View Full Version : HTPC + 4k
any peeps on here using an HTPC with a 4k tv for watching 4k bluray.. not netflix content. i'm talking proper 4k shiny disc.
i'm about to upgrade the graphics on my HTPC ''kodi'' and want to future proof it as sorts for when i get a 4k tv.
the low down. i dont download stuff from the internet and prefer to actually buy content to which i have a pretty large dvd/bluray collection all ripped onto my htpc (about 20tb of it). yes i'm a film junkie.
if the answer is 'yes i have a htpc connected to my tv playing proper 4k content' then what graphics card are you using?
i dont want to buy a duffer but at the same time spend too much. i was looking at a 1050ti 4gig but if i can get away with a 1030 2gig then i will get that.
ooohhh and i DONT PLAY VIDEO GAMES.....
EVGA GeForce GTX 970 FTW Edition .
Son's old card before he upgrade.
It's not quite tbh
EVGA GeForce GTX 970 FTW Edition .
Son's old card before he upgrade.
It's not quite tbh
too many pennies... looking for a cheeper alternative.
having looked a bit harder.. 1030 is out as no harware decoding so its looking like a 1050.
watched waht little youtube vids i could see on the subject and it looks like the 1050 2gig is all i need.
there is very very little content on the net about HTPC graphics and 4k 10bit video playback and it all seams to be based around blooody gaming.
DarrenSV650S
16-02-18, 08:09 AM
Why upgrade now when you don't have a tv and there's not many discs out? It'll only get cheaper if you wait
Why upgrade now when you don't have a tv and there's not many discs out? It'll only get cheaper if you wait
Tbh there quite alot of discs if you look around.
And yes even the sounds better.
Ask neighbors lol ops.
eBay the 970 goes for£100 -75 that's not really bad.
Why upgrade now when you don't have a tv and there's not many discs out? It'll only get cheaper if you wait
few reasons.
the card (R7 250 1gig) in my day to day (the one i'm using just now) is getting flakey and the one in the 'kodi' computer is ok (R7 250 2gig).
ok so both the R7 250 do hardware decoding at 1080p no problem so thats fine but they dont use UEFI for fast booting. since i will be installing windows 10 on the 'kodi' which uses M.2 NVMe HDD i want to make extra use of the fast booting. the 1050 has UEFI and is a newer gen card so will have a lot more capability than the old R7.
if in the future i need to upgrade the kodi then i have the 1050 for this computer.
the whole point in hardware decoding is so i can use a cheep CPU as the CPU power is not needed for playing video files/dvd/bluray.
i dont do gaming and the kodi is used purley for watching movies.
when the price of 4k oled tv's come down to a resonable level then i will be all set to just plug the HTPC (kodi) box in without having to spend extra at the time on upgrading the HTPC.
i supose i could offset the price of the new graphics card by selling my OPPO BDP93 which i never use.
OWhat about the gtx750 ti for postage
OWhat about the gtx750 ti for postage
wont do high enough frame rate at 4k over HDMI. for pure 4k you need 60hz over hdmi to play shiny disc at full native.
its looking like i'm going to have to splash out on a 1050ti 4gig to get all the features and power for 4k @60hz 10bit over hdmi :(
pushed the button on a Gigabyte GTX 1050ti G1 so should be more than enough to play 4k@60hz 10bit UHD.
now i just need a telly to go with it and i'm all set :-)
the more i looked into playing shiny disc 4k the more i found out that its not really possible so looks like ripping it to mkv 1-1 is the only way.
?.
On the Panasonic?
https://www.currys.co.uk/gbuk/tv-and-home-entertainment/dvd-blu-ray-and-home-cinema/blu-ray-and-dvd-players/panasonic-dmp-ub400ebk-4k-ultra-hd-blu-ray-player-with-4k-ultra-hd-upscaling-10161140-pdt.html
?.
On the Panasonic?
https://www.currys.co.uk/gbuk/tv-and-home-entertainment/dvd-blu-ray-and-home-cinema/blu-ray-and-dvd-players/panasonic-dmp-ub400ebk-4k-ultra-hd-blu-ray-player-with-4k-ultra-hd-upscaling-10161140-pdt.html
i was looking to use a blu-ray burner as the drive but thats not going to happen. i have a nice OPPO BDP 93 i got before going down the kodi route and even then i ripped all the discs and had multi usb HDD as storage plugged in to the oppo. since i got 'kodi box' i have not use the oppo and gawd knows the last time i actually spun a disc in the thing.
i still have all my silver discs as backup ;)
i'm now just going to rip the discs into my HTPC (kodi) and play them there like i do with all my media. good news is that the bluray burner i have is one of the compatible ones :-) i can see me needing bigger HDD's in the near future as its looking like each movie is 40 odd gig each.
The BDR-209DBK plays blue s fine with the right software. That was a major headache.
But the dedicated player is alot quieter.
Easy to get the speakers set up with the amp.
