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HTPC 4K Low Profile GFX Card

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OP
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Yeah so I'm still getting issues :(

I wondering a couple of things, windows 7 doesn't see my Sony TV as the monitor it sees the av reciever which makes sense as it's plugged into that first and in the windows resolutions bit it still says 1920 X 1080 is (Recommended) but why? Other resolutions about this are available so why does this one have recommended in brackets next to it.

The problem isn't quite the same as before, now when I select 4K res in windows the amp reports a steady signal but then the TV reports no signal where as before the amp was flickered it's HDMI status light suggesting the source signal was cutting in and out.

I'm starting to think it could be my cables, it's the only thing left to check before accepting it's not going to work with my setup.

I have IBRA High Speed Pro Gold cables, claim to do everything under the sun but perhaps don't, perhaps aren't that good quality, good enough to run a PC signal.

"- Smooth transmission of extreme HD resolutions up to 4096 x 2160 @24hz (Naturally lower resolutions are also supported)"

This is quoted in their description, why only 24hz?

Sorry for the long post but I'm at my wits end trying to get my media setup to start playing 4K, it's doing my head in now ha!
 
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28 Jun 2016
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225
Yeah so I'm still getting issues :(

I wondering a couple of things, windows 7 doesn't see my Sony TV as the monitor it sees the av reciever which makes sense as it's plugged into that first and in the windows resolutions bit it still says 1920 X 1080 is (Recommended) but why? Other resolutions about this are available so why does this one have recommended in brackets next to it.

The problem isn't quite the same as before, now when I select 4K res in windows the amp reports a steady signal but then the TV reports no signal where as before the amp was flickered it's HDMI status light suggesting the source signal was cutting in and out.

I'm starting to think it could be my cables, it's the only thing left to check before accepting it's not going to work with my setup.

I have IBRA High Speed Pro Gold cables, claim to do everything under the sun but perhaps don't, perhaps aren't that good quality, good enough to run a PC signal.

"- Smooth transmission of extreme HD resolutions up to 4096 x 2160 @24hz (Naturally lower resolutions are also supported)"

This is quoted in their description, why only 24hz?

Sorry for the long post but I'm at my wits end trying to get my media setup to start playing 4K, it's doing my head in now ha!
try the cables i used a 24hz 4k cable at first by accident and got a black flash on my screen every second then when i used the provided cable its been running fine for over a year
 
Soldato
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20 Feb 2011
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3,619
Make sure that your PC is plugged into a HDMI socket on the amp that supports 4k and HDMI 2. Some amps have inputs that don't support the necessary standards.
 
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OP
Joined
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1,315
Location
Bristol
Make sure that your PC is plugged into a HDMI socket on the amp that supports 4k and HDMI 2. Some amps have inputs that don't support the necessary standards.

Faffed around with this for a while and although absolutely nowhere in the product manual does it say some ports do some don't....it appears only two do, the Sat/STB one and the one labelled BD.

So now it works, however it does flick to black every now and again which is annoying and I think possibly the cables. I'm gonna try some different ones. Seems on some refresh rates it's more stable than others.

Getting somewhere now!

EDIT: So did some research on my apparently 4K UHD cables, a lot of people reporting the same as me with them when trying to run 4K res.

So I had 2 problems really, rubbish cables and wrong port on reciever. Didn't even need to buy the GFX card I guess but I'm better off for it with 60hz.

Bought the Amazon basics cable, everyone's says it's fine.
 
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Good to know that worked! Amazon Basic cables are just fine. I use them myself with no issues.

Yeah we'll know for sure when they arrive in a few days. So many people reporting the same issues as I was with those cables. Nuts really considering how they are advertised. I know that expensive cables are a rip off which is why I went for them cause they were cheap and they were advertised as meeting the standard, didn't realise they potentially are poorly made and also only meet 1.4a standard.
 
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The GT 1030 will give you 60Hz, hardware HEVC decode, and HDR (if your TV supports it). So still worth considering even if the on-board worked.

