4k video player box that can play from Network drive

[free_electron]

Another tough one. I am looking for a good network player with HDMI output , 4K / 5K support that can access files form a network share.
i do not want tt use kodi , dlna , plex or any of the other 'transcoder's / server / cpu hog systems. simply mount file share.
All i want is tell the player: here is my SMB share show me the files as thumbnails and let me play them.

supported formats exected : JPG , MOV and anything H264 and H265

[nctnico]

Get an Nvidia Jetson TX2 eval kit. This runs Ubuntu Linux so you can use VLC to play videos.

[NiHaoMike]

Raspberry Pi 4 would probably be the cheapest option, but I'm not sure what's the current state of the GPU drivers.

[free_electron]

no eval kit / homebrew stuff please. i want something that works out of the box , with a nice slick UI like Roku or Apple Tv box. ( neither of which can mount SMB shares ... GRRRR , why is that so hard ? )

[Marco]

NVIDIA Shield TV? There's probably some more fly by night manufacturers which pre-install Kodi, but you don't sound like you want that either.

PS. Kodi does not transcode.

[Whales]

( neither of which can mount SMB shares ... GRRRR , why is that so hard ? )

Personal experience: SMB is a mess.  Microsoft keeps changing the goalposts (inc in the last few major releases of Win10).  Really annoys me.

My new favourite is some Win10 installs (not all) refusing to access passwordless network shares and giving a vague error message dialog.  Using 'net use' on the command is the only good way of finding a decent message/explanation.  This is a read-only home share, cmon!

Opinion: if one of these devices supports SMB out-of-the-box now then don't expect it to work forever.

[free_electron]

( neither of which can mount SMB shares ... GRRRR , why is that so hard ? )

Personal experience: SMB is a mess.  Microsoft keeps changing the goalposts (inc in the last few major releases of Win10).  Really annoys me.

My new favourite is some Win10 installs (not all) refusing to access passwordless network shares and giving a vague error message dialog.  Using 'net use' on the command is the only good way of finding a decent message/explanation.  This is a read-only home share, cmon!

Opinion: if one of these devices supports SMB out-of-the-box now then don't expect it to work forever.

This is SMB coming from a western digital nas machine. no microsoft in sight.
The NAS has DLNA capabilities and roku has dlna browsing but it transforms the nicely catalogued directory structure into one flat mess ( the entire directory tree becomes flattened ... what braindead moron designed that )
the nas also supports plex, an even bigger headache ...

On my Apple TV box there is a simple app that allows you to browse directory structures. but : no thumbnails ...

[alpher]

I ave to admitt I didn't ry anything beyond 1080p HEVC, but as far as playing from networked shares Rpi4 is hard to beat.
Takes ~15 min of your time to setup latest libreelec kodi version on it, can do 10bit h265 (4K in theory, myself havent tried), and does samba from 1 to 3, NFS etc, flawlessly. It even uses the same remote as your TV via HDMI-CEC!
I have rpi4/4GB version in the bedroom connected to a "dumb" 40" TV and wouldn't change it for any of the android shitboxes nor apple crap.

[Marco]

Downside is no HD streaming ... because somehow they think that will prevent piracy instead of promoting it.

If you want licensing from the major streaming services and SMB support out of the box the Shield TV is the only real choice.

[free_electron]

I ave to admitt I didn't ry anything beyond 1080p HEVC, but as far as playing from networked shares Rpi4 is hard to beat.
Takes ~15 min of your time to setup latest libreelec kodi version on it, can do 10bit h265 (4K in theory, myself havent tried), and does samba from 1 to 3, NFS etc, flawlessly. It even uses the same remote as your TV via HDMI-CEC!
I have rpi4/4GB version in the bedroom connected to a "dumb" 40" TV and wouldn't change it for any of the android shitboxes nor apple crap.

