"Home Theatre" PC

[GrahamL]

I'll be buying one of the 2022 LG OLEDs soon. I make family holiday videos, which are 4k/50p (some HDR), for which I already have a well-specified Scan 3XS-built PC for editing using DV Resolve. But I'd like to additionally have a quiet PC for the lounge to show the videos on the new OLED. And to maybe stream some 4k material from the internet.

Do Scan have a suitable off-the-shelf PC for a job like this ? Or is this a job for the 3XS people ? If so, what would be the spec (in outline terms), and the approximate cost.

Best Regards
Graham Laws

[Guy]

I'd imagine a suitably spec'd Intel NUC would be more than up to the job.
Perfect size as well.

[MrJim]

I think home theatre PCs are fairly uncommon these days - most people use a NAS (whether dedicated hardware or a custom PC running something like True NAS), running a DLNA or Plex server. I use a small two-disk Synology NAS to feed video to my LG OLED tv, and although simple, it works very well.

[spacein_vader]

I think home theatre PCs are fairly uncommon these days - most people use a NAS (whether dedicated hardware or a custom PC running something like True NAS), running a DLNA or Plex server. I use a small two-disk Synology NAS to feed video to my LG OLED tv, and although simple, it works very well.

Agreed, but if you're only feeding one TV a HTPC works well. In that case I also vote for a NUC. An i3 would do as intel processor onboard graphics are very good at video encoding/decoding.

[GrahamL]

Thanks for these replies. Am I wrong in thinking that the lowest spec NVIDIA graphics card that can handle 4k 50p HDR 10 bit (or 12bit) 200mbps with HDMI 2.1 output, would be RTX3080.? Will one of these fit in a NUC ?

Best Regards
Graham Laws

[AGTDenton]

A nice website for NUCs/MiniPCs/HTPCs:

https://inside-tech.co.uk/product-category/nucs/
https://inside-tech.co.uk/mini-pcs/

[Unique]

i'd suggest using a firestick 4k or nvidia sheild, aka a kodi box, but one with widevine that's proper android tv instead of the phone version on a cheap box. firestick and sheild will play most of the official streaming apps like netflix, prime, disney, apple and then you can stream files from your pc or usb drive using kodi and network shares, or plex. it'll usually work out cheaper and you have something automatically configured to play nice with the tv, and a remote control. you can of course use a keyboard/mouse/pad. i use a small handheld keyboard. i have pcs connected via hdmi to both tv's but find streaming that way is the best, and i've been outputting pc stuff to tvs since the 90s and tried all sorts of things

[GrahamL]

My thanks to all contributors to this thread. Whilst idly looking through my LG OLED TV's manual, I spotted a native Media Player app (which I've never used), which accepts an NTFS-formatted drive connected to the USB port. Not really expecting very much I connected up an external drive containing some of my 10-bit UHD 50p HDR files. Not only were the files played flawlessly, they looked absolutely stunning ! This feature is somewhat underplayed in the manual, to the point of really being just mentioned in passing. Looks like I've just saved myself some dosh.

Thanks everyone, and Best Regards
Graham Laws

[Shooty*]

Good to hear you found a solution. I was just going to agree with Unique. About 15 years ago, I put a lot of effort into an HTPC. I can't recall what application I ran on it now. Anyway, ended up replacing the entire thing with a Fire TV and have never looked back