PC for home cinema

[carancanfunfa]

Hello, I'm planning to buy a pc for home cinema from which I will send audio & video to a Yamaha receiver RX-V667 through HDMI. My concern is, in the setup, who does the decoding? Should I care very much about the decoding capabilities of the pc (CPU, GPU) or it just will sent all through HDMI for the receiver to do the decoding? If I should, what will I need as a minimum? Any other capability I should care about? (I'm planing to use it just for audio & video, no gaming)
Thanks!

 

[OM_2K19]

If you intend to play 4K AV files on that PC and send the output to an external display via AVR, you need a decent CPU/GPU system for smooth playback. Playback of 4K files is pretty resource-intensive. Or you can host a Plex server on that PC and let the display play the file (via Direct Play). Here any decent/old system will do that trick.

 

[Love4sound]

Hello, I'm planning to buy a pc for home cinema from which I will send audio & video to a Yamaha receiver RX-V667 through HDMI. My concern is, in the setup, who does the decoding? Should I care very much about the decoding capabilities of the pc (CPU, GPU) or it just will sent all through HDMI for the receiver to do the decoding? If I should, what will I need as a minimum? Any other capability I should care about? (I'm planing to use it just for audio & video, no gaming)
Thanks!

What is your budget? For 4k HDR and lossless audio i will recommend a decent card like 1650Ti which will even work well for madvr but the lesser cards will also be capable to perform well for HT usage.

 

[gourav]

Actually, all 8th gen Intel Core i3 and above and all Ryzen processors will easily deal with 4k videos. Playing 4k is resource intensive, but modern processors are also quite capable. 4k HEVC might make the lower end processors struggle, but i5 and equivalent Ryzen will work for that too.

Regarding AVR, AVR doesn't do video processing, only audio. You can set your PC to pass the raw audio stream directly to the receiver for decoding. Video processing will have to happen on the PC.

For context, a Fire Stick 4k doesn't have a fraction of the power of an i3 processor, but handles most 4k files. So does a Raspberry Pi 4 with LibreELEC. (I use both). I also have an NUC with a 7th gen Intel i5 processor and it has no trouble playing 4k files. In fact, once when my Pi was struggling with a 4k HEVC file, I used my NUC to watch the movie.

So you don't really have to worry too much about the PC's specs (unless you want madvr). Just go for a decent machine with a processor from last 4 years and 8GB RAM and you're golden.

I'd recommend getting an NUC if your budget permits for its small footprint and hassle free setup.

 

[sbg]

addition point to consider if , i.e if support for 4K blue-ray media is needed then consider CPUs that support Intel SGX

 

[fLUX]

Hello, I'm planning to buy a pc for home cinema from which I will send audio & video to a Yamaha receiver RX-V667 through HDMI. My concern is, in the setup, who does the decoding? Should I care very much about the decoding capabilities of the pc (CPU, GPU) or it just will sent all through HDMI for the receiver to do the decoding? If I should, what will I need as a minimum? Any other capability I should care about? (I'm planing to use it just for audio & video, no gaming)
Thanks!

Why a PC , if gaming is not a criteria then a laptop should be perfect for this use case. You get good Ryzen/AMD laptops with 1650ti for about 50/60k , IMO this will serve you better for audio/video.

 

[gourav]

Laptops are not recommended for extended viewing sessions. They will also be more difficult to place since you can't put it on the floor. Something like NUC is ideal for this purpose. Otherwise building a Small Form Factor (SFF) PC in India is not very easy, parts are not easily available. Cabinets and power supplies for SFF PCs can be quite expensive. Full tower is easier to build, but it would be a bit of an overkill just for movie watching.

Of course, there's the question of why specifically a PC. If the purpose is only Audio/Video, then a Fire Stick 4k max will serve the purpose for 6.5k (lower during sale). Even if you need something more powerful, Nvidia Shield Pro can be ordered from Amazon.com for about 25k. These devices will have the added convenience of a remote with common multimedia buttons.

 

[sidvee]

Of course, there's the question of why specifically a PC. If the purpose is only Audio/Video, then a Fire Stick 4k max will serve the purpose for 6.5k (lower during sale). Even if you need something more powerful, Nvidia Shield Pro can be ordered from Amazon.com for about 25k. These devices will have the added convenience of a remote with common multimedia buttons.

I second this. I have a Nvidia shield Pro, and recently when I bought a decent graphics card for my media PC (which cost as much as the shield btw), I thought I will get better PQ with that. Well yes and no. I planned to use Jriver media Center with MadVR. First of all there are a lot of settings to be made, and lot of fiddling to be done (yes I know it is once, but still it has to be done). Secondly question of control, Jriver can be controlled by an app. on android but it is not very ergonomic. In the end I just went back to my shield, much easier to integrate, and much more convenient to operate. Yes maybe I am loosing the last nth bit of picture quality, but the shield is no slouch and puts out a fantastic 4k picture.
Cheers,
Sid

 

[fLUX]

Laptops are not recommended for extended viewing sessions. They will also be more difficult to place since you can't put it on the floor. Something like NUC is ideal for this purpose. Otherwise building a Small Form Factor (SFF) PC in India is not very easy, parts are not easily available. Cabinets and power supplies for SFF PCs can be quite expensive. Full tower is easier to build, but it would be a bit of an overkill just for movie watching.

Of course, there's the question of why specifically a PC. If the purpose is only Audio/Video, then a Fire Stick 4k max will serve the purpose for 6.5k (lower during sale). Even if you need something more powerful, Nvidia Shield Pro can be ordered from Amazon.com for about 25k. These devices will have the added convenience of a remote with common multimedia buttons.

I don't see a problem using laptop for extended times during a day. Almost everyone works on laptops these days for entire day, many game on laptops for extended times. Also you need not keep it on the floor , with form factor you can close the lid and place it much more easily. Setting up a normal PC/HTPC will be more expensive than getting a laptop (considering current GPU prices).

But I do agree that if use-case is video/audio you are better of with a Nvidia Shield or alternate media device.