I’m having playback issues with the Beta as well as the current version of Plex available to the public that include video stuttering and audio sync. It was coming up when only playing 4K content, but now I am seeing it with 1080p content.
When playing 4K, if I play TrueHD or DTS HD audio streams, the audio is out of sync by about 3 frames or so. However, when playing Dolby 5.1, the sync is fine. Video stutters constantly no matter what. I have just started noticing the stuttering is also happening with 1080p.
When I play the same file through Infuse…I have zero issues. No stutter and audio playback is perfect.
Plex is a far superior interface, but unless the video and audio issues aren’t corrected…I don’t really have a choice but to switch.
I use both to check if Plex is working. Are you using the default atv player or the Plex advanced player in settings? I use the plex advanced player for 4k and 1080p & 3D. All is working fine but when I am having issues I use Infuse to verify it is a valid file to play.
UNO interface OR current public release are far superior than Infuse’s UI. There is no question about that.
Infuse’s media player, however, appears to be much more advanced in handling video and audio playback.
If Infuse gains the capability of navigating the app as well as Plex…I might switch. I’m also considering buying the Shield TV as I know the limitations of Plex right now have more to deal with me using Apple TV than it does the actual media player that Plex uses. I have a friend who uses Shield TV and doesn’t exhibit the same issues that I am seeing.
Interesting I own a shield and only just purchased the Apple TV 4K today. (I have owned one previously but got rid of it when Apple pulled passthrough.)
I’m awaiting my test flight invite to take a look at UNO so can’t comment on that UI.
The original UI on tvOS is still to my mind the only really nice UI that Plex have ever created.
Nowadays Atmos is less of a thing for me. HDR definitely is a major thing. Hence looking at ditching the Shield.
I looked at Infuse last time my owned the ATV 4K and it was OK…nothing more.
Infuse 6 however is truly next level. Again pretty UI’s are becoming lower priority for me. (that said I really don’t mind it after customisation.)
Bottom line is I just want to watch trouble free, just like I used to when I first used Plex all those years ago. Perfect native video scrubbing and the fact that Infuse really doesn’t care if your subs are external srt or embedded PGS.
I will probably test out UNO when the invite arrives but for now I’m gonna spend more time with Infuse on my next days off. Hopefully the Shield will find a new home via ebay or buried in a drawer.
The Apple TV 4K still doesn’t do passthrough though. Both picture and audio are still really important to me. Shield DOES do HDR though…it just doesn’t do Dolby Vision. Shield passes through audio still.
How is Infuse 6 next level though? The customizing on Infuse I find to be very limited compared to how easy the interface is on Plex.
Why are you ditching the Shield? I would very much like to hear about your experiences. And perhaps I will buy the Shield from you, haha.
Lossless audio to PCM. Plex doesn’t do this and transcodes all the audio. MrMC (@davilla) does this and Infuse (@firecore) does this.
Scrubbing pulls from the video file and doesn’t need ‘Video preview thumbnails’ to be turned on the server. I’m not sure why Plex still uses these thumbnails when apps like MrMC and Infuse do it automatically.
Native Trakt support. Plex can do this with a plug-in but who knows how long it’ll last. Infuse had the best support but MrMC has it as well.
Plex does a lot good though:
Metadata and new items are “just there” unlike Infuse. Infuse you have to wait forever for the library to update everytime you load it up. MrMC works like the Plex app and things are just there.
On Deck is great. Load up the app and On Deck shows you really quick what TV shows are next. MrMC works like the Plex app, but Infuse you have to customize it a little to show it right at the front and it takes forever to load new items to populate it.
Live TV. Plex and MrMC can do live TV but Infuse can’t. Live TV in Plex is second best, but it’s still not as good as Channels DVR. MrMC is distant third and Infuse isn’t in the running.
Music. Plex and MrMC can do music and again something Infuse just doesn’t do. I actually use Apple Music, so I don’t really care either way on this one and I bet Spotify users are the same.
