HTPC for Dirac DLBC and replace AVR

[rtraut]

You want 8GB of ram. I actually ordered this one

Amazon.com

Then I ordered an NVME board, cloned the existing hard drive using Macrium Reflect and Mintool Partition Wizard.

This is the board I ordered

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0B25LQQPC/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o07_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Pro tip: If you decide to order an NVME board and unlock the Bios to clone windows on to it and make it the boot drive, there's no reason to order more than the bare bones 125 GB eMMC drive for the Mele, and Mele often discounts that particular unit to the point where it sells for under $200 b/c nobody usually wants a 125GB disk drive, but if you have the NVME, you won't need it for anything anyway.

I've never had a HTPC, but this seems very intriguing given the price point. The "bare bones" model that you mention is currently listed @$210 w/ a $30 coupon, so only 180.

Would you say that adding the NVME is a must, or at least a no brainer? The 256gb option also has a 30 off coupon which would put it at 190.

What type of streaming services do you use? I'm a heavy Spotify streamer and use Netflix, Amazon, and Hulu for video. I also stream music locally via Logitech Media Sever (Slimserver) hosted on a Raspberry Pi.

I've been trying to figure out a way to add digital room correction, and this may be the most frugal way to do that. The simple way to do it would be to upgrade my pre/pro but I'm having a hard time justifying $1k+ to do that. Regret that I didn't do so before the last couple of years of inflation just destroyed some pretty decent options.

 

[pseudoid]

Oleds don't burn in anymore, as long as you use the proper settings. When the PC is inactive, I have a slide show of 40 or so Banksy painting which change out after 1 minute each as my screensaver.

There are a variety of ways that OLED TVs reduce the chances of burn-in
Which, I don't think means that 'burn-in' cannot occur or does not exist anymore.

LG statement: "...And even if image retention does occur from extreme usage..."

Some of these features are active as background, some are manual, and some other processes are activated after turning off the OLED panel.
There is 'pixel-shift', 'screen shift', 'pixel cleaning', and/or 'pixel refresher' for still (static) images.
There is 'logo-detection' and/or 'logo-brightness' for tickers, channelIDs, etc.

 

[phoenixdogfan]

There are a variety of ways that OLED TVs reduce the chances of burn-in
Which, I don't think means that 'burn-in' cannot occur or does not exist anymore.

Some of these features are active as background, some are manual, and some other processes are activated after turning off the OLED panel.
There is 'pixel-shift', 'screen shift', 'pixel cleaning', and/or 'pixel refresher' for still (static) images.
There is 'logo-detection' and/or 'logo-brightness' for tickers, channelIDs, etc.

And I'm using every one of those features and have not noticed any image retention whatsoever, let alone burn-in. And I do turn off the set periodically and let it do pixel cleaning. I'm very happy with the performance as both a home theater screen and as a PC monitor.

 

[xrqp]

Oleds don't burn in anymore, as long as you use the proper settings. When the PC is inactive, I have a slide show of 40 or so Banksy painting which change out after 1 minute each as my screensaver.

Since you say oleds don't burn in, is your slide show for the beauty only?

I browse the internet for hours at a time, and the borders of the window do not change, like the tabs at the top, and the taskbar at the bottom. I changed the taskbar to hide itself, but it seems there is often something that is unchanging for hours.

 

[xrqp]

phoenixdogfan, or anyone with HTPC:
How do you decode surround sound, like Dolby Atmos, DTS, etc? Do you do it on the HTPC, or on a separate AVR?

 

[phoenixdogfan]

phoenixdogfan, or anyone with HTPC:
How do you decode surround sound, like Dolby Atmos, DTS, etc? Do you do it on the HTPC, or on a separate AVR?

I can't decode Atmos or any of the advanced Codecs on the Mele. When I want to watch an Atmos movie I stream it from my NVidia shield (Prime and Netflix do Atmos), and send the Atmos/DTS-X/Auro 3D bitstream to my Smyth A16 Realizer which emulates speakers over headphones and decodes all the advanced object based codecs.

