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

Warpme warpme at o2.pl
Mon Nov 17 18:02:52 UTC 2014


On 17/11/14 17:23, Peter Buelow 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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This is interesting topic.
It looks like some GFX vendors already started to address 4k.

"NVIDIA developers are extending the "Video Decode and Presentation API 
for Unix" interfaces to allow the HEVC/H.265 requirements. The work aims 
to enable hardware-accelerated decoding of HEVC content under VDPAU and 
to provide a reference implementation for this video decoding. José 
Hiram Soltren, the developer that worked on this support, is also 
working on a HEVC decode patch for FFmpeg and MPlayer based upon the new 
API."

More about above is here:
http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=MTc1MT

I think Nvidia will do this correctly and on pair with HW availability 
they will provide closed drivers able to handle H265 via VDPAU.
HW decode accell seems to be crucial as with 4x higher data to decode 
software fall-back might problem even on fast CPU's.

It looks like from hardware perspective - for Nvidia case - we have to 
wait for 2nd gen of 'Maxwell' - as first gen hasn't H265 support.
I personally would track for gfx able to support H265 _and_ VP9. Rumors 
says 'Pascal' will have both.

In AMD things also going interestingly as Mesa already received H265 
patch for VDPAU:
http://lists.freedesktop.org/archives/mesa-dev/2014-July/064197.html

I'm little surprised by quite silence for AMD hardware as currently I 
had problems to find valid info about H265 4k support....
Maybe somebody else will have more luck ;-?













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