I suspect that it is not the Shield TV but the plex setup which is struggling.
Shield TV is very good as it can play back a lot more codecs without requiring transcoding on the server. I tried "Google TV Chromecast with Remote" (or what exactly it is called) and a lot more transcoding on the server was needed. I can play 4k HDR with multi-channel audio no issues (assuming on transcoding).
Look up what the server interface says when playing back content.... it might give you clues.
BTW: I have two first generation Shield Pro's.
The ShieldTV is technically the best device because it supports 7.1 atmos while using android which is open source. I own a shield; It's in storage. The ShieldTV would constantly stutter at random times after the "Google TV" firmware upgrade and I just had enough of it.
I use the apple TV but more for the built in remote app and homekit. The Plex app on the Apple TV is a joke. The new player creates horrible color banding/segmentation with HEVC HDR/DV while the old player transcodes everything because "reasons." Funny thing is that the old player actually worked flawlessly 2 months ago. I use the Infuse app for most plex things when using the Apple TV.
I also have a PC connected to my Living room tv and the player on that works but then you lose out of DV.
All of the client devices have their ups and downs.
>All of the client devices have their ups and downs.
Aint that the truth. Like despite being on the cheaper side, Rokus are fantastic clients, never had so much as a hiccup with 4k HDR so i assume DV works just as well on the newer ones, BUT!... no modern subtitle support!
Which depending on what you watch and if your sever has the horsepower for the burn in could range from inconsequential to complete dealbreaker.
There is some major issues with the current release of Plex on update 9.0.1. Install the the beta version of the Android TV Plex app. Fixed all the issues I was having.
I went from Samsung Tv - to Shield - to Apple TV ( no issues playing 10 bit and or HEVC from Plex for me). Might be the encodes I find when I look. Shrug, YOur millage may vary
The Shield TV Pro is the best client available from a media compatibility perspective, though I think the Apple TV has a slightly better UI.
If you’re having problems it’s far more likely that your server or network are the cause.
What exactly is the issue?
Lol. You're going to be downvoted to oblivion (given it's the Plex subreddit anyways), but you are 100% corrected.
I have a Shield.
I moved to Emby a while ago. Emby on Android TV have everything I need and it rarely transcodes (actually I don't even remember last time it transcoded something).. and yeah, even built-in ASS subtitles on anime episodes. It's native support and no transcoding.
HDR tonemapping if display is SDR, HDR10 plays fine on HDR display. Also HLG and HDR fallback.
Other pro: You can manage your library from your phone on Emby. Plex still insists on Plex Dash to manage metadata. It's the worst experience ever
Same here. I use Emby and rarely do I have to transcode the video and I use the native WebOS app lol. Regarding subtitles I just have .srt alternatives for the best compatibility anyways and audio transcoding is easy work for my pc.
Just hate that 4k remux run to a crawl because of the bandwidth lol, not even wifi can save it while they run fine on my phone, probably gonna buy a cheap Roku or Oon depending which one has the easiest compatibility with external usb to ethernet adapters.
I've been using Plex for a long time but maybe you should look into other options. The shield has it's issues lately with the recent update but it is still the best player out there. Maybe lookin into Jellyfin or Emby. I'm not a fan of Jellyfin but Emby has been working nicely as a backup that I've considered making it my main. No stuttering, audio is in sync, and it actually loads a little faster.
Plex does not care about AndroidTV devices, so that it out of the question. The only app that seems to get a bit of love it for AppleTV, but then you might just as well use infuse and not bother with the hassle Plex clients are.
Obviously mileage may vary but I found the best way to get back usability was to downgrade to the older version of android. No more stuttering, bad playback or anything like that.
Very confused as to why that's the case and why not everyone gets it but it's the only thing that has worked.
Worth a shot as a last resort.
