[Shop-talk] tv - home theater cabling problem

[Ian McFetridge]

RD, I’ve had similar challenges with evolving AV tech (4K) and I’ve
essentially done what you did (Plex server).  I’ve moved all of my movies,
DVD, pictures, etc. onto a Synology Network Attached Storage (RAID 10) that
runs Plex Server.  I have a mix of clients all over the house, everything
from mini-PCs, to Amazon Fire sticks/boxes, and Nvidia Shields.  I’m not an
expert, but I’ve been running Plex for about 10 years now if you have any
questions.

Best,
Ian

On Sat, Aug 15, 2020 at 3:03 PM Ronnie Day <ronnie.day at gmail.com> wrote:

> John & group -
>
> Things got complicated when I decided to playback 4K movie files from hard
> drives or other removable devices. I've got a couple of USB3 8TB drives
> full of movies. One is all 4K files. Some of these are formatted
> slightly differently than others and require a seperate audio codec. plus
> the TV has only 1 USB port. After posting questions to a worldwide media
> list I've been on since the late '90s when I built my first digital A/V
> editing system, the consensus was that I needed a "media player" to connect
> the two hard drives to the TV, so I ordered a MyPin M29 media player, $60
> from Amazon. It supported the file formats I needed, but it wouldn't let me
> turn off subtitles/closed captioning (bummer) and I get frequent, subtle
> "stuttering" in the audio (MAJOR bummer). If I plugged the 4K hard drive
> into either my Mac or PC and used VLC, everything worked fine, but I want
> to watch these movies on the 55 inch in our bedroom. An added problem was
> that the output of the MyPin player is HDMI and I was already out of HDMI
> ports on the TV. So, after several discussions with several folks, I
> ordered a Lenovo M75 Tiny mini PC and plan to run Plex server as the core
> of a home media server down the road. The hard drives plug into it, and
> there's plenty of room for expansion.
>
> Now, how to get these additional souces into the TV? While working to
> connect all of these input devices I noticed that TESmart has a 4 x 1 HDMI
> switch. I'm using one of their KVM switches to let me control a couple of
> Macs and a PC with a single keyboard and mouse for some time and it works
> great. I sent their tech folks a note describing my issues with 4K and they
> said try it. The switch was $25 and they offer a 30 day return.
> Unfortunately it won't work with 4K so it's going back next week. After
> talking to a Ford AV systems engineer in Austin that I've worked with
> before, I ordered a Monoprice (31057) switch/scaler that Monoprice promises
> will do what I need. It, too, has a 30 return.
>
> Sorry if i've been a bit long winded but setting up all of these boxe to
> work together, especially with 4K is a bit complex. The reason I'm going
> through all of this detail is that if anyone's not doing 4K video, all of
> the simpler routing and switching should work fine. However, if you have
> ANY thoughts of going to 4K, plan for that now. Hopefully I can save other
> folks some blood, sweat & tears!
>
> RD
>
>
>
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