Well I don’t know, people here claim that it sucks in this area. I just want to know where exactly it sucks at 
As mentioned my eyes my ears and a PMP (Not applicable for HDR as it can’t ) LG TV, Samsung TV and ATV 4K to compare with.
Basically if you haven’t experienced anything else you really are fine. I was until I experienced the difference.
I love my ATV 4K and even that pales in comparison with HDR and better still DV on the LG. Before my HDR TV I had no issues with the Shield until the “server not fast enough” garbage.
(must buy Plex a card for its impending 2nd anniversary.)
I switched to the LG full time but it’s slow with Plex (still the fastest client I have ever used when used with Emby, but that’s a different topic.)
As a previously almost anti Apple person, the ATV 4K is the best device I have ever purchased.
So I’m covered. ATV for day to day and most HDR. For my DV movies I fling to the LG via the mobile app so that I don’t have to put up with the slow navigation of the Plex app on the LG.
I’m guessing you haven’t experienced the “server not fast enough” thing yet?
I see… I remember that I played stuff directly from my Sony’s AndroidTV app, didn’t notice any difference so I don’t think that there is a principle “problem” with the Shield in terms of picture quality/processing. Maybe the ATV does some internal magic.
Well sure I have that issue, switched to Emby because of that. Same problem there, stops the video after 20-30 minutes in, but I can just resume the vid instantly and then I am fine. Doesn’t happen to all videos all the time if I remember correctly. And since I am not watching much stuff lately, I am only mildly annoyed and looking forward to the fix, which nvidia already has in their shelf.
Also, I am an Android person and will not buy anything Apple in the near future.
As @Xhaka says, my eyes, my ears…
I cannot see a difference in video quality between playing a movie via the Shield and using the Plex app on my LG OLED. I would like to see a comparison between the Shield & ATV4K. Might have to borrow a friend’s unit for a side by side test.
I can hear the difference between lossy & lossless audio on many movies. It depends on how well the movie’s audio was recorded, mixed, etc. Using the Plex app on the LG means no lossless audio due to HDMI-ARC limitations (my equipment predates eARC).
The other nice thing is that my Shield + Denon receiver direct plays everything in my library. Watching a Bluray rip and want to turn on PGS subtitles? No problem. With the LG app you’re off to Transcode City.
Is the Shield perfect? By no means, but neither is any other platform. The Plex Android TV app has a really annoying bug right now where about 50% of the time no content is shown at startup (here). I can say I’ve never seen the “connection not fast enough” message, including when playing 4K movies that average 80 Mbps.
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Hence the Apple TV. for the majority of my viewing which also now needs no transcoding with PGS. The LG is reserved mostly for my Dolby Vision stuff.
Is that a recent thing? I only hook mine up every few releases and can’t say I had noticed it I the past.
For me though the aforementioned “resume from pause” thing is the biggest bug. Its far more of an irritant than than the “Your server is not fast enough” one.
Interesting as I never saw it with Emby. I too had gone 95% full on Emby but UNO pulled me back to Plex at the last minute… Plus after purchasing the ATV 4K I discovered that there is no HDR at all in Emby on that device which is quite amazing.
I guess I am a shield ‘champion’.
I never said it was perfect either.
I can’t say I remember ever seeing the ‘server not fast enough’ message, unless of course my server was actually bogged down and not fast enough.
I have seen the no content thing, and after I cleared the plex cache/data, reset to default and then updated to whatever latest, I have not since had problems with no content displayed.
There are still lingering issues with slow updates to the ‘hubs’, but I can live with that until they get it fixed.
I don’t have a dolby vision tv, and to me its irrelevant since hdr10+ will eventually becomes the standard.
Atmos to me is important, I prefer higher audio fidelity, than I care about video fidelity/size. Ceiling or high mounted surrounds, along with proper audio setup, does make a difference.
Until something comes out that can bitstream/direct play 4k/hdr/atmos/truehd/dts-hd-ma with a demonstrably better stability and/or performance, the shield is still the king.
Perfect, no. Nothing is perfrect.
As far as apple tv, as far as I am aware, it still does not support lossless 7.1 atmos/truehd/dts-hd-ma passthrough.
