I’ve seen various reports that the new AI upscaling feature on the 2019 Nvidia Shield does not work in the Plex app. Would be nice to see it supported. I’m not sure why it doesn’t work by default like some other apps. Does Plex not use the native video player?
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Yup, I was just about to upgrade from the 2017 version till I found this out. Not worth it now just for Dolby vision.
AI upscaling works with Plex on the new (2019) SHIELD. It’s handled fully by the OS, as such every app supports it and doesn’t need any special support. There’s not really a native player on Android, but we do use the Google made ExoPlayer v2 project (heavily modified for extra awesomeness).
As well as AI upscaling, Plex on the SHIELD will soon (in v7.24) support Dolby Vision!
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I just received the 2019 Shield myself. AI upscaling is indeed working in the Plex app. Not sure why I saw reports to the contrary. And yes, the AI upscaling feature is impressive, even on my 55" TV.
Btw, glad to hear about Dolby Vision support! What does that mean exactly? Single layer DV? Dual layer DV? In what containers?
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Working on my new Pro as well.
Don’t listen to Reddit!! 
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How is the 2019 pro compared to the 2017?
First impressions?
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Pretty good so far! The main new features are Dolby Vision and AI upscaling. There is a new remote, and the CPU is clocked slightly higher. Besides that, it’s basically the exact same as the 2017 model. The non-pro has a different tube-shaped form factor without USB 3.0 ports (but with one microSD port).
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Yes, the new AI-enhanced upscale works quite well in plex and MrMC using the plex plugin and I’m impressed. It actually meets and even exceeds my Lg c8 upscale.
Between dolby vision and ai-enhanced, I’ve retired both my 2015 and 2017 shield.
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Hi
I have the new Shield. AI upscaling only works on up to 30 fps content, so I’m finding most of my content it is not in operation, but no bad thing.
When it is in operation, it is doing nothing more than ramping up the sharpness settings, no different to the controls I have on the TV, I get the same effect if I ramp them up and the images look identical. It’s not particularly pleasant, yes you get the illusion of more detail but it soon starts to look rough and over processed. AI Upscaling is just their PR for the usual picture processing that provides the illusion of more detail even though it’s actually removing detail in the process! We’ve had “Best Ever” upscaler claims for years now on all manner of equipment, and if they were true claims we would all be watching 16K resolution images from standard-definition footage by now and we’d not need any native HD or 4K footage.
You can’t add back what has been lost so don’t fall for the marketing hype. I find the best picture from the Shield is with upscaling off (well set to basic which is upscaling without adding all the extra picture processing).
Each to their own, if you like the effect by all means use it, but the reality is, it’s not doing anything you probably couldn’t have achieved already in most TV setting menus.
For now only single layer Dolby Vision will be supported, were hopefully dual layer will come in the future however it’s not currently on the roadmap.
As for containers, Dolby Vision will work inside of an MPEGTS or MP4.
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The AI upscaler will depend on the content your playing, it’s a clever upscaler that tries to determine what to sharpen and improve through artificial intelligence so it’s rather different to how a TV does upscaling (which allies the same sharpness / enhancements for the entire display). There is a demo mode which lets you drag a slider across your video to see the improvement it makes, it’s never going to make it perfect but it does an amazing job.
The new player UI on Android TV will enter beta very soon, this includes resolution switching so on the SHIELD you will have multiple ways to enhance low resolution content to a 4K display.
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Hi
It doesn’t do anything unusual is my point, I can achieve the same results with the settings on the TV by just turning them up. I’ve used the demo slider and it becomes very obvious with that it is just bog standard sharpening but lots of it, and the image gets rather over processed as a result. It’s not very flattering on faces either, you’ll want it off on any home videos unless you want to look 15 years older due to all your wrinkles over sharpened!
There is no AI in use on the Shield as I’ve read into it, the AI was used in the research lab to train the Shield to recognise a scene. Most TVs already have the same functions where they adjust post processing based on looking at the scene and content, it’s not a new technique, what is new is adding the AI moniker to it 
Some people will like it, they will be the people who stick with default out of the box TV settings and don’t have their TVs calibrated or set anywhere near to what the director intended, others will be glad they can turn it off.
My point is, don’t upgrade an existing Shield just for “AI” upscaling, it isn’t anything unusual and you can achieve the same result on most TVs already, it is just sharpening ramped up to the max, plus it doesn’t work on high frame rates anyway.
Looking forward to the new player on Android TV. Will it switch to the sources native resolution plus framerate? Playing content at it’s native resolution so that the TV is the last part of the chain doing the upscaling and adding any picture processing gives by the far the best picture quality. You only want upscaling and picture processing happening once.
Now my number one feature (well along with the UNO backend ie. PrePlay of Plex on the Shield.)
I really hope it happens one day.
Totally missed this. So I guess that addresses the other point.
Awesome stuff!
I don’t understand my LG Plex app can play DV files perfectly fine but when I try it on the new Nvidia Shield 2019 it doesn’t work and reverts back to standard HDR and stutters. Whey would this not be on the road map when my LG tv can support it and it is such a big feature that android version of plex is missing! Especially when plex is all about quality
As mentioned the files are probably dual-layer files.
The LG is one of the few devices that can handle them. The Shield currently need single-layer files.
Download MediaInfo
Open one of your DV files and if it looks like this
with two video tracks it’s dual-layer.
Ahh i see so it cant have 2 types of HDR formats in the file then.
Surely if a LG TV can handle dual layer then must just be an update on the shield plex app to support this? or is not as simple as that?
Probably not as simple as that sadly. Technically I have no clue.
Not even the ATV 4K, where Dolby Vision has been a thing for a long time can yet handle dual-layer and even with single-layer, I believe it requires a 3rd party player like infuse.
Right now the only way to achieve a single layer DV file is by ripping it with DVDFab as far as I’m aware.
I think android users still miss out on features as i believe Apple TV can handle dual layer but outputs in HDR10 for some reason. Hopefully one day plex team can figure something out sooner rather than later as a lot of content is in dual layer format. Will see if i can give single layer format a go and see how it works out.
Oh and we should have the option to select themes! like on the Roku you can have a black theme which looks 10x better 
Yep. That’s exactly what happens on the ATV 4K. It basically just ignores the second (DV layer.)
As does the Shield 2019. (I don’t get the stuttering you mentioned though, on either device.)
The stuttering only happens when I try play the dual layer Dolby Vision file. Standard HDR content works perfectly on it.
I tested Dolby vision on Netflix and does look impressive, just imagine it on Plex would be a lot more impressive!
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