I recently replaced my old Samsung TV that's hooked up to my unRaid server VM's with a new TCL 4k TV.  I mainly use it to watch videos with a friend using syncplay and VLC.  Since replacing it, the video has been really choppy when just moving the mouse around.  Videos are not even viewable but sound plays ok. 

 

I tried updating the latest nvidia drivers.  Changed the refresh rate to 60Hz which is the highest I was able to change it to on the nvidia settings and it's using the recommended resolution.  I also changed tried changing the resolution to a 1080p setting just to see if that made a difference.  That made navigating smoother but still the same issues with videos.  I tried assigning more cores to the VM (Cores 1, 2, 4 & 5) and increasing the RAM to 10752.  Still the same issue.    

 

I decided to connect my other PC (i5-7400cpu and 12GB of RAM) which uses a basic onboard video hdmi to the TV and that works pefectly fine.  Does anyone have any ideas why I can't get my Windows 10 VM to work with the TCL 4K TV? 

 

 

 

Unraid Server Specs

Intel i5 8600K Processor 
MSI Z370-A Motherboard

16GB of RAM

GeForce GT 710

 

TV 

TCL 55" with Roku

55S405

Using HDMI 2.0 cable

 

Has anyone successfully used a 4K TV to watch videos on their Windows 10 VM?

On 6/26/2018 at 4:04 AM, Masterpain said:

Has anyone successfully used a 4K TV to watch videos on their Windows 10 VM?

 

Yes - I have a Samsung 43" 4k TV I use for a monitor. Although it is not my primary video watching configuration, I watch youtube and occasionally something off Plex.

 

I use a GTX 1050Ti passed through to my VM.

 

Looks like your GT 710 might be the issue. See the image below. The 710 supports feature level D, which does not include H.265 (aka, x265) streams. Only H.264 (aka x264). Most 4k video is encoded in H.265. If Plex has to transcode x.265 to x.264 for your machine to play it back - it will be very choppy unless you have a very powerful CPU. If you aren't using Plex, and trying to playback an x.265 file directly, your software might be trying to decode. And it would be very impacted, esp. on fast moving video. A fixed pane with solid color background and maybe one person talking might play ok. But if the camera is panning over a city scape or landscape, it will be very laggy.

 

I think you need to get to Feature Set F to get 8 bit and 10bit HEVC H.265 support which is what you need for most 4K video.

 

My 1050 Ti is at feature level H, which seems to support 8K video. But who knows what wrinkles could crop in before 8K becomes common. It may require a higher level still. Although this doesn't show it, I confirmed in the Wiki link below that the GT 1030 also is feature level H. That card costs ~$100 and may be the cheapest option.

 

Here is a link to a wikipedia article that is newer than the screenshot below. It shows the GT 1030 and some other newer cards.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nvidia_PureVideo

 

From: https://forums.geforce.com/default/topic/981372/geforce-basics/which-gpus-support-hevc-a-k-a-h-265-/.

Thanks for responding SSD.

 

If it was the video card, why does the TV work fine from my other computer using the onboard video of my HP Envy 750-514?  Also, on the VM, I tried lowering the resolution to a 1080p resolution and it's still really choppy just moving my mouse around.  

 

In the meantime, I will order and try a different video card and see if that works.

12 hours ago, Masterpain said:

Thanks for responding SSD.

 

If it was the video card, why does the TV work fine from my other computer using the onboard video of my HP Envy 750-514?  Also, on the VM, I tried lowering the resolution to a 1080p resolution and it's still really choppy just moving my mouse around.  

 

In the meantime, I will order and try a different video card and see if that works.

 

Hard to troubleshoot a configuration I do not use. So I'm not sure I'm going to be that helpful.

 

Onboard video actually does a pretty good job of decoding video, depending on the model. You'd have to do a similar fact finding that I did to see what types of streams it supports in hardware.

 

There is one thing for sure - it isn't the TV.

 

Maybe you could buy a GT 1030 from Best Buy. They will price match Amazon, and it would be easy to return if it doesn't help.

 

Good luck.

Yeah I’ll try both this weekend.

 

Thanks again.  I really appreciate it.  Any suggestion helps me get closer to resolving this issue.

Just got a 4k 40 inch samsung today. Got it running with my mac and windows VMs today. 4k 60 fps too using a GT 1030 passthru. Beware i tried some 4k 60 HDR video and that hit the VM hard but everything else is smooth. I give my VMs 8 vCpus and 8 GB of ram.

I guess i may need a GTX 1050 Ti if i want to play with some 4K HDR.

 

This is at 125% scaling