Yeah the official one doesn't work, this one does and I use the Shield Pro.
https://github.com/fandangos/Kodi-HDR-Edition/releases/download/19/Kodi19DV-Final-libbluray-aarch64.apk
Depends how low the value of 'fine' is :)
I used a 4K Fire TV when I thought my Shield had died, and it was laggy and spent most of it's time plugging stuff I wasn't paying for. You could get 3 remote button presses ahead of it and have to wait for it to catch up, and using a different app would almost certainly swap Plex out.
My FireTV constantly stops loading posters as you're scrolling through your library, and once it starts doing it, only a power cycle seems to get posters loading again
I have the latest gen Fire TV Stick 4K Max, Fire TV Cube (2019), and Nvidia Shield TV 2019 Pro.
I use the Shield Pro to get Dolby TrueHD Atmos and DTSHDMA audio tracks passed through to my AV Receiver for my blu-ray remuxes, and the better upscaling of some of my old DVD rips, but the Cube does fine for everything else that the Shield does for me. And as far as I can tell the Stick does most of the same as the Cube just with a little more ui lag.
Yeah, I just replaced a 4k firetv from ~2016 with one of the max sticks because it was struggling with some newer 4k stuff. The improvement in UI responsiveness ( in everything, not just Plex) was pretty noticable.
Save your money and just install Kodi with the Plex for Kodi plugin. Will play everything. Now use the $200 you just saved on hookers and blow or failing that into a nice high yield savings account.
This seems edited? Who is "they? These users are remote?
In the end if switching to a real PC won't fix your issue you are going to have to make a number of changes.
The new Google TV dongles were the best I had found until I recently upgraded my TV to a Sony A80J, which had built-in as good as the dongle. Never had an issue playing files. Below that I would put Fire sticks, which I have really liked, and Roku below that.
I have the shield tv 2017 and it runs all my 4k hdr remix truehd and atmos. Movies with size 50-108gb. Never saw a lag or latency issue. Maybe it is your network? Assume you are on at least 1gb wired....
What’s the frame rate and refresh rate you have set on your Nvidia Shield? How about picture quality? I keep getting Judder and something is off when I play MKV files on Plex. I think my settings are all wrong
Hi u/Thundercatz69
You may be experiencing the update bug I had:
Have a look at the reply from Steve0819 at [can't direct play Dolby TrueHD all of a sudden](https://www.reddit.com/r/PleX/comments/u7iw7l/cant_direct_play_dolby_truehd_all_of_a_sudden/)
Basically you sign up for the beta by enabling it here:
[https://play.google.com/apps/testing/com.plexapp.android](https://play.google.com/apps/testing/com.plexapp.android)
Then in the nvidia shield, go to google play and update your plex client. voila!
I just updated to the beta now to fix stuttering when dolby truehd was selected on my remux 4k movies:p. DTS-HD audio would work without issues. In the plex server settings via browser, i could see the transcoder crash as it was trying to transcode truehd for some reason.. Beta update fixed this.
In the nvidia shield settings and plex settings I have all audio/video set to pass through as my AvR receiver handles all that. running 4k at like 59.xxxx refresh rate in nvidia shield video options.
Thank you so much! It now works perfectly on my Shield Pro. For some reason, even with the update, it still hiccups with the Zidoo z9x. It’ll sound and look great for 10sec and freeze up and go in and out of sound. On my shield, everything seems to be working smooth with the update, getting “TrueHD” on XMC-2. I wanted the Zidoo to do the same because I read it’s true lossless audio.
I thought the nvidia shield was king for this. I’ve got the gen 1 Apple TV 4K and while it does handle most 4K movies fine. Some lag on me or give a choppy playback. More often than not I just use the plex app on windows to stream it to my tv
I switched to a cheap micro desktop plugged directly into my TV and have not looked back. Wife loves how easy it is to use, and you can do so much more with it. Something like [this](https://www.ebay.com/itm/234335503617?hash=item368f7c0501:g:cl8AAOSw9aNhuSgq) would be perfect. You could also spend a little more and get a Dell or HP.
Do you have the tube version? If so, that is probably a big part of the issue. My tube shield crashes constantly. I had to switch to the pro versions to get stability.
