New Build Property. Computer for Movies Advice Please!

[pabby1980]

Hi all,

I'm project managing the build of a property for an old friend of mine and i'm not exactly tech savvy with the audio visual side of things, particularly the computer aspect.

My friend downloads movies, usually in 720p with a DTS soundtrack, around 5GB total size, and quite often has a "jumpy" effect when playing them on a 2014 Mac Mini using either VLC or MPlayer and running through a Yamaha reciever.

This (in my humble opinion) either means the hardware isn't good enough to support the files, or the files are corrupted.

It happens most often on slow scened like when the camera goes over the top of a spacecraft in Aliens....or that ring shaped thing in the movie Elysium is spinning at the start (if you know the film).

2 seconds then a jolt.....2 seconds then a jolt

He's now looking at getting larger 1080p DTS files for a larger TV setup, possibly even 4K files, so making the leap from 5GB files to 15GB+, meaning that if the problem is hardware based....it's only going to get worse.

So my questions are;

Should he get a dedicated Home Theatre PC instead of the Mac Mini, and if so, which one (budget around £750)?

Is there any truth in what i was told in a computer shop that in the UK the movies we download play in a jumpy way because frames are lost from NTSC to PAL (say every 5th frame), meaning it's the source files that are the problem, and not the computer?

Bottom line is....i need a solution for him to watch movies smoothly on his 65" TV. Maybe just a simple Bluray player and get the classic movies (Star Wars etc) on Bluray would be an option?

Anyway....all advice welcome and thanks in advance for the help.

Cheers,

Paul

 

[madmatt30]

When you're talking modern HD video files the majority are recorded at 24 fps .

Running these at 50/60htz causes the exact frame skip/stutter you're describing - you'll notice it much much more on fairly slow moving horizontal panning scene's.

Most modern TV's are capable of switch to 24htz , I use kodi on windows for this purpose .
It has an option to use full screen & to play videos at their native refresh rate.
If I open a file that's recorded at 24fps the TV switches to 24htz , 50fps it switches to 50 htz, 60fps it switches to 60htz.

The difference when playing a 24fps file at 24htz vs 60htz is absolutely massive - much much smoother.


£750 for a htpc setup ? You can do something capable of 4k for far far less than that if you're building yourself.