4k TVs and Monitors

ddrueding

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Were one to build an HTPC for a 4K TV, what sort of requirements are you looking at?

What is the lowest-powered fanless video card that could do the job?

CPU?

I'm assuming hardware decoding would be a must, what would you guys look for with regards to software?

Uncompressed 4k video is just under 500MB/s, should supporting that locally be a consideration? Assuming 100MB/s GbE is fine for the rest?
 

Mercutio

Fatwah on Western Digital
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7x00 ATI GPUs have hardware support for decoding and displaying 4k video, which means the other, wrong-er people probably can with current GPUs as well.

For the rest I'd probably look at a low power i3 and run XBMC.
 

Handruin

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7x00 ATI GPUs have hardware support for decoding and displaying 4k video, which means the other, wrong-er people probably can with current GPUs as well.

For the rest I'd probably look at a low power i3 and run XBMC.

I didn't think S3 Graphics made modern graphics cards any more?
 

Mercutio

Fatwah on Western Digital
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I've actually been strongly tempted to get an Intel NUC system except that HD4000 graphics have some pretty serious compromises if you want a full AV experience.

Given that nVidia makes high performance ARM SoCs and GPUs, in another generation or so I suspect that we'll have an Android-based system that can very credibly do HTPC stuff, including the 4K video output.
 

Chewy509

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I didn't think S3 Graphics made modern graphics cards any more?

They still do, but aimed at embedded markets. You can still purchased stand-alone cards, but are very difficult to find.

IIRC, their latest chipset has full hardware acceleration for H.264, MPEG-4, VC-1, WMV-HD and AVS, OpenGL 3.0 and DX10.1 support, all in roughly a 2-10W power envelope.
 

ddrueding

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Finally got the display to work at full res (3840x2160). I've concluded that there is no way to use the mini DisplayPort to do anything better than 1080P. I bought countless adapters and cables at various price points and all behaved exactly the same. Finally got a DVI->HDMI cable and it worked right away. Man is that pretty.
 

sdbardwick

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Highest resolution DisplayPort adapter I've seen is 2560x1600 (like these at Newegg).
Then you need to remember to use a dual link DVI cable as well... I've had 'clients' [family] omit that bit -despite written instructions- and call me at midnight to yell at me 'cause their brand new 27" lcd was blurry.
 

ddrueding

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This is just temporary of course, learning what it can do. But it was fun to have Adobe Bridge on the huge left and Photoshop on the calibrated 30"er on the right.
 

ddrueding

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Finally got the x-rite i1 out to try and calibrate it....better, but horrible. The pixels aren't exceptionally sharp or well-defined either. Great for video, but not as a monitor.

Still, Civ5 is great at this resolution ;)
 

sdbardwick

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Aw. The lack of sharpness is disappointing but not surprising given the cost. Do you think the lack of sharpness is due to some sort of AR coating or did they go pentile or some other non-RGB stripe?
 

ddrueding

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It just looks blurry. When I bring my macro home I'll take a few pictures.

Granted, it is sharper than any of my 1080P screens, but the color is still way off.
 

Stereodude

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It looks like the RGB stripe is reversed from how Windows is expecting it to be. That may cause the subpixel rendering to be incorrect.
 

P5-133XL

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It really was a shame that your $1500 4K TV didn't have a sharp enough display for monitor use. At that price it really was a bargain.
 

ddrueding

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Anyone know of an onboard graphics solution that can handle 4k? I'm looking into building a small computer to drive a 4k display. Ideally it would be a single-board solution using an mSATA SSD and a PicoPSU that I could just mount to the back of the TV.

Intel is decidedly not helpful in this respect:

Can I get a list of resolutions that my Intel graphics support? No. A list of resolutions is not available. The resolutions that are selectable on your computer will depend on many factors including but not limited to:

  • The chipset or processor in your system
  • Which display port you are using
  • How your computer manufacturer has configured your computer
  • Your display or monitor capabilities
  • If your display or monitor is plug and play
  • If your display or monitor is in single mode, clone, or extended desktop mode.
Check with your computer and display manufacturers to find out the supported resolutions of the computer and display. If you are using multiple displays in clone or duplicate mode, you can only select a resolution that is supported by all displays.

