A Budget Home Theater & PC Setup: 4K, HDR, UHD Blu-ray, and More
by Ganesh T S on December 26, 2017 8:30 AM ESTConcluding Remarks
Home theater components have seen rapid technological advancements over the last decade. It is almost given that most components will become outdated 4-5 years down the line. Under these circumstances, it is important to identify local troughs where things don't change much except at the leading edge. The rise and stabilization of 3D video was the last such trough. Right now, 4K and HDR seem to have finally matured and become ready for mass adoption. From a HTPC viewpoint, HDMI 2.1 should not be a cause for concern and make consumers wait for the next big thing. This is a marked departure from the tone I had adopted when we last looked at options for HTPC displays back in 2015.
In the process of working on this article, I configured and set up a budget home theater build from the ground up (except for a few speakers from my earlier setup). The table below lists the components that I chose along with the pricing for each. Readers interested in building their own set up will not go wrong by picking and choosing from the list below.
Home Theater Setup Components Guide | |||
Component | Model | Price | Notes |
Display | TCL 55P607 | $700 | The TCL C-series (with Dolby Vision) is also recommended, and is available for a comparable (if not lower) price from outlets like Costco as of December 2017. |
AV Receiver | Denon AVR-X3400H | $999 | The lowest price we found while tracking this product was $799. A more budget-friendly is the Denon AVR-S730H at $430 (as low as $349 at times) |
Media Streamer | NVIDIA SHIELD Android TV | $199 | Available for as low as $160 at times. Recommended as a more flexible alternative / add-on to the Roku Smart TV features of the TCL P- and C-series TVs. Offers ease of setup and use compared to the HTPCs listed in this table |
HTPC | ASRock Beebox-S 7200U | USD 349 (Barebones) | Recommended HTPC if media playback is the primary requirement |
Intel NUC7i7BNHX1 | USD 506 (Barebones) | Recommended HTPC if media playback is a primary requirement, and flexibility to add an eGFX enclosure for gaming and/or hardware extensibility is also desired. Offers much better CPU / GPU performance compared to the ASRock Beebox-S 7200U | |
Zotac ZBOX MAGNUS EN1080K | USD 2000 (pre-built) | Recommended HTPC if gaming is the primary requirement. Most powerful CPU and GPU in the list of considered systems, but comes with size and power consumption penalty, as well as the inability to support UHD Blu-ray playback | |
Blu-ray Drive | Pioneer BDR-211UBK | $117 | Our choice for the Blu-ray drive has to be an internal one as of now, since almost all USB-based ones are currently not available directly in the North American market |
SATA-USB Bridge for Blu-ray Drive | UGREEN SATA-USSB Adapter with Hub | $26 | A multi-purpose SATA-USB bridge with a microSD reader and a couple of additional USB 3.0 Type-A ports. If looks are a concern, the Vantec NexStar DX USB 3.0 Enclosure (NST-536S3-BK) at $44 is a good choice. However, since the components are concealed in my setup, I went with the more veratile and cheaper UGREEN option |
Blu-ray Player Software | CyberLink PowerDVD 17 Ultra | $48 | Pretty much the only option available to play Ultra HD Blu-rays legally. Does automatic playback in HDR mode for supported local files on supported Intel GPU-based systems. Note that this is not a mandatory component if the Pioneer BDR-211UBK is used. The Blu-ray drive comes with a OEM version of PowerDVD 14 that supports UHD Blu-ray playback. However, only the retail version gets updates that can fix issues that new titles in the market may have |
Speakers | Polk Audio RC80i | $117 | Purchased a couple of these in-ceiling pairs for new rear and surround channel speakers, along with ceiling speaker protective covers. Choice depends on home theater size and other requirements. Works well enough for me to recommend |
HDMI Cables | AmazonBasics High-Speed HDMI Cable (10 ft. / 3 pk.) | $14 | The Monoprice cables are recommended over the AmazonBasics ones. |
Monoprice Certified Premium High Speed HDMI Cable (10ft.) | $3.14 |
Consumers looking for a compact and pure media playback HTPC (including OTT streaming, local media playback, and UHD Blu-ray playback) can opt for either the ASRock Beebox-S Kaby Lake series or the Intel NUC7i7 series. The key is the presence of a HDMI 2.0 / HDCP 2.2 port. If UHD Blu-ray playback is not essential, a machine equipped with a GP107 GPU (GTX 1050 / GTX 1050Ti / GT 1030) is a good choice, as it comes with a GPU capable of VP9 Profile 2 decoding in hardware. However, such a system is unlikely to be as compact as the UCFF machines. If gaming is as important as media playback, a hybrid setup with the Intel NUC7i7 series along with a eGFX enclosure connected to the Thunderbolt 3 port and incorporating a high-end Pascal or similar GPU can also fit the bill. While we have not evaluated such a HTPC setup, it does offer the best of all worlds on paper - gaming with Dolby Vision, UHD Blu-ray playback, and all the other bells and whistles. This is possibly a setup we would like to evaluate in a future article.
Moving forward, consumers should look forward to dynamic HDR metadata support. If the components in the display chain are already capable of Dolby Vision, it is likely that consumers are not going to see any major difference compared to components supporting the dynamic metadata feature of HDMI 2.1.
Dolby Vision on PCs presents a host of challenges. In general, dynamic metadata is problematic for general-purpose devices like Windows machines. On such systems, there may be many different video windows open, each with conflicting metadata. So all these different formats need to be merged into a single color/brightness domain. By comparison, most CE devices are in full-screen-video mode, and don't normally have to worry about multiple HDR formats appearing on screen concurrently. Addressing these challenges will require the OS and GPU vendors to work together to go beyond the current HDR10 deployment.
