Question Wanting a video card that can play 4k BR movies

[FordFreak2013]

I'm looking for a video card for the sole purpose of playing movies. Something that will play 4k BR movies and is at least a little future proof. I don't have any plans to go for 8k anytime soon. Doesn't matter if it's AMD or nVidia. Prefer active cooling. What would you recommend?

 

[tamz_msc]

I'm looking for a video card for the sole purpose of playing movies. Something that will play 4k BR movies and is at least a little future proof. I don't have any plans to go for 8k anytime soon. Doesn't matter if it's AMD or nVidia. Prefer active cooling. What would you recommend?

For UHD Blu-ray playback you'll need an Intel CPU that has SGX that is not disabled by firmware/microcode updates. So if you have an 11th gen Intel CPU or newer, you're out of luck.

Also, provided you have an Intel CPU with functional SGX, only the Intel integrated GPU can play back 4K Blu-ray. Your choice of a discrete video card is immaterial.

 

[OlyAR15]

No video cards support 4k Blu ray. AFAIK, 8k Blu ray doesn't exist and almost certainly never will. Optical media is a dying breed, and current sales of Ultra HD blu ray just doesn't make another format viable.

 

[FordFreak2013]

No video cards support 4k Blu ray. AFAIK, 8k Blu ray doesn't exist and almost certainly never will. Optical media is a dying breed, and current sales of Ultra HD blu ray just doesn't make another format viable.

8k video and devices do exist. Maybe not in BR though.

 

[FordFreak2013]

For UHD Blu-ray playback you'll need an Intel CPU that has SGX that is not disabled by firmware/microcode updates. So if you have an 11th gen Intel CPU or newer, you're out of luck.

Also, provided you have an Intel CPU with functional SGX, only the Intel integrated GPU can play back 4K Blu-ray. Your choice of a discrete video card is immaterial.

What about just for playing and outputting 4k video that's on a hard drive?

 

[tamz_msc]

What about just for playing and outputting 4k video that's on a hard drive?

If it's any video that's encoded in any of the popular formats, then any modern GPU will suffice.

 

[igor_kavinski]

You are better of just purchasing an Xbox Series S or even the Xbox One S. Both are excellent and relatively cheap Blu-ray players. I used the Xbox One S almost exclusively from 2016 to 2019 for enjoying 4K HDR BRs. Then I got bored of buying 4K Blurays because there are way too many and it's impractical for me to keep buying them. Storage space is not unlimited for me.

 

[igor_kavinski]

What about just for playing and outputting 4k video that's on a hard drive?

You will end up killing your drive within a year or two if you run high bitrate video from it. Now some people may say that's preposterous but I've seen multiple HDDs fail and their sole use case was playing movies stored on them.

WD Purple or other surveillance HDDs may fare better but I don't have any personal experience with them. I do know that my company's CCTV recording servers experience failed HDDs ever so often.

 

[OlyAR15]

8k video and devices do exist. Maybe not in BR though.

I know devices exist. And yes, you can find 8k samples here and there, but not as commercial media, and certainly not as bluray. Given how poorly br sells these days, it never will.

 

[Insert_Nickname]

For UHD Blu-ray playback you'll need an Intel CPU that has SGX that is not disabled by firmware/microcode updates. So if you have an 11th gen Intel CPU or newer, you're out of luck.

Also, provided you have an Intel CPU with functional SGX, only the Intel integrated GPU can play back 4K Blu-ray. Your choice of a discrete video card is immaterial.

Basically, forget about UHD Blurays on PC. Not worth the trouble.

WD Purple or other surveillance HDDs may fare better but I don't have any personal experience with them. I do know that my company's CCTV recording servers experience failed HDDs ever so often.

Maybe. But I think they're more tuned for recording then playback. They also have less robust error correction. Shouldn't be a problem, but worth keeping in mind.

Enterprise class 24/7/365 drives might also be a better choice, but are more expensive.

 

[FordFreak2013]

Basically, forget about UHD Blurays on PC. Not worth the trouble.



Maybe. But I think they're more tuned for recording then playback. They also have less robust error correction. Shouldn't be a problem, but worth keeping in mind.

Enterprise class 24/7/365 drives might also be a better choice, but are more expensive.

Looks like the CPU I'll be using won't allow it anyway. My current desktop CPU is skylake so it would. The HDDs I am using are from shucked Western Digital portable drives.The reason I went with them is because of Reddit and other places talking about them likely being WD red series or their equivalent.