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Yes. Started with 7.17 releases. Haven’t checked the latest 7.18 beta build. I’ve been experimenting with the UNO interface & problem doesn’t show up there.
Have you seen something concrete or is this just speculation/opinion stated as fact?
Apparently Phillips aren’t even sure anymore. After abandoning DV from 2018 models in favour of HDR10+, its back alongside HDR10+ on this years models.
True. The Shield will become a serious contender for me again when Nvidia fix their ****.(after 18 months) and when Plex or Emby manage to get around that resume from pause trash. I actually have hopes for this when Plex on the Shield fully switches to UNO. I really don’t need to see the controls or info on what show/movie I just paused.
I certainly don’t need to see it covering 40% of the screen for just short of three seconds when playback has resumed. Until that day it will for me remain just an occasional client.
Where it excels its great and it excels at one thing only.
If that one thing is all that’s important to you then I get it.
I have never said anything different nor has Hitsville from what I see.
Anyway have fun guys. That’s me done here for another year or two. I long since learned that r/Plex is a far nicer/more knowledgeable place to be.
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Whats r/Plex ?
Oh Reddit. 
Ah! here is another even larger thread of the “server not fast enough”
I’m glad some find the Shield usable.
@SambaDrome I see what you mean about Plex via reddit.
No one seems to be in denial just because they haven’t experienced it yet.
It is probably a different bug that also appears with emby. nvidia (or a user in their forums) had summarised the different bugs appearing and who was responsible for fixing it.
The bug I refer to, that also happens in emby, is Shield related and was fixed in the hotfix supplied via nvidias forums. This is the bug, where video playback stops after ~20 minutes. This happens with data from remote servers if I recall it correctly, forgot the details.
“The server is not fast enough…” is a Plex issue and has to be resolved here.
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Ah got it.
Thanks for clarifying.
I’ve been using an Intel NUC w/ PMP for the last several years, and it has been working great. I prefer high quality audio over video. Now that PMP is being killed off, I’m starting my search for a replacement.
Unfortunately, based on this thread, it appears to be a short search. It looks like the only real option I have to replace my NUC w/ PMP is an Nvidia Shield, so that I can passthrough DTS-HD MA and TrueHD (I don’t have my Atmos setup yet).
Is this correct?
joe
Or, you can just keep using your PMP until it no longer functions ?
everyone is panicking for no reason. Even in ~6 months when they stop developing PMP, it doesn’t mean it will just immediately stop working.
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I’m not throwing out my PMP, for sure. But I am looking at my options. There are rumors of a new Shield coming out, which also makes me want to wait, instead of buying into a 2 year old platform.
I’ve seen PMP break before, due to PMS updates, so you never know. I might be able to keep using it for years (it’s been very stable for me), or Jan 2 it could break. 
joe
If you want to have a good experience I would use Plex for all of the streaming devices like the Apple TV or Roku on TVs that you don’t need/want the lossless audio formats. I would give the Kodi client a try for a dedicated home theater. Since the Kodi client does not depend on a server (it directly accesses the video files and downloads the metadata) it will not go away, even if development stops (which I doubt). Kodi has made it really easy to install its embedded platform on things like the intel NUC, raspberry Pi etc.: just go to https://libreelec.wiki/doku.php and follow the links to the installation instructions. It passes all of the lossless audio formats. Optimizing it is a bit of a learning curve, but I am no expert on these things and I was able to make it work well. Plus you get to try different skins.
The bug I was referring to was now fixed by nvidia with the new update, so I can heartly recommend the Shield as a client. I even partly came back to Plex since now it is working great again on the Shield for me.
is poor picture quality still true? I’m looking for an picture quality 4k setup with atmos. I was about to pull the trigger on the nvidia shield… should I go madvr route?
nope. I don’t think that it ever was. but that is just me.
the new 2019 shield has even better ‘upscaling’ than older ones, I have heard people have problems with the tube model, so I would suggest going for the ‘2019 pro’ model.
not unless you want to deal with all the issues and maintenance of an HTPC.
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Any updates on new Android boxes that support pass through Dolby and DTS besides the Shield? Also, does the latest Shield have acceptable 4K video quality?
In addition, for anyone owning an LG OLED TV, does it pass through DTS and Dolby vía ARC?
