Best way to drive a 4k projector and get 30->60FPS frame interpolation.

[Psi_NZ]

Hi

I have a 4k projector, It has frame interpolation built in (which I love) but NOT with a 4k input (only 1080p or less).
 

I am currently driving this projector from a pc in the room next door (GTX760) using an HDMI cable through the wall and up into the ceiling and down to the projector.  

Quite a long cable run with 2 joiners. This does work 100% perfect at 1080p but is a bit glitchy at 4k. Which is understandable given the cable run.

 

So I want to change to using a small media PC next to the projector to solve the cable run issue and drive it at 4k properly and get HDR since my GTX760 cant do that.

The projector drops down from the ceiling so there's room for a tiny PC there, and ethernet is available.

 

My question is, what solutions do you recommend for getting all the following?

* HDMI output at 3840x2160 @ 60fps with HDR10  4:2:0  10 or 12bit

* Frame interpolation for playing locally stored movies/tv files 

(I'm wondering if maybe this requirement means the PC needs nvidia gfx for CUDA, since i know there are some options for CUDA frame interpolation? but open to other ideas)

* Support a future Dolby Atmos speaker setup

(I'm guessing I would have to use the existing HDMI cable in the other direction somehow to get the audio down to the speaker amp  (ARC/eARC trickery ?) 

but I am curious if there's any other ways to get Atmos data out of a PC and to Atmos amp/speakers other than HDMI ?

 

Any idea?

 

Thanks

[Eigenvektor]

21 minutes ago, Psi_NZ said:

* Frame interpolation for playing locally stored movies/tv files

For games you could use either DLSS 3 or FSR 3. But not for movies.

 

I think there are some unofficial ways to get AMD's fluid motion frames working with some media players.

 

https://www.reddit.com/r/Amd/comments/1739e7k/enabling_amd_afmf_in_mediaplayer_classic/

[emosun]

1 hour ago, Psi_NZ said:

I have a 4k projector, It has frame interpolation built in (which I love) but NOT with a 4k input (only 1080p or less).

what 4k refresh rate dose the projector support

[Psi_NZ]

16 hours ago, emosun said:

what 4k refresh rate dose the projector support

 

See below

[Omon_Ra]

17 hours ago, Psi_NZ said:

My question is, what solutions do you recommend for getting all the following?

* HDMI output at 3840x2160 @ 60fps with HDR10  4:2:0  10 or 12bit

* Frame interpolation for playing locally stored movies/tv files 

(I'm wondering if maybe this requirement means the PC needs nvidia gfx for CUDA, since i know there are some options for CUDA frame interpolation? but open to other ideas)

* Support a future Dolby Atmos speaker setup

(I'm guessing I would have to use the existing HDMI cable in the other direction somehow to get the audio down to the speaker amp  (ARC/eARC trickery ?) 

but I am curious if there's any other ways to get Atmos data out of a PC and to Atmos amp/speakers other than HDMI ?

1) Pretty much any NUC from the last 2-3 years should be able to accomplish this. Depends on your budget, if you're planning on gaming on this lil PC or just media playback. Check out Minisforum, they have a ton of NUC's with solid CPU's and integrated graphics that will playback 4K HDR video files and some light gaming quite well.

 

2) Typically that would be done with the display's image processor (projector in your case). I'm guessing it can do it with 1080p but not 4K because of the compute power that would be needed to double the number of frames being shown. Then add HDR 10/12bit color space versus 8bit for SDR on top of that, which is even more raw video data than 1080p SDR video. The other part of this is that 4K HDR standards are to try to make sure what you see in your home is as close as possible as what the director/cinematographer/creator intended. Frame interpolation is an additional 'feature' that gets in the way of that intent, so IMO it's kind of counter-intuitive of the whole concept of HDR and a useless add-on. It's definitely possible, nearly all current TV's do this with their 'smooth motion' modes with 4K HDR content (I always turn it off though, so not 100% on this) but you're pretty much going to need either a discrete GPU in the media PC with some software witchcraft or a new projector if you really want frame interpolation at 4K. What is the make/model of the one you have now?

 

3) Does your projector have ARC or eARC? If it's standard ARC, you'll need to make sure the projector supports Dolby Digital Plus (not just 'Dolby Digital') over ARC. Anything that has eARC, Atmos will be supported. This pretty much leaves you having to run an HDMI from the projector to wherever your amp will live. And you'll probably want to get a proper optical HDMI cable considering the length of the typical run for that (25 feet or more). And lastly you'll need content encoded with Atmos to get the full effect. There really isn't another way around it; older Toslink/optical audio cables only support 5.1 compressed Dolby Digital. You could maybe get away with a long USB cable from lil PC to USB to HDMI dongle as an audio output, but that seems less than ideal. And from what I understand Windows' Atmos support is flakey at best. Also by using eARC/ARC you'll be able to turn projector and receiver on/off at the same time and control the volume with just the projector remote as well.

 

[Psi_NZ]

1 hour ago, Omon_Ra said:

What is the make/model of the one you have now?

 

Thanks for the info.

 

Projector is nothing to extreme. It's an Epson EH-TW7100. I think it's also sold under the name 'Epson Home Cinema 3800' in some countries.

It's one of those psudo 4k ones with two 1080p panels placed back to back but offset by 1/2 a pixel so it can add more detail than 1080P. Not as good as true 4k but looks noticeably better than 1080p.

 

No ARC or eARC on the projector sadly.

So the solution has to be a full PC based solution with the projector being a dumb 4k 50/60fps HDR display device.

 

[Omon_Ra]

9 minutes ago, Psi_NZ said:

No ARC or eARC on the projector sadly.

So the solution has to be a full PC based solution with the projector being a dumb 4k 50/60fps HDR display device.

 

Looks that way. Unless you want to fork out for a new projector...but It honestly could be a better solution than upgrading/buying a new PC. I got this a few months ago and I've been quite impressed by it. The only thing I don't really like is the lack of manual lens adjustments/controls. But for a true 4K HDR LED projector, pretty hard to beat the price. And if you were to go that route, you could just load your media on a USB drive and leave it in the projector since it can playback video files straight from the projector. There's also wireless screen casting on it too.