I had the tube version of the shield and was getting all these problems when I played 4k content; shield would freeze, remote would freeze, audio sync issues and plex would crash. System was hardwired. After reading this instead of trying to mess with beta software I just returned and got the pro version. I’ve had zero issues since switching hardware.
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I’ve had the same experience. It sucks I had to buy yet another device because plex/Nvidia couldn’t figure this out, but I’ve had zero issues after migrating to the shield tv pro!
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after 1 year, still no fix for this issue. It’s a joke…
works great with Kodi via Plex plug-in, but not in the official plex client.
This is the premier android tv (ok, #2 after the Pro) client, and after 1 year this issue is still present…
nVidia made a giant steaming turd with the 2019 shield dildo edition. Sell it and move on…
Lol, yeah it must be the tube’s problem when Plex is the only app that can’t play 4k videos smoothly. I hope this thread keeps going until they optimize the player for 4k playback like every other app seems to have done.
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Hoping to keep this thread alive. I also own the Shield Tube and personally love it, but ever since I upgraded to a gorgeous 4K TV, streaming 4K HDR content over the PLEX app has indeed caused crashes. It doesn’t happen everytime, and when it does happen, I can usually try it again and it’ll work fine. But I’d say 30-40% of the time, it does crash. I have no intention of upgrading the Shield, but I would like to see PLEX and Nvidia work this out. It just gets to be a nuisance sometimes.
It may be an issue with how the Shield hardware works. It only has 2gb of ram compared to 3gb in the Pro edition. This is the crux of the issue.
I was able to sell my Tube for close to what I paid on eBay so an upgrade was only $50. Totally worth removing the headache.
I think it’s a bad idea to use Plex on Nvidia Shield. I have so annoying issues with it :
- impossible to slide in a E-AC3 audio movie(direct streaming)
- app very slow
- crashes…
Now, I use Kodi for Android TV + Plex add-on. It’s so smooth and it reads ALL movies! Like VLC!
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I just installed Kodi on my Shield tube with the PLEX add-on, and I’ve had zero issues so far. I’ve been doing lots of different tests on HDR content and 4K content with very high bit rate, and so far, it’s been doing great. Full direct play, no lagging, and no crashes. I think until Nvidia releases a new Shield TV model (maybe next year based on their past release schedule), Kodi will be what I use for PLEX content.
Same as everyone else here, the application is totally unstable, lag, crash, repair, and so on.
this is unacceptable
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Hi, I have the same issues, and have decided to try kodi with both PKC and Plex plugin, and I have noticed that on my side PKC basically suffers from the same issue like the Plex client. 4K movie starts lagging and the entire Shield UI starts severely lagging.
Then I have tried the Plex plugin, and the issue has disappeared.
Which is confusing for me, because everyone here says that the PKC is better, and I also like the principle of the PKC.
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I’ve been dealing with this since I bought the tube on launch. I was thinking it has to do something with my audio setup because of using hdmi passthrough with soundbar so I was always playing with hz, audio, syncing video hz etc, all the usual stuff.
Kodi was flat out crashing on trying to play 4K HDR h265 and plex started stuttering after a few minutes, restart did not help, controller stopped working etc.
Today I got really annoyed by it and I decided to switch back to my old nvidia shield 2017. It works flawlessly there, so I moved it to my living room and left the new tube 2019 in bedroom.
I then formatted it completely and left literarily only 5 apps installed/enabled - plex, kodi (with pkc), spotify, smart youtube tv and google play store. Thats it. I have tested Kodi and it works (stutters at start for 1-2 sec and then recovers), plex also seems to be working well so far. I will be running a few tests to see if it works there and will update this post if I encounter any stutters.
Edit: Stuttering achieved when I started playing the movie in the “pop out small window” and left to home. I will try normal playback and update if it starts lagging again.
Edit 2: Right on time, stuttering started exactly like before the format, after about 30 minutes of playback with the official app. I will test in kodi and see…
I picked up the Shield tube in August after hearing great things about the 2017 versions I thought I was going to have a great experience.
This is at best a 1080p capable device all 1080p content works perfectly. anything 4k I get app crashes, stuttering audio drop out and the remote even hangs.
I would not recommend the tube to anyone. If you picked this up from Amazon I would contact them for a full refund stating it does not function as described.
Now looking for an alternative before diving into another NVIDIA product.
I’ve had my Nvidia shield 2019 tube for over 8 months, so unfortunately returning it isn’t a possibility. Haven’t been streaming anything 4K until last night and found myself extremely frustrated and disappointed. I also have a proper Nvidia shield pro upstairs which had no issue streaming the same content. This post is creeping up on a year old and there is seemingly no fix coming. Might switch to Kodi a this point…
Fortunately I just recently bought the lifetime Plex Pass, so I should be able to get that returned.
Set AI upscale to basic
System:set fan cool.
Display :4K 59.94 Dolby and hdr ready
Advanced settings Custom display mode
Filter by resolution =none
Filter by refresh =none
Filter by color = none
Display modes= 3840x2160 59.40 Dolby and hdr ready
Match content color space off
Plex app setting : refresh rate switching ON
This is mad. Plex doesn’t work, other apps do… fix it guys.
I experience this issue as well and was convinced it was a drive issue so I tried playing the same 4k HDR remux file from a range of different drives (USB external mechanical & SSD, SATA SSD, NVMe).
All of them caused crashes apart from when playing from the NVMe drive. Does the speed of the drive compensate for the RAM defficeincy found in this version of the Shield TV tube?
This didn’t make a difference for me sadly 
I have the Shield 19 Pro. It does not play HDR content when Bluetooth headphones are connected. I verified with two servers.
All my issues go away with Beta version
