What specs matter for media streaming pc?

[im_stumped]

Hello,

This is just for playing Netflix and Youtube on my TV. What parts of a desktop PC really matter to get good quality playback?

- connected to the internet by network cable (not wireless)
- connecting to Netflix or Youtube by web browser
- connected to TV by HDMI cable
- 4K TV - so while most content will be 1080p HD, it would be nice to be able to watch 4k too

I was hoping to do this with a used computer, maybe with one or two upgrades if necessary. I've been using my laptop - i7@2GHz, 16Gb RAM, with Intel HD Graphics - and while HD movies are lovely, there is a certain amount of stuttering (picture jumps), and it won't do 4k as far as I can tell. Strangely, my old iPad does just as good a job or better when I use it connected to the TV instead.

So,

- what level of processor do I actually need - i7, i5, i3, Core2Duo, x86.......?
- do I need a super graphics card?
- or lots of RAM?
- or an SSD?

Or am I just better off getting a low-priced new unit because they all have the requisite video ability built in nowadays?

Thank you for your help.

 

[aquielisunari]

An SSD is helpful. I don't see gaming up there so a 120GB SSD will be plenty. Adata 120GB is a budget solution and then there is the Samsung 850 Evo 256GB should your budget be a little bigger.

8GB RAM will be plenty.

An i3 8100 or Ryzen 1200 can handle your tasks.

I recommend a GTX 1050 2GB.

There is such a wide selection out there. It might help if we saw 2 or 3 candidate PC's.

 

[The Paladin]

if what you got is a laptop then use it to "play videos on your tv"

if your going to spend money to do just that. I would just get a PC Stick or a a ROKU stick would be cheaper than a full blown computer and you would do the same if not more than playing Netflix and YouTube on your television

assuming its is a non-smart tv, then use something like:
Chromebit: https://www.asus.com/us/Chrome-Devices/Chromebit-CS10/
compute stick: https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/products/boards-kits/compute-stick.html

Roku also has one. but its not a computers but will do Netflix, movies, and YouTube efficiently and connects itself to the internet so you don't even need your laptop to control it.

https://www.roku.com/index#

 

[im_stumped]

Thank you for the replies already.

Not to be difficult - but no 'sticks', or devices, or boxes, thanks. Going rogue - my own machine.

No - no gaming. Just streaming video watching. Netflix, Youtube - maybe streaming directly from some TV-stations' own websites.

What got me wondering is, like I said, my old 3rd-gen iPad ( 32Gb, Dual-core Apple A5X@1GHz, 2048-by-1536-pixel resolution with quad-core graphics ) does at least as good a job, maybe better, less stuttering, than my newer laptop with superior specs.

So what's the important feature? Is it the 32Gb of RAM in the iPad versus the 16Gb in my laptop? Is it the quad-core PowerVR SGX543MP4 GPU (at only 250MHz) in the iPad versus the built-in Intel HD Graphics on the laptop?

 

[aquielisunari]

Thank you for the replies already.

Not to be difficult - but no 'sticks', or devices, or boxes, thanks. Going rogue - my own machine.

No - no gaming. Just streaming video watching. Netflix, Youtube - maybe streaming directly from some TV-stations' own websites.

What got me wondering is, like I said, my old 3rd-gen iPad ( 32Gb, Dual-core Apple A5X@1GHz, 2048-by-1536-pixel resolution with quad-core graphics ) does at least as good a job, maybe better, less stuttering, than my newer laptop with superior specs.

So what's the important feature? Is it the 32Gb of RAM in the iPad versus the 16Gb in my laptop? Is it the quad-core PowerVR SGX543MP4 GPU (at only 250MHz) in the iPad versus the built-in Intel HD Graphics on the laptop?

CPU.

Simple streaming on a PC might use a GB of RAM. Add in the rest that your PC has to use and you're looking at 3GB or less RAM usage. Add in extra background programs for the social network butterfly and it MIGHT use 4 but that's doubtful. The benefit certainly doesn't have anything to do with the RAM.