A while back, I had a personal measurement of Dutch and Dutch 8Cs done in a studio, and created a 24 channel Atmos layout which the Smyth renders with near perfect verisimilitude--it;s very nearly the same thing as hearing the speakers in the room. So even though I don't have a 24 channel Atmos layout of physical speakers (My speaker based layout is 4 channels of Ls 50's and a Kef Egg for the center with 2 SVS SB 2000 subs), I make do with a virtual Atmos layout of D&D 8C's rendered by the A16 Realizer based on a personal in studio measurement of those speakers and how they interact with my own HRTF.

 

[xrqp]

I can't decode Atmos or any of the advanced Codecs on the Mele. When I want to watch an Atmos movie I stream it from my NVidia shield (Prime and Netflix do Atmos), and send the Atmos/DTS-X/Auro 3D bitstream to my Smyth A16 Realizer which emulates speakers over headphones and decodes all the advanced object based codecs.

A while back, I had a personal measurement of Dutch and Dutch 8Cs done in a studio, and created a 24 channel Atmos layout which the Smyth renders with near perfect verisimilitude--it;s very nearly the same thing as hearing the speakers in the room. So even though I don't have a 24 channel Atmos layout of physical speakers (My speaker based layout is 4 channels of Ls 50's and a Kef Egg for the center with 2 SVS SB 2000 subs), I make do with a virtual Atmos layout of D&D 8C's rendered by the A16 Realizer based on a personal in studio measurement of those speakers and how they interact with my own HRTF.

Holy cow! That is some advanced tech. I looked at the Erin's review of Dutch and Dutch 8C. That is also advanced.

If one, like myself, has more conventional equipment, then is an AVR/AVP the most typical way to decode Atmos and other surround for commercial movies? I don't think a Shield can do it - Shield can only do stereo decoding, or passthrough surround to something else that can decode surround.

 

[xrqp]

Phoenixdogfan,
I have a tiny PC, something similar to Mele, namely a Beelink EQ12 Pro, hooked to my TV. And I have the Shield Pro hooked to my TV. When I play movies thru the Shield Pro it looks better than thru the PC. The colors seem better, and possibly less noise. Do you see this also?

I was hoping the PC could do the newer types of Dirac, like DLBC and Dirac active room treatment. But when I go to Dirac website I get confused if it is possible. Do you run those new Dirac things on your PC?

 

[phoenixdogfan]

Holy cow! That is some advanced tech. I looked at the Erin's review of Dutch and Dutch 8C. That is also advanced.

If one, like myself, has more conventional equipment, then is an AVR/AVP the most typical way to decode Atmos and other surround for commercial movies? I don't think a Shield can do it - Shield can only do stereo decoding, or passthrough surround to something else that can decode surround.

Like I wrote, I send the undecoded Atmos bitstream to the Realizer which decodes it to 24 discrete channels then binaurally mixes them down to 24 virtual channels of Dutch & Dutch 8Cs playing in the various placements (L,R, C, Lh, Rh, etc) of an Atmos layout.

You would undoubtedly need an Atmos receiver or processor like the Monoprice one Amir just reviewed.

 

[phoenixdogfan]

Phoenixdogfan,
I have a tiny PC, something similar to Mele, namely a Beelink EQ12 Pro, hooked to my TV. And I have the Shield Pro hooked to my TV. When I play movies thru the Shield Pro it looks better than thru the PC. The colors seem better, and possibly less noise. Do you see this also?

I was hoping the PC could do the newer types of Dirac, like DLBC and Dirac active room treatment. But when I go to Dirac website I get confused if it is possible. Do you run those new Dirac things on your PC?

I run DLBC. You need to get the Studio Edition of Dirac Multichannel, and upgrade to DLBC. It does indeed run and run very well on the Mele. The key is that Dirac calculates the correction from your measurements on its own supercomputer and sends you back the filters. Your PC just has to run the filters, not calculate them, which is far easier for that Celeron processor to accomplish. Btw, when I did my Dirac measurements, I found I had to temporarily drop the video resolution to 1080p to get enough processing power to accomplish everything I needed to with Dirac. Once the measurements, filter transmission and reception from dirac, and upload of filter to the Dirac Processor is complete, it will run the filters just fine. At that point you can reset the Windows display setting for your mini PC to again output 4K, HDR video.

