Home Theater upgrade. (Media PC capable of HDR, surround audio, Dolby atmos )

Hardware Hub
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Hi everyone!

So after a few years being very satisfied with my home theater setup, I’m starting to consider some upgrades to overhaul the experience.

I found a very nice deal on an HDR 10 capable 4k projector (Benq T700STI), and on some used speakers. I’m definitely going to get the new projector and speakers since the price is so low. But I’m unsure of how I could play/decode my 4k movies and audio files while making proper use of the rest of my audio equipment.

My current setup is as follows:

Denon AVR4100W (supports DTS, Dolby Atmos and up to 7.1)
7.1 speaker setup
Epson 1080p projector
Samsung Blueray player
Seagate NAS storing my ripped movies, being played through Infuse via Apple TV.

Currently, I’m unable to play files in Dolby Atmos format (I suspect it’s because of my Apple Tv 3rd gen. I believe 4k apple tv is only capable of doing so via streaming)

I would like to be able to play 4k files without compression, and audio and 4k video files with DTS and Dolby Atmos (since my AVR is capable of it, but never actually tried it out)

I’m planning on buying or building an HTPC in order to decode movies and passthrough my AVR. But I dont know what would work best for me. This is what I need help with:

I’ve been considering getting either of the following:
-A mini pc from Minisfroum (HX90, since the website says its hdr capable)
-A Zidoo Z20 Pro (this apparently seems to have everything I need, but I fear it’s not the most flexible platform / is a bit closed ended)
-NVIDIA Shield
-Gigabyte GB-BRR7H-7730
-Building a HTPC from scratch (I have no idea which components would be appropriate for making the machine capable of HDR, 7.1 / or 5.2.4, and Dolby Atmos)

On the software side, I’m willing to adopt anything that allows me to organize and access my media library. I’ve been considering Plex, Infuse, Kodi and Jellyfin. But whatever works best for my case will do.

My budget for the decoding pc is around $350 - $400. I don’t need the machine to do anything else.

I hope that was clear enough! Thanks!

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Is your Samsung bluray player a modern UHD/HDR capable one? If you could run a simple DLNA/smb/… server on the seagate NAS, perhaps that would already allow you to play atmos & HDR?

Otherwise, personally I would rather look in to a out of the box solution. Software support for HDR/dolby atmos/dolby vision on PC is too cumbersome IMO. On linux you can forget about it, and I wouldn’t want a windows HTPC (updates, bloated, etc.)

Nvidia shield, a newer apple TV, or a newer UHD blu ray player that can access your NAS would be the options I’d consider. Personally I play files from my NAS on an LG tv with no issues (just dolby vision is lacking, atmos and HDR work fine - though my sound system is not atmos capable I can select the Atmos stream and it will get downmixed and plays). My Sony UHD blu ray player (ubp-700x) also works fine for this but it is a bit clunkier.

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One word: Jellyfin.

But I generally agree about using an appliance to expose media to family.

After a couple of iterations of software I find that my family is most satisfied with the AppleTV experience. They can’t be bothered with 4k, HDR, Atmos, etc. They’ll accept it as long as they don’t have to do anything.
Just find a way to make the dialog audible and the background noise not overbearing…