Is this Just for the TV as a projector for 4k is mad
i'm working on MPC-BC and madvr just now as an external player in kodi, got MPC-BC working perfect and just like the integrated player in kodi.
wont be able to test madvr till i have a full 4k setup.
dont mind ripping 4k bluray, in fact i think it would be preferable to spinning discs.
new tv (LG 65UJ634V) comes Saturday :-) 1050ti will be here next week then let the fun begin :smt101
got the new tv hooked up and so far i'm not impressed. first off the packaging is shizz, no instructions as to what screws fit where on the stand, the instructions are worse than ikea. static shocks every fekin time i touch the thing till i put the power cord in (i have a wool carpet so i should not get any static shocks), stickers stuck to front of panel that i had to peal off.
picture quality is nowhere near that of the plasma on SD content, i feel a bit sea sick watching it due to motion blur. its supposed to upscale but i cant see any indication of such.
i'm going to look around the net for settings but i'm normally pretty good at that stuff. if i cant get it looking good then its going back :-(
some SD content via virgin box is so bad it looks like there are pixelated haloes round sports players such as football, i dont watch football but its a good indication of how good a display is. i never has any problems with the plasma watching any channel, SD or HD.. ever.
andrewsmith
25-02-18, 08:30 AM
What hertz you running the telly at?
Iirc with the older set top boxes it's 50hz max
Sent from my PRA-LX1 using Tapatalk
the frequency of any tv signal be it cable sky etc.etc is broadcast at 50hz and you cant change that. only difference is things like netflix 4k which is 30hz and bluray which is 24hz. just to complictae things even more the US and UK have different HZ as to content so the UK gets stuffed with 'juddering' picture quality. things like 'smooth motion' are supposed to fix it but on this tv its not.
i had absolutely no problems with the plasma. all i have done is plugged the hdmi cable in from the amp and all the settings are as before regarding playing content.
i personally feel that the tv is not switching to the correct hz when needed. pressing the 'info' button on the remote only tells me if the content is 1080 720 i/p etc.etc and not what hz it is. my plasma told me the hz along with everything else for instance 1080p 24hz if watching bluray and '1080/720 i' if watching tv.
i have never had a tv that switches to 100hz on any content even though the tv is capable.
its the tv that switches the panel to the different hz signal when needed.
Talking Heads
25-02-18, 02:15 PM
"virgin box"
freeview, cable, internet stream...?
model of box, age, specs...?
just turned upscaling on via the amp and its working sorta. so LG is lying the tv does not do upscaling.
i personally dont like source or mid point upscaling and prefer end point e.g. the tv should do all the work as it 'should' upscale to its inbuilt properties which in turn mostly always gives a better picture Q.
"virgin box"
freeview, cable, internet stream...?
model of box, age, specs...?
virgin tivo box.
as i said though it should not matter its all sent at 50hz interpolated from the box e.g. 720i 1080i @50hz its what the signal is broadcast in. its what happens to the signal after the box as regards to 'upscaling'.
there should only be one device in the chain that takes care of upscaling or you end up 'tearing' a picture this device should preferably be the tv as its at the end of the chain.
getting closer.. the big problem was TruMotion, set it to off and bingo.
still think the SD content is very 'muted/soft' regarding PQ.
no matter what i do in the setting the tv PQ looks very red, skin tones are not natural even with 'skin tone' turned all the way down.
what i do like is the wifi capability of this tv, its superb. full signal with the router at the other end of the house is no problem. netflix app is also great (only reason i turned the wifi on) and much better interface for browsing than win10 app.
1050ti is here so the fun begins tonight :smt119
Audio Return Chanel (ARC) works perfect via HDMI :-)
LG = look's good but ..... :P
let the wife play with netflix today.. i'v created a monster lol
Mrs B loves netflix, so much so she is now not bothered about 'live tv recordings' which means that i can just plug the sat cable in and get live tv that way. by by virgin media tv :-)
its going to take her about a week to get used to 'browsing' netflix for stuff.
ooohhh and for some reason the PQ on netflix is a loooot better.
Talking Heads
26-02-18, 06:04 PM
Since we got Netflix wife and me just don't watch live TV at all now.
Most of our TV viewing is Netflix.
Anything that's on regular TV channels which we want to watch gets recorded on the Humax Foxsat box and we watch it when it suits us.
If we miss the start of a series on a BBC channel I just use get_iplayer to download it to our NAS and view it from there using the Roku media player.
netflix 4k which is not even true 4k looks great.
new card is in the htpc with win7 and things are looking better.
next up win10 so i can get 4k 10bit.
i now get what HDR does.... it turns on another profile in the tv's picture settings when the tv receives a metadata token. HDR only shows its head when the content has 'HDR' like netflix content, so i'm assuming that 4k bluray titles with HDR will do the same.
from what i have been playing with regarding settings is that HDR allows you to adjust much higher colour, saturation, brightness etc.etc. in the settings. if you dont then the picture looks 'washed out' while playing HDR content.
when you have finished watching HDR content the picture setting falls back to the 'non HDR' setting that the user has chose.
so not only do you have to set your 'non HDR' picture quality profile you have to set the HDR picture quality profile as well.
guardians of the galaxy v2 playing in 4k 10bit via the HTPC with kodi and MPC-BE as external player :-)
next up installing madvr with mpc-be.
with mpc-be the playback is super smooth.
full handshaking regarding HD codecs to amp.
Teejayexc
01-03-18, 08:39 AM
Kin ell, sounds like a lot of faff Bibio. I just turn mine on and watch !
Kin ell, sounds like a lot of faff Bibio. I just turn mine on and watch !
might sound like it but when you have 100's of dvd/bluray discs its much easier to play them via an htpc with kodi.
once set up its just like browsing netflix but much better. unlike netflix the quality is much better.
i hate having to skip though 'adverts and upcoming movies' as well as disc navigation to actually play the movie. i copy all my movies as just main movie. never mind the pita trying to watch tv show box sets via the dvd/bluray navigation.
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