Best Streaming Device for Plex (with AVR)?

[housainim]

Background

I’m looking for a streaming device that I can install Plex on.

The device will be connected to my AVR. The AVR will output the streaming device’s video to my TV, and its audio to my speakers.

Setup

Equipment

• Samsung 85" Q80T QLED Smart 4K TV (2020)
• Logitech Z906 5.1 Surround Sound Speaker System
• Denon AVR-X1600H 7.2ch 4K AVR - Connected to the TV via HDMI eARC.

Media Server

• Plex Media Server runs on my desktop computer.
  • I have some DVD and Bluray ripped movies where the audio is DTS or DTS-HD or DTS-HD MA.
• Plex client is installed on the Samsung TV - but the TV doesn’t support passing through any of the DTS audio formats to the AVR.

Questions

I have two questions:

1. What would be the best Plex streaming device for the optimal cinematic experience? The NVidia Shield TV Pro?

   • I’d like it to support Dolby Digital Plus, Dolby Atmos, Dolby TrueHD, DTS-X, DTS-HD, and DTS-HD MA.
   • It would also need to support 4K HDR at 30 FPS (at minimum).
   • Support for HDR10+ and upscaling 720p/1080p to 4K would be nice to haves.

2. Does the NVidia Shield TV Pro support DTS-HD MA? Doesn’t seem like it based on the specs listed on this page:

Thanks

[FordGuy61]

@housainim

Does the NVidia Shield TV Pro support DTS-HD MA ? Doesn’t seem like it based on the specs listed on this page :

My 2015 Shield Pro happily bitstreams dts-HD MA 5.1 & 7.1 to my Denon AVR-X4300H (along with the other audio formats you mention).

The Shield is the only device that meets your requirements. Buy the Pro model, not the tube model.

See this thread:

[INFO] Plex, 4k, transcoding, and you - aka the rules of 4k

NOTE: for 2022 – Plex has come a long way since this FAQ was originally written, HW transcoding has become more available and more stable, and tone mapping was recently added to address the hdr/sdr color conversion issues. The first 4 ‘rules’ generally are no longer as important as they once were, but may still be a good thing to bear in mind. Dolby Vision, is an entirely other mess. THIS thread/FAQ is NOT about DV. DV work is still in progress, and there are no perfect TV’s or external devic…

[housainim]

Bought the latest version of the NVidia Shield TV Pro, works like a charm.

Can confirm that all the audio codecs I mentioned are supported.

Thanks for your help, and for the link to the article, it was quite enlightening.

Just a follow-up question, do you have any articles that you could point me to about the optimal settings for using HandBrake with 4K videos and Plex?