I have a TV which says it supports 4K 144Hz and right now I run an old laptop as a media server/desktop to it, which can only handle 1080p. I wish to switch to some NUC/mini-pc that run a linux desktop in 4K and run media flawlessly on it.
There are two things that I get confused about trying to find something that suits my wishes:
- How do I properly find out if the hardware can handle this? Like a rpi5 can handle 4K video playback with like librelec, but a 4K desktop distribution is laggy and slow. Is a CPU only enough, or do I need dedicated GPU? Should I be looking at the Ultra Core series from intel, does it have good linux support?
- Are my wishes on hdmi 2.1 level troughput? Which may not work on linux? Reading about hdmi 2.1, then it says that the hdmi forum forbids open source support for hdmi 2.1, does that mean there are binary blobs for linux that will work?
Is there anything else I’m missing? If you run a linux media server, what hardware and dist are you running?
You can look at manufacturers info pages and see what they support. Intel integrated chips usually list the capabilities and you’ll want to double check with your mini PC or motherboard manufacturer to make sure they support it too. I think any i5+ from the past 5 years with integrated graphics should be able to play/decode 4k media (someone correct me if this sounds crazy). Fornsure my core ultra 265. As far as codec support, I’m not familiar with the compatibilities but I’m sure everything CAN be played on recentish hardware. Encoding is out of my weelhouse.
I’ve used HDMI 2.1 hdr 4k120 on Linux with Nvidia, AMD and Integrated Intel. AMD will be the best experience especially on cards from the past 5 years. Nvidia, with proprietary drivers, on 3000 series or newer should be good for a few more years. I heard 2000 series will be dropped from support soonish m. Intel HDMI 2.1 is a pain on linux and I’ve only been able to get HDR 4k120 using a special DP to HDMI cable.