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[Z0001]

Hi

I was wondering if anyone has recent experience with a dedicated hardware universal disc player, playing both discs (CD, Blu ray and UHD) and files for music and video?

Things I am concerned about with a hardware player for video file playback are things like subtitles not working, convenience of title searching, playing and control, video file playback quality not being as good as disc playback through a hardware unit.

I have an extensive library of music and video on HDD and disc, however lifestyle (kids, less time, streaming etc) has meant that I have not been able to keep up management of my MC system (the PC has died and I would need to rebuild as a server with lots of HDD as a minimum, before considering a lounge-room "player" for MC files).

So I am considering options:
1) rebuild MC server and buy a dedicated universal disc player (Magnetar 800, 900, Reavon 100, 200?) to play files and UHD discs (they take up too much HDD space in my view)
2) rebuild MC server and buy a nuc to play MC files, and maintain only a small UHD library on HDD

I would be really interested in what people think!

Thanks
Z

[haggis999]

Have you considered using a NAS for media storage, with a wired Ethernet connection to your PC?

That works well for me, using a Synology NAS, and I no longer worry about the size of ripped Blu-rays or UHD Blu-rays. 

[JimH]

Have you considered using a NAS for media storage, with a wired Ethernet connection to your PC?

That is a good idea.  Wi-fi and a NAS are bound to have problems.

[haggis999]

So I am considering options:
1) rebuild MC server and buy a dedicated universal disc player (Magnetar 800, 900, Reavon 100, 200?) to play files and UHD discs (they take up too much HDD space in my view)
2) rebuild MC server and buy a nuc to play MC files, and maintain only a small UHD library on HDD

I would be really interested in what people think!

Thanks
Z

I had been using an Intel NUC as my HTPC for nearly 6 years, but it died a few weeks ago. Rather than repairing or replacing the NUC, I decided that it made more sense to just use my primary workstation as the HTPC. Like the NUC, it's located in our living room, along with all our AV kit. The only time the workstation is shut down is when I'm in bed.

My point here is that one computer is enough in many cases, and it need not have a lot of storage if you offload the media files to a NAS.

I have an Oppo 105 universal disc player (which can handle everything except UHD) but hardly ever use it. In my experience, there is nothing inferior about playing ripped media on a computer. I use MakeMKV to rip my Blu-rays and UHD Blu-rays, dBpoweramp to rip CDs, and SACD_Extract to rip SACDs. In each case, these rips are done at maximum quality, creating lossless copies of the original discs. I include subtitles in all my video rips, as my wife needs them, and never have any issues with them.     

 

[slerch666]

Speaking from experience, playback from non-physical media devices, when configured correctly, will supply exactly the same bits to your TV/Receiver/Stereo as your physical disc player will depending on your rips.

It comes down to how you configure playback and whether you have enough raw storage to store full quality rips of your discs or if you transcode to save on storage space.

If you want Atmos or DTS:X from your video disc rips, you want to ensure bit streaming is enabled. This is possible in MC, of course. For any other format, be it True HD 5.1/2.0 or non-object based, you can let MC transcode that for you with 0 loss in quality.

From a VIDEO output issue, this is where you will have to decide the approach you want to take.

If you care about Dolby Vision and the Dolby Vision icon popping up on your TV when you have a DV capable video, then you would need to invest in one of a very, very small hand full of Android players that can do full enhancement layer DV playback (I can provide more detail if you really care).

Most other Android TV devices can sort of read the DV values, but don't offer the dynamic HDR values or 12-bit color that DV brings to the table (this is as I understand it; if MC does have access to the full dynamic DV values and the 12-bit color information, please feel free to correct my misunderstanding).
You would also need to find something other than MC for Android to do this, as the MC Android client does not seem to have an ability to playback the DV layers (happyu for someone from JRiver to provide evidence if this does actually work as it would change my personal approach).

If you want DV without having the disc, SOME UHD players can be used to playback files from a USB stick or drive, but the requirements to make this work are stupidly ridiculous because of limitations on playback of these files from USB or network. I do not recommend this method as it is a super huge PITA but some people prefer it, so be aware it IS an option.


If you don't care about DV and the DV icon popping on your TV and are happy with "just" HDR10/10+, then MC using the HDR10 layer from a DV file or from a native HDR encode, will provide some pretty amazing results and can do from modest hardware.

If you have the money for the Magnetar and have a use for everything it brings to the table, then by all means, buy that and enjoy.


I personally love my unRAID server full of original quality rips I have made from my personal physical media collection, streamed to my TV without needing to hunt for a disc or deal with menus and disc restrictions that force me to watch things like FBI warnings.