What would make a good UHD HTPC

[Teddyboy]

Hi Jamie,
AFAIK you should be able to play 4k UHD using powerdvd 20 without a Intel igpu if you let the remove the sgx requirement. You might want to wander over to the AVSForum and ask your question there as well. Someone somewhere has got to be using Powerdvd 20 with a discrete graphics card for 4k UHD. it’s a larger forum so you might get some more answers.

You might not really need to tweak madvr. I’m speculating, but it might be fine with Red October HQ for 4k. You’ve got time still as you haven’t made any commitments to hardware yet.

Efrain

[Pauven]

Efrain,

I am using PowerDVD 20 without an Intel GPU. While foxy let's it play, PowerDVD refuses to support HDR, at least on my AMD GPU. I tried several times to buy an Nvidia GPU that would work in that PC, to see if it is an AMD only issue, but after 4 months I've been unlucky. I was trying to buy a GTX 1650, as anything higher requires more 12v power than my PC's power supply can supply, I'm limited to PCIe power only.

You can read all about this earlier in this thread. Jamie knows about this HDR issue, and is hoping to avoid it by going the Intel route. He was also trying to buy a more powerful Intel iGPU so that it might be able to handle madVR too.

While I also bought the Intel i3-10100 like you, I've yet to finish my build and test it with PowerDVD and MPC+madVR.

Ultimately, SGX is not the issue, it's PowerDVD's refusal to recognize HDR support on non-Intel GPU's (or at least on AMD GPU's).

[Teddyboy]

You’re right Paul. I started to read through the thread again to refresh my memory. If I can get away with using Jriver for 4k and Blu-Ray playback using RedOctober HQ settings and MPC-Black for upscaled through madvr for dvd playback, I’ll go that route. I just don’t want to have to buy another player and maintain it. Powerdvd has a mind of its own, and I found in the past it wasn’t very remote friendly. Maybe hats changed. Worse case I’ll upgrade the case and get a discrete card if I need too.

[Pauven]

Over the past week I've been exploring these issues further, with very disappointing results.

As a recap, back in the spring I built a new HTPC using an Intel i3-10100, with the intent to use the on-board UHD 630 iGPU. My thinking is that this would allow me to easily play HDR content. I couldn't have been more wrong.

Anyway, this HTPC sat untested until this past week. I recently picked up a projector, the Optoma UHZ50, which is a 4K/UHD laser projector with limited HDR capabilities. It has 3 HDMI 2.0 ports, all of which support HDCP 2.2. The Intel CPU in the HTPC means that I also have support for Intel's SGX. Should be the perfect solution for playing 4K HDR content, right?

I needed a new CyberLink PowerDVD install, so I picked up PowerDVD 21 Ultra, the latest and not so greatest. I also just received my 4K copy of No Time to Die, and I was definitely ready to see how Daniel Craig's Bond run ends.

I popped the 4K Bond disc into the "friendly" UHD Blu-ray player and fired up PowerDVD. It notified me it was installing some UHD components, but the progress bar never moved. I tried several times with the same result. I then installed CyberLink's UHD compatibility tester, and was surprised to see the results: SGX not available, HDCP not available, official UHD Blu-ray not available, so UHD support not available.

The report that my UHD Blu-ray wasn't "official" actually made sense. But the rest baffled me. I double-checked the Intel graphics drivers and the projector, and both indicated HDCP was working. I also double-checked the BIOS and made sure SGX was enabled.

I futzed with this for half an hour, and finally gave up. Red Foxy, which wasn't even installed on this new HTPC, doesn't support this brand new 4K disc yet, so there was no way I could watch this version. I'm understandably pissed. I paid for the projector, the cables, the HTPC, the software, and the disc. I'm not a criminal, I'm the exact opposite, a legitimate consumer who just wants to watch what he paid a lot of money to watch.

Still wanting to watch the latest Bond flick, I popped in the regular HD Blu-ray version. PowerDVD 21 refused to play that too, mainly complaining about the lack of HDCP support. I'm wondering if the friendly drive being in the mix is what's causing that reported failure.

As a last resort, I installed Foxy, and finally I was able to play the regular Blu-ray version. I just want to thank the industry for the wonderful joy it is to watch content legally - it's pure insanity! If it wasn't for companies like Foxy, I think discs might already be dead, because without it I couldn't watch movies the way I want to (which is completely legal).

I'm thinking of buying an official Blu-ray drive, just so I can test how much of an impact having a friendly drive is causing on PowerDVD 21. But I'm also hesitant to give this industry any more of my money. Even if I can resolve these issues, there's still one more hurdle to clear: even though my projector has support for HDR, Window's + Intel drivers are reporting it doesn't. I checked Optoma's website for drivers, but found nothing. I have no idea how to tell Win10 that my display actually does have HDR support.

The irony here is that the AMD setup I used for Aileen's HTPC actually works better than this Intel setup. Considering that neither seems to work without help from Foxy, I don't see the reason in going Intel, for me AMD is better.

This projector is now my second display supporting HDR, and even though I have a lot of HDR 4K discs, I've yet to ever watch anything at home in HDR. PowerDVD 20 said the AMD iGPU didn't support HDR (even though it does and is enabled in Windows), and now my brand new setup is flaking out. One of these days, fingers crossed, I'll watch some HDR content.

[Jamie]

Just a little fyi. You may want to venture over to foxy land. Foxy is supporting official LG drives now. This compatibility is in beta right now. I am a little confused as to why LG drives are the only ones supported. You may want to read the release notes and UHD forum for more info.

[Pauven]

Good to know, didn't realize it was LG only.

I've got some older non-UHD Blu-ray drives in storage, and I'm thinking of doing a test with one of those. It won't let me test UHD discs, but it will at least let me see if the drive is affecting HDCP and/or SGX. Plus, it's free.

[Jamie]

Free is always good