[Songoku]

Hi All,

I have a chance to get this model from a friend with a low cost.

I want to make my kodi ready for 4K and HEVC.

Does anyone knows the capability of this device? Is it 4K/60hz supported? Is Intel+Nvidia ok for kodi/openelec?

Any kind of info is valuable for me as i have limitied time. Thank you,

http://www.asus.com/ASUS_VivoPC/VivoPC_V...fications/

[Songoku]

I have find out that they use this chip for output which uses HDMI 1.4b. Does that mean no possibility for 4K/60hz?

http://www.asmedia.com.tw/eng/e_show_pro...2&item=147

[wrxtasy]

4K = 3840 × 2160 resolution (2160p)
up to 4K/30p or 3D@1080p needs HDMI 1.4
4K@50/60p or 3D@4K needs HDMI 2.0 to provide the extra bandwidth needed.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HDMI#Version_1.4

Laymens terms: HVEC=H265

The i3 and i5 can decode H265 video in software only, my 2.7Ghz i5 - iMac plays H265 / 1920x1080@24p and Kodi codec/CPU reports 60%.
H265 and 4K , forget about it.

On November 14, 2013, DivX developers released information on HEVC decoding performance using an Intel i7 CPU at 3.5 GHz which had 4 cores and 8 threads. The DivX 10.1 Beta decoder was capable of 210.9 fps at 720p, 101.5 fps at 1080p, and 29.6 fps at 4K

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High_Effici...d_products

VivoPC VM62N has a NVIDIA® GeForce 820M.

You need a NVIDIA GeoForce GTX 980 (Maxwell Mk2) for HDMI 2.0 and HEVC support:

http://www.anandtech.com/show/8526/nvidi...0-review/5

The i3-4030U / i5-4210U processors are Haswell microarcitecture so you get proper 24p syncing.

This mini PC will certainly run Kodi in Windows and be able to play HEVC/H265/1080p video at 24p using software only. Higher bitrate H265 video will likely stutter, but even low bitrate H265 videos will have far superior picture quality than their H264 bitrate equivalents.

4K video encoded using H264, playing at 24p would work just as it does on the Intel Celeron/Haswell equipped Chromebox, using hardware acceleration.

NVIDIA® GeForce 820M specs here:

http://www.geforce.com/hardware/notebook...ifications

[Songoku]

@wrxtasy

Thank you for the perfect explanation. I decided to wait a little more until cpu/gpu's has more support for H265 and get hdmi2.0.

[wrxtasy]

Cheers.

A very interesting read here about 4K TV's and the current issues with them:
http://forum.kodi.tv/showthread.php?tid=207901

[Hedda]

Also see related discussion here http://forum.kodi.tv/showthread.php?tid=211026 and here http://forum.kodi.tv/newreply.php?tid=211061 about HEVC

[DJ_Izumi]

Are DisplayPort->HDMI 2.0 adaptors a thing?

[Stereodude]

Are DisplayPort->HDMI 2.0 adaptors a thing?

They are probably possible, but it's not clear when or if they will be HDMI 2.0 compliant.

[noggin]

Are DisplayPort->HDMI 2.0 adaptors a thing?

They are probably possible, but it's not clear when or if they will be HDMI 2.0 compliant.

My (probably flawed) understanding is that Displayport 1.2 to HDMI 2.0 is a bit more complex than Displayport to HDMI. I believe the latter is a bit of a misnomer in many cases, as instead of converting a Displayport SIGNAL to HDMI, the presence of the converter signals to the video card feeding the Displayport connector to switch into an "HDMI signal over Displayport connector" standard I believe - so there is no real conversion required, as the GPU is switched to generating an HDMI signal itself.

For 2160/60p HDMI 2.0 to be derived from Displayport 1.2 2160/60p signals I believe something a lot more complex needs to take place. HDMI 2.0 2160/60p runs in the same way as earlier HDMI signals do but at a much higher clock rate (so it outputs a single 3840x2160/60p stream). Display port 1.2 2160/60p runs in native Displayport, and AIUI it effectively runs as 2 streams of either 1920x2160 or 3840x1080 that are merged in a display, and they would need to be similarly merged to a single HDMI 3840x2160 stream in the converter?

I may be VERY wrong about this - but it is what I've gleaned from reading round the subject a bit. I don't believe GPUs which currently offer Displayport 1.2 3840x2160/60p output can be flipped to output HDMI 2.0 3840x2160/60p output in the same way as the simple converter can for lower resolutions.

[DJ_Izumi]

My (probably flawed) understanding is that Displayport 1.2 to HDMI 2.0 is a bit more complex than Displayport to HDMI. I believe the latter is a bit of a misnomer in many cases, as instead of converting a Displayport SIGNAL to HDMI, the presence of the converter signals to the video card feeding the Displayport connector to switch into an "HDMI signal over Displayport connector" standard I believe - so there is no real conversion required, as the GPU is switched to generating an HDMI signal itself.

I may be VERY wrong about this - but it is what I've gleaned from reading round the subject a bit.

You are not WRONG however you are also not quite right. The adaptors you refer to, 'Passive DP->HDMI' adaptors exist, and indeed simply act as pinout adaptors while the DP port switches to generating an HDMI signal. However there are also 'Active DP->HDMI' adaptors which convert the DisplayPort signal to HDMI as a conversion process. I use active adaptors on my workstation for technical reasons. Most graphics cards only have two TMDS clock-gens, which generate the clock signal necessary for DVI/HDMI, meaning they can only drive up to two displays or only one dual-link display. One of the clockgens would be used on a passive DP->HDMI so you'd still be limited to two displays. I'm running four monitors, so I'm using active adaptors so I can run all four off a single monitor. DisplayPort doesn't need a clock-gen, and before you ask, three of my monitors don't support DisplayPort so that's why I use it.

On the topic of DisplayPort, I want wonder how many 4K TV's feature a DisplayPort connection which would allow HTPCs without HDMI 2.0 to still do 4K at 60hz.

[wrxtasy]

@wrxtasy

Thank you for the perfect explanation. I decided to wait a little more until cpu/gpu's has more support for H265 and get hdmi2.0.

Yes wait a bit as power efficient HEVC hardware decoding will be coming in 2015 to Intel Skylake CPU's at affordable prices. (Hopefully!)

Intel developers have just now added the necessary code for the Video Acceleration API (VA-API) for Linux to offer support for hardware decoding of HEVC/H.265 content on their upcoming Intel Skylake processor architecture

http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=ne...px=MTg1MzU

For Intel Broadwell (No HDMI 2.0)

According to later news from anandtech, Broadwell will hardware accelerate H265.

"Broadwell will be implementing a hybrid H.265 decoder, allowing Broadwell to decode the next-generation video codec in hardware, but not with the same degree of power efficiency as H.264 today. In this hybrid setup Intel will be utilizing both portions of their fixed function video decoder and executing decoding steps on their shaders in order to offer complete H.265 decoding. The use of the shaders for part of the decoding process is less power efficient than doing everything in fixed function hardware but it’s better than the even less optimal CPU."