The Xbox One S (and X) are supposed to be able to bit-stream TrueHD and DTS-HD audio out, as seen here: https://news.xbox.com/wp-content/uploads/Xbox_One_Spec_Sheet.pdf
Is it the fact that the Xbox’s Plex app doesn’t support those formats yet and will be able once the development team has worked on it? Or will it not be able to support those formats at all from a limitation I am not seeing?
You my friend … are an expert . It took me months of research and buying/selling off the shield to come to the same conclusion. The video quality of the shield is completely unacceptable compared to even my Samsung’s built-in Plex app which blows the Shield. But the sound of the shield is perfect. I am currently BEGGING apple to allow passthrough, because the video quality is really top notch
Yes if apple would just support passthrough for dts and truehd it would be perfect. Sadly I don’t feel like that will happen so I built a HTPC and I use madvr which produces amazing picture quality and obviously with a pc you can passthrough every type of audio. I will say that it can be a bit annoying because the only way to run plex with madvr is to setup KODI with madvr and then use the plex addon for kodi. Becuase of this setup and a few other annoyances that I have not mentioned I only use it for my 4k content. Everything else I stream via apple tv.
Maybe this is crazy talk, but isn’t it possible the $30 Fire TV Stick Gen2 handles better than the AppleTV?
No 4K, HDR, 10-bit or Dolby TrueHD, yet handles DTS-HD Passthrough, and picture quality is great for high bitrate HEVC content. shrugs
No it doesn’t. No Fire TV devices passthrough any version of dts audio. It is either decoded to PCM on the device or transcoded to another format by PMS.
OK thanks for the info. It doesn’t transcode on my computer, so I’d assumed it was Passthrough.
That handles 4k HDR and also True HD and DTS:X
It runs kodi, so for plex you need to install the plex for kodi addon
Unfortunately plex have not updated the plex for kodi add on since may and im not sure how well it works.
There is another option though called Plex Kodi Connect
Also You don’t have to buy a Vero 4k if you are prepared to do a bit more work and messing around.
You can buy any S905x, s905d, s905w or s912 android tv box and then forget android completely and install LibreELEC or CoreELEC or equivalent instead
Kodi 17
Kodi 18
more info for you below
Yeah, previously I used Infuse with Apple TV which can access Plex library over DLNA, because it supports audio passthrough, but was too much of a PITA. DTS conversion from the native Plex app in AppleTV was horrible.
I was able to make Shield TV picture acceptable through tweaking projector settings with THX app (because of the difference in output between the two, hue settings for instance for Shield and Apple TV - set with Calibr8 app - are very different).
Hi, it is encouraging to hear that Madvr works well. Do you have to identify it from within the plex server? (I’m using W10).
Also, is this going to help with playing flac files?
Many thanks,
Nick
I recently switched to the OSMC Vero 4K+ from the Shield TV due to the not switching from HDR to SDR automatically. Recently got a LG OLED 65C9 and got fed up with manually switching the HDMI output of the Shield. The PLEX for Kodi plugin works fine. It can play anything I throw at it as Direct Play. And pass through of DD+/DTS/TrueHD/DTS-HD/DolbyAtmos/DTS:X all works as intended. And HDR10 or SDR is auto switched between BT2020 and BT709 and even resolution and refresh rate switches work fine.
Today we also have Raspberry Pi 4 Model B (https://www.raspberrypi.org/products/raspberry-pi-4-model-b/specifications/) as a cheap alternative for 4k, 60fps, HDR and audio passthrough.
Sadly I don’t believe it is a workable Client… yet! I have the Raspberry Pi 4 (4gb) model. It does to 4K HEVC decoding and supports DTS/audio passthrough to the receiver though. However it doesn’t do H.264 stuff well, and doesn’t do 60fps.
I was running LibreELEC with Kodi 18, and adding the official Plex Add On. When playing HDR content, it appears very washed out, upon more researching I believe this is a firmware issue, and waiting on an update for the Linux Kernel. I don’t believe it is a hardware limitation anymore though, so it may be able to be fixed/added later… but as of now it does NOT support HDR. I have tried numerous times and still getting issues. It will play it, but it looks terrible.
