Home Theatre resurrection

Content:

1. Introduction, old Home Theatre
2. New big Screen TV arrives
3. Setup receiver and BD player
4. Connect HTPC
5. Setup HTPC, MPC-HC
6. 4K test pattern and Android TV apps
7. Test with a Raspberry Pi4 as a HTPC
8. Chromecast and Raspberry
9. 4K player, PC, Xbox
10. To be continued

Note:
I take no responsibility or liability for what are written here, you use the information at your own risk!

9, 4K player, PC, Xbox:

Now when I'm retired I need more toys. I have done some upgrades the last two years of my Home Theatre system. The Raspberry I replaced my old HTPC Windows machine with was a disappointment, too slow at 4K. The Chromecast is fine and we use it a lot.

This is how it looks today, maybe it doesn't look very impressive compare to the earlier HTPC system but it works really good. The two thin cables to the right are for the radio antenna and the receiver of the keyboard signal. At top an Infinity center speaker.

4K Player:

The Chromecast was the first 4K device I bought. Now also the Blu-Ray player have been replaced with a 4K player. It's a Phanasonic DMP-UB400, simple but it delivers high quality movies. There is no display on it, all information comes from the TV's display. Not so convenient when playing CDs.

Specification of the 4K player:

• Phanasonic DMP-UB400

4K Receiver:

My old receiver couldn't handle 4K HDMI signals. I had to direct connect the devices to the 4K TV HDMI inputs. The receiver is now upgraded with one that can handle 4K HDMI signals. It has the new HDCP 2.2 standard, all seven HDMI inputs take 4K at 24fps, two of the them even handle 60 fps.

More information about the Pioneer VSX930 receiver:

• Pioneer VSX930 review

The receiver also has the new Dolby Atmos sound system, it can deliver sound to the roof through two speakers.

More information about Dolby Atmos sound system:

• Dolby Atmos Wikipedia

Windows PC:

When throwing away the Raspberry I need something else when looking at internet and our private photos / movies. I found a very small low power Windows PC. Not very power full but it can output 4K resolution. No fans needed to cool it so it's totally quiet. When setup the PC machine it started to talk to us, a little bit spooky. The devices are from left: Mini PC, 8 port switch, two NAS with two 2 TB discs each. I tried to replace the NAS storage with some more modern, but they were so loud that I took these back. My future plan is to build a Raspberry NAS server with SSD discs.

Game console:

Thirty five years ago I had a Commodore VIC64 as a computer and game console. Now its time to invest in something newer, a Xbox One X console. Not sure what to use this console for, but included was a car race game. This was much simpler than to setup a new powerful Windows PC. I can use it to play 4K disc too, maybe I don't need the other 4K player now. But this console has a power full fan, if it's too noisy it's not a good idea. When gaming the output can deliver 4K 60fps, the receiver has two inputs that can handle this, the TV has three 4K 60fps HDMI inputs. These signals needs high quality HDMI cables to let the signal through.

More information about the Xbox One X game console:

• Xbox One X specification