[mythtv-users] FE upgrade to support 4k TV

[Thomas Mashos]

On Mon, Nov 17, 2014 at 8:23 AM, Peter Buelow <goballstate at gmail.com> wrote:
> Hello, I've been doing some research about this, and want to know what
> people think about migrating to a 4k TV, specifically with respect to Myth.
> Mostly I know there isn't much 4k content yet, but I don't upgrade often, so
> I want to get something that will be relevant for 7-10 years (assuming the
> device lasts that long). I see several threads related to this question
> (some 2 years old), but I can't find anyone who has just asked directly
> about migrating a Myth setup to 4k and what problems and challenges go with
> that. It's a basic FE setup, connected to the TV through a fairly new Onkyo
> receiver (TX-NR616). The receiver claims to support 4k for compat TV's, but
> I haven't verified/tested that yet. I hope I can reuse my current home
> theater setup without a lot of changes.
>
> Specific questions.
>
> 1. I keep reading in several threads that 4k decoding might be changing
> before long. Is this an h.265 problem? Will changes to specs mean any 4k TV
> is hobbled at best in a year or two? Or can decoders be upgraded? They said
> the same thing about HD changing and screwing early adopters long ago, but
> that didn't amount to much that I remember. I see ffmpeg work related to
> this though, so maybe I don't care?
> 2. I know Myth on it's own will work fine in 4k, but do I need bleeding edge
> Nvidia and new cabling for video playback, or can I live with my current
> card/cables and make all video resolutions work? The setup is currently a
> GTX 460, AMD 64 bit something or another (at least 5 years old, pry older,
> see below), and standard HDMI cabling. I watch FOTA TV in HD on it streaming
> (GbE) from a dedicated BE, plus several hundred of my movies transcoded
> using Handbrake for easy access streaming from the same BE.
> 3. I'll transcode any new content to 4k (why not?) if/when Handbrake
> supports, plus we do a lot of 4k video recording of my daughter because our
> phones/cameras support it, so mostly this effort is to support that for now.
> Will Myth have issues, and will I have to build the SW on my own, or should
> it work out of the box on the latest Fedora using yum (rpmfusion built
> version)?
>
> My plan is to do a wholesale FE update for new capabilities. My current
> setup is fairly old cause it just works. The only big changes in the last 8
> years are a new Nvidia card and a new flash drive. So I'll do a new
> MB/CPU/RAM/Video(?) but same case (Antec Silver I love). Mostly, I want to
> see if I can't get another 8-10 years with minimal changes like before. What
> started this was my wife promised we could buy a new TV for the Super Bowl a
> year ago, so I think I want to go 4k now as it's not that much more
> expensive. Plus, we keep our TV's for a long time. The unit being replaced
> is a 47 inch LG that is almost 8 years old now. And I like the 70" Vizio at
> Costco a lot. Samsung had one on display at Best Buy as well that I thought
> was visually outstanding though much more expensive.
>
> Thanks for any help and suggestions.
>
> --
> Pete
>
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>

I don't know the answers to most of your questions, but I'll comment
on one. Why would you transcode to 4k? Everytime you transcode you
lose quality, so unless you are transcoding from a higher quality to a
lower quality in order to save space I don't know why you would want
to transcode it.

-- 
Thanks,

Thomas Mashos