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Does the XPS 15 9560 meet the hardware requirements for playback of UHD blu-ray discs?
Hello everyone,
I was thinking of taking advantage of the Dell XPS 15 9560's UHD monitor for watching movies, but it looks like there are numerous hardware and software requriements I have to meet first. The player I'm looking at specifies the following:
- CPU: Core i7 / i5 processor for Intel 7th generation desktop (KabyLake-S) *, Core i7 / i5 processor for Intel 7th generation notebook (KabyLake-H) * U processor not supported
- GPU: Intel HD Graphics 630 Built-in GPU for 7th Generation Processor
- Main memory: 6 GB or more
- External display: 4K resolution (3840 x 2160 or more) Display compatible with HDMI 2.0a (HDCP 2.2 required), HDR compatible (Playing back with HDR content when playing HDR content, HDR> SDR conversion)
- Motherboard: Intel SGX compatible intel 200 series motherboard, HDCP 2.2 / HDMI 2.0a output compatible Intel internal GPU output compatible motherboard (for HDMI output)
Most of the things listed seem straightforward, but I don't know about Intel SGX, HDCP 2.2 / HDMI 2.0a,or HDR compatibility (although I don't believe that the XPS 15 is HDR-compatible, otherwise it would have stated so. Plus the monitor isn't 10-bit to my knowledge). Can anyone provide any further insight on this? Does the XPS 15 9560 meet these specifications?
For reference, here is the external player I was looking at, as it seems to be the only one on the market advertising UHD-playback capabilities: www.amazon.com/.../ref=sr_1_1
beamermt79
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September 23rd, 2017 13:00
So from what I gathered on the manual, the answer is no. It contains an Intel mobile 175 chipset, not the 200 series. It also outputs HDMI at 1.4a not 2.X and i'm not sure if the Nvidia 1050 mobile edition would handle it all.
jphughan
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9 Legend
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September 24th, 2017 17:00
To my knowledge there are no built-in laptop panels that support HDR, and Thunderbolt 3 currently only supports DisplayPort 1.2, which doesn't offer enough bandwidth to support an external 4K HDR display. Technically given that Thunderbolt 3 can carry TWO full DisplayPort 1.2 outputs, if you had a Thunderbolt 3 to Dual DisplayPort adapter AND a 4K HDR display that supported using 2 DisplayPort inputs simultaneously AND proper driver support, you could get there (this is now some 5K displays work), but HDR support is still very finicky at a software level. Windows 10 added support for it with the Creators Update, but it broke some NVIDIA driver functionality that had already implemented HDR on its own, and I don't know if all of those issues have been ironed out yet.
That said, HDR isn't required in order to watch UHD BDs. Not all UHD BDs even support HDR (although most of them do) and even for those that do support it, they can be displayed in SDR instead. If you were ok with that, DisplayPort 1.2 (and therefore USB-C and Thunderbolt 3) does support HDCP 2.2, which would open up a few options:
- You could use a USB-C to HDMI 2.0a or USB-C to DisplayPort dongle to connect a 4K display via HDMI 2.0 or DisplayPort. Note that not all 4K displays support 4K over HDMI.
- You could use a Thunderbolt 3 to Dual DisplayPort adapter (or a dock like the Dell TB16) to achieve the same thing but with the option to have dual displays.
But honestly, the bottom line is that the best option for UHD BD right now is going to be a set-top UHD BD player or game console hooked directly up to the TV. It will be easier and give you a better result.