 32" 1080p Sharp Aquos, a PNY 768MB 8800GTX and a DVI->HDMI cable, and watch HD content using CoreAVC x264 decoder and Media Player Classic, eventually a 9800GX2 for HDMI->HDMI

[Quixotic]

Not sure exactly what you're asking, but here goes..I use a 32" 1080p Sharp Aquos, a PNY 768MB 8800GTX and a DVI->HDMI cable, and watch HD content using CoreAVC x264 decoder and Media Player Classic, eventually a 9800GX2 for HDMI->HDMI

This is what I do, I have a 42in Toshiba, and I just hook up my laptop via dvi->hdmi and play with MPC+CCCP (I play in 720p though, video card doesn't support 1080p).

[SephYuyX]

Dont really need anything too special.
Vid card with VGA, DVI and HDMI outputs, and any media player really, I think VLC can do 1080p?

Depending on your TV; VGA, DVI and HDMI can give you different results, HDMI is obviously the best, but some TVs look better when hooked up through VGA, so just get a card with all 3, and try them out.

[Quixotic]

Forgot to mention, for sound, I have a conversion cable that uses the standard pc plug (I forget what its called atm) -> red/white audio plugs that I plug into my reciever.

As for VGA, I'd look up what the max resolution for a VGA input is on your TV, because for example, my TV won't accept a VGA connection if the resolution is higher than 1024x768.

[Snowknight26]

I'm guessing that the mkv files have H.264 video streams and either AC3 or DTS audio. If you have a fast computer (dual/quad core), the CPU can handle decoding the video alone. If not, you'd need a video card to help decode the video.

The optimal decoder is either ffdshow or CoreAVC (CoreAVC is faster, ffdshow is better quality. If you have a single core CPU or a dual core, use CoreAVC.. quad core and some dual cores use ffdshow).

You've got the video connections down, so thats good. How about the audio? If you have a receiver, you'd probably want to connect your PC to that. If not, a standard 'stereo mini jack (3.5mm)' as my friend says might work.. not sure if your TV has that input.

[aers]

AC3 or DTS audio?

Eww.