In terms of HTPC hardware, one of the interesting platforms about to debut in shipping systems is Gemini Lake. The low-cost platform supports SGX, HDMI 2.0, and HDCP 2.2. Gemini Lake platforms have a lower power budget and memory performance compared to the KBL-U systems covered in this piece. Intel confirmed that they do not plan to support HDR processing workflows in Gemini Lake due to those constraints. Consumers looking for Gemini Lake to provide a low-cost HTPC platform should prepare to temper their expectations.
Finally, a note on the HDMI cables used in my setup: I bought a number of them of various lengths (up to 10ft.) from both Amazon (Amazon Basics) and Monoprice. The Amazon Basics had a 33% failure rate (only 4 out of 6 were able to work with the GTX 1080 in a Razer Blade Pro driving a 4Kp60 signal at RGB 4:4:4 to the LG 43UD79B). Fortunately, I was able to test out prior to installing the cables inside the wall. On the other hand, the Monoprice Premium Certified cables had a 100% success rate. It is a no-brainer to go with the Monoprice ones.
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Kevin G - Wednesday, December 27, 2017 - link
In the market, it seems that 4K using HDMI 2.0 with HDCP 2.2 and HDR has finally settled things down after several years of turbulence. By my count we're at the five generation of consumer 4K/UHD. First we had the wave of 4K support only via HDMI 1.4/HDCP 1.4, then a half step with some HDMI 1.4/HDCP 2.0 displays which didn't see wide spread release as a new generation with HDMI 2.0/HDCP 2.0 was around the corner which could finally do 4k60. Then HDCP 2.2 came out making all the previous HDCP 2.0 displays incredibly short lived. Now we're seeing the advent of HDR being a standardized feature to go alongside 4k. All of this is over the course of 5 years. Finally have things settle down for 4K that getting content on the display as designed is not a headache as it has been in years past. Oh and 4K content is finally arriving with streaming services and 4K disc media.The problem with HDMI 2.1 is that there will likely be three generations of hardware that support. First wave, which will likely be shown off at CES 2018, will focus around higher frame rate transfer or higher resolution. As these devices start shipping in late 2018, there will likely be a new HDCP version to protect 8K content announced to make all the new displays only worthwhile as monitors for the first save of HDMI 2.1 video cards. Hooray for copy protection screwing over the consumer! Then I see another generation of displays accepting variable refresh rate as soon as Sony or MS update their console to support variable refresh rate. Ultimately a good thing gaming but it'll spur another round of obsolete hardware. Best time to adopt would be wait until 8K media has settled own on a distribution medium as once content becomes readily available, there is less incentive to change underlaying spec. That'll still be years away.
fallaha56 - Tuesday, December 26, 2017 - link
Also...Gemini Lake cannot do HDR because of ‘power contraints’ but an iPhone or Samsung can?Really? Or is this just intel at it again
lowphas - Wednesday, December 27, 2017 - link
A <75 usd android TV box can do 4k60fps hdr decode on paper. Usually they have a 5v2a power supply. But I dunno, never had one before.Tv sets are just a display panel and a small (maybe mobile?) soc in my eyes. There is virtually no power or thermal limitation inside a tv. (I have an mu7000 series tv)
So back to the intel cpu... I am just missing some point or it is not that demanding feature so in my opinion it can be maybe a price(ing)* constrain.
Mikzip - Tuesday, December 26, 2017 - link
Is it possible to get HDR out by means of USB C to HDMI adaptor, my HDMI port is only 1.4Kevin G - Wednesday, December 27, 2017 - link
Depends on the system but most USB-C ports that can provide video do so natively by DisplayPort and then convert that over to HDMI. So HDR output is possible because DP supports it but the DP to HDMI conversion chip plays a roll here too.So the short answer is yes but it may not be possible with all adapters.
Mikzip - Wednesday, December 27, 2017 - link
Do you know of any such adapter, the only one i have been able to lokate with HDR are only for the MacBook, and my USB C port don't have ThunderboltKevin G - Wednesday, December 27, 2017 - link
Not off hand that'd be guaranteed to work. Even if an adapter doesn't immediately work, you could try editing the system's EDID table to expose 10 bit color etc. and see what gets passed through. I strongly recommend this testing with a display that accepts HDR via both DP and HDMI so you could compare the results with and with the adapter as a factor.Mikzip - Wednesday, December 27, 2017 - link
I was trying to hook it up to my HDR TV LGB6, all HDMI inputs accept HDR. Editing EDID table are a little out of my league I'm afraid ;-)harshw - Tuesday, December 26, 2017 - link
The BIOS ver for the ASRock Beebox 7200-S is shown as 1.73. The version available for download from the website is 1.60. Was the 1.73 ver also a beta?And any idea of what the LSPCon version was? 1.66?
It's sad that the Intel HD graphics cannot do YCbCr 4:2:2 ...
Nestoritwiz - Tuesday, December 26, 2017 - link
Budget??Don't get me wrong I applaud your choices any of that stuff which I would love to own and it's a combination is a whole oh my God I'd be so happy.
But if the goal was to be on a budget or last three to five years without being update outdated then why would you use a DVD player of any kind three to five years come on we all know streaming is future DVDs are like VHS. Nvidia shield on sale for 149, T5 Samsung hard drive or some equivalent hundred bucks or less, ajisen air mouse remote 25 bucks. Get your home theater system 2 to 300. And you're good to go. Thank you for allowing me to express my thoughts I just think you missed the mark a little bit.
Happy holidays
Stephen