I'm even less familiar with the AMD options, and their website isn't giving me anything.

Thoughts?
 

ddrueding

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IIRC, Haswell has 4K support... (IvyBridge had 4K support, but not on HDMI)

http://www.anandtech.com/show/7007/intels-haswell-an-htpc-perspective

An important caveat in that review:

Now, for the bad news: If you are hoping to drive the ~$1300 Seiki Digital SE50UY04 50" 4K TV (the cheapest 4K TV in the market right now), I would suggest some caution. Our build tried to drive a 3840x2160 @ 30 Hz resolution to the Seiki TV on boot, but the HDMI link never got locked (the display would keep flickering on and off). The frequency of locking was inversely proportional to the HDMI cable length. The NVIDIA GT 640s that we tested in the same setup with the same cables and TV managed to drive the 4K Quad FHD resolutions without problems. We were able to recreate the situation with multiple Seiki units.
At this juncture, we are not sure whether this is an issue with the ASRock Z87E-ITX board in particular or a problem for all Haswell boards. Intel suggested that the HDMI level shifter used by ASRock might not be up to the mark for 4K output, but that doesn't explain why the output to the Sony 84" TV worked without issues. In short, if you have a Seiki 4K TV and want to use a PC to drive that, we would suggest using a NVIDIA GT 640 or greater / AMD 7750 or greater for now. We will update this section as and when we reach closure on the issue with ASRock / Intel.

Dependent on cable length? I can use a 1' cable in my case.....worth a try?
 

jtr1962

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I'm even less familiar with the AMD options, and their website isn't giving me anything.
My setup (A10-5800K and F2A85V-PRO) supports up to 4096x2160@60Hz through DisplayPort. DVI is limited to 2560x1600@60Hz, and HDMI is limited to standard 1920x1080@60Hz
 

P5-133XL

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Don't forget, you may or may not need to change power supplies. I have no idea if the Pico PSU supports Haswell's chipset. Power supplies designed for earlier chipset's may not power up when signaled to do so by a Haswell MB.

I'm not saying it won't work, but I think you need to be prepared for the possibility that it won't work until Pico updates its PS's to work. Their are few equivalent alternatives to Pico PSU's. You may wish to contact Pico to find out before committing money.
 

ddrueding

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I had no idea Haswell was changing the ATX12v PSU spec. And I still can't find a link to good information. Thanks for the warning.
 

sdbardwick

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My (admittedly unfocused) monitoring of the PSU issue left me with the impression is that the potential problem was PSUs not being able to cope with Haswell's extremely low power draw in its C7 state.
From this VR-Zone article:
According to our sources, the new C6/C7 power states on the Haswell-Shark Bay platform will require the system power supply to be able to maintain a minimum current load of 0.05Amps on the CPU exclusive 12V2 rail (0.6W).
psu-spec.jpg
Older or bargain basement power supply units may be unable to achieve this, and might become unstable or trigger a UVP/OVP shutdown once the system enters the C6/C7 power states. This is because the previous ATX12V v2.3 design guidelines for Ivy Bridge and its predecessors only called for a minimum load of 0.5 Amps on the CPU power rail, hence a less sophisticated internal feedback loop/protection could be used in older or cost-reduced offerings, which will not support the new standards.


Read more: http://vr-zone.com/articles/is-your-power-supply-ready-for-haswell/19848.html#ixzz2VPE7SS3b
If P5 knows of another issue, I'd appreciate a link.

Edit: Anandtech also says it is not an issue with the currently available SKUs:
You’ll notice that I didn’t mention any of the aggressive platform power optimizations in my sections on Haswell power management, that’s because they pretty much don’t apply here. The new active idle (S0ix) states are not supported by any of the desktop SKUs. It’s only the forthcoming Y and U series parts that support S0ix.
 
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