Sure, but now comparing a $150 Shield to a more expensive computer. PMP also has limitations. It may be your choice for hi-res flac, but I don’t believe it can passthrough Atmos or Dolby Vision. It also doesn’t support HDR to SDR conversion.
Every platform has limitations. What’s best/ultimate depends on what your use is. That’s why Plex does not claim any client/device to be a flagship/best product.
Oh @MovieFan.Plex… Of course it can passthrough Atmos, and DTS-X and also has HDR tone mapping. The ONLY thing it cannot do is Dolby Vision… And we all know why that is don’t we !!
A little investment would fix that… But that’s for another topic!
That may be. But what I CAN tell a difference in is when it’s being played at the original sample rate and bit depth and when it’s been over-sampled or super-sampled. It introduces noise and degrades fidelity.
I can tell a huge difference between MP3 and CD quality (44.1 x 16 bit). It’s really really not that hard, especially if the source material isn’t mastered extremely hot.
I can also tell a difference between 16 and 24 bit (though technically, likely 16 and 20 bit, because 20 is realistically where even people with “golden” ears cannot possibly tell the difference because the amount of quantization noise would be lower than the noise floor of most rooms).
Now, as far as Android hi-res audio goes and 24 bit support… as of Android 10 it is supported, but I don’t think the shield is on 10. But pretty much most other apps get around this. Even casting from Qobuz or Tidal ( or PlexAmp for that matter) doesn’t play back every single thing as 48kHz PCM.
I see, and after more research I found that this is a limitation of Android prior to Android 10, so theoretically Android 10 would enable you to play back 24 bit audio at sample rates that aren’t a multiple of 48kHz. And the Shield is on Android 9. Android 10 for Android TV was released at the end of 2019 (I believe in November), and nVidia has failed to update it during that time. Android 11 for Android TV was released in September, and includes even more Audio and Video features (auto low latency mode and variable refresh rate being two huge features).
So the real solution for @axemanuk666 is for nVidia to upgrade their OS. I did open a ticket with nVidia asking when this was planned and got a non-committal “near future” response. I think not giving a date is fair, but I think for those of us waiting, something like “before end of quarter” would be better. So, I apologise for my outrage.
To @axemanuk666 I would say that as a software developer who primarily focuses on infrastructure (I’ve worn just about every hat in the Software Development field, from Dev to QA to DevOps and Ops), in the vast majority of cases something like this would be better than an HTPC. HTPCs are sadly neglected by OS developers, and never quite caught on in the first place. And Windows is a clusterfuck by itself in the things it does well (primarily video games). So it really doesn’t make a ton of sense for Plex to continue development of PMP, it’s just too costly for a platform that the OS creator treats as a dead platform.
A purpose built streamer is becoming more and more of the best way to stream. And the Shield does offer a much better performance to cost ratio, so next time you want to upgrade to match performance you’ll likely have to pay double or triple and the heating performance will be much worse too. When you have nVidia, the leader in AI upscaling building special mobile hardware for this, and no real solution in the small form factor PCs, and then it’s specially tuned for the shield it’ll be almost impossible to match performance on a PC like that. Same with video game consoles. PC video cards are much much more powerful than what consoles have in them, but because the console developer has more, lower level access to the hardware, they compete in performance with PCs triple or quadruple the price. And they’re much more polished. And I’m a guy who builds a new computer that costs $2000+ every couple of years and doesn’t play games on consoles. The price (beyond cash) you pay for customization and top of the line performance is in polish and the “just works” factor.
I love the build it and maintain it and tweak and DIY thing on my PC. But for my living room, not so much. That’s why I’ve always loved Plex and why I was so upset before. Plex has always allowed me to be the DIY tweaker guy on my server, but just works in the living room.
So, I’d encourage you to let nVidia know that you want the upgraded OS.
Open a ticket here, ask for an OS upgrade, mark that you want a reply. Enough and they won’t be able to ignore and write us all off.
https://nvidia.custhelp.com/app/ask
Hi @AXington - Thanks for digging in and doing the research.
It is indeed a shame that Nvidia are taking their time in upgrading to Android 10 or 11, but for the moment, I will definitely have to stick with 2 clients.
You see, my copy of the best album of 2019 / 2020 is in Hi-Res FLAC, and it sounds absolutely incredible. Significantly better than a straight FLAC Rip of the CD!!
I have also had confirmation that some new changes are coming to PMP…
Don’t know what, and don’t know when, but summit is cooking… 
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