Playing .mkv files on Samsung TV through QNAP and Twonky

I had this mkv file that wouldn’t play on Samsung smart TV.  Since my Qnap is a basic one with ARM processor, it doesn’t have enough processing power to transcode the file either. So the only option was o trancode it on PC, or fix the problem.

Well the solution turned out to be very easy. I realized that on Samsung TV, .mkv was supported. I verified it by playing an mkv file through USB. Twonky also supports .mkv, so the problem was somewhere in Twonky communicating to Samsung.

What was happening was that Twonky didn’t know that the device it was connected to was a Samsung TV, it rather recongized it as “Generic Device” .  All I had to do was to tell Qnap that the device it knows as “Generic Device” is actually a Samsung Smart TV, and once I do that twonky would know that Samsung can play .mkv

1. Switch on the device that you want to play the .mkv file on, and let it play any file on QNAP device.

2. Log in to your Twonky Server. ( http://yourqnapip:9000) by default.

3. Click on Media Receivers in Advanced Setup. here you will see the IP address of your device ( Samsung Smart TV in my case). Against the IP address the name should NOT read “Generic Device”

4. If it says Generic Device, drop down the list and choose your device.

5. Hit Save Changes.

That’s it. Your .mkv compatible player can now play .mkv files from Qnap too.  Hope it helps.