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I'm getting frustrated with the likes of Google Chrome, Roku, etc., being wonky and not always playing nice with apps on whatever device I'm trying to cast from. For some time I've been considering getting a bare-bones desktop to use basically as an entertainment console hooked up to my TV and sound system for streaming content, OTA content, CD/DVD/other physical media, etc. I haven't had a desktop in a long time so I'm out of touch with what sort of requirements would be needed for my purposes. I don't intend to store a lot of media on the local drive; at most a few hundred CDs ripped in WAV or FLAC. I'm not a gamer so that's not an issue if it matters. Right now my TV is 1080 though I may upgrade to 4K in the near future. Any suggestions for what kind of build can handle 4K graphics processing without hiccups?
Summed up : if you don't have a source of inexpensive 4K programming, don't bother upgrading right now. Frankly, it's not that great. And then there is the added expense for graphics hardware capable of supporting HDMI 2.0 / HDCP 2.2.
Myself and several others who thought a 4K TV / computer monitor would be "great" have downgraded to 1080p.
Currently, most desktop PCs have graphics processors capable of handling 1080p (& HDMI 1.4) - but double check. It's the 2160p that's hard to find (& HDMI 2.0).
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Large (and wide) monitors exhibit an optical anomaly when viewed close up - the edges appear to bend away.
Solution: curved monitor.
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Any suggestions for what kind of build can handle 4K graphics processing without hiccups?
I think you are looking at this wrong way, instead of pushing the content to the device pull it from storage. Let the device you are viewing it on handle the rest. Most TV's today you can connect an external drive to them. Haven't tested it but I have a pretty good router with one USB port, you can attach a printer or external drive to it. Should be possible you can stream video right from that.
I think you are looking at this wrong way, instead of pushing the content to the device pull it from storage. Let the device you are viewing it on handle the rest. Most TV's today you can connect an external drive to them. Haven't tested it but I have a pretty good router with one USB port, you can attach a printer or external drive to it. Should be possible you can stream video right from that.
Mine has the same thing, although my TV hasn't been able to pick it up from there. However, my TV can stream media from a direct USB connection to storage.
I've been using my (only) desktop as the source of 90% of my entertainment for well over a decade.
I play CDs, DVDs, Bluerays in it's player, or from files on my external hard drives.
I have a video card with two outputs, (pretty common), one for my monitor, the other for my 2k plasma (with a long cable).
I use the super common, top-rated free video player VLC Player in my PC to play all the above, and have an app in my smartphone that acts as a remote control, pause/resume, jump back/forward 10 seconds, vol up/dn, next/prev show, add, delete to play list, subtitles on/off, etc etc etc. It has the side benefit that it auto-mutes the playback during an incoming phone call !
I have a CD/DVD/Blue-ray player, and even a VHS player, and my TV has a USB input, but I use them maybe once a month.
If you wanted to go this way, your computer CPU speed is pretty much irrelevant, use the cheapest that will work. (Unless you do video file editing, in which case the opposite).
You'll want a lot of storage, but external HDDs are super cheap.
The real concern is that you want it to be super easy to control, minute-by-minute as you watch the show. Pausing for a run to get a glass of milk, or hitting the jump-back-10-sec button to rewatch the funny part, is what makes DVR'ing so great.
I'm getting frustrated with the likes of Google Chrome, Roku, etc., being wonky and not always playing nice with apps on whatever device I'm trying to cast from. For some time I've been considering getting a bare-bones desktop to use basically as an entertainment console hooked up to my TV and sound system for streaming content, OTA content, CD/DVD/other physical media, etc. I haven't had a desktop in a long time so I'm out of touch with what sort of requirements would be needed for my purposes. I don't intend to store a lot of media on the local drive; at most a few hundred CDs ripped in WAV or FLAC. I'm not a gamer so that's not an issue if it matters. Right now my TV is 1080 though I may upgrade to 4K in the near future. Any suggestions for what kind of build can handle 4K graphics processing without hiccups?
Have you considered a laptop? It can do all that in a small footprint that uses less energy. Anyway, go with a Kaby Lake CPU for the built-in HW HEVC 10 bit decoding.
Summed up : if you don't have a source of inexpensive 4K programming, don't bother upgrading right now. Frankly, it's not that great. And then there is the added expense for graphics hardware capable of supporting HDMI 2.0 / HDCP 2.2.
Myself and several others who thought a 4K TV / computer monitor would be "great" have downgraded to 1080p.
Some of the streaming content I watch has a 4K option. To be honest I'm not that interested in it. At my age, my eyesight is diminished enough that I can barely tell the difference between 4K and 1080p unless my nose is pressed against the screen. But I am interested in upgrading to an OLED TV, and pretty much your only option is 4K. So as long as I have it, I want to make sure whatever rig I have can process 4K content without any issues.
Quote:
Originally Posted by davidt1
Have you considered a laptop? It can do all that in a small footprint that uses less energy. Anyway, go with a Kaby Lake CPU for the built-in HW HEVC 10 bit decoding.
My cursory research so far suggests that, on an equivalent capacity basis, you can build out a desktop for quite a bit cheaper. Don't need a built-in monitor, don't need a built-in keyboard, easier to upgrade going forward, etc.
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