How can I display 4k from my Mac

[Craig Schober]

I've been shooting 4k and 5k for sometime now but never needed to display at anything above 1080p until now. I want to buy and display 4k on a 65" 4k Seiki so I have a few questions for anyone in the know:

Will the new 65" Seiki 4k tv really do 4k over its HDMI input? I know other smaller Seiki models have been claiming to work with 4k so how about those? I don't need high refresh rates, just 24fps content.

Besides the new Mac Pro (I don't have the funds for that yet) what Mac models support 4k output? I have the fastest iMac you can buy. Does that mean I can output 4k via a TB to HDMI adapter? I'm assuming a retina MacBook Pro will output 4k from its HDMI but what about the fastest Mac Mini's HDMI?

Are there any non Mac or PC solutions out there for just outputting 4k. I mean a dumb box with a hard drive that is just a 4k player. I guess Sony and Red have their solutions but I'm looking for something a little simpler and cheaper.

This is just for a catchy display at our trade show booth for a car show. I'm not looking to impress pixel counters with the greatest picture quality. I just want something nicer than 1080p for a similar price.

Any insights would be helpful. Thanks.

 

[L. Langer]

Ask again in six months. There should be more options then with a few 4K video decoding chips on the market for stand-alone players.

 

[Craig Schober]

It looks like Nuvola has a 4k box that sells for $299. They've been taking orders this week with a January shipping date. Anyone order and receive theirs yet?

 

[Blair S. Paulsen]

Nuvola fits your low cost, simple angle. In terms of using a larger UHD or 4K panel as a workspace on a rMBP, there are some issues - Mavericks 10.9.1 has limited support for UHD or 4K resolutions. In addition to a cooperative OS, you will need the correct connection protocols. Don't count on any resident HDMI ports on any shipping Mac (except perhaps the nMP) to handle even 3840 x 2160 at 24fps, it might, but based on reports the whitelist may be as little as 2 displays. ThunderBolt to Display Port 1.3 (or 1.2 with MST) might sort you, but unless Apple pushed out an update for Mavericks in the last couple of days I wouldn't bet the house on it. ThunderBolt 1 or 2 to DL DVI to HDMI via crossover cable is another option that might work.

If someone has success stories with driving UHD or 4K displays from any Mac please share. So far it appears that Apple is still in the process of getting solid UHD/4K monitor support enabled in Mavericks, an OS that has been designed to host drivers for all peripherals, including displays, right in the OS itself. There are certainly people out there driving high resolution displays and multi-display environments with GPUs like the ATI 7950 on the Mac platform - perhaps they are all on OSX 10.8.x?

As L. Langer notes, this space will evolve a lot this year.

Cheers - #19

 

[Björn Benckert]

To play straight from mac to seiki I found that this one work.

Nvidia GeForce 760

with our Macpro's

But it's a bit of a hassle to install as you need to run maverick and you need another card when installing maverick and then swap over with some special drive. My collage knows how to get it working so send him an email and he let you know: marcus at syndicate dot se

 

[Jason Osterday]

Easiest way with an older mac tower is with a 700 series card and a supported GT120 or something simple that is native OSX GPU that you can install the OS first then get it to boot off the GTX 7XX. There's nothing special needed, its just that OSX will not recognize the 700 series GPU until AFTER the OS (Mavericks in this case) is installed.

 

[Craig Schober]

Thanks for the responses guys. The Nuvola still looks like the easiest and most cost effective solution to me. I don't want to lug around a Mac Pro (or any PC for that matter) to any shows when I can be using it to work on. I guess I'll have to bite the bullet and just pre-order a Nuvola for now.

 

[Louis Kreusel]

If someone has success stories with driving UHD or 4K displays from any Mac please share.

I'm able to drive a Sony 4K projector (VPL-VW1000ES) at 4K and UHD from the HDMI on my MacBook Pro (10,1).

 

[houkouonchi]

Most video cards (even old ones) on macs will work with 4k with the Accel Active DP 1.1 -> HDMI 1.4 adapter. Ive only heard of *some* of the intel onboard ones having trouble but nothing from anything with a real graphics card. I know the adapter works fine on older (HD 5800 series) ATI cards via the adapter.