I was able to use my intel NUC8, with Windows 10 (Yuck…). Using the plex media player, along with a HEVC add on that was $1 from their app store. You also have to download some other add ons for the audio support that are free. Then simply adjust the PMP settings to allow HEVC decoding, and audio passthrough. I finally got 4K - 60fps, HDR with DTS passthrough. It was AMAZING. I did notice my GPU was at %75 and the CPU %55. This is from a NUC8i5BEH model… which isn’t a “cheap” option for a client… but did appear to do everything I wanted. **Note I attempted running the Generic 64bit LibreELEC + Kodi 18 (same as the pi4 but 64 bit version)… and it was similar results, except I got 60fps instead… still no HDR. Again, I believe we are waiting on firmware for the 8th gen i5 processor, after talking to Intel, they confirmed they have only officially released drivers for windows only. I’m not sure on the older NUC’s, but hoping I can grab maybe a NUC6 or NUC7 and run the LibreELEC option on it… still waiting to see if I can find someone who has one to test, or has done it.
nobody has beat the nvidia shield that I am aware of.
the only thing missing from shield is dolby vision, but that is minor in the grand scheme, and doesn’t affect direct play 4k hdr + atmos/dts-hd-ma.
You’re correct. I haven’t tried it myself, I’ve only read the specs. It seems like it works with libreELEC alpha (https://libreelec.tv/2019/06/libreelec-9-2-alpha1-rpi4b/)).
Although it would be nice if it worked with for example openELEC, which will probably happen soon.
Yes, that is the version I used, and sadly it does not work.
Also, the shield looks very promising. The other option is the OSMC Vero 4K+, or possibly a simple S905x, s905d, s905w or s912 android tv box. Wipe it and then run the alpha LibreELEC on it instead. That would be about 1/2-1/4 of the price with the same benefits. Anyone have experience with those?
perhaps a new contender.
we shall I see how well it will work with plex
Yep when it comes to HD Audio the Shield is the undoubted king.
It has lots of cool extra features too.
When you pause a video the whole navigation screen takes up around 35-40% of the screen and stays there for around 3 seconds. No issue there, but when you resume the same thing happens for the same duration. So as long as you don’t have young children or anything else in your life to cause distractions you should be golden.
It also has a cool feature mentioned in these threads (being the major ones)
There are another 10-20 threads on the subject.
The remote rocks. I think someone at Nvidia sat down with the 10 worst remotes they could find. Picked the worst parts of each and came up with the Shield remote.
Picture quality is average assuming you wade through the plethora of settings and even then it’s nothing compared to PMP, any LG/Samsung smart TV app, ATV 4K etc…
But going back to the topic of the thread then go for the Shield.
This issue plagued me to death on the Shield.
Strangely or the first 6-9 months of the issue being reported I never saw it and tended to put it down to the various users having network issues etc…
However when the error did strike it hit with a vengeance. It didn’t care if the file being played was a 75GB HDR Remux or a 700MB SD episode from the 70’s.
Unfortunately though the only people who have apparently never had it happen are Plex Staff and Shield “champions” who ram the Shield down everyone’s throats as the perfect client here on the forums.
With regards to the “resume from pause” issue, I actually raised this with a dev. They are looking at a way to try and eliminate this so pause/resume is a little more silent (like a proper client should.)
Who knows, despite the whole “every client is going to MPV because it’s by a long way the best player” and the fact that it isn’t actually gonna happen on Android TV after all, perhaps that whatever the new player is for Android TV it may start to compare to those devices you mention.
Finally personally, my Atmos speakers are not ceiling mounted and maybe that’s why Atmos to my ears is truly the most over-hyped thing in years outside of the cinema.
Dolby Vision via my LG is a different matter and the whole user experience of the ATV 4K means that even if the Shield ever reaches above average in the all but one thing it does excel at it will most likely never be in the top two (probably three) of the four clients I own.
DISCLAIMERS
What exactly is wrong with Shield’s picture quality? Haven’t noticed anything extra ordinary, neither for SDR nor HDR content.
Compared with?
