Nvidia Shield TV Refresh

Besty · 21 Oct 2017 at 13:32

ChrisD - I stream 4k high-bit rate no problem using my 2011 vintage QNAP (4 Drive model) to the shield.

I gave up using plex when i got the shield as I found Kodi to be fair superior for what I need.

The only problem i am going to have with the shield is the lack of dolby vision support so I am hoping the 2018 version of the shield sorts that otherwise I will be stuck switching between it and the Apple TV 4k box.

HungryHippos · 21 Oct 2017 at 13:39

I was having problems with my shield the other day playing stuff, turned out that the powerline speed must have been just on the cusp of what it needed to be in order to work properly, and must have been dropping below a workable threshold sometimes.

I unplugged it and went with the wifi instead, and since then it's been much better. The wifi speed will be crap for game stream stuff, but it seems better for video streaming as the overall bandwidth is higher.

It also helped when I moved the shield out from under my TV cabinet, as that seemed to be inhibiting the wifi speed a bit.

Currently able to stream 4K content no problem over wifi from my Synology NAS, speed of the stream seems fine, can fast forward/rewind and navigate around speedily enough for me.

I would not give up on the shield too easily, you will struggle to get something that plays HDR and Atmos out of the box like the shield does without significant tweaking. The fact I can control everything using my standard TV remote is a benefit as well.

Puzzled · 21 Oct 2017 at 14:28

Think I'll try a factory reset on mine, plex playback has been playing up since the 6.0 update with a few stutters through the film (might have been linked to pausing and then it not buffering properly). Plus now my keyboard is in Russian, I'd hoped they'd fixed that as it was reported from day 1.

It is frustrating how things don't seem to be tested properly before they release updates but even with its many issues I still can't think of a better single box solution.

HungryHippos · 21 Oct 2017 at 15:34

Also worth mentioning that my Plex instance running on my NAS seemed to be having some performance issues in the past due to lack of free RAM. Adding a 4GB RAM module to my Synology has increased performance significantly for me of more or less everything.

ChrisD. · 23 Oct 2017 at 08:52

Besty said:
ChrisD - I stream 4k high-bit rate no problem using my 2011 vintage QNAP (4 Drive model) to the shield.

I gave up using plex when i got the shield as I found Kodi to be fair superior for what I need.

The only problem i am going to have with the shield is the lack of dolby vision support so I am hoping the 2018 version of the shield sorts that otherwise I will be stuck switching between it and the Apple TV 4k box.

I've given up as I have had all sorts of problems. I've put my Fire TV back in which does the TV shows via Plex well enough. For larger bitrate films I'll use the NUC, like I had it set up before.

Puzzled · 28 Oct 2017 at 22:36

Did a full reset today but still getting slight stutters through the film with plex. Feels like it suddenly has to buffer causing the video to freeze very briefly.

This is direct playing over 1GB Ethernet and has started after the last update.

w1ze1 · 29 Oct 2017 at 01:50

Is your KB in Russian due to you setting Shield to USA to get full use of Google Assistant which is not Full outside USA yet for Shield users?

If so that was side effect of above and I am sure you simply change it to Lean-back KB for now.

Plex player on my PC stutters so bad, more so if HD and I cannot even close it so need hit reset switch on PC as I cannot CTRL+ALT:+DEL so if I really wanted to watch on PC I would use Plex Server but as for the shield Plex is set Plex Player as Plex Server is disabled and comes from my PC and no stutters.

Plex is buggy and always has been if you read the forums these bugs are old.

Puzzled · 1 Nov 2017 at 19:49

Yeah switching to lean back sorted the russian keyboard issue but thats been sorted in 6.1 anyway.

Been using Plex for years (picked up a lifetime plexpass when they were cheap) but until recently it had been playing through the shield ok (have a separate dedicated server). I'll have a play around and see if I can get it back to playing smoothly.

ChrisD. · 1 Nov 2017 at 21:33

I've tried everything with mine, plagued by constant issues so I've gone back to my NUC and Fire TV box.

Puzzled · 1 Nov 2017 at 22:03

ChrisD. said:
I've tried everything with mine, plagued by constant issues so I've gone back to my NUC and Fire TV box.

I used to use a media pc but it was pretty clumsy and not very family friendly. Fire TV is easy to use with good app support but lacks HD audio pass-through.

The shield was as close as I got to a one box solution but it's never seemed quite complete.

ChrisD. · 2 Nov 2017 at 12:27

MonkeyMan said:
I used to use a media pc but it was pretty clumsy and not very family friendly. Fire TV is easy to use with good app support but lacks HD audio pass-through.

The shield was as close as I got to a one box solution but it's never seemed quite complete.

That's my only issue but for general TV viewing it's fine, I only use my NUC for Blu Ray rips.

I would prefer an all in one girlfriend friendly box though.

kidloco · 3 Nov 2017 at 08:46

Have you tried kodi on the shield ? It works great , I have some BD rips that are over 50gb in size and they play flawlessly.

ChrisD. · 3 Nov 2017 at 14:22

kidloco said:
Have you tried kodi on the shield ? It works great , I have some BD rips that are over 50gb in size and they play flawlessly.

I've no interest in Kodi, ditched it over a year ago in favour of Plex.

w1ze1 · 3 Nov 2017 at 14:26

It does play a lot Plex claims to have to encode that is shouldn't but the MSG on screen.

Have you tried the Plex plug in for Kodi, the actual players interface is better IMO, you then will not see the same MSG as above.

I have it set to open as soon as Kodi opens.

TheMightyTen · 3 Nov 2017 at 14:40

ChrisD. said:
I've no interest in Kodi, ditched it over a year ago in favour of Plex.

Use SPMC/Kodi with the official Plex plugin, all the advantage of Plex library management with the far superior video and audio playback control and configuration of Kodi. You can set the Plex plugin to auto load with Kodi startup and the interface then just looks like Plex.

ChrisD. · 3 Nov 2017 at 15:45

Even if that does fix playback on the Shield, it still plays Amazon video out of lip sync which is another thing that annoys me about it.

Combat Fighter · 3 Nov 2017 at 15:54

ChrisD. said:
Even if that does fix playback on the Shield, it still plays Amazon video out of lip sync which is another thing that annoys me about it.

Cant say I have that problem with mine.

ChrisD. · 3 Nov 2017 at 16:14

Combat Fighter said:
Cant say I have that problem with mine.

Are you going via an amp or straight into the TV?

TheMightyTen · 3 Nov 2017 at 16:44

Combat Fighter said:
Cant say I have that problem with mine.

Nor mine, well at least not since the first iteration of the Amazon Video app on the initial release Shield Experience 5.0 (that had the same wandering sync problems that the Sony Android TV app they "acquired" had at the time.) After the first couple of updates to SE5.x it's been excellent and the version included with SE6.x has added a much quicker ability to clamp a 4K HDR stream from initial start as well.

ChrisD. said:
Are you going via an amp or straight into the TV?

Through an Amp for me, sometimes the Amp is switched on and other times it's direct pass-through with Amp in standby. As I said above, not seen it since the first release of the app on SE5.0.

Combat Fighter · 10 Nov 2017 at 18:00

ChrisD. said:
Are you going via an amp or straight into the TV?

Amp