Other HTPC Build (4K HDR, HEVC)

[proton]

Looking to upgrade my HTPC
Current specs
Intel Thin Mini ITX board
i5 3470T
2x2GB DDR3 SODIMM 1600Mhz
150W Power brick
CIR header with custom built IR sensor
Streacom F1C Evo

Hardware to integrate with
TV is 4K (LG C7 OLED)
AVR is 1080p (Yamaha RX A1010)

Requirements
Windows 10, Kodi
4K HDR
Bitstream HD audio
IR control
IR to turn on and off the HTPC

I can't find a thin mini ITX board that has 2 HDMIs. I need 2 HDMIs to split audio and video to TV and AVR. And one HDMI needs to be HDMI 2.0 for HDR.
Or a thin mini ITX board with a single HDMI 2.0 and x16 PCIE port.
I can find ITX boards with HDMI 2.0. But i cannot find an ITX board with dual HDMI's to split audio, with at least one HDMI at v2.0.
I see that a GTX 1030 can do 4K HDR with HDMI 2.0b.

Current idea
Intel Pentium Gold G5400 (54W) 2core 4thread-> Disable hyperthreading to reduce TDP.
GTX 1030 2GB Silent Low Profile (30W). This will send the Video signal to the TV.
2x4GB DDR4 2400Mhz
Gigabyte H310N mITX 1155 (use onboard HDMI to send Audio signal to AVR)
Kingston A400 120 GB M.2-2280 SSD
Streacom 160W nanoPSU
USB IR RX (mod to move IR sensor inside case)

Any thoughts on the approach?

 

[Legion]

HDR on PC is still a mess buddy !!
Have a good read of this for pro's / con's of various approaches:

IMPORTANT: Kodi Forum - Data Breach | News

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forum.kodi.tv

 

[proton]

it seems if i use one of the unofficial builds of Kodi with MadVR or DSplayer i would be able to get HDR auto switching to work on Windows 10. Are there other issues?

I don't want to run these android boxes really.. They seem too slow, and also they seem to get out dated quickly. If i can get a dedicated PC again, i can just upgrade the GPU once in a while to get all the goodies.

I do have a Raspberry Pi 4b with libreelec running. But god it is slow compared to my 5 year old i5 3470T. The only positive is the h.265 hardware decoder. I bought it since it has dual mini HDMI, which would help in my situation, but libreelec doesnt support 2 outputs yet, or HD audio bitstreaming. I know it'll come eventually, but still the device is too slow for me.

 

[Windfall]

it seems if i use one of the unofficial builds of Kodi with MadVR or DSplayer i would be able to get HDR auto switching to work on Windows 10. Are there other issues?

I don't want to run these android boxes really.. They seem too slow, and also they seem to get out dated quickly. If i can get a dedicated PC again, i can just upgrade the GPU once in a while to get all the goodies.

I do have a Raspberry Pi 4b with libreelec running. But god it is slow compared to my 5 year old i5 3470T. The only positive is the h.265 hardware decoder. I bought it since it has dual mini HDMI, which would help in my situation, but libreelec doesnt support 2 outputs yet, or HD audio bitstreaming. I know it'll come eventually, but still the device is too slow for me.

I have a Shappire FS-Fp5V with 4 DP, and it's pushing 4k HDR no sweat, or at least my cousin says it is. (It's at his house being used for his HDTV).

 

[BaK]

I need 2 HDMIs to split audio and video to TV and AVR

Don't you have an HDMI out on your AVR to daisy chain your TV to it? Or is it not a good thing to do?

I do have a Raspberry Pi 4b with libreelec running. But god it is slow compared to my 5 year old i5 3470T.

What do you find so slow? Navigate into the menus or something else?

 

[proton]

I have a Shappire FS-Fp5V with 4 DP, and it's pushing 4k HDR no sweat, or at least my cousin says it is. (It's at his house being used for his HDTV).

DP can’t bitstream HD Audio afaik.

Don't you have an HDMI out on your AVR to daisy chain your TV to it? Or is it not a good thing to do?


What do you find so slow? Navigate into the menus or something else?

Yes my AVR has HDMI Out, but it’s limited to 1080p.

Yeah the menus on the Pi seem slower and just generally things like loading my movie fan art, there is pop in.

I setup Kodi DSplayer build on my i7 7700k, GTX 1080 pc and 4K HDR works great, auto switching and all. The build seems a little unstable though, I need to test a little more.

 

[proton]

@Windfall maybe i am wrong about HD Audio bitstream over DP, if you are using DP to HDMI passive adaptors, can you check in the old Windows Audio settings if the device can send DTS HD etc? The Sapphire box looks quite good. How are you handling auto HDR switching, or what player are you using?

 

[Windfall]

@Windfall maybe i am wrong about HD Audio bitstream over DP, if you are using DP to HDMI passive adaptors, can you check in the old Windows Audio settings if the device can send DTS HD etc? The Sapphire box looks quite good. How are you handling auto HDR switching, or what player are you using?

I'll hit him up in a few days and check, I need the board back for a project anyways. He's the HTPC guy, so I'll ask him!

 

[BaK]

Yeah the menus on the Pi seem slower and just generally things like loading my movie fan art, there is pop in.

That doesn't look so bad if that's just that, but I know we all have different appreciations of what is slow or not.

Yes my AVR has HDMI Out, but it’s limited to 1080p.

I would have suggested a DeskMini A300 + 2400G but there is only one HDMI 2.0 and one DP 1.4.

DP can’t bitstream HD Audio afaik.

So I had to check this out and according to the Bryan's answer here: https://superuser.com/questions/229084/does-displayport-carry-sound-as-hdmi-does

- DisplayPort supports multi-channel audio and many advanced audio features. DisplayPort to HDMI adapters also include the ability to support HDMI audio
- It's up to the manufacturer to support/implement audio over DisplayPort
- The DisplayPort to HDMI adapter must also support audio
- The video driver (vs. audio driver) is responsible for the DisplayPort audio

I then tried to find out if the ASRock A300M-STX motherboard of the DeskMini does indeed support audio over its DP, but didn't find the answer... Should ask Asrock directly.

 

[Quango]

Trying to use HDMI as separate audio only output is a mess in itself, since there is currently no way in Windows see it as audio only. It is always recognized as video output, too, and you have an inavoidable dual display situation to deal with. You can trick the system into dual screen duplication mode (instead of screen extension) - even if the two output resolutions are different -, but there are often unexpected shifts in focus between the two logical screens while you are using such a setup for full screen video and you have use the Windows key to take the focus back to the main screen. And whenever you switch the audio target on or off, you encounter a black screen for a few seconds while Windows is adapting to the changing screen mode.

There is a software called UltraMon, which has setting where you can "forget" a monitor permanently, while the audio is still playing. My setup was 4K@60Hz over DP and FHD for audio to my AV-Receiver over HDMI 1.4, but while the FHD Display was forgotten(inactive in Windows), the mouse occasionally got trapped into a FHD frame on the 4K screen and I still had to use the Windows Key to take back focus. So I uninstalled it. (UltraMon has 30 days trial period but is rather expensive).

What you might try (while I have yet to try that myself) is using a HDMI 2.0 4K HDR enabled HDMI splitter behind your HDMI 2.0 port, so the system thinks it is a single screen setup and switching off the audio target doesn't matter. But I assume both devices behind the splitter have to support 4K HDR video, even if only one is using video.

I am only using stereo output for my desktop setup (a simple Yamaha AV connected to two Wharfedales) and my Mini-STX board has no digital audio out port , I got a Fiio K3 to have a good USB headphone DAC and to have digital output, like connecting to my AV via Coax)