As for the Shield pro, it's probably running 4K Dolby Digital in 24fps (It should be set to run that way, for reason's I'll explain, so if it's set higher you probably want to drop it down to 24fps).

My Mele will run HDR which is also outstanding, but only in 4K 24fps. Makes sure your Windows settings enable HDR, and check under extra setting, to be sure you're running 4k at 23.98 FPS. That's the correct rate for almost all movies which are virtually always recorded in 23.98 fps, and its the native rate streaming service like Netflix and Amazon Prime employ.

 

[xrqp]

Phoenixdogfan, Thanks for all the info and replies.

When my PC starts, the LG TV shows the symbol for HDR. But I will check the frame rate setting.

 

[Miker 1102]

I run a few Intel NUCs (8/10) in the house and one is serving strictly as HTPC hidden inside our A/V entertainment system.
Yes, (my older) NUCs have fans but it's manageable if you have the room to reduce fan noise.
I run it as a 4K feed to a 4K OLED but use the front panel-headphone (3.5mm) output to use the analog/stereo into my pre/Pro.
Although, my pre/Pro does ARC/eARC; I don't like the lip-synch issues, due to additional pre/Pro processing (=delays).
I have found that using at least 16GB of RAM (w/o going external GPU) in the NUC10 has been a satisfying solution for judder-free 4K.
NOTE: I go back to the days of the Patriot Box Office (as HTPC even before the PBO "Core") during the good old days of 1080p being the 'best'.

I go back to the days of DVI and WGA . Remember how cool getting that first hdmi card was.

 

[pseudoid]

I go back to the days of DVI and WGA . Remember how cool getting that first hdmi card was.

Argh, back then, HDMI cables were a mystery...
When HDMIv1.3 was current, I bought v1.4 versions to be ahead-of-the-curve and paid dearly for those.
Ditto v1.4/v2.0, ditto v2.0/v2.1... LoL to"8K" cables
It has been madness... and I truly hate throwing away pricey hardware because of obsolescence...
Never thought cables would have go thru the same trash-grinder as the hardware that they support.

 

[Miker 1102]

Yeah. That has been odd because I have stereo cables I am currently using thaat are older than my kids. Honestly, I felt like we had a good 10 year run witth movies ans blue ray tech where it was good. Giving up windows 7 was so hard for me. It was perfect for media.

 

[pseudoid]

...Makes sure your Windows settings enable HDR, and check under extra setting, to be sure you're running 4k at 23.98 FPS. That's the correct rate for almost all movies which are virtually always recorded in 23.98 fps, and its the native rate streaming service like Netflix and Amazon Prime employ.

Is there a way (app/utility) to determine the real video stream rez/fps/etc?
MediaInfo works for local A/V files.

But I must admit I've never tried it w/streaming network media (amazon/netflix) formats.

 

[soerenssen]

I run DLBC. You need to get the Studio Edition of Dirac Multichannel, and upgrade to DLBC. It does indeed run and run very well on the Mele. The key is that Dirac calculates the correction from your measurements on its own supercomputer and sends you back the filters. Your PC just has to run the filters, not calculate them, which is far easier for that Celeron processor to accomplish. Btw, when I did my Dirac measurements, I found I had to temporarily drop the video resolution to 1080p to get enough processing power to accomplish everything I needed to with Dirac. Once the measurements, filter transmission and reception from dirac, and upload of filter to the Dirac Processor is complete, it will run the filters just fine. At that point you can reset the Windows display setting for your mini PC to again output 4K, HDR video.

As for the Shield pro, it's probably running 4K Dolby Digital in 24fps (It should be set to run that way, for reason's I'll explain, so if it's set higher you probably want to drop it down to 24fps).

My Mele will run HDR which is also outstanding, but only in 4K 24fps. Makes sure your Windows settings enable HDR, and check under extra setting, to be sure you're running 4k at 23.98 FPS. That's the correct rate for almost all movies which are virtually always recorded in 23.98 fps, and its the native rate streaming service like Netflix and Amazon Prime employ.

