Posted 14th Dec 2016
Morning all,
My mates asked me to get him a 4k TV in the Jan sales. But he needs to be able to play content from USB. I've looked at a few TV spec's and they all appear to have USB 2? I wasn't sure if that was fast enough to play 4k content?
Or is a matter of getting a media box that has USB and play that through HDMI?
Thanks
My mates asked me to get him a 4k TV in the Jan sales. But he needs to be able to play content from USB. I've looked at a few TV spec's and they all appear to have USB 2? I wasn't sure if that was fast enough to play 4k content?
Or is a matter of getting a media box that has USB and play that through HDMI?
Thanks
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12 Comments
sorted byi can play test 4k samples from my usb, but remember most 4k things are very very high
a sample of 3 mins i got was 56gb
i dont think the usb matters, but faster it is the better
i have a 4k kodi box and a true hdmi 2.0 and it plays 4k but badly as you need good buffer and stream
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I did this I download from I think Samsung website 4 k content and played on the TV.
If you have HDR look for the LG Chess one it is superb
demo-uhd3d.com/
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It's all down to the source file and the TV Coding. If it's on a USB stick it's unlikely True 4K as these files are massive. 4K is not the Holy Grail as like Blu-Ray it's degraded considerably unless it's from a clean source (4K Disc, Played through a 4K Player on a Fully 4K TV - Most are still coding in 8Bit out of the 32Bit)
If the files are MPG's or some other video format and they are from a 4K source, they're simply going to be cleaner "almost Blu-Ray" quality nothing more though.At the moment most are upscaling to 4K which can give a better picture but is not true 4K unfortunately. Will take time to get there but the simple rule is all aspects have to be True 4K or you're just getting HD quality, not SHD.
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But if you are upgrading why wouldn't you get a 4k TV? I generally get a new TV every five years or so. I am going to be buying a new one for my lounge very shortly and will make sure it is 4k / HDR.
Right, even more confused now!
My mates an author and gets sent pre-release movies and TV shows to review. His agent has said that they want to start sending him the material in 4k, so can he make sure he can play it.
The only info he's been sent so far is that it'll be on 128 gig USB sticks? But nothing on what codec they'll be using or even what file format!
I just assumed that a 4k TV would play 4k files in 4k????
Looks like I need more info all round!
LG do some excellent upscaling, but I am not sure if it is the same across all of their range. I have an early LG 4K and it is difficult to tell SD from HD and FHD from 4K, it upscales so well.
Whether and which video files it can play back depends on the TV. The current TV market tends to implement stuff incrementally each year rather than releasing fully developed products every few years. A secondary feature like playing back files from USB wouldn't have been in the first couple of years of 4K TVs. If you look at a newer feature like HDR then virtually no HDR TVs can play back HDR video from USB right now.
So basically check the manual. I'd expect most files these days to be in HEVC (aka H.265) with a few in VP9. If it makes no mention of that but only says it supports 4K playback then it may only support 4K files in H.264 format which was the situation for some of the early TVs until HEVC playback hardware was ready.
Err, yes it was; although strangely mine wont play some films via wifi or ethernet, but plays them perfectly well via USB thumb drive.