I don’t have either so I’m hoping some people have some experience with both for a useful response. I have a server where all my movies are stored in my office running plex server. I’m debating between buying a shield or a nuc to connecto to my TV in my living room to play them back. I don’t care about games, browsing the web or anything but plex so that is where my questions are focused - I’m sure one is better for other stuff but since I won’t use those it doesn’t matter for this discussion. Price isn’t that big of a concern but the shield is certainly cheaper for me than getting a new nuc. I’m connecting to the server with gigabit ethernet - no wireless. I’ll want no compress - 4K ripped from disc, DTS:X and atmos too.
I’m wondering about boot time (10th gen or newer nuc) vs shield (same brains on both models - not sure there is any difference in boot performance but would like to know)
I’m wondering how often and loud the fan is.
I’m wonder which is more likely to have cashing or stutter issues.
The Shield is the only off the shelf device that can bitstream TrueHD + Atmos & dts:X audio and also play 4K HDR video.
The tube model has problems with high bit rate 4K HDR video. Search the forum with “Shield tube” or similar terms to see the reports.
Plex for Windows and Plex Media Player do not output HDR video. They tonemap it to SDR. It does not matter which NUC you’re using. The limitation is in PfW & PMP.
Thanks so much. I wish there was a shield case kit available so you could easily make a passive or much more silent model. I watched the youtube video of the guy silencing his shield and it was wonderful but probably about 50 hours of work. I’ve done a great job of silencing PCs but that is because there are so many cases and after market parts for that purpose. So for me silencing a PC is usually at most about 2 hours to 3 hours of work.
I was considering getting a Sheild pro because you can more simply access streaming services on the same device., But the android version of plex seems to have so many issues, especially with DVR that I use a lot. I never come across anywhere near the same amount of issues when I use plex on my desktop pc. Now they have just released HTPC app, I have been looking at the possibility of getting a NUC.
From what I’m told they aren’t really developing the player for Windows much which is the reason I went with the shield. I guess you can’t do some of the audio formats from what I’m told on the windows version otherwise I too would have used a PC.
