New mini PC i can recommend

[TheBatsEar]

I think it's the standard frame count for almost all movies shot in film. And that standard is there since the first audio tracks where added to film. Here is an explanation why:

Why is the frame rate for movies so low (24 fps generally) as compared to the the frame rate for games (60 fps)?

Macrant Hunter's answer: The simple answer is 24fps is the minimum speed at which single strip optical audio can operate but let’s back up a bit. Film wasn’t always at 24fps. There was no objective standard fps prior to sound recording. Early film speed were as slow as 14fps. To this day both 8m...

www.quora.com

 

[xrqp]

I just bought a Mele Quieter 2 which is fanless, has a Celeron J4125 Processor, and has a Passmark score around 3000. I'm using it as a HTPC. My principal apps are Netflix desktop, Qobuz, Amazon Prime, Vudu, and Kodi. My player is JRiver. I've been able to set up my apps to run WASAPI Exclusive to JRiver MC28. I've set up the Windows 11 sound card for 5.1 Audio, and set up video for 1080p with a 120hz refresh rate. The Mele does not support 4k or HDR 10 or Dolby Vision, which is its principal shortcoming.

All pc audio is routed to JRiver on the sound card, and two zones have been set up there: One configured for 2 channel playback, and the other one for 5.1 channel playback. Both zones have PEQ for my Ls 50's and LS 50 Metas. The 5.1 zone has a crossover to the sub, and bass management, as well as mulichannel Dirac Live room correction. It outputs 5.1 to my Octo DAC 8 via its ASIO driver. The two channel stereo zone is almost identical except it employs a freeware Linkwitz Riley software based crossover called Dephonica before sending the crossed over high/low passed signal to my 2.1 set up. Dirac Live sees this as a 2.0 set up, and corrects accordingly.

Everything seems to work fine. Picture is great (I was able to set it up to a 120 refresh rate to my LG C1), likewise the sound both for Stereo and home theater. I stream everything, and the Quieter 2 works quietly and perfectly. No stuttering, after some lip sync correction in JRiver, everything is in sync. I also run my Internet via Ethernet connection and regularly get 200 Mbps download speeds. which helps as well. I'm am supposed to be able to run Netflix in theater mode within JRiver, but i can't get it to work in Windows 11, so I've given up for the time being, but everything looks and sounds great as a desktop app.

My biggest complaint, beside no 4K or HDR/DolbyVision support, is Windows related: It incessantly pops up a blurb telling me how wonderful Windows Teams are, and urging me to get started and install the app. After going around the internet for two solid days, I've concluded there's no way to supress this random but incessant pop up. Needless to say, I'm not a Team player.

For right now, this PC is ok. I can run a 5.1 channel home theater for streaming apps. I don't want to mess with physical media anymore, so this fits even though those apps don't offer the highest quality codecs (limited to Dolby Digital Plus, no Dobly True HD for streaming!) Even so it sounds fine.

Ultimately, I might want to switch for a faster computer. I have my eye on a Mac Mini M1, because of the speed, quiet operation, and reasonable price. At this point I'm not sure what it supports: Dolby Vision to external TVs and monitors via HDMI? Don't know. I understand there isn't even a Netflix desktop app. There is a way to kludge a synthetic desktop app to run out of the dock, but will it support 5.1 multichannel and Dolby Vision/HDR 10? Again, dunno.

I am also investigating if there's is any software player which will decode the Netflix Dolby Atmos in either a Windows or an Apple OS. Yes, I know NVidia Shield, Roku, and ATV4K will all send Atmos audio via HDMI bitstream to an ATMOS certified home theater receiver. Don't want any part of that. I want to decode the Dolby Digital bitstream right on the PC (Apple or Windows), apply any PEQ, crossover, bass management right in the player software (a la Roon or JRiver), do a Dirac Live correction of the multichannel stream and send the LPCM via asio driver to my multichannel DAC. Seems like a cheaper, almost as good (maybe better in some respects) version of the Trinov or Storm processors. Just need a piece of software that decodes ATMOS and exports the sound via USB to a dac, and I can make the rest happen.

I am very interested in what you are doing. If you discover software that decodes ATMOS and exports the sound via USB to a dac, I would like to hear.

Update: I see you got the next version of computer Mele Quieter 3, and it solved your problems. You wrote "...5.1 channel DD+Peq out to my Octo DAC 8..." Is that via an HDMI cable? What amp do you use?

 

[phoenixdogfan]

I am very interested in what you are doing. If you discover software that decodes ATMOS and exports the sound via USB to a dac, I would like to hear.

Update: I see you got the next version of computer Mele Quieter 3, and it solved your problems. You wrote "...5.1 channel DD+Peq out to my Octo DAC 8..." Is that via an HDMI cable? What amp do you use?

Unfortunately, I know of no way to decode streaming Atmos material on a PC from the likes of Netflix and Amazon Prime and send an LPCM 10-16 channel stream to a multichannel DAC via usb after that stream has DSP applied. Obviously this could be done easily but for the stranglehold the content providers have on the these codecs. I'm not certain if they will ever allow this.

For lower level content, like DD+, I do indeed decode with JRiver, do all the bass management, PEQ, and room correction using DLBC right on the Mele Quieter 3 and send the audio stream via USB to my Octo Research DAC 8 Pro while I simultaneously send the video stream via HDMI from the Mele to my LG C1. Again no Dolby True HD, because the streaming services won't carry it, but at least 5.1 DD+. It does sound good.

