Nvidia Shield

Plex Players Gaming Consoles
1

I’m a new Plex Pass user and considering NVidia Shield as the player for my Home Theater.

Please provide feedback on quirks / issues for Plex’s app on Shield.

Also, does the app properly do these things…

  1. Audio Passthrough for Atmos / TrueHD, DTS-X, etc

  2. Can the Plex app be auto-launched when Shield boots? I want to use the Plex app 99% of the time (when not playing video games)

  3. Is there any issues with Plex app staying in the foreground when a projectors and/or AVR are turned on/off?

thx for the help!

2

Works great. If the attached device supports the codec, the Shield will bitstream it.

Here’s the list that I can remember off the top of my head:
Bitstreams: Dolby Digital, Dolby Digital Plus, DDP + Atmos, TrueHD, TrueHD + Atmos, dts, dts-HD MA, dts:X.
AAC passed as PCM (decoded on Shield, not transcoded by PMS).

There have been issues with dts-HRA and AAC 7.1 in the past (PMS would transcode). I currently have neither in my library, so cannot speak to current status.

I do not believe so. This would be an Android TV item. AFAIK, Android TV does not support auto-launching apps at boot time. I’ve never seen an option in the Shield configuration to support auto-launching.

I’m not aware of a way to do this. However, you might be able to accomplish it by disabling HDMI CEC between the Shield and your other AV devices.

The way mine is set, if I’m playing a movie in Plex and switch inputs on my AVR, the movie stops playing and returns to the pre-play screen.

My setup: Shield → Denon AVR → LG B7 OLED

CEC settings on Shield:

shield%20cec
shield%20cec562×889 96.6 KB

3

Thx for the help! Since you have a similar setup, could you run a test to see if turning off CEC keeps the Plex app on screen across off / on cycles?

4

If I turn off the Denon while playing a movie, Plex pops back to the pre-play screen.

The Denon is configured to pass through the last used HDMI input to the TV when turned off.

Here’s what happens:

  1. Play movie w/ Plex app
  2. Turn off Denon
  3. Audio & video stop for 2 - 3 seconds for Denon HDMI passthrough to kick in
  4. Plex app appears on-screen at movie pre-play screen, audio now via TV speakers.
5

plex will continue running as long as you do not back out to the main android tv screen, even if the shield suspends.

if the shield is rebooted or otherwise powered off/on, then you get the main android tv screen.

there is no auto start plex, but to make it simple to use you can make plex the first/default app on the screen so all you would need to do is activate it.

with CEC, I do not even use the shield remote/controller.

I use my receiver remote, which has (most) of the necessary buttons that get sent to the shield to navigate androidtv/plex.

6

The latest software update for the Shield TV Pro has broken native passthrough for HD audio.
I should say, it technically still works however you get lots of audio dropouts. DTS-HD seems to happen less often and it’s only for a few milliseconds it seems but TRUEHD tracks will drop out more often and you lose audio for nearly half a second.
It’s been very annoying. I’ve sent my logs to them and NVIDIA has yet to issue an update or fix that I’m aware of. Their support is not great or perhaps overloaded.

I wish there was a better alternative for direct play/pass-through of UHD content than the shield but I’ve yet to hear of one.

7

This topic was automatically closed 90 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.