r/htpc

I have a MacBook Pro (M1 Max) and a Sony Bravia 65” Mini LED TV, plus a PS5.

I’m interested in watching Christopher Nolan movies such as Interstellar and Dunkirk in their Blu-ray variable-aspect-ratio presentation. I understand that the Blu-ray version isn’t the full 1.43:1 IMAX frame either; I’m specifically interested in preserving the variable aspect ratio that switches between the wider and taller framing.

I have access to a good Blu-ray-quality/remux file of the movie, rather than a heavily compressed encode.

My question is:
If I connect my MacBook directly to the Bravia via HDMI and play the file using VLC (or another recommended player), will I get essentially the same video quality as playing the physical Blu-ray through my PS5?

I’m particularly concerned about:
- Whether macOS/VLC will alter or rescale the video in any way.
- Whether the variable aspect ratio will be preserved exactly.
- Whether HDR, 24 fps, bitrate, etc. will be handled properly.
- Whether the PS5 has any advantage in video processing/output compared with the MacBook.
- Whether VLC is the right player, or whether IINA/mpv or something else would be better for Blu-ray remux playback.
- Whether I should connect Mac → TV or somehow use the PS5/another device instead.

I know that purchasing the Blu-ray would probably be the best solution, but unfortunately that’s not very practical for me. One movie can cost around $60–70, and there isn’t really a good pre-owned Blu-ray market in India where I can easily find these older titles at reasonable prices.

If anyone has experience with Blu-ray remuxes + MacBook + Sony Bravia, I’d really appreciate some guidance on the best setup/settings.

Thanks!

Alright, just going by process of elimination here, I'm going to state a few things I'm pretty sure it's not. I watched Eternals a few days ago on 4K Blu-ray with an Atmos track on my PlayStation 5, and that didn't skip once, so that rules out an issue with the receiver. I've also switched HDMI cables and switched from the HDMI port to DisplayPort with an adapter. And of course this problem presents with ANY content going from the PC to HDMI in the receiver, or at least any Dolby content – not totally sure about DTS. Finally, I tried switching out MPC-HC with madVR for MPV and still had audio skipping in the exact same way. So it's seemingly not the render pipeline either. But this issue has been affecting both my small form factor desktop and the home theater PC, so it seems like it's specifically a problem of AMD graphics cards. Transferring the media from the HDD to a super fast SSD before playback also did not solve the issue.

The first time I noticed my bitstream audio skipping/stuttering/cutting out was a few weeks ago when I tried watching the 4K Blu-ray collection of Andor Season 1. Reset everything in the K-Lite Codec Pack and it seemed to go way for a while. What started out as an annoyance that would present itself once or twice over the course of an entire movie sometimes is now a constant disruption. Bitstreaming ANY Dolby codec from the PC with MPC or MPV results in audio stuttering within ten minutes or less. I'm missing a line of dialogue every few scenes with every single movie or TV show I watch. I may attach a report from LatencyMon, but those results don't seem illuminating – everything measured stays low and in the green for hours on end, and there don't appear to be any spikes in lag at the same time audio skipping occurs.

Since this issue seems to have come about a few weeks ago and gotten progressively worse, it's hard for me to see how the fault could be anything other than the GPU drivers or a Windows update. I was initially planning to use my desktop workstation as a failsafe for my movie party last Sunday and just push the HTPC off to the side, but testing seems to have revealed both PCs now have audio skipping. Terrific. Similar specs, but my workstation is AM5, with a 9600X, 7900XT, and 32 GB of RAM, so more powerful than the HTPC. I have run DDU multiple times, blacklisted the driver from being installed by Windows Update because of some apparent conflict there, and rolled back to 26.1.1, which should well predate when I first noticed there was a problem. Just about the only thing I haven't tried is a full reinstallation of Windows, or switching the operating system (but the way things are going, I think this may be a Linux HTPC very soon).

Any idea where to go from here? I'm pulling my hair out.

• Sony STR-DH790
• ASRock B550m Pro4, 16 GB DDR4
• Ryzen 5 5600
• XFX Speedster RX 6700
• Windows 11 IoT LTSC
• K-Lite Codec Pack MPC-HC with madVR
• MPV

This is my first htpc and just getting it the way i want it frontend is almost complete. Just a few other things to set up. I cannot figure out how to wake on lan working, it says my motherboard can do it, yet here I am. I am not clued up on this stuff at all and its taken me ages to get this far.

Heres my build

AMD Ryzen 5 5600

Gigabyte B550M K Micro ATX AM4 Motherboard.

Samsung 990 EVO Plus 2 TB M.2-2280 PCIe 5.0 X2 NVME Solid State Drive.

SilverStone SST-GD06B - Grandia

MSI MAG A650BN 650 W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply.

