I have tried:
Enabling/Disabling Direct Play
Setting transcoder quality to all Make my CPU hurt
Enabling/disabling video stream transcoding
Swapping the video location between SSD and HDD
Swapping between ethernet and WiFi
I have a high end CPU and Plex running on Nvidia Shield (ethernet to router).
It is worth noting that I have turned Direct Play off under the Plex Web > Debug setting, however I can see on my Dashboard that it is still playing the video as Direct Play. I don’t know what Plex Web is and whether it is the right area to turn off/on Direct Play, but there is no other setting panel to choose this option from. I am also having audio sync issues but cannot find any option to disable audio passthrough to debug.
I have spent thousands on a good computer, router, ethernet cabling etc. and am really disappointed to have buffering issues. Does anyone have any more troubleshooting steps?
You should not disable direct play especially on 4K videos. The Invidia Shield should be able to direct play any format you throw at it. I have no issue playing 4K HDR 80 mbit Atmos files on my TV.
You might look how your network is setup. You should not be using wireless. How old are your network cables? Older cables from the 10/100 days were not made the same as they are made now of days. Check your network bandwidth, is something eating it all up such as downloading torrents which can kill a network if not setup correctly.
You’ll notice in my post I have disabled and enabled all of the options, including Direct Play. You’ll also notice that the only Direct Play option I had available was in the Plex Web panel and I can see on my Dashboard that the video was still playing under Direct Play, so I don’t think this is the right option to enable/disable Direct Play on the Nvidia Shield. I have tried WiFi and Gbit ethernet. This is definitely not something to do with my computer speed or network.
Gatcha, I did not see where you stated how your shield is connected to the TV. Is it going directly to your TV or AV Receiver? If you have a AV Receiver you should connect the shield to it and not the TV. Most TV do not support HD audio tracks. You also stated that this video has Atmos, does your receiver support ATMOS? Have you tried just playing the move with the 5.1 audio track? Is it just this 4K mover or others that have the same format?