A Budget Home Theater & PC Setup: 4K, HDR, UHD Blu-ray, and More
by Ganesh T S on December 26, 2017 8:30 AM ESTConfiguring a UHD Blu-ray Playback System
The rise in popularity of OTT streaming has coincided with a decline in the popularity of physical media formats such as Blu-rays. Irrespective of the market statistics, it is indisputable that the bitrates possible with the latter simply can't translated to OTT services. Bitrates usually directly correlate with video quality, though, beyond a certain point, it becomes very difficult to distinguish. HD audio formats such as Dolby Atmos, DTS-HD MA, Dolby TrueHD etc. are also yet to be widely adopted by OTT streaming services. On top of all these, Blu-rays are often treated as collectibles by some consumers.
UltraHD (UHD) Blu-rays (with their 4K resolution videos encoded in HEVC) were a bit slow to take off. On the PC front, the number of licensed software Blu-ray player vendors has come down from 3 (ArcSoft, Corel, and CyberLink) to just CyberLink alone. PowerDVD 17, with UHD Blu-ray support, was released in April 2017. The hardware requirements were quite specific, and we decided to pass up on a hands-on review at that time.
While reviewing the Intel NUC7i7BNH, I realized that it came with support for SGX, one of the primary requirements for PowerDVD 17 to play back UHD Blu-rays. I also remembered that the BIOS of the ASRock Beebox-S 7200U had a SGX option. Both of these systems also had a LSPCon on board to support HDMI 2.0 with HDCP 2.2 capability. Pioneer launched the BDR-211UBK in March, but, had specifically indicated that KBL-U was incompatible. However, based on our discussions with both CyberLink and Intel, we decided to give the drive a try by connecting the internal SATA ODD using a compact SATA-USB bridge.
The Pioneer BDR-211UBK and the UGREEN SATA-USB Adapter Combine to Make the Intel NUC7i7BNH a UHD Blu-ray Player
We looked up Amazon for a compact bridge and chanced upon a versatile UGREEN adapter. In addition to supporting the SATA drive, it also had a couple of USB 3.0 Type-A extension ports and a microSD reader. This made sure that the optical drive would not completely take over the USB port in the host system.
Using an Internal Drive without an Enclosure is not an Issue if the Setup is Tucked Out-of-Sight
After setting up the hardware and configuring the BIOS appropriately in the two systems, we installed the Management Engine components. The next step was to confirm that the system and allied components were correctly set up for UHD Blu-ray playback with HDR. CyerbLink provides the Ultra HD Blu-ray Advisor tool for this purpose. It also helpfully points out missing ME components or mis-configured BIOS options. Even though we were aware that the Zotac ZBOX MAGNUS EN1080K doesn't pass the requirements check (no SGX, iGPU inactive), we did try out the tool on it also.
The CyberLink Ultra HD Blu-ray Advisor (L: ASRock Beebox-S 7200U, R: Zotac ZBOX MAGNUS EN1080K)
Even though it is possible that the Zotac EN1080K might enable SGX in a future BIOS release, the use of the Intel GPU is probably disabled at the board level. This means that there is no protected audio/video path for secure decoding of the UHD Blu-ray streams. Given that there is no talk of UHD Blu-ray support from NVIDIA Pascal, consumers shouldn't keep their hopes up regarding the possibility of UHD Blu-rays getting played back on NVIDIA Pascal-equipped systems. Coming back to the results of the UHD BD Advisor tool, we find that the two KBL-U systems pass all the checks. We purchased a retail copy of the Planet Earth II UHD Blu-ray for testing out our setup.
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Lord of the Bored - Wednesday, December 27, 2017 - link
He didn't use a DVD player. He used a BluRay player. Completely different.And until streaming gets better bitrates it is an incomplete replacement from a purely technical standpoint. I mean, when regular BR supplies 50 megabits per second, UHD BR is a hundred mbps, and UHD Netflix is 25 mbps, there is OBVIOUSLY a quality sacrifice that has to be made(though the UHD situation is better than HD, where Netflix is a ridiculously compact FIVE mbps. I'll take a quarter the data over a tenth any day).
I mean, if you don't care about image and sound quality, you may as well watch VHS tapes off that old CRT you found in gramma's garage. I always thought home theater builds were about getting the best experience, not a really expensive mediocre experience.
CharonPDX - Wednesday, December 27, 2017 - link
"without worrying about it getting obsolete within the the next 3 to 5 years."JFC... A home theater system should last far longer than 3-5 years...
Bullwinkle-J-Moose - Thursday, December 28, 2017 - link
"JFC... A home theater system should last far longer than 3-5 years..."---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Not with DRM!
A mans gotta know his limitations (Clint Eastwood)
pixelstuff - Wednesday, December 27, 2017 - link
I wish the manufacturers would create a decent set of components (AVR, Blu-ray, etc) that are not more than 8" deep so you can sit them below a wall mounted TV and they don't protrude way out into the room compared to the TV.Wiring would have to be on the sides with a standardized way to hide them, but I don't think extra width would be a big issue when placed under a large TV.
Dionysos1234 - Wednesday, December 27, 2017 - link
Recommending a Denon 999$ reciever is not only NON budget - It is also an extremely poor choice for reciever in that price range from an audio perspective. Guess HTPC is not an area where Anandtech have qualified people e.g. the amount of time devoted to showing poorly made graps on power consumption seems bizarre.Aikouka - Wednesday, December 27, 2017 - link
As for all the remarks about the receiver, my biggest piece of advice is to always buy last year's model UNLESS you absolutely need a feature only on the newest model. For example, I bought an X4300 for less than the article's X3400, and there really aren't any differences that would make me consider swapping.Aikouka - Wednesday, December 27, 2017 - link
As a quick note for the uninitiated, Denon's model numbers work where the thousands place is the model number and the hundreds place is the year. So, the 4300 that I mention above is the 4th-tier model (higher is better) from the third year. The 3400 is the third-tier model from the fourth year. So, mine is a higher model, but it's a year older. To see whether it's worth an upgrade, the AVS Forum's Denon Owner's Threads usually have comparisons to previous years (e.g. X#400 vs. X#300) that can help you decide whether the latest is worth it.r3loaded - Wednesday, December 27, 2017 - link
All I'm getting from this article is that HDR is a mess of confusing and incompatible standards and support, compounded by Hollywood's almost autistic fixation with ramming DRM down the throats of anyone wanting to watch 4K HDR content, and the very specific hardware requirements that it imposes on consumers.Also, why is it that there are tons of HDR TVs on the market but barely any HDR monitors? And conversely, why does no one make a 4K HDR TV smaller than 40 inches (say, 32 inches)? Not all of us are blessed with big houses that can fit the 55 inch TV mentioned in the review.
benedict - Wednesday, December 27, 2017 - link
Yep, sounds like too much trouble for what you're getting and you always risk some weird standard won't work on your expensive setup. Until they make this as simple as torrenting a movie the home theater market will remain a very tiny niche.CityBlue - Wednesday, December 27, 2017 - link
The BDA is expected to announce that the free to licence HDR10+ open standard is being added to the UHD BluRay standard in January at CES, and not the proprietary Dolby Vision. After that announcement I imagine DV will become a niche format. HDR10+ is simply what HDR10 should always have been.HDR10+ (compared with DV) also has a dramatically easier workflow as far as creative's are concerned, so combine that with the reduced licencing cost for manufacturers and there's very little reason to choose DV - the only winner there is Dolby.
It's not yet announced, but recommending DV over HDR10+ may not be such good advice.