Old threads talk about the Shield TV limitation that all video is upscaled. Looks like NVIDIA recently added support for application controlled auto resolution although there are reportedly issues with lack of colorspace switching.
Does the Plex client on the Shield support outputting content at it’s native resolution yet? If not; when?
Background threads on the topic:
https://forums.geforce.com/default/topic/1025430/shield-experience-upgrade-6-0-for-shield-tv/
Plex on the Shield won’t do this currently.
Kodi has recently been updated to support this. If you set the output to 1080p SDR it’ll automatically play 4k HDR and go back to 1080p SDR once it has stopped playing. It doesn’t work vice versa. So it’s definitely possible.
Currently when you set the shield to output 1080p SDR Plex just outputs to 1080p HDR rather than flipping the resolution up when you play a 4k HDR file.
When direct playing, the Plex always outputs the native resolution of the file. Unless transcoding, then the output will depend on the output quality maxing out at 1080p, since the transcoder cannot output 4k. The Shield then scales the image to match what it is connected to. I’m not sure what new ability 6.0 provides, but nothing has been added to the Plex app.
Hopefully Plex will address this gap soon; Shield TV is a great Plex player for most reasons but unavoidable upscaling is unfortunate.
Old thread but hope to see resolution switching at some point
Definitely needed!
@“MovieFan.Plex” - when playing, if Plex detects that the output resolution (say 1080p) is less than the file resolution (e.g. 4K) couldn’t it then check to see if the platform supports resolution switching and then attempt it? If the resolution switch fails, it could then fall back to transcoding.
@DavidAndAndrea said:
Definitely needed!@“MovieFan.Plex” - when playing, if Plex detects that the output resolution (say 1080p) is less than the file resolution (e.g. 4K) couldn’t it then check to see if the platform supports resolution switching and then attempt it? If the resolution switch fails, it could then fall back to transcoding.
That is not resolution switching. If you have a 1080p TV and a 4K video file, the Shield will downscale to video to 1080p, no need for PMS to transcode. Resolution switching is to force the output resolution so that the TV can do any scaling.
I’m not sure you understand the scenario …
The Shield defaults to 4K output, upscaling 1080i/p video output automatically. Unfortunately it usually does a poor job compared to any attached TV’s own upscaling.
So many Shield users fix their Shield to output at 1080. This makes 1080i/p content look much better on the attached TV.
But for a 4K file, as you say the Shield will downscale it. But it needn’t - Plex could use the resolution switching API to put the Shield in 4K mode and switch it back afterwards.
@DavidAndAndrea said:
I’m not sure you understand the scenario …
Ah sorry. I thought you were describing being connected to a 1080p TV. What you described just above is the appropriate use for that feature. The devs are aware of the request, I just have no news to share.
Cool, thanks for confirming.
Glad to hear it is on their radar.
Missing auto-resolution support is the only thing that keeps me from using Plex.
Kodi, MrMc and Emby are supporting this feature. I can’t understand why Plex - as the preinstalled solution on the Nvidia Shield TV - seems to be the last media library app without auto-resolution?
+1 really needed feature… any news from dev?
Automatic resolution changing for the SHIELD TV Plex client would be a real useful and helpful feature. Kodi already fully implements it and it’s working great.
Couldn’t find a feature suggestion for this change yet here. Has someone opened a feature request yet? If not we should definitely open one and vote for it!
Just opened it here [RESOLVED] Auto Resolution Switching on Android TV / Nvidia Shield TV
With your post 
It a shame that exoplayer2 doesn’t have it yet.
Voted! We need more votes…
Yes it’s a shame, some other players already do it…
It would be an awesome addition to the nVidia Shield Plex app since its one of the only streaming players out there that doesn’t support this yet (like Kodi and SPMC). I watch alot of 4K content from Netflix, Amazon Prime etc so I need to leave the Shield output to 4K 59.9. And most of my Plex content is 720 or 1080 so the upscaling that the Shield performs is not always ideal.
This feature would be an awesome addition in a future update Plex!!
Any update on this? It would make plex the ideal player on the shield.
