Best way to watch 4k content on my TV?

[durros]

I recently bought a Hisense 65H8C 4K TV and I'm enjoying it very much.

First of all, I assume that the TV's built-in video apps (Netflix, etc.) are playing 4K content as intended. Please correct me if I'm wrong.

I'd like to know the best way to play my own downloaded content on the TV.

Can I download 4K content onto an external HDD or USB stick and play it on the TV? Would it have to be a certain USB standard or minimum speed? This would be the easiest solution as I could easily store all my videos on an HDD and plug it into the TV. But I read elsewhere that USB doesn't even support 4K video. Is this true or was that person mistaken?

Alternatively, if I play 4K video on my laptop (lower resolution, average graphics card) and connect it to the TV via HDMI (2.0), would it play in 4K or would it play in the laptop's resolution? This is obviously more cumbersome and I suspect my assumption is correct.

I've also been looking at streaming devices such as the NVIDIA Shield. Would it really be able to stream my videos to the TV at the highest quality? If so, could I do the same from my laptop or my phone (Galaxy S8)?

Also, streaming is convenient and I'll keep using it, but how does it compare to the quality of an actual Blu-ray disc (assuming my internet speeds are solid)?

I've been searching for a while and haven't found any straight up answers to my questions. If anyone can answer my questions I would really appreciate it.

Thanks!

 

[americanaudiophile]

The apps for services that stream 4k content that are on the TV should give you 4k for those services. You may need a particular type of account to access 4k content.
Unless your laptop has HDMI 2.0 and HDCP 2.2 it won't provide 4k content to the TV even if the graphics is capable of handling it. It would be limited to 1080p.
Playback of 4k video files on a USB drive directly on the TV should work. Easy to try. Download a sample file and try it on a drive that is formatted correctly for the TV. Check for compatible video codecs. Should be in the TV manual. This would be a lot more reliable than trying to stream over Wifi form other devices.
BD will give you a better result. Streaming services have to use some form of compression to reduce the data rate. If you have an audio system capable of lossless audio such as Dolby TrueHD then you will also not be getting the best sound quality from the streaming source.