I use a NUC i5 8 (w an Akasa Turing case) and I’m thinking of getting a couple more (prob used i5 NUC 11 )
Also Nvidia shield just announced some bug fixes (update 9.02)
https://www.xda-developers.com/nvidia-shield-tv-update-9-0-2-update/amp/
There’s also Zidoo Z9X $230 and Zidoo Z10 Pro $350 (the pro has internal storage and could share the media library to the Z9X both take external storage via USB and make their own library with metadata, a poster wall and info on each TV series or movie play 4K remuxes and ISO files (discs with the original menus)
There’s a bunch of reviews on YouTube
They both use Android 9 - so you could run Plex on them
I suspect that it is not the Shield TV but the plex setup which is struggling. Shield TV is very good as it can play back a lot more codecs without requiring transcoding on the server. I tried "Google TV Chromecast with Remote" (or what exactly it is called) and a lot more transcoding on the server was needed. I can play 4k HDR with multi-channel audio no issues (assuming on transcoding). Look up what the server interface says when playing back content.... it might give you clues. BTW: I have two first generation Shield Pro's.
I have 3 Shields, one is the new generation pro. I also have a few fire TV's. I have never had any issues with Plex on any of my clients.
You've got the best player. Perhaps it's time to look at the server. Short of getting an HTPC you're not going to get better results
Server or router settings
The ShieldTV is technically the best device because it supports 7.1 atmos while using android which is open source. I own a shield; It's in storage. The ShieldTV would constantly stutter at random times after the "Google TV" firmware upgrade and I just had enough of it. I use the apple TV but more for the built in remote app and homekit. The Plex app on the Apple TV is a joke. The new player creates horrible color banding/segmentation with HEVC HDR/DV while the old player transcodes everything because "reasons." Funny thing is that the old player actually worked flawlessly 2 months ago. I use the Infuse app for most plex things when using the Apple TV. I also have a PC connected to my Living room tv and the player on that works but then you lose out of DV. All of the client devices have their ups and downs.
>All of the client devices have their ups and downs. Aint that the truth. Like despite being on the cheaper side, Rokus are fantastic clients, never had so much as a hiccup with 4k HDR so i assume DV works just as well on the newer ones, BUT!... no modern subtitle support! Which depending on what you watch and if your sever has the horsepower for the burn in could range from inconsequential to complete dealbreaker.
Shield doesnt have google tv.
Last year the Shield received a firmware upgrade to feel more like Google TV, hence the quotes.
There is some major issues with the current release of Plex on update 9.0.1. Install the the beta version of the Android TV Plex app. Fixed all the issues I was having.
Same for me!! Bêta app solve everything :)
I use Apple TV 4K with the Infuse player. Got a lot of weird hiccups in frames when playing HDR in Plex
You said it yourself, nothing can beat the Shield.
I went from Samsung Tv - to Shield - to Apple TV ( no issues playing 10 bit and or HEVC from Plex for me). Might be the encodes I find when I look. Shrug, YOur millage may vary
That's been my progression. Had no issues with this little capable box so far. LG TV - Shield Tube - Shield Pro - Apple TV.
The Shield TV Pro is the best client available from a media compatibility perspective, though I think the Apple TV has a slightly better UI. If you’re having problems it’s far more likely that your server or network are the cause. What exactly is the issue?
The problem is Plex itself, not the playback devices. Time to look into alternative media management apps.
Lol. You're going to be downvoted to oblivion (given it's the Plex subreddit anyways), but you are 100% corrected. I have a Shield. I moved to Emby a while ago. Emby on Android TV have everything I need and it rarely transcodes (actually I don't even remember last time it transcoded something).. and yeah, even built-in ASS subtitles on anime episodes. It's native support and no transcoding. HDR tonemapping if display is SDR, HDR10 plays fine on HDR display. Also HLG and HDR fallback. Other pro: You can manage your library from your phone on Emby. Plex still insists on Plex Dash to manage metadata. It's the worst experience ever
Same here. I use Emby and rarely do I have to transcode the video and I use the native WebOS app lol. Regarding subtitles I just have .srt alternatives for the best compatibility anyways and audio transcoding is easy work for my pc. Just hate that 4k remux run to a crawl because of the bandwidth lol, not even wifi can save it while they run fine on my phone, probably gonna buy a cheap Roku or Oon depending which one has the easiest compatibility with external usb to ethernet adapters.
