Hey just got a new 4K OLED HDR TV and was considering a USFF (tiny PC) HTPC with 4K, HEVC (H265) decoding. Currently looking at 7th Gen intel boxes with integrated HD 630 - on paper this should decode HEVC (including 10bit), anyone with experience with this? Or would I be better off using an addon card - I have an GT1030 in my old HTPC.

acura - 2020-11-22 13:46:00

Nvidia shield is best.
https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/shield/
This is specific to plex, but is a good read all the same
https://forums.plex.tv/t/info-plex-4k-transcoding-and-you-ak
a-the-rules-of-4k/378203

bitsnpieces2020 - 2020-11-22 16:50:00

Agree with nVidia shield but currently need a PC for VPN applications.
The rules for 4k and flex was quite a laugh... quite true also.
Plex is currently only an option for non 4K media - my network server take a dive with 4k - and from your plex link maybe no point trying.
Plex isn't my prefered method anyway - i'd rather use a media player (KOID or PotPlayer) across network shares.

acura - 2020-11-22 19:01:00

Your new TV should be able to decode H265 natively. If so it might serve your purpose just as well to use the DLNA function of the TV to access media on your network. Universal Media Server (free) on the host PC works well.

mark119 - 2020-11-24 09:16:00

H265 works brilliantly on the TV via usb - but i gotta copy it over instead of streaming via SMB (my prefered way). Interesting enough i did not handle a DTS audio stream on one of my 4k movie.
Either way i just bought a PC to try out - will found out in a bit.

acura - 2020-11-24 19:36:00

Just an update for anyone interested. The Elitedesk mini with a i5 7500T works well with the 4K videos I have - CPU and GPU load is higher that I would have though @ about 60-70% (10bit 4k HDR video), but handles OK.
As per https://developer.nvidia.com/video-encode-and-decode-gpu-sup
port-matrix-new I have also used a GT1030 and that worked very well - unfortunately I had an issue with my old HTPC case which I could not be bothered trouble shooting. Interestingly enough I also tried the GT1030 on an old dual core DDR2 machine and that handles 4k quite well. Intel HEVC decoding seems usable from 6th Gen - although later iterations adds more support for higher bandwidth encoded stream. I can find too much on AMD support matrix so can't comment on this. Still tempted to try the nVidia shield!
Hope this helps someone else.

Edited by acura at 3:03 pm, Sun 29 Nov

acura - 2020-11-29 15:00:00

fwiw i'm using a shield, plex performance on it was a pretty poor for 4k 265 content but I believe it's due to audio transcoding, works much better using kodi with the plexkodiconnect hack/workaround.

probably something in the settings i'm missing but I've been using plex/HTPC for the last 10 years and using kodi was the much easier solution.

willfam - 2020-11-29 17:14:00

Problem I face is that the video player on my TV is stunning (plays only from USB). So far PC comes close to it but not quite! specially with 4k HDR... Results vary a lot with across video players - best one so far on win10 is "Film and TV" believe it or not - POTplayer makes a mess of it. Will haver to try VLC again and come to think of it I have not tried KODI either, although installed. Quite disappointing that this new Panasonic TV does not do SMB shares (I believe they used to...) so much for their TOP of the line for 2020.

acura - 2020-11-30 17:48:00

I bought a new 2020 Panasonic OLED. I have an EXT HDD connected via USB3 to my Macbook for Torrents. I use apple tv with infuse app and it streams directly all 4k HDR files incl dolby atmos audio. Its been absolutely perfect, brings all metadata across too.

jon9 - 2020-12-02 14:08:00

Same principle as the nVidia shield or network connected PC to the TV. This is already working - I just wish the TV had native network share support.

acura - 2020-12-02 17:30:00

Don't mean to dredge up an old thread but I'll dump more info on here in case this helps someone else. Also please correct me if I'm wrong.
I'm an now retiring the i5-7500 unit I bought just recently (shame really - nice PC) - as this does not support 4k HDR - works flawless with any 4K media but cannot physically push 4K.HDR through the cable! After a lot of research (ya ok googling..) turns out the Video port specification is quite critical to the whole 4K HDR playback chain!
The unit I acquired has three display port 1.2 - that does not have enough bandwidth for 4k.HDR.
For 4K HDR the following is needed in terms of video port connection...
HDMI 2.0: Supports up to 4K at 60Hz, and later versions (HDMI 2.0a and 2.0b) include support for HDR
DisplayPort 1.4: Supports up to 8K at 60Hz and HDR
So now am running a low profile desktop with a GT1030 with HDMI 2.0b, HDR @ 4K seems to work across the board including native OS support > Windows HD color settings > display capabilities has YES on all three fields.

acura - 2020-12-19 17:25:00