I do have the Shield and I do use it as a server. And guess what? It does its job decently for me.
Do I have a library of 8 gazillion movies all as Blu-ray remuxes? No.
So advertising it as a Shield server and enabling it by default seems reasonable to me.
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Well who is a lucky chap. I can guarantee you that it does not work usefully with 1,00 DVDs, 70,000 FLAC tracks and 100,000 RAW images. My offer of a free HDD is till open for collection!!
My main plex server is a Shield Pro. It’s consistently recording 1-2 HD Streams from HDHomerun Prime. However I only use it as a server. I have dedicated 16GB Shields players as well. Granted I’ve only got 330 Bluray ripped to raw mkv and 320 TV Episodes spread across 30 shows.
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Then you gotta ask who has 100,000 RAW images and 70,000 Flac. - I suspect not many - and that expect Shield to handle that.
We know one and the Shield does not work for him as a server!
I have 40,000 tv Episodes , 4000 movies (all mp4), 100,000 jpg and 50,000 mp3 , 10,000 music vids and MY Shield (2015 and 2017 Pro) can handle that
The bottom line is do what best fits your scenario.
All I can report on my experience with Shield is that if I was rolling out a media playing environment for a Corporate Organisation and my role was as CTO (Chief Tech Officer) then I would definitely not recommend shield as a media server. Why because you do as you find. I found Shield incapable of filling the server role -Period.
If you want to have a set up ‘for life’ then go for a hardware architecture that is designed for the server ‘stage’. Anyway with hardware performance improving and power requirements falling in a couple of years time PLEX will be selling their software on their own tested hardware as a complete package. Who wants to be a Tech Head sorting out performance issues for ‘others’ in this day and age. Rather like… say Tom Tom or Garmin GPS solutions… Sure you can use an App like Waze but for a ready to go navigation service - switch on and forget - the dedicated GPS will outperform an App on a Iphone - period. The same is true of the Shield. Sure it ‘can’ sort of work but when you factor in frustration and time wasting (in my case a week!) the dedicated ‘made to measure’ solution is the way ahead. The fist person to produce a ‘turnkey media player library solution’ will clean up.
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Just thought id throw some thing into the mix, New to putting my thoughts into the WWW.
I come across the thread as I was looking for some information about the slowness of of editing the meta data of my library.
Firstly, I own a 2015 Shield which serves as both PMS and Player. I’ve noticed when using the player and select a movie it can take up to 10 seconds to go from the list of covers to the movie. My question was if i move to the 2017 model is it leaps and bounds faster that the 2015 model I currently use?
Now a little input in the discussion, no one mentions what router/switch or other networking gear they have to run the data on. Unfortunately this has a great impact on a working stable system.
To put some of the fears of people about using PMS on Shield I use my 2015 Shield system to play 4K movies without issue. My movie collection runs to about 45TB, my small collection of 70 UHD movies vary in file size between 16 and 73GB in size, and non 4K collection of 4500 movies are between 5 and 20GB in file size. All of my movies play “Direct Play”
I would say there is a bit more to a good stable Plex home system than just running PMS on a device and using a player. You have to consider what audio format you TV or AV receiver accepts and the how good your home network is and also what format your files are, mine are all MKV.
My system granted is above what most would use, but a little thought to ensuring you give your system the best chance to perform well make the whole experience better.
Anyone that can help with my question above would be greatly appreciated, especially if you have both and can see the difference.
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