I ask the world again, how is jumping through all these hoops to burn/play discs (if you have to buy the burners or players) or trying to force the files into things that don’t really want to play them (like smart TVs/Blu-ray players/cable boxes or PS3/4/XBOXes, etc.), considered easier or better than just hooking a computer up to your TV or, better yet, A/V receiver and playing the files unaltered?
Any number of cheap options exist, from hooking up a laptop you already have, buying a super cheap NUC or LIVA, or even grabbing a really inexpensive FireTV Stick and sideloading Kodi…
I have all of these options at my disposal. First of all, any streaming option that downsamples the video is straight out of the question.
Hooking up my laptop by HDMI is a pain in the ass, and means I would need to drag out the corresponding HDD or otherwise store a bunch of 25-50gb images on my laptop, ready to go. I use it to test things, etc. Another problem is the color display calibration is way different from my calibrated TV. So I would need to calibrate another profile for that.
As my PS3 is hacked to play MKVs and use NTFS drives, that is the most straight forward way to play them and often what I do. For things that I intend to keep as long as possible, I burn to BD-R to put on the shelf and keep as a physical backup to whatever HDD(s) it may be on. It also allows for portability so I can easily bring it to a friend’s house, or make a 1:1 copy to give to a friend in some cases.