I am currently using a Zidoo Z9x Pro for BluRay remux playback and an Apple TV 4K for Netflix streaming, both connected to an LG OLED. Music is streamed from a Wiim Pro (Tidal) connected via coax to a very old AVR. Current system is 5.1 but I will add 2-3 subs and 2 Atmos speakers soon. Music has priority so I try to avoid any limitations in that pipeline and I'm planning to use DLBC with a high performance multi-channel DAC (DAC8 Pro or DM7) without downsampling for 2.2/2.3/2.4 music. For HT, even a cheaper Denon AVR like the x4800h with Audyssey could do the job. An all-in-one solution that is good enough for stereo like a Denon A1H would be nice of course, but with the extra DLBC license and additional power amps for my front LR speakers anyway it'd become very expensive.

Is it a good idea to run Dirac/DLBC + music streaming + 4K TrueHD/DTS-X/Atmos BluRay remuxes from the Melee, or for better stability would you use it for Dirac/DLBC only? If I want to keep using the Zidoo for 4K playback and the Apple TV 4K for streaming, they would have to be connected to the LG OLED and the TV's optical out would have to be routed via the HTPC, right? Basically my question is: can one replace the AVR/AVP with the combination of an all-in-one HTPC and a multichannel DAC?

 

[ban25]

Is it a good idea to run Dirac/DLBC + music streaming + 4K TrueHD/DTS-X/Atmos BluRay remuxes from the Melee, or for better stability would you use it for Dirac/DLBC only? If I want to keep using the Zidoo for 4K playback and the Apple TV 4K for streaming, they would have to be connected to the LG OLED and the TV's optical out would have to be routed via the HTPC, right? Basically my question is: can one replace the AVR/AVP with the combination of an all-in-one HTPC and a multichannel DAC?

If you're running optical to the HTPC, there's no way you'll get Atmos (5.1 16/48 is the limit IIRC). Which might not be a big deal, but your post mentions adding Atmos speakers....

 

[soerenssen]

If you're running optical to the HTPC, there's no way you'll get Atmos (5.1 16/48 is the limit IIRC). Which might not be a big deal, but your post mentions adding Atmos speakers....

Sounds like I'll keep the Zidoo+Apple TV combo and get a cheaper AVR for HT that has all the functionality/connectivity that I'll need.
For music, would the Melee be able to handle both DLBC and hi-res streaming at the same time or is it better to keep using the external streamer (Wiim Pro) and route its optical out to the USB DAC via the PC? Would any of these options have an impact on sound quality?

 

[soerenssen]

If you're running optical to the HTPC, there's no way you'll get Atmos (5.1 16/48 is the limit IIRC). Which might not be a big deal, but your post mentions adding Atmos speakers....

If I want Atmos / TrueHD / DTS-X, etc., it's clear that it cannot be routed through the TV, but what about the HTPC? Could it replace an AVR with a set of codecs and sufficient processing power or when you buy an AVR, you are actually paying for those licences? For example, my Apple TV cannot decode those, but the Zidoo or an Nvidia Shield Pro can. I don't know which is the better device to do that step (thr HTPC or a Zidoo with its purpose-built Realtek processor). I have to check if my LG Oled G2 can do HDMI passthrough but then how do I convert HDMI to USB (into the HTPC)? Or maybe route the video signal from the Zidoo/Apple TV to the TV and the audio signal to the HTPC?

 

[ban25]

If I want Atmos / TrueHD / DTS-X, etc., it's clear that it cannot be routed through the TV, but what about the HTPC? Could it replace an AVR with a set of codecs and sufficient processing power or when you buy an AVR, you are actually paying for those licences? For example, my Apple TV cannot decode those, but the Zidoo or an Nvidia Shield Pro can. I don't know which is the better device to do that step (thr HTPC or a Zidoo with its purpose-built Realtek processor). I have to check if my LG Oled G2 can do HDMI passthrough but then how do I convert HDMI to USB (into the HTPC)? Or maybe route the video signal from the Zidoo/Apple TV to the TV and the audio signal to the HTPC?

I think the best you're going to get out of a PC is 7.1 channel PCM over HDMI, and that wouldn't be eARC, so it wouldn't be running from your TV. If you want Atmos/DTS:X/TrueHD decoding, there really is no way around having an AVR/AVP.