How to Play DIVX and MKV Movies

Chapter 3: How to Watch Divx & Matroska Movies

What is Divx Movies

Divx is a video format well recognized in the digital world and playable in PCs as well as on recent DVD or Bluray players in the market. Divx is also playable on Sony Playstation 3. To be able to play it on your PC, though, you need to download the player from http://www.divx.com/downloads/divx Once downloaded and installed in your PC, you should be able to play Divx video which is a file type with .avi. Many of Divx type format are derived from ripping DVD disc and normally are limited to 700MB in size. This is actually to accomodate the size of a CD.

What is Matroska format Movies

Matroska format or with the extension .mkv is a file format that caters for High Definition (HD) format with the advent of Bluray Disc. The latest Divx player installed on the PC will enable the PC to play the format. There are also other players that can play MKV files such as from the creator itself http://www.matroska.org or http://www.cccp-project.net I would recommend you to download the cccp filters with the Zoom Player as the installation is a breeze and the player performs perfectly on most PCs.

MKV offers a better picture quality with commonly in 2 types of resolutions; 720 and 1080 lines. 1080 lines means the movie is encoded at a higher pixel of around 1920 pixels per line thus giving a clearer picture than the 720 lines. However, at 720 lines, it is already good enough for viewing on a 32-inch or 40-inch monitor. Of course, 1080 will be even better as it is the acceptable standard for HD broadcasting worldwide.

MKV files are not as widespread as Divx files but are getting more and more popular due to its HD capabilities. With the size of between 1.8GB to 4.8GB for micro HD files, it proves to be a lot more efforts to download, especially for those people without fast internet connection. For a single movie, there may be are more than 20 .rar files to be downloaded. As internet speed becoming faster with new technology, the matroska or mkv format will gain more popularity in the future.

How to Watch the Movies: Connect Your PC to Your TV

Besides watching the movies on the PCs, the movies can also be watch on other medium such as your LCD TVs and DVD player that support the file types. As I mentioned earlier, Divx has already became a standard for DVD players and can also be played on Playstation 3. If you have already owned the Divx supported player, the Divx files downloaded from internet can right away be played on those players. What if you don't have the player?

If you have a notebook or PC and an LCD TV but you do not have the player, why not just connect your notebook or PC directly to your LCD TV? As most LCD TVs can also act as a computer monitor, it is possible to watch the movies, played through your PC, on the LCD TV. What you need is only a 15-pin VGA cable and a stereo to RCA cable (as shown) to connect to your amplifier or your speaker system.

Connect your PC or Notebook to the LCD TV with the VGA cable and connect the stereo out from the Notebook to your Home Theater system. Play the movie in full screen mode and enjoy the show. You already have the Home Cinema without the expensive Bluray or DVD player.

How to Watch the Movies: Digital Media Player

Besides connecting the PC to the TV, you can also watch the MKV and DIVX movies using the Digital Media Player. While there are a lot of Digital Media Players that can play DIVX files, there are only a few players that can play MKV files. The best player in the market at the moment is the player from Western Digital TV HD 1080P Media Player as shown below.

This player can play various types of files including MP4, DIVX as well as MKV. It plays from your portable hardisk and other USB medias. It supports HDMi as well as composite or RCA output. Since it has RCA output, it can be connected to older TVs.