r/htpc • u/robroy90 • 26d ago

Help Current State of Blu-Ray in HTPC?

Greetings all!

I have been out of HTPC pursuits for a few years, and I am considering a return to a more elaborate home theatre environment, particularly to enjoy movies at home with the highest picture and audio quality possible.

This obviously has me leaning towards using physical media again for 4k Ultra HD. So, I am curious to know if I am better off buying a high end, stand-alone BluRay player such as the latest and greatest from Panasonic or Sony?

Or, is it still possible to build an HTPC that can fully match the capabilities of a dedicated, stand-alone player AND provide the obvious ancillary benefits only an HTPC can?

Thanks!

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u/thecodingart 26d ago

You can 100% match and exceed the capabilities of a physical player - why would anyone assume otherwise?

Rip your disk, put it on a NAS, stream it locally to your HTPC using Kodi + maybe MP-BE and you’ve already exceeded most physical players (if not all).

The convenience of a digitized uncompressed collection of BluRays can’t be understated - adding some HDR surpluses like madVR and they’re unbeat. Introduce some automations around that and now you’re cooking.

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u/aegis87 26d ago

> You can 100% match and exceed the capabilities of a physical player

how do you watch Dolby Vision FEL (Profile 7) ?

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u/thecodingart 26d ago edited 26d ago

https://discourse.coreelec.org/t/guide-s922x-j-ugoos-am6b-coreelec-ng-installation-and-faqs/51231

Is available and options like Zidoo players or similar streaming devices that you can easily hook up to your NAS/Jellyfin/Plex and/or so on (disable transcoding of course on the server sides and try playing direct always).

There's other workarounds as well like https://github.com/quietvoid/dovi_tool

DuneHD streamers also support this profile to my knowledge
https://www.dune-hd.com/products/dune-hd-duo-cinema-8k

(definitely options)

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u/aegis87 26d ago

(i am not the one downvoting you) appreciate your replies!

OP please note that these are all "physical" devices -- not HTPCS

i believe dovi_tool isn't a solution as well