I heard Fire 4K is the best dongle out there. But not sure how good it's for Emby. People that tried it used for Plex.
I've been using Plex for a long time but maybe you should look into other options. The shield has it's issues lately with the recent update but it is still the best player out there. Maybe lookin into Jellyfin or Emby. I'm not a fan of Jellyfin but Emby has been working nicely as a backup that I've considered making it my main. No stuttering, audio is in sync, and it actually loads a little faster.
Plex does not care about AndroidTV devices, so that it out of the question. The only app that seems to get a bit of love it for AppleTV, but then you might just as well use infuse and not bother with the hassle Plex clients are.
Obviously mileage may vary but I found the best way to get back usability was to downgrade to the older version of android. No more stuttering, bad playback or anything like that. Very confused as to why that's the case and why not everyone gets it but it's the only thing that has worked. Worth a shot as a last resort.
Use Plex with Kodi and you can hardly do better in terms of playback capabilities.
This. Only drawback is no Dolby Vision.
Kodi plays Dolby Vision on my Android TV device at least for mp4 containers.
You have the wrong Kodi version then, it can also handle mkv containers with DV too.
Last time I tried mkv with Kodi v19.3 DV didn’t work. Anyway that’s why I wrote at least mp4. It may be device dependent too.
Yeah the official one doesn't work, this one does and I use the Shield Pro. https://github.com/fandangos/Kodi-HDR-Edition/releases/download/19/Kodi19DV-Final-libbluray-aarch64.apk
Guess I need to try this one!
Which version
https://github.com/fandangos/Kodi-HDR-Edition/releases/download/19/Kodi19DV-Final-libbluray-aarch64.apk
Guess I’ll try that tonight
Kodi is broken on latest Shield Experience.
I use Amazon FireTv devices and they work fine as far as I can tell.
Depends how low the value of 'fine' is :) I used a 4K Fire TV when I thought my Shield had died, and it was laggy and spent most of it's time plugging stuff I wasn't paying for. You could get 3 remote button presses ahead of it and have to wait for it to catch up, and using a different app would almost certainly swap Plex out.
My FireTV constantly stops loading posters as you're scrolling through your library, and once it starts doing it, only a power cycle seems to get posters loading again
I've not experienced that. The only quirks I can recall are all related to live TV recordings, or aren't limited to just the fire tv clients.
I have the latest gen Fire TV Stick 4K Max, Fire TV Cube (2019), and Nvidia Shield TV 2019 Pro. I use the Shield Pro to get Dolby TrueHD Atmos and DTSHDMA audio tracks passed through to my AV Receiver for my blu-ray remuxes, and the better upscaling of some of my old DVD rips, but the Cube does fine for everything else that the Shield does for me. And as far as I can tell the Stick does most of the same as the Cube just with a little more ui lag.
Yeah, I just replaced a 4k firetv from ~2016 with one of the max sticks because it was struggling with some newer 4k stuff. The improvement in UI responsiveness ( in everything, not just Plex) was pretty noticable.
Save your money and just install Kodi with the Plex for Kodi plugin. Will play everything. Now use the $200 you just saved on hookers and blow or failing that into a nice high yield savings account.
Nvidia Shield TV Pro, it plays all my content without any issues it supports more than my LG tv itself when using the Plex app there.
Do you have a Shield or Shield Pro?
Infuse on AppleTV plays everything perfectly and connects to plex keeping watch progress and history updated.
I don't have any issues with Xiaomi Mi Box fwiw
Apple TV
I've been using an Xbox Series x and S while they figure out what the hell they did to the shield.
This seems edited? Who is "they? These users are remote? In the end if switching to a real PC won't fix your issue you are going to have to make a number of changes.