Are your cables up to spec both in and out of your amp?

Well good news, everything works!!!

So I had a few different issues all stopping me from enjoying 4K from my HTPC. Figured I might document them to round this post off nicely.

Issue one was that only 2 of the 4 HDMI imputs on my AMP are 4K pass through....this isn't documented anywhere in my amp manual. Issue two was that my HDMI cables which were apparently rated as 2.0 high speed cables just weren't, I swapped them out today for Amazon Basics 2.0 cable. So with all my cables swapped out and plugging the HTCP into one of the 4K supported inputs windows finally runs at the native 3840 x 2160!!

So I didn't need the GFX card after all.....well I did because actually playing 4K content was still choppy, particularly 'epic wide shots' for example would stutter. Basically like a computer game would if your card wasn't up to the job when it's all kicking off. I remembered what you said Troll about hardware decoding and resource monitor was showing that when it was stuttering my CPU was maxed, infact viewing any 4K scene was resulting in 70% plus CPU usage. Figured this can't be right, surely it should be using my card?!?

Had a look in my LAV Video Decoder settings and found the drop down for HW decoder selection, changed it to Nivdia and at last now every thing works. So I 100% needed the card anyway and the cables as without HW decoding my CPU couldn't have processed the content.

So there we have it.

Thank you everyone for your help, glad I posted!
 
Soldato
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Location
Edinburgh
Glad to hear you got it sorted and that my advice served you well. I also found that audio from the Nvidia card was much more reliable than using the onboard. With the onboard I would get the occasional pop, crackle or momentary drop out. The GT 1030 is a great little card for HTPC duties.
 
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I thought you needed the very expensive commercial media players to use commercial content or are you just wanting 4k desktop and showing 4k demo's? Not sure whats 4k thats commercial (netflixs?).
 
Soldato
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Netflix now offers commercial 4K content streaming via PC. The DRM requirements are a pain though. You need either a Kaby Lake CPU or an Nvidia 10-series GPU with 3 GB or more VRAM and then Edge on Windows 10 CU. Hopefully the VRAM requirement will be reduced so that the GT 1030 and 1050 are supported.

You can of course play any non DRM content.
 
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Glad to hear you got it sorted and that my advice served you well. I also found that audio from the Nvidia card was much more reliable than using the onboard. With the onboard I would get the occasional pop, crackle or momentary drop out. The GT 1030 is a great little card for HTPC duties.

Ive actually still been getting issues processing 4k, it was all smooth and no CPU load what so ever but it was sometimes pixilated and blocky in fast moving panning shots but mostly any kinda of image with a lot of white in it, for example a cloudy sky.

Turns out NVIDIA CUVID decoding isn't that great and was letting me down so changed my HW decode to DXVA Native and this has worked for me flawlessly decoding all content without a hitch. I'm using Lav filters to do this, lovely little application.

The following article is a great read for anyone who didn't know that much about HW decoding and the different types available.....like me of course.

https://forums.creativecow.net/readpost/24/948856

Basically the most important bit if NVIDIA doesn't work for you like it didn't me....


DXVA2 implementations come in two variants: native and copy-back.

With native implementation, the decoded video stays in GPU memory until it has been displayed. The video decoder must be connected to the video renderer with no intermediary processing filter. The video renderer must also support DXVA, which gives less freedom in the choice of renderers.

With copy-back implementation, the decoded video is copied from GPU memory back to the CPU's memory. This implementation doesn't have the limitations mentioned above and acts similar to a normal software decoder, however video stuttering will occur if the GPU is not fast enough to copy its memory back to the CPU's memory.

Native mode is advantageous unless there is a need for customized processing, as the additional copy-back operations will increase GPU memory load.

GPUs that should be fast enough are:

  • AMD: Radeon HD 6xxx and newer
  • Nvidia: Nvidia GeForce 500 Series and newer
  • Intel: Intel HD Graphics 2000 and newer
 
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