 

[SoNic67]

I am doing HTPC for years. Only regular HD, from cable and antenna.
GPU card - any nVidia from Kepler or newer generation will have embedded an hardware ASIC to process the video - NVENC/NVDEC. This is done without any processing from the actual cores (except in 4K under Kepler). Personally I use an half-height GT 730 (GDDR5 - Kepler gen) and I have used an half-height Quadro 600 (Fermi gen) on the previous machine. Both work flawless in 1080p. On the old PC box I had only a PCI3 1x slot, so I had to cut the pins from my 16x cards (I am too cheap to buy the dedicated 1x cards. The new PC box has a true 16x slot, but my cut cards are still working in it. PCIe 1x provides plenty of bandwidth for video - up to 250MB/s.
The HDD is an external 4TB one, connected via e-SATA now, I had it over USB2 in the past.
The CPU that I have now is an i5-4570 with 8GB RAM, I had a quad Core2 before (Q6600) with 4GB of RAM. The CPU is barely loaded when the decoding is done in the graphic card ASIC.
My wired network (cable/switches) works with 1GB rate, WiFi won't cut it (maybe will be OK on 5GHz AC).

The HD bandwidth required for one show on cable/OTA (both with MPEG2 payload) is around 13-18MB/s. My tuner can record 3 at one time and I can watch a recorded show at that time - this is the worst case scenario, that requires at max a transfer rate of 72MB/s. This is when the USB2 and DDR2 in the old box might have starting to have issues, especially when I added another tuner with 4 channels.

With the new PC box I have absolutely no issues. And I can watch also recorded HD shows, in H264 and H265. Since I don't own a 4K TV set, I didn't feel the need for a higher performance card. Don't confuse with gaming in 4K, this has nothing to do with that!
See here the hardware decoding capabilities of different nVidia cards:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nvidia_PureVideo#Table_of_GPUs_containing_a_PureVideo_SIP_block
I guess if you want the latest hardware capabilities, you can get a GeForce GT 1030. But that's only if you have a true 4K DCI (not merely UHD) TV and you have a bunch of downloaded H265/HEVC files.

Lastly - My OS is installed on a SSD, but the video is not saved on it. There is no need for that speed-wise (an external on eSATA or USB3 is plenty fast), capacity is not sufficient for HD shows, and also it will quickly wear out from multiple writes.
As OS I have Windows 7. Windows 8 will work too (if you have bought the MC extension), but not Win 10, because MS removed the Media Center from it.

 

[The Paladin]

@SoNic67, I am sure you meant HTPC and not (Hyper Text Caching Protocol (HTCP) and that sounds intriguing. maybe I'll bother to do something like it.
what os, software your running on your htpc to run the video's you have saved on your hard drive ?

 

[SoNic67]

Haha, surely HTPC - Home Theatre PC

I said above - it's a Windows 7 64 bit box, Small Form Factor Dell Optiplex 3020 ( i5-4570 and nVidia GT730) with one Silicondust HDHomerun Prime tuner (cable TV with Card Access, 3 channels) and another Silicondust Quatro for Over The Air programs (antenna, 4 channels).
Windows 7 (and 8) are the only software solutions that can record premium content (such as HBO or similar) from cable.

 

[im_stumped]

Hey thanks for all that great info.

So - you're saying really the important factor is the graphics card.

I could have a used PC with any i-series cpu, say 8Mb of RAM just for comfort, pretty much any storage drive, but be sure it has a good graphics card that's designed for 4k. Is that right?

OK - so I'm looking at three options for GPUs:

- Nvidia Quadro K600 - a friend has a used one I can have for cheap

- nVidia GT730 or GeForce GT 1030 - they're about the same price online, in the $100 range, which is fine

Which is, regardless of price, the best, most capable, most advanced? For the difference in cost, I'll take that one.

And - now that I see the capabilities of these cards - I also like to do some video editing, and the editor I use loves lots of CUDA cores. Any preference among these cards?

Very helpful discussion, thanks.

 

[SoNic67]

K600 is fine, almost the same generation as GT730 with DDR5 - Kepler. GT730 has more cores, and a slightly newer revision of the cores, but it really doesn't matter for 1080p.

Note that there is another GT730 (with more memory), but it's relabeled from older Fermi gen, that doesn't have the ASIC encoding hardware, just decoding.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Nvidia_graphics_processing_units#GeForce_700_series

Video editing doesn't use CUDA cores that much - just for some effects (not all of them).
The encoding/decoding processes are done now by that hardware ASIC (NVENC) without any need from GPU cores. Also, in video editing the CPU counts a lot, because there are some operations, besides the encoding process, that are done exclusively on CPU.
GT1030 is useful if you have 4K video in H265/HEVC encoded files to play. It speeds up also slightly the encoding of H264, so if that's important, go for it.

 

[The Paladin]

eyeing my Q9400 in the office and thinking, GT1030, and get Plex as I have a proper library of movies. .. maybe

 

[SoNic67]

That works!