Doozer 2 Posted July 2, 2017 Share Posted July 2, 2017 I know a lot of people like using HTPC's because of MadVR which is not present on devices like the Nvidia Shield. I am wondering if you were to use an external hardware based scaler would there no longer be any benefit to using a HTPC and an Android TV device would be of the same quality? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jdiesel 1114 Posted July 2, 2017 Share Posted July 2, 2017 Most modern tvs do a pretty decent job of scaling video to the TVs native resolution. In fact some 4K tvs do a much better job scaling to 4K than and software/GPU can do. The problem is delivering the video in its native resolution to the tv so it can upscale it. For example if you set the Nvidia shield TVs system resolution to 2160p and play a 720p video the scaling is done is done on the Shield TV. If you set the system resolution to 1080p the video is scaled from 720p to 1080p on the Shield and 1080p to 2160p on the TV. In my testing on my equipment this looks better. Ideally you would output 720p directly to the TV but I don't believe the Shield TV can do this or at least it isn't an option in my settings. I do have a Roku that can output at 720p and when playing videos with a 720p resolution it results in the best picture quality. That being said there are lots of issues with changing the system resolution in a per video basis as the UI and overlay are also tied to that resolution. So I guess what I'm getting at is that hardware scalers are pretty useless for this type of source unless you can deliver the video to the scaler in its native resolution. Hardware scalers work well for sources like dvd players and cable boxes that output at the videos native resolution. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jdiesel 1114 Posted July 2, 2017 Share Posted July 2, 2017 (edited) The recommended setup for Kodi is to set the UI resolution to 1080p so that all upscaling is to 1080p and scaling from 1080p to 2160p is handled by the TV. When a native 2160p video is played the display switches its output from 1080p to 2160p and no scaling is needed. This has to benefits: 1. It utilizes the TVs superior scaling abilities 2. It reduces the horsepower needed of the player hardware to upscale to 2160p meaning lower power hardware can be used. It would be nice if the ATV app could do something similar. Right now you can do this manually by selecting a 1080 display mode from the OSD. Edited July 2, 2017 by Jdiesel Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Doozer 2 Posted July 2, 2017 Author Share Posted July 2, 2017 Thank you for the detailed response. So if the source video is 1080p, there would be no quality difference in using an ATV or HTPC? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jdiesel 1114 Posted July 2, 2017 Share Posted July 2, 2017 (edited) Depends on your display. If you have a 1080p display no scaling is taking place so the results should be very similar. If you have a 4K TV and are using a system resolution of 2160p the HTPC should be better provided it is powerful enough to run the HQ scaling algorithms. If you have a 4K TV and are using a system resolution of 1080p the results should be similar between the two as the TV is taking care of the scaling. Not to complicate matters but high performance renders like madVR can do things like chroma upscaling which is beneficial even when the resolution is not being scaled ex. 1080p video on a 1080p display or 2160p video on a 2160p display Edited July 2, 2017 by Jdiesel Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest asrequested Posted July 2, 2017 Share Posted July 2, 2017 You always have great info on this subject. You help clarify questions I have. Thanks @@Jdiesel Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Doozer 2 Posted July 3, 2017 Author Share Posted July 3, 2017 Yes. Thank you @"jdiesel" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ebr 14925 Posted September 7, 2017 Share Posted September 7, 2017 The recommended setup for Kodi is to set the UI resolution to 1080p so that all upscaling is to 1080p and scaling from 1080p to 2160p is handled by the TV. When a native 2160p video is played the display switches its output from 1080p to 2160p and no scaling is needed. This has to benefits: 1. It utilizes the TVs superior scaling abilities 2. It reduces the horsepower needed of the player hardware to upscale to 2160p meaning lower power hardware can be used. It would be nice if the ATV app could do something similar. Right now you can do this manually by selecting a 1080 display mode from the OSD. @@Jdiesel Beta 1.4.49 of the app will now choose the 1080 mode for non UHD video when the auto refresh rate switching is enabled. I changed my Shield to output at 1080 and do notice that my 4k TV does a better job of upscaling than the Shield was. One caveat I think (haven't tested exhaustively) - If you switch the Shield to 1080 mode, after it is re-started, it appears that those modes are the only ones the Android OS can see. Thus, I don't think it would switch properly to 4k with a 4k video. So, I think you'd have to keep the Shield set to 4k output and allow the auto switching in the app to re-set it for each video. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jdiesel 1114 Posted September 7, 2017 Share Posted September 7, 2017 Thanks I will do some testing tonight. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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