I am wanting to get a 4k player, but I am not really familiar enough with this type of equipment to know which ones are the best. I am looking for something pretty simple, just 4k disc playback, high res audio, and can play files from USB. I don't really need wifi or streaming. A dedicated audio out would be nice as well, which would be simpler for my setup.
I was considering thks one from LG https://www.bestbuy.com/site/lg-ubk80-4k-ultra-hd-blu-ray-player-black/6215306.p?skuId=6215306
Is this a good pick, or should I get a different one?
When they're available again I plan to just get a Pi 4 and throw LibreElec/Kodi on it. I have one of the Blu Ray drives whose firmware has been hacked bypass the DRM stuff and rip 4k Blu Rays, so I just rip everything to my big storage server and play them over my LAN.
I even have all the instances set up to share a common SQL database, so I can stop a movie downstairs and resume where it left off upstairs.
That's pretty slick. Is it something you did up yourself or is there a program that handles syncing like that?
Kodi uses a SQL database to store pretty much all system state. By default it uses a local sqlite database, but it also includes support for using a remote mysql server; and in that configuration supports multiple Kodi instances sharing a single database. So I just threw a mysql instance up on my network and point everything to that.
And since all the movies are on a file share also accessible to all those Kodi instances on my LAN, everything "just works".
Just have to make sure everything's running the same Kodi release.
Can a pi4 even handle 4k?
Yeah the Pi 4 can do 4k HVEC (H.265). None of the earlier models can.
Amazing. My pi didn’t have a heatsink and got hot pretty easily.
The GPU has hardware encode/decode: that's the only reason why it can. Otherwise there's no way the CPU could do it (I have exactly one computer in my house which can play 4k blu ray remuxes, and that's my gaming PC because the GPU happens to have a hardware decoder. Every other PC gives me a slideshow).