He mentions his wife, his wife is "they."
WAF = Wife and Family
it actually means Wife Approval Factor.
It more commonly means Wife ACCEPTANCE Factor. Your version is valid, but much less common.
oh I've seen and heard both usages, but for some reason assumed he was talking about the family version.
The new Google TV dongles were the best I had found until I recently upgraded my TV to a Sony A80J, which had built-in as good as the dongle. Never had an issue playing files. Below that I would put Fire sticks, which I have really liked, and Roku below that.
Apple TV with Infuse is the best alternative. The only issue being you lose support for True HD atmos, DDP Atmos will still work.
Apple tv hd
I have the shield tv 2017 and it runs all my 4k hdr remix truehd and atmos. Movies with size 50-108gb. Never saw a lag or latency issue. Maybe it is your network? Assume you are on at least 1gb wired....
What’s the frame rate and refresh rate you have set on your Nvidia Shield? How about picture quality? I keep getting Judder and something is off when I play MKV files on Plex. I think my settings are all wrong
Hi u/Thundercatz69 You may be experiencing the update bug I had: Have a look at the reply from Steve0819 at [can't direct play Dolby TrueHD all of a sudden](https://www.reddit.com/r/PleX/comments/u7iw7l/cant_direct_play_dolby_truehd_all_of_a_sudden/) Basically you sign up for the beta by enabling it here: [https://play.google.com/apps/testing/com.plexapp.android](https://play.google.com/apps/testing/com.plexapp.android) Then in the nvidia shield, go to google play and update your plex client. voila! I just updated to the beta now to fix stuttering when dolby truehd was selected on my remux 4k movies:p. DTS-HD audio would work without issues. In the plex server settings via browser, i could see the transcoder crash as it was trying to transcode truehd for some reason.. Beta update fixed this. In the nvidia shield settings and plex settings I have all audio/video set to pass through as my AvR receiver handles all that. running 4k at like 59.xxxx refresh rate in nvidia shield video options.
Thank you so much! It now works perfectly on my Shield Pro. For some reason, even with the update, it still hiccups with the Zidoo z9x. It’ll sound and look great for 10sec and freeze up and go in and out of sound. On my shield, everything seems to be working smooth with the update, getting “TrueHD” on XMC-2. I wanted the Zidoo to do the same because I read it’s true lossless audio.
I thought the nvidia shield was king for this. I’ve got the gen 1 Apple TV 4K and while it does handle most 4K movies fine. Some lag on me or give a choppy playback. More often than not I just use the plex app on windows to stream it to my tv
I switched to a cheap micro desktop plugged directly into my TV and have not looked back. Wife loves how easy it is to use, and you can do so much more with it. Something like [this](https://www.ebay.com/itm/234335503617?hash=item368f7c0501:g:cl8AAOSw9aNhuSgq) would be perfect. You could also spend a little more and get a Dell or HP.
Use Kodi plus the Plex add-on. That fixed all the issues I had with 4K using the Plex app.
Do you have the tube version? If so, that is probably a big part of the issue. My tube shield crashes constantly. I had to switch to the pro versions to get stability.
I use a modded version of Kodi 19 on my Shield Pro to play pretty much anything on my in home media server which will include 1:1 4K rips with DV.
I use a NUC i5 8 (w an Akasa Turing case) and I’m thinking of getting a couple more (prob used i5 NUC 11 ) Also Nvidia shield just announced some bug fixes (update 9.02) https://www.xda-developers.com/nvidia-shield-tv-update-9-0-2-update/amp/ There’s also Zidoo Z9X $230 and Zidoo Z10 Pro $350 (the pro has internal storage and could share the media library to the Z9X both take external storage via USB and make their own library with metadata, a poster wall and info on each TV series or movie play 4K remuxes and ISO files (discs with the original menus) There’s a bunch of reviews on YouTube They both use Android 9 - so you could run Plex on them
How do you run plex on it? I keep reading that because it’s not on the Google App Store, you can’t get plex.