Downscaling 4k - The best way

[Skyobliwind 7]

Hi,

I'm using my emby on multiple devices, so transcoding is needed on some ofc, but I wonder what would be the best way to downscale 4k content to 1080p for TV and Beamer?

Is there maybe a good hardware (clientside) that handles this automatically? As far as I know there are better ways (in terms of picture qualitiy etc.) to playback 4k content on fhd than transcoding the whole content from the server side. I can also play 4k blurays on my 1080p beamer directly from the 4k player, so it or the beamer must be doing the downscaling (without any kind of transcoding). Atm I'm using a fireTV Stick for playback.

 

Regards

Skyobliwind

[speechles 2055]

I know Roku handles all this automatically. On the Roku Ultra you can direct play 4K content just fine to an 1080p or 720p television. The Roku handles all the downscaling. A downscaled 4K->1080 on Roku looks better than the equivalent 1080P master. This is because in 4K it will downsample while keeping HDR. Roku Ultra can certainly do this.

I am not sure how FireTV handles this.

 

Edited December 22, 2020 by speechles

[Skyobliwind 7]

Ok, that's what I wanted to hear. I will look into what the 4k FireTV will do if connected to different Output devices, but the Roku is a good alternative then.

[Carlo 4561]

28 minutes ago, speechles said:

I know Roku handles all this automatically. On the Roku Ultra you can direct play 4K content just fine to an 1080p or 720p television. The Roku handles all the downscaling. A downscaled 4K->1080 on Roku looks better than the equivalent 1080P master. This is because in 4K it will downsample while keeping HDR. Roku Ultra can certainly do this.

I am not sure how FireTV handles this.

 

I haven't tried this so I'll ask.  What happens if the Roku Ultra is connected to a 1080p non HDR TV but you play back 4K HDR content?  Does it handle the HDR to non HDR correctly?

The Shield TV can also downscale 4K media as well which is my daily driver.

[speechles 2055]

@cayars yep. It will strip the HDR and wash out somewhat the color range. All on the device. ^_~

Edited December 22, 2020 by speechles

[Carlo 4561]

Got ya, thanks for the quick answer!

[speechles 2055]

Not at all sure what Amazon's devices are capable of though. I only have one Amazon device the Echo show and just got that to Skype/Zoom with. Also going to try to get Roku to do more things that Emby can do with Alexa. That was the main intent.

Edited December 22, 2020 by speechles

[vdatanet 1617]

The Shield with firmware Experience 8.2 can even tone map HDR to SDR.

[Carlo 4561]

14 minutes ago, vdatanet said:

The Shield with firmware Experience 8.2 can even tone map HDR to SDR.

For many people this is a game changer as the one device can play anything on any TV.

[Skyobliwind 7]

Would you say a Shield Pro is worth the extra cost just for just video streaming? From what I read this would only be needed for direct Android Gaming.

[vdatanet 1617]

1 hour ago, Skyobliwind said:

Would you say a Shield Pro is worth the extra cost just for just video streaming? From what I read this would only be needed for direct Android Gaming.

It's needed if you play high content bitrate (more than 40 Mbps), Shield 2019 (Tube) can't play more than 40 Mbps.