MSI SHADOW 2X OC GeForce RTX 5060 8 GB.

ADATA XPG GAMMIX D10 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR4-3200

Its hooked upto my Lg OLED55CS6LA smart tv and currently controlling it with a logitech k400 and an mx3 air remote, I have 2 wireless controllers that i have still to map. In an idral world i would love the telly remote to control it. But as far as im aware its not possible.

Can anyone give me some pointers?

Cheers

Upgrading the furniture in my living room. Hoping to get some ideas/recommendations for a gaming setup under my TV. Organized, not trying to draw a lot of attention to PC/Consoles.

Need room for:

1. HTPC/Gaming PC - dimensions 16"w x 17"h x 17"d (accounts for ~1.5" of room on left, right, back and ~2" on top for ventillation)

2. Nintendo Switch

3. Xbox One S

4. PS4

5. Receiver + Center Channel for 5.1 (speaker could go on top too).

6. Subwoofer (wired)

Preferably a medium/dark gray, black is okay too.

Will be placed under a wall-mounted 75" TV; should be somewhere in the ballpark of 65"-75" long and 17+" deep; height can be whatever as long as it fits PC somewhere.

TY!

Use Plex for the most part but sometimes run into reliability issues with the wifi. I want a backup to be my htpc straight to receiver using kodi since that's always reliable. I currently use an old gt710 but that only does 1080p h264. What's a decent upgrade that doesn't use a fan (too loud) and won't break the bank. I'm ok with used. Pc is windows 10 with an i5 if that matters. Is kodi still the way to go with 4k?

I decided that I was going to build out a home theater setup to go with my aged lg 1080p tv from 2016. as the tv's os is old (and I hate tv operating systems now that I know that they literally screenshot everything i'm looking at if I connect it to the network every couple minutes), I decided i'd just buy a mini pc. I went with one of those little low power n100 units with 16gb of ddr4 running the latest version of windows 11 figuring it should be a cakewalk to set up either browser or app based streaming services as well as access my home server running plex on it - but no. I learned right off the bat that most streaming services only seem to want to support 720p sdr with 2 channel audio, and that's where it works at all (pretty much just edge), so I though ok, i'll just download the streaming provider's own apps and learned that netflix deprecated it's dedicated pc streaming app and is now just a web wrapper with the same browser limitations, paramount plus is also just a web wrapper with the same limitations, and same with prime.

NONE of these services let me use atmos (which I was planning to build out now that I have a really nice (for me) AVR (a brand new onkyo rz30 that I just dropped $800 on (and yeah, i know there are more expensive, better receivers, but that's a whole bunch of money still... to go with it I bought a set of energy 5.1 speakers (a pair of rc-70's for left and right, an rc-rcr for center, and a set of rc-10's for the surrounds. I haven't figured out a sub yet, but that's one of the next things on the list and I was planning on adding heights over christmas time... a couple of the services let me use 5.1 (but it seems even that's rare).

I don't want a streaming stick because they're notoriously slow, and pointless (there is ZERO technical reason why I shouldn't be able to do full-on 4k60 hdr with atmos on this minipc. (or at least 1080p 60 sdr with atmos until I upgrade my tv.). searching through movies is particularly annoying - I just want to sit on my couch with my wireless keyboard/trackpad and search and play media.

seriously, how are people streaming video with their htpc in 2016 where it actually looks and sounds good?! I heard streaming on linux was kind of a long-standing issue (my original plan was to install linux and a frontend to save on ram and use an os that isn't constantly phoning home).

so now I'm sitting here staring at an expensive pile of parts that I got great deals on overall, but don't seem to do the thing and i'm pretty frustrated:

onkyo rz30 $800 on sale
Energy 5.0 speakers $800 on sale
n100 mini pc with 16gb of ram and 512gb ssd ($100 on sale like 2 years ago when ram was reasonably priced)

not being able to stream high quality a/v content from the streaming providers I pay an aggregate of ~$750/yr to retain... priceless.

I'm not a proponent of it, nor do I want information about it, but I do believe this is exactly why piracy is winning. streaming providers are no longer providing a good, convenient experience. I honestly really don't mind paying for the content I view, in fact, I want the people who make the content that I enjoy to be paid well for the art that they create but this is pretty ridiculous. - not to mention the steady large cost increases. I'm paying now for my collection of streaming services than I *ever* did on cable tv back in the day.

Going into this I figured i'd grab a bunch of kodi plugins for each of my streaming apps, log into all of them, spend most of my time calibrating my avr and tv and have a happy ol' time... this is totally not the case it seems. DRM is a huge bane on current consumer home theater... I ain't got that kaleidescape money bruh!

