Does anyone have comparisons done yet of the Google Streamer compared to the top of crop of streamers regarding codec support etc etc? Yes, I know its not out yet just wasn’t sure if tech specs were released yet.
So far, after using the Google TV Streamer for 4k for a couple of weeks. Previously using the nVidia Shield.
The Good:
The device has significantly better performance and so far has never crashed, unlike the nVidia Shield Pro which seems to be a bit short of RAM and does crash every couple of days when I use my sideloaded Plexamp a lot.
Out of the box, it seems to support all the audio formats supported by the nVidia Shield Pro. It even supports aac5.1 without changing defaults, which the Shield does not. (You can get AAC5.1 to work on the Shield though.) The only exception here is that a video encoded with TrueHD 5.1 goes black screen on the Google device but plays perfectly on the Shield.
The Bad:
the remote supplied with the Google TV is terrible. Doesn’t even have a pause button and just feels bad in the hand. Fortunately, you can easily pair the nVidia remote with the Google TV Streamer.
I cannot get Dolby Vision profile 8 to stream in HDR to Plex on the Google TV streamer, even though it works on the nVidia Shield. (not always so well because the nVidia Shield Plex gets laggy with high bitrate streams and occasionally crashes)
I get the following messages in the log and it transcodes into SDR.
Oct 22, 2024 13:02:29.108 [134358325275448] DEBUG - [Req#1134ab9/Transcode] MDE: 4K DOLBY VISION Asteroid Dolby Dgital Plus (2024): Direct Play is disabled
Oct 22, 2024 13:02:29.108 [134358325275448] DEBUG - [Req#1134ab9/Transcode] MDE: 4K DOLBY VISION Asteroid Dolby Dgital Plus (2024): media must be transcoded in order to use the hls protocol
Oct 22, 2024 13:02:29.108 [134358325275448] DEBUG - [Req#1134ab9/Transcode] MDE: 4K DOLBY VISION Asteroid Dolby Dgital Plus (2024): no direct play video profile exists for http/mp4/hevc
Oct 22, 2024 13:02:29.108 [134358325275448] DEBUG - [Req#1134ab9/Transcode] MDE: 4K DOLBY VISION Asteroid Dolby Dgital Plus (2024): no direct play video profile exists for http/mp4/hevc/aac
Oct 22, 2024 13:02:29.108 [134358325275448] DEBUG - [Req#1134ab9/Transcode] 4K DOLBY VISION Asteroid Dolby Dgital Plus - video.colorTrc limitation applies: arib-std-b67 != smpte2084|bt709|bt470m|smpte240m|smpte170m|bt470bg|bt2020-10 [list]
Oct 22, 2024 13:02:29.108 [134358325275448] DEBUG - [Req#1134ab9/Transcode] MDE: 4K DOLBY VISION Asteroid Dolby Dgital Plus (2024): no remuxable profile found, so video stream will be transcoded
The Verdict
The nVidia Shield Pro still holds the crown, but if the Google TV streamer solves a couple of issues, its better performance and stability will make it the winner.
As long as the Google TV streamer doesn’t even support True HD and DTS:X through passthrough, the device remains just a great streamer. The Nvidia Shield TV Pro 2019 is a media player and can therefore also handle 4K DV/HDR10 MKV films that have True HD Atmos or DTS:X. The Google TV streamer can’t even handle DTS-HD MA properly and only uses the 5.1 core. Countless good films have DTS-HD MA.
Yeah. In fact, its lack of storage or a USB port alone for me means it is a streamer and not a media player as far as I am concerned. I see Plex as my media player.
For me, the audio deficiencies are annoying but not deal-breaking because my AVR does a fairly decent job of upmixing 5.1 to 5.1.4 on the small amount of video that I have where this is an issue. I do hold out hope this might be fixed in software. I mean, the UI says it can do all of these formats on passthru, right? The unknown is how many channels the chipset can passthru I guess. Chromecast can pass through 8 channels and I’ve seen reports in tests of it seeming like there are 12 channels supported by HW in this device but no reports of it actually working in real-life situations. That would give an upper limit of 7.1.4 in Atmos.
The inability to display Dolby Vision profile 8 is a much more serious issue for me. The thing is, I don’t know if the issue is the streamer, Plex, or me. I have seen posts in other forums where DV profile 8 has been got to work, but possibly not with Plex. It might also be my TV, because it doesn’t always work with the nVidia either.
Balance this against the lagginess and instability of the nVidia Shield Pro that I have. Running sideloaded plexamp, the thing just goes into lala land and becomes unresponsive for a minute or more if I start playing an album encoded in FLAC above 16-bit depth, and it will reliably crash or go green-screen and maybe need a power reset about once a day. Never crashes when I am watching video though. The Google box takes anything I can throw at it in its stride from a performance point of view.
I own the onn. Google TV 4K Pro (from Summer 2024) and think it should also be included in the “top crop” for comparisons. I’m not noticing any significant differences from official Streamer (esp. with AV formats: same lack of audio support, TrueHD, DTS-HD, etc). Is the Streamer on Android 14 already? (ONN is on 12 for now, unsure of updates.)
I have tried a few HEVC DV (Profile 8) and they play (both Plex and Jellyfin). I changed DV to “low latency”, seems to have solved my HDR issues. Even AV1 HDR, which I thought nothing would play (will try DV P8 and update). Although it may be picky with encoding settings (I’ve only had trouble with some AV1, but JF plays, hopefully fixable).
Tried changing DV mode to low-latency, but it did not help me. I am starting to suspect my TV may be sending mixed messages. The DV8 files do play in DV when I use the Webos Plex Client, so it is supported to some extent at least. There are however a few artefacts…
I have a new TV on backorder that I know will fully support DV8 so I’ll probably wait for it to arrive before I waste more time on this.
Jellyfin and Plex give the same result for me on all files that I have payed attention for.
Using Kodi, I can play DV profile 8 videos and the TV detects Dolby Vision and displays in HDR.
So the problem is not the Google TV Streamer. Narrowed down a bit to Plex/Jellyfin or more likely my old-ish TV reporting things that Plex/Jellyfin don’t like.
So that leaves the serious (or not serious depending on your setup) audio format deficiencies of the device.
Will not pass through DTS:HD, DTS:HD MA, DTS:X, DTS:XLL, Dolby TrueHD
From what I can glean, the chipset supports passthru, but Google seem not to be minded to allow it and my optimism of the software being fixed is not high.
Well that is some relief at least, that it is possible on the device. Not sure what Kodi is using to decode, etc. But it gives me hope that the various teams will learn from each other and correct or work around these issues, eventually.
I’m guessing the audio issues are due to manufacturers prioritizing streaming apps (EAC3 Atmos at best) and reducing licensing costs. I’m a bit surprised there is not “one device to rule them all” quite yet, not sure of NVIDIA’s future plans.
Would they need to pay licencing costs for passthru? My AVR manufacturer has paid licencing costs for sure, but it is decoding the stream, which the streamer would not be.
Honestly I was thinking it was some evil plan to only support the formats used by streaming services and not formats used in video files that people might have on their servers. “You never know where they’ve been”. Also, Google gets revenue from streaming services…