Refreshing Metadata. In Uno you can tell a library to update. It’s pretty good.
Things most apps don’t do:
Hide Watched setting from Recently Added sections. Plex and Infuse don’t do this and MrMC has a setting for it but it doesn’t do it either.
Display stats. Emby does this really well in their apps, and MrMC makes it a little easy but Plex and Infuse don’t have the option (except Plex without the enhanced player and debug mode turned on, or if you use a separate app/device and use Tautulli or Plex’s interface).
MrMC is probably my go to right now. It has the worst UI out of all of them but with Ariana it’s not bad but it’s not as smooth as the other UIs. If Plex gets lossless audio to PCM and EAC-3 Atmos support like MrMC I’d probably use it full time.
Emby isn’t even in the running. Their app is meh right now.
I have a Shield and while it’s alright it’s just not the Apple TV. The Apple TV has better apps and works a lot better with Netflix, Amazon Prime, Hulu, Vudu, and basically everything but passthrough audio. I almost never use my Shield.
Bearing in mind I mentioned I haven’t seen UNO yet, I have seen hardly any customization on any Plex client ever.
Me too but picture especially HDR takes priority. Maybe personal opinion but I can absolutely guarantee that if anyone wanted me to do a blind test on their TV of an ATV 4K, A shield and the and the native Plex app on their TV I can absolutely guarantee which is the Shield. It looks shockingly bad.
To quote Tim
The 2nd and 3rd of these are really major for me.
I have looked at MrMC and it ran really well on my Shield. I never once got it to load on my previous ATV 4K nor ever got a response on their forum. It’s on my to do list to try it out again though on the new one.
I actually really liked Ariana but worrying that the skin developer recently quit I think I read?
TL;DR Atmos underwhelms me, so for me at least the Shield offers only negatives.
It’s not “oh em gee huge customization” like they seem to make it, but it does track which tab you keep and actually makes it better to navigate than the current Apple TV app. I’ve liked the Apple TV app since shortly after they released, and even used it some recently with the enhanced player, and Uno isn’t a step backwards from what I’ve seen.
Weird. I’m on the forums over there a lot, and they do respond pretty regularly. If you try it out again and need support, I’m over on those forums, too. The Ariana dev did leave recently but the other two devs have still been fixing issues with Ariana and making changes, so while it’s a loss, it’s not the end of support for Ariana. It even works on the Shield (and does full resolution switching, color space switching, and refresh rate switching).
Dolby Surround and DTS Neural:X post-process audio really well to “up-mix” them to all your speaks, so I’m good with that. Though I generally do a lot of video watching in iTunes now with Dolby Vision and Atmos…
It was actually your prompt that led me back there.
The Trakt stuff is really good and especially video scrubbing which is the smoothest I have ever seen.
But the absolute key thing was allowing me to set ratings and then see it immediately send that rating to Trakt.
I can probably abandon the Plex Trakt scrobbler now in anticipation of when plugins get totally removed from the server. Webhooks should do for when watching on my LG or Android mobile app.
Exactly.
Until the ATV 4K came I was doing the Plex/Emby app on my LG via arc. Using those apps were what made me realise how bad HDR looks on the Shield in comparison.
I always loved the ATV 4K last time I owned one. But got totally hooked up on seeing my receiver tell me exactly what Audio the track was. Now I don’t care and just want simplicity.
I will be sure to give you a shout if I check out MrMC again and still have issues.
Next project though will be to connect Infuse directly to my Gdrive and see how it likes my 4K HDR remuxes.
Hi @timstephens24 - This is not the case. I listen to lots of audio on my system, and Plex direct plays PCM, FLAC and MP3 direct via Plex Media Player on a Windows Zotac Mini PC → HDMI → Sony AV. It works like a dream an sounds fantastic!
None of my kit is 4K capable yet, and currently my AV doesn’t support Atmos or DTS-X, but everything else direct plays like a dream.
