Laptop to play 4k videos

neilmcl

ben501 wrote: »

This.


I am not particularly concerned about the quality, I simply want to be able to watch the videos 'straight out of the box'.

Apologies if I get the terminology wrong, but if I understood it there would be no need for me to ask. The codec is, I think H264, so not an issue. I was of the impression that it was just the graphics cards & processors of older machines that did not have enough power. I'd also seen comments that suggested the monitor would still work, but would only at 30Hz.
As mentioned in the OP, I could convert the videos to a smaller resolution, but prefer not to. The 4K files take up enough room. I don't want to delete them, so having extra files will just eat up more storage space. The original files are only available in 4k, so buying HD is not an option.

Again, you will not be viewing the films in 4K on that laptop, the screen is not capable full stop. You say you don't want to "convert" the videos but that is exactly what will happen. Any image/video will always be scaled to match the native resolution of the screen it's being played on. As I said, pretty much pointless buying a small screen laptop with only full HD specifcally to watch 4K films on, you'd be better off putting your money toward a 4K monitor.

wongataa

ben501 wrote: »

This.


I am not particularly concerned about the quality, I simply want to be able to watch the videos 'straight out of the box'.

Apologies if I get the terminology wrong, but if I understood it there would be no need for me to ask. The codec is, I think H264, so not an issue. I was of the impression that it was just the graphics cards & processors of older machines that did not have enough power. I'd also seen comments that suggested the monitor would still work, but would only at 30Hz.

You WILL NOT get a 4k image over a VGA connection. You WILL NOT get a 4k image on a screen that IS NOT 4k and your old monitor is highly unlikely have a 4k resolution.

ben501

that wrote: »

try this player as it works better than vlc on some files
https://mpc-hc.org/

Thanks, I tried this and the video works excellently. Unfortunately the sound was patchy.

neilmcl wrote: »

Again, you will not be viewing the films in 4K on that laptop, the screen is not capable full stop.

I don't care

wongataa wrote: »

You WILL NOT get a 4k image over a VGA connection. You WILL NOT get a 4k image on a screen that IS NOT 4k and your old monitor is highly unlikely have a 4k resolution.

Again, I don't care.


Most of the replies suggest I have not explained what I want to do clearly, so I'll try again.


I have a video (several, but that's not really relevant.) that I would like to watch.

It's in 4K (and only 4K), as released by the producer. The suggestion on the site is to use Handbrake to convert it to a lower resolution if needed.

I would like to watch it without manually converting it. Some computers have hardware/software that will perform the necessary conversion automatically to allow the video to be watched on a lower resolution screen (that's suggestion has just proved this)

My laptop is about 9 years old. I believe the internal hardware is unsuitable to make the required conversion.

I want to buy a laptop that is.


MPC-HC demonstrates that the video can be viewed on a lower resolution screen. I was able to watch the video on both the laptop screen and the external monitor.

I still don't know if the signal can be reliably converted from another source found on newer laptops to VGA (my existing laptop has VGA output, and VGA-VGA works okay)

motorguy wrote: »

?
You can get HDMI -> VGA adapters by the way for a few pounds, so no VGA port shouldnt be a show stopper.

suggests that I should be okay if the laptop has a working HDMI socket

I was hoping someone could confirm whether or not the Dell machine mentioned in the OP would be powerful enough to play the videos.

I do not care that the screen is only 12". I will be connecting to an external monitor. The monitor is not 4K, but it will still display a converted image quite satisfactorily.

Carrot007

OK so you just want to play them downscaling as you play. Seems odd to keep the files around with no 4k display. Seems even odder to just provide them in that format.


Still you seem to not want to provide us more information on them. So..


4K files will be X/H265 so that is what you need to know if the laptop will decode. (I'm sure you could encode 4k with X.H264 but the files would be a lot bigger and you could probably play them as 264 does not take a lot to play).


Having HDMI is not relevant to being able to decode thi.


In order to know if the hardware can play them we would want to know what you are going to play them with and if you intend to use software or hardware decoding. (I was wanting to play a 265 video today but my old laptop I use with the TV fails badly (as yours does!). I think I may get an android box with hardware support, they are cheap).



If you look up the specs of what you intend to use it should tell you if hardware decoding is supported. If you intend to use software I'm sure google will help with spec though you will need to know the specifics of the encoding.

that

there was another great player that I used in my windows 3.1 days, work great on xp too and probably the be best, but then it was not free, called Zoom Player, but looks now they may not be charging for it? https://inmatrix.com/zplayer/

with a punt https://www.winxdvd.com/resource/best-5-4k-players.htm

EveryWhere

ben501 wrote: »

I'm thinking of replacing my old laptop as I'd like to use it to watch 4k videos. The old laptop (about 9 years old) is still in good condition, but just doesn't have the power for 4K. I did consider converting videos with Handbrake, but maybe it's time to get something a little more modern.

I had a look at refurbs as it won't get used that much I thought it could be a better option. The first one that caught my eye was a Dell Latitude E7240.
I would prefer a 256GB SSD, but the smaller one would be enough, and would encourage me to not collect as much junk.

I though I read somewhere that anything from about 2015 should be okay, but hopefully the Dell being a higher spec would work too. If I've understood this page correctly, it agrees.

Does anyone know if the Dell would be suitable, or if I could get a better (thinking longer term future proof, recommendations welcomed) laptop for a reasonable price. I wouldn't mind paying £400, and did briefly look at another Dell, but that's probably overkill.

The only limitation I can think of is that I hope to use it with an old external monitor that only has a VGA socket, so the laptop would need one of those, or a connector/signal that can be adapted.

Only way to be sure, is to ask someone who has purchased one, to try to play some 4k material on it. You might find someone who has purchased on on a recent thread.
4k material at differing frame rates; https://4kmedia.org

stator

So if you want to playback UHD (4k) videos you will need a laptop that has a h.265 hardware decoder. This can be available in the CPU or in the GPU, on a laptop the CPU and GPU may well be the same thing. So you want a CPU that has an Intel Skylake or later CPU or for AMD I believe it is Carizzo or newer


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intel_Quick_Sync_Video
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unified_Video_Decoder

ben501

stator wrote: »

you will need a laptop that has a h.265 hardware decoder.

The videos are (according to the codec information VLC player shows when I play them on my PC) h.264?

stator

Well it's the same principle but more (older) devices support h.264 decode.


UHD encoded in h.264 takes up a lot more space, so it's a little surprising to have them encoded that way.


Wherever these videos are coming from, is it possible they might change them to h.265 in the future?

ben501

stator wrote: »

is it possible they might change them to h.265 in the future?

I guess anything's possible, and thanks for highlighting something I should have thought of, especially since I specifically mentioned trying to future proof.


I can understand only providing a 4K version and letting people convert their own (which having tried it, only took about 10 minutes, so I'm probably going to do this for now) as it will be easier for them & keep costs down, but why they chose h.264 instead of h.265, I've no idea.




Must admit I'm starting to go off the idea for now. I'd assumed a laptop's ability to play 4K videos (even if this means downscaling the output) would be fairly standard & cheap by now, but I guess I overestimated recent advances.


Edit:
My original 'overkill' notion of a Dell Latitude E7280 may be a suitable model after all.

stator wrote: »

So you want a CPU that has an Intel Skylake or later CPU

According to the specs it has an i5-6300U