Laptop Best for Playing 4K Video Files on Dumb TV?

TimmyTims on 04/10/2022 - 19:35

I currently have a laptop from 2014ish that I use to play video files on a Dumb 4k TV via a HDMI cable. It can't play 4k files (they play a few seconds than go to black or freeze up VLC) and it's starting to struggle playing 1080p files as well, (if I skip ahead in VLC it plays at like 10 fps).

My current laptop has a Intel Cor o7-4700HQ CPU and a AMD Radeon R9 M200X. It did always struggle to switch over to the dedicated GPU but from reading online, I think the CPU can't handle the encoding or something like that for high resolution videos.

So is a newer laptop (I'll probably look at refurbished one) they way to go to play media to a dumb TV, or should I look at plex or an Nvidia shield?

I'm very open to any suggestions or advice on what I should look for in a laptop.

Cheers

Computing Computer Laptop

Comments

  • Hybroid on 04/10/2022 - 19:38

    Does your TV not have a USB port? You might be able to put files on a USB stick and play off there, even if it's not a smart TV.

    • TimmyTims on 04/10/2022 - 19:58

      Didn't even think of that, I'll give it a go

  • spackbace on 04/10/2022 - 19:47
    +3

    Jees just get a Chromecast and cast to it

    You could setup the laptop as a Plex server, which would make your life easier

    But definitely a Chromecast with Google TV

    • TimmyTims on 04/10/2022 - 19:58
      +1

      So does the Chromecast render the video then instead of the laptop?

      • spackbace on 04/10/2022 - 19:59
        +1

        It should direct play

  • Gracey on 04/10/2022 - 19:47

    You could get the Chromecast with remote, and run a Plex server on your laptop.
    You’ll just need to make sure the video files are in a format that the Google TV can play natively, as the laptop won’t have the power to transcode.

  • Mechz on 04/10/2022 - 19:50

    You will have to check specs as every laptop I have encountered only does 30Hz at 4k over HDMI. You can definitely use USBC dongles to get 60Hz but some might not do HDCP if you want to use streaming services.

  • Mugsy on 04/10/2022 - 20:29

    I vote Chromecast with remote too… but if you don't want to cast, I'd say get an Nvidia Shield Pro during the next sale and you can plug in a portable HDD to play your 4k movie files.

  • bazingaa on 04/10/2022 - 21:14

    USB on TV
    Samsung phone connected to TV via HDMI

  • ShannonN on 04/10/2022 - 23:10

    Have you checked that the TV is NOT a 4k device and an older 720p screen, maybe time for a new smart Tv they are as low as 300 dollars these days

  • WARvault on 05/10/2022 - 07:31
    +1

    Refurb office PC with a DDR5 GT1060 works great for me. My tv is smart and I still prefer to use the PC…

  • TimmyTims on 05/10/2022 - 13:05

    Thanks for everyone's advice, I started researching plex and found Jellyfin. I'll be looking to install a Jellyfin server on my laptop then stream to a chromecast

    • spackbace on 05/10/2022 - 14:11

      Bear in mind this depends on the quality of the 4K files. Don't expect to play high encode remuxes with your setup

      • TimmyTims on 05/10/2022 - 19:50

        I may end up going back to laptop and HDMI cable. For some reason, after setting up a Plex or Jellyfin server and streaming to my Chromecast, the picture is darker than playing the same file from my laptop via HDMI

        • spackbace on 05/10/2022 - 20:03

          TV settings?

          Or it's playing the hdr, wasn't before?

          • TimmyTims on 07/10/2022 - 10:57
            +1

            @spackbace: Yep TV settings, turns out it can have different picture settings between HDMI inputs

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