Home cinema problems, do I need an Android TV Box?

starmanwarz · 16 Jul 2019 at 12:31

My setup is fairly simple, Sony XF9005 TV, Sonos Beam and my PC, which is connected via ethernet cable. I might add a couple Sonos Play one's in the future.

I have plenty of movies on my PC which I "cast to device" and watch them on the TV. Nice and simple. Until a couple of days ago, when my problems started. Got the Sonos Beam, didn't realize it doesn't play DTS and it had lip sync issues. in an attempt to fix the lip sync issues, I updated my TV to the latest firmware, just in case. That didn't fix it, switching to an optical connection instead of ARC did.

The firmware update did however break the "cast to device" feature and I now can't stream movies from my PC. I gave a Plex a try and it's fairly decent, but even at maximum quality there's something wrong with the refresh rate on the movies, picture is definitely degraded in comparison to a 1080p Bluray streaming straight from the PC. At least it transcodes DTS to AC3 so I have sound on my Sonos Beam.

Would something like a TV box solve any of my problems? To be frank I don't understand its purpose for someone that owns a Smart TV. All I want is to be able to watch my movie collection from my PC without any picture quality loss, at transcoded AC3 5.1 audio, watch Netflix at the best quality etc.

Pyr0m@nI@]{ · 16 Jul 2019 at 12:54

I have the same TV but different soundbar. Have you tried Kodi or MrMC?
They both have options to passthrough or re-encode audio tracks

brakeinup · 16 Jul 2019 at 13:23

Can you browse the network from the TV to the PC and play files from there? This may work but wouldn't have any bells and whistles.

In Plex you can turn off transcoding from the TV app by setting Local Quality to Original which then doesn't transcode.

starmanwarz · 16 Jul 2019 at 15:01

brakeinup said:
Can you browse the network from the TV to the PC and play files from there? This may work but wouldn't have any bells and whistles.

In Plex you can turn off transcoding from the TV app by setting Local Quality to Original which then doesn't transcode.

I don't care about the bells and whistles, how can I browse my movies from the TV?

I have transcoding set on Original, quality is definitely worse than what I'm used to. Especially when there's fast movement involved.

Pyr0m@nI@]{ said:
I have the same TV but different soundbar. Have you tried Kodi or MrMC?
They both have options to passthrough or re-encode audio tracks

Nope I haven't, is the picture quality any better than Plex? Any other benefits?

Pyr0m@nI@]{ · 16 Jul 2019 at 15:20

starmanwarz said:
Nope I haven't, is the picture quality any better than Plex? Any other benefits?

I have no issues with Plex and use it all the time with various resolutions and codecs but keep the others installed too, just in case..
Picture quality should be comparable with no transcoding. The main benefit is not having to spend money on another box lol (although an amazon firestick 4k is cheap)
If you have the DLNA server enabled in Plex server, you should also be able to browse the shares using the built in video player, or with a file browser with networking capabilies.

starmanwarz · 16 Jul 2019 at 15:40

Pyr0m@nI@]{ said:
I have no issues with Plex and use it all the time with various resolutions and codecs but keep the others installed too, just in case..
Picture quality should be comparable with no transcoding. The main benefit is not having to spend money on another box lol (although an amazon firestick 4k is cheap)
If you have the DLNA server enabled in Plex server, you should also be able to browse the shares using the built in video player, or with a file browser with networking capabilies.

I have DLNA enabled. Is this a way to play movies with no quality loss, just like "cast from device' on Windows 10?

hornetstinger · 16 Jul 2019 at 17:51

A dedicated media box will have more CPU grunt tha TV. Ie my £60 TV box is octo core with GB of storage and ram. Is the TV CPU and GPU as beefy as that?

Pyr0m@nI@]{ · 16 Jul 2019 at 18:24

starmanwarz said:
I have DLNA enabled. Is this a way to play movies with no quality loss, just like "cast from device' on Windows 10?

Yes, so this probably wouldn't help for your files with a DTS soundtrack. But if you open the video app, on the left hand side should be a list of servers to browse. Or use an app like x-plore file manager to browse network shares.
[Edit]
Have you tried playing with the TV digital audio out setting?

starmanwarz · 16 Jul 2019 at 20:46

Pyr0m@nI@]{ said:
Yes, so this probably wouldn't help for your files with a DTS soundtrack. But if you open the video app, on the left hand side should be a list of servers to browse. Or use an app like x-plore file manager to browse network shares.
[Edit]
Have you tried playing with the TV digital audio out setting?

I just watched a movie with AC3 audio, Plex said Direct Play and the picture quality was great. Does this mean that when it transcodes audio it messes up with picture quality as well?

Digital audio has a PCM option which plays everything fine if selected but I think it's just stereo and much worse than DD in terms of quality?

Pyr0m@nI@]{ · 16 Jul 2019 at 21:02

starmanwarz said:
I just watched a movie with AC3 audio, Plex said Direct Play and the picture quality was great. Does this mean that when it transcodes audio it messes up with picture quality as well?

Digital audio has a PCM option which plays everything fine if selected but I think it's just stereo and much worse than DD in terms of quality?

Plex transcoding audio shouldn't affect the video. Are you using subtitles too?

starmanwarz · 16 Jul 2019 at 21:22

Pyr0m@nI@]{ said:
Plex transcoding audio shouldn't affect the video. Are you using subtitles too?

Yep.

Pyr0m@nI@]{ · 16 Jul 2019 at 22:26

That's a current bug/limitation with Plex.
If you need to transcode the audio and use subtitles, it results in the video being transcoded as well.

A few people on the Plex forums have said they've switched to Emby server and client.
I recently heard of jellyfin too which is a free fork.

I think MrMC or Kodi might also work for you.
I can't confirm as I've not needed to transcode audio at the same time, but know MrMC works well for subs as I've used it recently and it can search/download them if needed too

starmanwarz · 17 Jul 2019 at 17:43

Pyr0m@nI@]{ said:
That's a current bug/limitation with Plex.
If you need to transcode the audio and use subtitles, it results in the video being transcoded as well.

A few people on the Plex forums have said they've switched to Emby server and client.
I recently heard of jellyfin too which is a free fork.

I think MrMC or Kodi might also work for you.
I can't confirm as I've not needed to transcode audio at the same time, but know MrMC works well for subs as I've used it recently and it can search/download them if needed too

Ah I see, thanks for all the info! I'll try Kodi and MrMC.

I guess that I don't need an Android box then. I was looking at the Nvidia Shield because it gets a lot of positive reviews but it seems like it won't do me any good.

Pyr0m@nI@]{ · 18 Jul 2019 at 11:47

starmanwarz said:
Ah I see, thanks for all the info! I'll try Kodi and MrMC.

I guess that I don't need an Android box then. I was looking at the Nvidia Shield because it gets a lot of positive reviews but it seems like it won't do me any good.

Let us know how you get on

Burned_Alive · 25 Jul 2019 at 13:16

hornetstinger said:
A dedicated media box will have more CPU grunt tha TV. Ie my £60 TV box is octo core with GB of storage and ram. Is the TV CPU and GPU as beefy as that?

Out of interest, what media box is that?

hornetstinger · 25 Jul 2019 at 21:09

Burned_Alive said:
Out of interest, what media box is that?

Alfawise s912 chip. H96 pro plus