The question would be, how can i get the maximum quality out of a video file, without tampering with the original pixel presentation (or atleast the least tampering)

It's preferable to maintain a transparent quality (no degrading of the original video's quality) and without any tampering of the video's footage, that would produce changes to the original presentation of the video file.

Or is it necessary to use atleast some upscaling or video tampering to get an image? if so what would be the recommended amount, keeping maximum quality without tampering with extrinsic enhancements on the image?

I'm looking to learn the process of calibration within a small budget (~300€) using my 50" Samsung QN90A TV, that I use connected via HDMI to my GPU as a PC monitor, mainly for watching movies and to do drawings and webdesign.

If this isn't the right sub I'd appreciate if someone can point me to a place where professional calibrators are. :)

I know that I won't get a proper calibration using either Pro HL or Plus HL within the budget of ~300€ (compared to scientific measurements or using Flanders or Eizo), but it should still help doing a more informed decision while "calibrating" and learning how to do it. (I loved the process of calibrating my studio speakers, so it should be fun as well!)

If the process is enjoyable I'll look if I can rent a scientific probe from my Uni and get a proper signalflow.

Here are the main measurements from Rtings - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zqap4Ga-dt4 :

• ~1400/1800nits peak SDR/HDR
• 95% D3
• 76% Rec2020 uv
• 3510:1 / 26534:1 Contrast with(out) local dimming

If any other important measurements are missing I'll search them up :)

Is my assumption correct, that I would want to create presets for the following 3 Targets for office work and watching SDR/HDR content using PotPlayer+MadVR and use the DisplayCal software?:

https://preview.redd.it/owmtwdzqctih1.png?width=724&format=png&auto=webp&s=44062a1495e7a7643092454bab35cc015cfcfa8c

When would you recommend using the sRGB calibration? Is it maybe the correct one for my drawings or should I stay at the default preset?

How are the calibrations applied? I guess selecting the right .icc file under windows color control settings?
And is there a simple way to swap between the presets within Windows 11?

I've found this comment while learning more about it:

>The higher the max peak luma, the worse the low-light capabilities.
This has been proven a number of times.
(There are discussions and data regarding this on the Light Illusion forums.)
Go for the model that has the max peak luma that you need, no higher.

https://www.reddit.com/r/colorists/comments/1jmtekr/comment/mkeln3w/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button

Would you therefore recommend me to get the Pro HL or is there a difference in for example the BT2020 accuracy that makes it worth the tradeoff?

Thanks in Advance! :)

Hey everyone! Been trying to find out the proper settings for HDR tone mapping and tried comparing MadVR's tone mapping (left frame) to Plex's (right frame) and noticed MadVR has a distinct magenta hue, while Plex skews more green (which looks more natural to my eye). Has anyone run into this problem and knows how to address it? Is it actually "wrong"? Is it an issue with color space. Will post specs below.

https://preview.redd.it/h9stuatb4eih1.png?width=2553&format=png&auto=webp&s=cb57d6dd553ff9581045049e75536a55ec68e56c

https://preview.redd.it/lvtxi96g4eih1.png?width=2559&format=png&auto=webp&s=4cfcabaa51cc53d98bd0ccf5058246e4961e8a61

Specs:

>CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 7700X 4.5 GHz 8-Core Processor
GPU: Sapphire PULSE Radeon RX 7900 XT 20 GB Video Card
Motherboard: ASRock B650E PG RIPTIDE WIFI ATX AM5 Motherboard
Case: Corsair iCUE 4000X RGB ATX Mid Tower Case
Monitor: Gigabyte ‎G32QC A 31.5" 2560 x 1440 165 Hz Curved Monitor

MadVR Settings:

>RGB Output: PC Levels (0-255)
Native Display Bitdepth: Auto
Calibration: "Disable calibration controls for this display"
Enable Gamma Processing: Disabled
HDR: Tone map HDR using pixel shaders
Target Peak Nits: 200
Tone Mapping Curve: Clipping
Color Tweaks for Fire & Explosions: Disabled

20 years ago, I worked a LOT to get comskip functionality setup on our SageTV based DVR/HTPC so my wife could enjoy her shows without commercials.

Now she spends hours/day on Instagram watching ONLY commercials.

Viewing a video on XVid, have noticed that it's utilizing Sofware Decoding, which is not so preferable, in the settings, i can choose which Codecs will be handled with Hardware Decoding [DXVA2 (Copy-back)], but none of those Codecs available include XVid, so i've searched, and haven't found an immediate solution, so i have come to write this post.

I presume that not utilizing Hardware Decoding [DXVA2 (Copy-back)] will take a hit on the displaying video's image quality, so this is the great reason that i make this post.

GPU: RX 7600 (Gigabyte 3 Fan)
CPU: Ryzen 7 5700X