So again what I do is, from the Mele Quieter 3, simultaneously send the HDR 10 Video stream to my LG C1 Oled via hDMI, and my corrected, bass managed, crossed over, PEQ's 5.1 channel LPCM audio stream via Usb to my OCTO Dac 8 to play on my 5.1 channel home theater speaker system. No lip sync problems, great picture and great sound. Just not as great as it would be if I could do that for the Atmos material over a PC, instead of an AV receiver.

 

[xrqp]

Unfortunately, I know of no way to decode streaming Atmos material on a PC from the likes of Netflix and Amazon Prime and send an LPCM 10-16 channel stream to a multichannel DAC via usb after that stream has DSP applied. Obviously this could be done easily but for the stranglehold the content providers have on the these codecs. I'm not certain if they will ever allow this.

For lower level content, like DD+, I do indeed decode with JRiver, do all the bass management, PEQ, and room correction using DLBC right on the Mele Quieter 3 and send the audio stream via USB to my Octo Research DAC 8 Pro while I simultaneously send the video stream via HDMI from the Mele to my LG C1. Again no Dolby True HD, because the streaming services won't carry it, but at least 5.1 DD+. It does sound good.

So again what I do is, from the Mele Quieter 3, simultaneously send the HDR 10 Video stream to my LG C1 Oled via hDMI, and my corrected, bass managed, crossed over, PEQ's 5.1 channel LPCM audio stream via Usb to my OCTO Dac 8 to play on my 5.1 channel home theater speaker system. No lip sync problems, great picture and great sound. Just not as great as it would be if I could do that for the Atmos material over a PC, instead of an AV receiver.

Thanks for that info. So when you send 5.1 by USB from the PC to the DAC, it is from a movie that has DD+. Do most movies have DD+?

If your source is a local file, ripped from a UHD Blu-ray, would you still be limited to DD+ when going from PC to DAC?

To get better sound than DD+ (like from Atmos, HD, DTS HD etc), would one need an AV receiver or AV processor?

 

[phoenixdogfan]

Thanks for that info. So when you send 5.1 by USB from the PC to the DAC, it is from a movie that has DD+. Do most movies have DD+?

If your source is a local file, ripped from a UHD Blu-ray, would you still be limited to DD+ when going from PC to DAC?

To get better sound than DD+ (like from Atmos, HD, DTS HD etc), would one need an AV receiver or AV processor?

Most Netflix do, Shudder, Tubi, Hulu not so much. I kind of think the difference between DD+ and Dolby True HD is exaggerated. My system would do Dolby True HD if fed a digital file, and I could get them, but I just do streaming services because I don't think it's worth the hassle.

 

[charlielaub]

WARNING: I bought a similar looking mini PC from the brand Trigkey. It's the version with the Intel N5105 CPU. Initially it seemed to work well, but within a few days the fan started making a screeching sound sometimes when running slowly. Probably a bad/cheap bearing. Unfortunately the fan is buried inside the case and not easily worked on or replaced, so I just chalked it up to cheap Asian gear and put it aside. If anyone is interested I will sell it to you for $20 plus shipping (in USA, maybe another $15).

Since then I bought and have been using some mini PCs from Beelink that I like a lot:

Model S12Pro uses the Intel N100. It has a fan but the fan is essentially silent. Costs under US$200 at the moment via Amazon. This is the next generation on from e.g. the N5105, N6005, etc but they have left out the integrated WiFi that was in those and unfortunately the Beelink chose to use the Intel AX101 BT+WiFi chip. It is currently not working under Linux, but will be by kernel 6.5 IIRC, but that will take at least a year to become available. For now, it works perfectly under Windows, so if that is your OS of choice this is a model to check out.

After my S12Pro had no WiFi under Linux (my preferred OS for audio work is Ubuntu) I invested in another Beelink Product, the SER5 with the 5560u Ryzen CPU. This has about 3x more computing power than the N100 and uses the AX201 BT+WiFi, which is fully supported under Linux. The chassis uses a fan but it is silent as a result of the low TDP of the 5560u. I chose this over the more common 5550u version specifically for the low TDP, since less waste heat means less fan usage. Anyway I am very happy with this model, but it cost about $100 more - about $285 currently on Amazon when you can find it. Highly recommended. I like it so much I bought a second one.

 

[Raitsa]

This guys reviews mini pcs, has not fully sold his soul to the manufacturers yet.

https://www.youtube.com/c/Robtech/videos

 

[xrqp]

Servethehome does interesting reviews too. I am convinced, a fan is OK for most people if done well. Archimago's Musings sold me on that. I have a beelink EQ12 Pro with fan and i cannot hear it unless I get real close. The quietest my room ever gets is about 33db.

This Servethehome review link HP Elite Mini PC commends the fan quietness, so I ordered one open box for $700 with i7-12700T. I think the build quality and engineering on these HP's is better than the Beelink, etc. Yes, I am paying more, and most of the time the CPU power is not needed, but since I am going to use it with my big TV, I can use it for everything, and some games. Since I will install Dirac Suite and DLBC on it, I won't have to hassle the licensing change, caused by changing computers, for a long time.

this shows the versatility of the HP Elite Mini versatility