GPU to OLED TV for media PC

[sgavan]

Hi, I am just looking for some advice, I have a media PC with a AMD R9 285 plugged into a OLED TV, playback image is always washed out, tried kodi, media player etc, but the card only has HDMI 1.4.

Playing video through the built in TV player looks so much better but interface is bad, so was thinking of updating the GPU to a card with HDMI 2.0 or buying a nvidia shield tv, just wanted to check if anyone has a similar setup or advice if it would be suitable for 4k hdr. Budget is £150-200 and to fit a smallish case

Thanks

 

[MiKeOnE10110]

If you want to do it properly you need a good gpu and should use a program called madvr. You can do everything with it including making the image even better with their advanced up-scalers, decoders and hdr options. You also might be able to fix your current washed out look by setting proper black levels on your gpu drivers, needs to change to 255 levels and should be called something like rgb full, I've never used amd so you'll need to find it in the amd gpu control panel. Then set your TV to normal blacks not low (sometimes can be vice versa) you will tell if its right if everything isn't really, really, dark. And make sure uhd is enabled in the tv software for the hdmi port on the tv you're using to connect to the pc.

You're not going to be able to do 4k at 60hz + HDR with hdmi 1.4, you need 2.0 as 4k with hdr requires the full bandwidth on a hdmi 2.0 cable/port about 18gb, Though you can set madvr to open your 4k movies at their correct hz which is normally 24 and comes within hdmi 1.4's ability it will toggle these modes when opening a movie and return to prior state when yo close the movie but hdr probably wont work but sdr movies at 4k will as hdmi 1.4 does 4k rez at 30hz, but best to get a 2.0 capable card then madvr will handle the correct hz changes for your movies for you.

You could also use your motherboard if it has a hdmi 2.0 port and use the cpu instead of the gpu to decode the movies using a software method (still looks decent). However I'd recommend a rtx 2060 if you want to use high settings in madvr. You can also change the black levels in madvr if youre having trouble finding them in the gpu settings, worth playing around with the program, a must have if you're playing 4k hdr movies on a pc.

 

[sgavan]

Thanks, I'll try that software ove the weekend.

 

[VincentHanna]

It shouldn't really be washed out.

The TV is probably set to default of black level low, whereas the GPU is probably outputting full rather than limited dynamic range.

Most likely just a mis-match. Set the GPU to limited black level.

On NVIDIA GPU's this is called 'Output dynamic range' but it might be different on AMD.

 

[MG42Maniac]

If you just want a media player, I can 100% recommend a Shield. I used to have a HTPC that output 4K HDR to my LG OLED and it was a PITA. I could never get it playing just right, I'd get audio problems is random stuttering. I got a Shield and it's been sublime.

 

[sgavan]

I had a look a the software and it worked a bit but leaning towards a shield pro, I can get a 8% discount from the purple shirts but just waiting for stock. Still going to mess with the software though just for the geek of it thanks for the advice

 

[sgavan]

I managed to resolve this, thanks for all the advice and ideas, not full 4k hdr but still looks really impressive, I reset all setting I could but the one thing that seemed to make the biggest difference was in the amd software and it was the scaling aspect ratio, it was set to keep ratio which should have been correct, changed to full panel and looks a bit better. Also I checked my HDMI ports and didn't have any spare so good job I didn't order a shield. Always check your ports guys lol