"Play To" to play HEVC files

Question

Currently I can play any HEVC encoded video using VLC via HDMI cable on any target.

But since I have a fancy 55LA620S smart TV that supports the "Play To" feature in Windows 8, I'd like to exploit it. The problem is that I can successfully play any "old" format video files, e.g. media from camera or Youtube downloads, but not "new" HEVC files.

I have tried to install Shark Codecs in order to get the Play To available on MKV files, but then:

• Windows Media Player's "Play To" freezes
• My hard disk starts intense activity
• Task Manager reports that "Windows Crash Report" is performing lots of disk activity
• Eventually, after several minutes without video playback, an "Unknown error" appears in Play To

Question: how to use Windows 8's Play To with HEVC MKV files?

• Can it be solved on the computer side?
• Or does it depend on the TV's capability to play media? (In fact, those HEVC files won't play on a thumb drive)

Answer 1

With “Play To” (basically DLNA streaming), the renderer (your TV) does all the heavy lifting. So yes, this feature depends on the renderer being able to decode and display the file being streamed.

There are DLNA servers like PS3 Media Server that convert container formats and even transcode videos on the fly. However, this requires tremendous amounts of processing power, because it has to be done in real-time. From my experience with HEVC, decoding alone takes way to much CPU power. Transcoding to H264 would require an insanely powerful PC.

Please also note that your TV might support different formats when streaming or reading from USB drives.