Can the rpi send out 4k and is it fast enough without stuttering ? no audio/video sync issues ?
I read up on that thing. Looks like you need to buy licences for mpeg and some other codecs. Many people complain about video stuttering in 4k. free_elec or OSMC ?
It was also mentioned you needed a plex setup ( which i do NOT want ). I want the thing to mount the drive in my nas as a regular harddisk and just browse the directory structure as-is. Just show it like a file browser we are used to in windows or macos. Thumbnails in a matrix grid mode.
A whole rpi setup with proper case, power suply, heatsink climbs to over 100$ ... i can get a small used pc at that price .... like a NUC... wondering if that would be the way to go.

It will only be used to watch
- my own pictures lots of JPG but also many in HEIC , ORF ,NF2 or other 'raw' formats so it has to be able to handle that without requiring me to transcode that to jpg and eat more storage space.
- my own video shot in HDV (1080i mpeg2 container M2V), or in H264 (1080p AVC container from Sony) or H264/H265 in MOV container (4K mainly from Olympus, some of it from Apple iphone).

i don't care about anything else. no music, no streaming , no apps , no nothing (it's ok if it has that capability, but i will not use it )

[Kjelt]

Do you want 4k HDR files, so does your display have HDR capability?
If so there are a few players that can handle what  you want:

- Zappiti Zappiti One SE 4K HDR
- Zidoo Z1000 (probably also the other Zidoo's but look for the bigger Sigma chip).
- m9702 (chinese player, runs Oppo 203 software).

I have bought the Zidoo myself and am very happy with it, great picture on my laserprojector on 127" screen.

[free_electron]

Do you want 4k HDR files, so does your display have HDR capability?
If so there are a few players that can handle what  you want:

- Zappiti Zappiti One SE 4K HDR
- Zidoo Z1000 (probably also the other Zidoo's but look for the bigger Sigma chip).
- m9702 (chinese player, runs Oppo 203 software).

I have bought the Zidoo myself and am very happy with it, great picture on my laserprojector on 127" screen.

Jup. display is hdr capable.
but those players are too expensive. and those kind of boxes need local harddisks... i have a bad taste in my mouth from such players. i had a popcorn time , a netgear media player , a dvico , and some other thing. all were int he 200..300$ price range and they all sit gathering dust in my garage ... because they were discontinued, no longer supported, no updates , not compatible with newer file formats.. their makers went out of business etc ...

At that price i will buy a Mac mini and done. It does what i want it to do. Mount a drive and browse it. And it handles all the formats i use out of the box and will be supported long after all the others have gone defunct ...
i was hoping to get away with a 100$ max solution...

[free_electron]

problem solved. Apple TV 4k
filebrowserTv app. done.
supports all the formats i want including HDR 4k.

[Kjelt]

The named players can all access network files through SMB as you requested.

The A tv is also nice if you can get used to the controller.

[free_electron]

The named players can all access network files through SMB as you requested.

The A tv is also nice if you can get used to the controller.

yes, but they are all more expensive... i can get a 4k apple tv for 170$ ...
and like i said : i am wary of those boxes. i have had a numbe rof them. invariably they stop supporting them , the manufacturer disappears , bad support, slow firmware updates. I'll get longer life out of the apple tv , than any of those boxes.

[Marco]

Will be hard to compete with iOS for RAW image support out of the box without having a full blown PC ... of course that was not information available at the top of the thread.

[free_electron]

Will be hard to compete with iOS for RAW image support out of the box without having a full blown PC ... of course that was not information available at the top of the thread.

not only RAW , what about HEIC format ? even windows 10 can't read that yet ... and all the pictures on my iphone are HEIC ..

All i need is a box that can show pictures and video coming from camera's. i'm not interested in commercial movies , rips or whatever.

The common image formats : JPG, NEF, ORF, HEIC, TIFF, DNG
the common video formats : HDV in AVI container , AVCHD in MT2 container, H264 and H265 in MOV container

basically anything that can come from Canon, Nikon, Olympus , Sone Video / photo cameras or Apple Devices

[Marco]

not only RAW , what about HEIC format ?

NVIDIA Shield TV is Android Pie, as is Xiami Mi Box S so they support HEIC. Native support of RAW not so much.

Kodi almost gets there with add ons, but the libraw based image decoder add on for some reason doesn't expose orf decoding even though the library supports it ... close, no cigar.