4k content playback on 4k screen flackey

[pclausen 44]

I'm starting to build up a decent library of 4k content (House of Cards, The Man in the High Castle, etc) and I'm finding that the current version of ET doesn't play it back consistently.

 

Sometimes it will begin to play it and then stutter and then crash.  Other times, it won't play the content at all.

 

I'm running MadVR and when playing back 1080p content, it gets scaled up to the native 4k resolution of my TV and I have no issues at all (using a GTX 970 card in my HTPC).

 

Is this a known issue and one that is likely to be addressed with the new version of ET?

 

Btw, that 4k content plays back just fine when using Windows 10 Media Player directly.

[tman 47]

Native 4k playback on an HTPC is pretty immature at the moment - specifically drivers and third party app support. WMC just doesn't like running at 4k full stop, so I too have to run everything at 1080P, and let the panel upscale, which it generally does a pretty good job at. Is it 4k@30fps or 60fps by the way? The latter requires HDMI 2.0a support, which can also be a problem.

Saying that, your specs are very high end, so if anything can play it, your kit should be able to. Have you tried running MPC-HC with LAV + MadVR @ native 4k? How does that playback content? Are you using CUDA acceleration, because DXVA, I believe, doesn't have 4k acceleration support.

Edited December 8, 2015 by tman

[pclausen 44]

Most of my 4k content is 23.976Hz.  I have a Denon X3100 receiver (not HDCP 2.2 compliant but does support 60Hz @ 4k passthrough) sitting in between the HTPC and the TV (LG 84UB9800).  The LG does support HDMI 2.0 for 4K resolutions up to 60hz. 10 or 12-bit color is also supported (with 4:2:2 signals or 4:2:0 signals). HDCP 2.2 is supported as well.  Unfortunately, due to the limitation of available HDMI chipsets when this TV was released, I can't get 4k 60Hz 12-bit color AND HDCP 2.2 at the same time.  My hope is that once the 4k content gets cracked, I don't need to worry about HDCP 2.2.

 

I have some 4K 60Hz demo content that plays back fine (using VLC) but my H.265 content won't use my 970 hardware to playback (yes I know it doesn't support it directly in hardware unlike the 960 that was released later).

 

I have not played with MPC-HC in a long time, but depending on what happens with the new version of ET, I might look into that.

[wiretap 30]

I have the same issues playing back 4K with Emby Theater.. no problems with other players. (VLC, MPC-HC, etc) My problem is that Emby sometimes has weird GUI overlays that get stuck on the screen and won't go away, then it just crashes. I believe I made a thread on it several weeks ago. Emby Theater definitely needs some improvement if it wants to be a current/next generation home theater program. Hopefully the re-write of the new Emby Theater will address these issues.

[tman 47]

Most of my 4k content is 23.976Hz.  I have a Denon X3100 receiver (not HDCP 2.2 compliant but does support 60Hz @ 4k passthrough) sitting in between the HTPC and the TV (LG 84UB9800).  The LG does support HDMI 2.0 for 4K resolutions up to 60hz. 10 or 12-bit color is also supported (with 4:2:2 signals or 4:2:0 signals). HDCP 2.2 is supported as well.  Unfortunately, due to the limitation of available HDMI chipsets when this TV was released, I can't get 4k 60Hz 12-bit color AND HDCP 2.2 at the same time.  My hope is that once the 4k content gets cracked, I don't need to worry about HDCP 2.2.

 

I have some 4K 60Hz demo content that plays back fine (using VLC) but my H.265 content won't use my 970 hardware to playback (yes I know it doesn't support it directly in hardware unlike the 960 that was released later).

 

I have not played with MPC-HC in a long time, but depending on what happens with the new version of ET, I might look into that.

 

 

 

MPC-HC is the definitive playback app on the PC as far as I'm concerned. It natively uses LAV without any other configuration now (and it supports CUDA), and you can easily integrate MadVR into it. LAV also supports HEVC and H.265 accelerated playback. It's all I can really say - it just plays anything I throw at it, and widespread tests show, with sufficient hardware, smooth 4k playback is easily possible.

Edited December 10, 2015 by tman