(If this question is inappropriate or better suited elsewhere, please let me know, and I can remove it.)
I have a mostly personally digitized media library on external USB storage that I am looking for a convenient and effective way to watch in 4K on my home non-smart television. I’m not interested in solutions for accessing streaming pirated content, unlocking subscription-based services, or anything of that nature; I’m just looking for a way to connect a USB-C external drive with loose media content (largely H.265-based 4K video and FLAC audio files) at the best quality on my home television.
I understand that Android TV boxes are available cheaply on Amazon and might be a viable solution, but this video from Linus suggests these can be malware nightmares, so I’m wary of trying any of those. Linus went on to make a follow-up video, but either his suggestions for my use cases were unclear, or I am not savvy enough to have understood them. For example, he mentions in the follow-up video that the Google Chromecast might be specifically bad for this due to the bottlenecking of the USB 2.0-based transfer speed, but I don’t think he ever brings up the topic directly again or suggests which of the other options presented is particularly good for external storage media file playback.
If this option can also replace my current Amazon Fire Stick as my go-to media center option with access to the typical streamers (YouTube, Netflix, Crunchyroll, etc.), that would be especially incredible.
If this option comes with some kind of software/media library solution that would allow me to track watched progress in my personal media library in a way similar to how streaming services do, that would be double especially incredible.
And hey, if there’s some way I could connect a controller to play some retro emulated games on it too, that would be amazing, but that’s absolutely not a necessary component.
I don’t have a high budget, so ideally, I’d like to keep costs in or around $50 if possible, but if that’s unrealistic, I’d appreciate being told so I can adjust my expectations.
I’d say I’m a “high-level ignorant” or “low-level savvy” consumer; I feel like I’m not technologically illiterate but definitely would not call myself truly savvy or skilled. I’ve put PCs together from purchased components but would have no idea how to build or repair an individual component itself. I’m up for learning if the task is approachable, so if the best solution is something like a custom-built Raspberry Pi, I’m not opposed to the idea, but I have no real knowledge going into this and am more interested in a solution to the problem at hand than the edification that might come with such a project. So basically, if we’re talking about a simple “build a media center in a box” sort of Pi kit, I might be able to manage, but if we’re talking about a months-long project of tinkering and trials, then that’s probably not the solution I’m looking for.
Anyway, I appreciate in advance any insights or feedback anyone is able to offer.
edit: @Hendrik correctly pointed out a discrepancy in my post regarding lack of “dumb” 4k TVs. I was trying to simplify things, but in reality my situation is one 1080p “dumb” TV and one modern 4k which I think is a Vizio brand smart TV. I am looking for a solution I’ll be able to move between both.
A laptop? Maybe even an android phone that presents itself as a drive? You can also connect an Android phone with a USB-C to HDMI cable to the TV to present the videos on your TV.
No laptop or PC available to me for this purpose, unfortunately. The phone is an interesting idea though… I might be able to find an old Galaxy from back when android still had dessert-based releases. To use it in this case, would you recommend effectively just loading the files onto the old phone and then screen mirroring when connected via HDMI? Would this theoretically be able to output 4k quality without buffering or sputtering, or would I be limited by transfer bottleneck like in the case discussed in the post with the Chromecast? I guess I wouldn’t, because the processing is happening on the phone itself and it’s just outputting the display data via HDMI… Hmmm. I’d really like a remote for access, but otherwise this might work if we still have the old Galaxy around somewhere…
I forgot you have external USB storage… Hmm, well if you somehow make it available to your phone e.g copy it on there or make it accessible remotely (there must be some “share over the network” thing on whatever device you plug that USB storage into which your phone can access). Then, if your phone can play 4k without stuttering, it’ll be fine to send it over HDMI.
HDMI can support 8k, I think. It’s a wired connection. Looking at wikipedia under “Refresh frequency limits for common resolutions”, you get 39Hz at “340 MHz TMDS” (whatever the fuck that is) which is HDMI v1.4, released in 2009! You should be fine. If you get yourself an HDMI 2.0 (or higher which was released in 2013-2016) cable, you should be golden.