I've been wanting to update my media consumption gear for a while. But there's something I'm a little confused on.
I know there are different specs when it comes to the differing versions of HDMI. And I believe they have gives and takes to this.
I'm wanting to just build a little decent machine that doesn't cost alot. Would I have to buy something with a newer gpu like the 900 series nvidia graphics cards or the new amd 400 or 500 series cards to enjoy just 1080p video?
I don't have a TV that's fancy or anything. It's just a 55 inch lcd tv backlighted by led. I was hoping you guys had a solution, or suggestion on what I should do graphics wise to just be able to enjoy the 1080p content I have? Like my Blu-rays?
What do I have to look for, or be aware of? Are there simple options here? Would greatly appreciate your input.
There are a bunch of web sites tailored to building an HTPC. I was interested in the subject 2 years ago. The iGPU on the newer intel cpu's should handle 1080 playback. My experience went badly. I have an ancient Sanyo flatsceen and hooking up the HDMI gave be nothing on my a10-7850k. VGA worked but looked like crap. Odd that an old 19" monitor that had no hdmi, just vga and that weird AMD thing, worked flawlessly with VGA. The Roku works great in hdmi The brand new Roku does not The dvd player works with the RGB wires If you have another modern PC I would try it with hdmi on your TV first. Wish I could help more
Playing 1080p is really no big deal these days, not even a graphics card required (except for the output to the TV obviously). An RX400+ or GTX 10 series is only required for HEVC/4K content playback (except when you have a Kaby Lake CPU, but it doesn't sound like it), because decoding HEVC/H.265/whatever you want to call it takes a lot of resources.
But as trucker said, test the graphics output beforehand if at all possible because certain TV models might have issues.
For an alternative approach to a dedicated PC in the living room, you could do server-client instead.
Software like Plex/Emby allows streaming from any PC in your house to any other PC and the RaspberryPi (~$60) can natively decode 1080p AVC content when booted into Kobi/Rasplex directly.
True, I use a Raspberry Pi2 with osmc/kodi, and stream media from my desktop pc in the office. Or YouTube. Advantage is it's silent and small. As in, Velcro stick to rear of the tv.
My GF's HTPC had trouble playing video on the iGPU so I got her a GT 720. It works well at video playback and can run a few games too. Here is a newer option.
My HTPC is a haswell i3. It does just fine for 1080. You could very well get away with something like a G4400 if you wanted to. I would even suggest an AMD APU but they are old and the socket is dead. You could wait for ryzen 3 and see what that has in store but I think the G4400 is a solid pick. Theres nothing in particular you need to watch out for unless you want to do 4k. If you want 4k youll need something that supports not only HDMI 2.0 but hardware decoding. I think the nvidia 9 series is the bare minimum and I'm not sure which AMD cards will do this. If you dont care about 4k then the integrated will work just fine.
My first HTPC was an AMD kabini 5350. Hardly a powerful chip but more than enough to do 1080. What really makes a difference is the software being used for playback. MPC and VLC are my go to. I usually try VLC first and if it is a little laggy MPC usually cures that.
I use a RPi3 with LibreElec as media PC, I don't use Plex but stream everything directly, the RPi3 is powerful enough. That being said, Netflix doesn't work because DRM... Everything else works fine, there is an abundance of addons for pretty mich everything. I've also an external 3.5“ HDD connected and have no problems with 1080p videos. Yesterday I tested just out of curiosity a 1080p h265 video and didn't notice any stuttering either, but I'll have to do more testing, just to be sure.
Keep in mind though, that a 2.5“ external HDD or and external DVD player might be a little tricky and in some cases you might have to overvolt your USB port. You should also purchase a solid power supply for your RPi.
Well, 4k is out of the question. I can't tell the difference between the two. My eyes just don't see it. Probably something wrong with my vision. But I can tell the difference between 30 and 60 fps content. Most of my media will be streamed. I use Plex mostly. I have all of my DVDs and Blu-rays converted. But when I get new Blu-rays, I want to be able to watch them, which is why I have a slot loading Blu-ray drive.
I'm just looking for some kind of setup that will do 1080p without hiccups or stuttering and handle 60 fps content if need be.
