[voip-ninja]

Thanks for pointing out the existing bug report. Unfortunately it appears that, from the bug report, nothing has happened with this bug for two months.

It seems (to me) that the most likely explanation based on what you have provided in the way of information is that this is a limitation in the device H.264 decoders themselves... and the only way to get it addressed would be to take it up with Amazon, etc. It is also possible the problem is a limitation in hardware, but that seems somewhat unlikely... drivers or firmware are more likely to me... problem with playback of possibly specific AVC H.264 profiles, etc.

Since Amazon likely has zero interest in supporting MKV I don't see this going anywhere. Since I rip a ton of BDs and MKV is what I like using in my work-flow (especially for things like forced subtitles, etc) I don't think I'm going to change everything around to accommodate FTV. Sadly it is not the box for me.

Thanks again for the info. I'll ship the FTV back to Amazon and perhaps keep tabs on this thread in the event something changes in the coming months. In the meantime I'll reconsider my earlier plan of picking up low end i3 NUC and seeing if for the somewhat higher cost I can get an acceptable Boxee Box replacement experience.

Well, I'm not sure if this is a problem with the AFTV or if it's just that XBMC and MX Player have the same problem (bug), but as I stated the Ouya has the same problem.

As far as Amazon supporting mkv, again as I stated it's not mkv specific because transcoded mkv's work fine it only happens with 1:1 muxes, but I'm not sure why everyone assumes that Amazon has no interest is supporting this or that. Just like I'm not sure why some people here think they have no interest in supporting VC-1. Instead of making those assumptions, if everyone that would like to have a certain issue address would contact Amazon about that issue then it's more likely that Amazon might find value in adding support for that issue.

The worst that can happen is that Amazon decides not to add support and the best is that enough people contact them and they find that it would add value to the device. After all it's a numbers game for Amazon, the more features the AFTV has the more desirable it will be for more consumers. Yes, Amazon is mostly concerned with supporting their services, however, unless people buy the AFTV and have it in their homes Amazon's services aren't going to matter if consumers buy a different product because it offers support that the AFTV doesn't.

And speaking of assumptions (which just makes a Ass out of U and Me), I'm not sure why some people think that Amazon is taking a loss on the AFTV. How much is it that some people think it costs to make and put out the AFTV? Of course Amazon is not making the usual 300%-400% markup that is usually on electronic devices, but it is highly unlikely that Amazon is taking a loss on the AFTV.

What it boils down to, for me personally is how much time and effort I have to invest vs the likelihood that something is going to be fixed. In the minds of many 'MKV == pirate' and I strongly suspect that Amazon will absolutely not do things that might make their content partners question their commitment to upholding truth, justice and the DRM way.

Personally I find the likelihood of VC1 being fixed very remote, maybe 1%. If the problem with MKV playback is related to the version of FFMPEG libraries being used in XBMC, that will take quite a while to fix as the version is not supposed to be uplifted until the next major release.

If I have to spend even an hour or two patiently explaining to idiot first level Amazon support what it is that's not working, it's probably not worth the brain damage compared to spending $150 more for something that will do more of what I want.

As far as cost on electronics, at the retail level the markups are not 300-400%, that is actually a lot more than even manufacturers like Apple make, who have massive scale... an iPhone that costs $220 to produce they sell to carriers for something like $500.... and that doesn't account for their costs providing warranty and technical support, not to mention the massive R&D overhead of building such a device and OS.

On the FTV even if Amazon is able to build the box for $25 they might be only breaking even on it when all the costs are factored in and assuming a $99 retail price.