Server Version#: 1.32.6.7557
Player Version#: 10.2.0.4488
Hello.
I have a brand new NVIDIA Shield Pro that i just hooked up as an upgrade to my Roku Premiere.
Everything I play is being video transcoded down to 1080p SDR. I have a 4K HDR10 Samsung TV that worked fine with the Roku (and when I switch back, goes back to being fine).
I do have an optical cable connected to the TV and enabled optical passthru but that didn’t fix or do anything other than convert the audio to 5.1; the video stayed the same.
I can’t make sense of what I need to do here because I see nothing in the settings that would indicate what’s causing it to transcode.
Home and Remote Streaming quality is set to Maximum.
Refresh Rate and Resolution Switching are off.
The player is connected via Ethernet to the same switch the Plex server is on (just as the Roku was).
This is happening with all files whether 1080p or 4K or MVK or MOV or whatever it may be.
It seems too that some things randoly play on only a tiny amount of the screen (see attached photo). Again, something that Plex on Roku never did.
The above is a 4K file that’s being transcoded at 720p (which, again, never happened with the Roku I had … and there were no settings to adjust to get it working).
How do I get it to just play the files as DirectPlay/Stream?
I have GDM enabled on the Plex server and have confirmed that the Sheild is indeed streaming over the Internet via WAN instead of just connecting via LAN.
The Shield is on the same LAN as the Plex server.
I see no options to manually set the IP like I can on a Roku (though, i didn’t need to on the Roku).
I have this weird thing where the moment I ask for help, the answer comes to me and it did.
I set the IP address on the Shield to static and with that, the DNS server to match my router instead of 8.8.8.8 (the default).
The Shield wasn’t resolving the hostname of the local server and thus went out the Internet to get access (seems like a weird thing but that’s what it is).
On a separate note, I really don’t see the appeal of the Shield. Everything I play on it looks like trash. Sharpness is gone, colors are not as vivid, and it seems like it’s skipping frames.
Playing it on the Plex app on my Samsung and Roku seem to provide a far better viewing experience (what the stream actually should look like).
I’ve got AI upscaling turned off but turning it on doesn’t make things better.
I’m quite confused as to how anyone can think this looks good unless they’ve never seen a good picture.
I’ll change the cable and see if that helps. I’m just using the cable that came with the Roku and figured if it worked fine for the Roku, it would work fine for the Shield.
It also doesn’t help that the Shield is very obviously in 1080p when it comes to the menu while the Roku’s and Samsung’s Plex menu is in full 4K.
The picture settings I have on my TV are the same as for the Roku. I’ve adjusted them a bit and things kinda look better but still not great … not what I was expecting given all the praise heaped upon the Shield.
I’d really like this to work as the Roku can’t stream more than 100mbps and while most things can do that, I’ve got many media that can’t. The quality on the Roku has been superb though so if i can get the Shield to match, I’ll have everything.
I dont get what it is. I’ve changed the cable, I’ve set all the picture settings to both match the Roku and not but the image is still so bad compared to the Roku.
On the Shield, the image is super noisy/grainy, it seems like it skips frames here and there, there’s color banding, and it’s not even subtle … it’s so obvious that both my roommate and my older mother can pick which one is the Roku and which is the Shield when we do blind tests (to see if we’re crazy or not).
I’ve got AI off on the Shield (not that I can enable it for these 4K HDR files), the shield is showing 4K HDR10 at 59.940hz, I’ve got any stretching set to off so it’s just showing what’s output.
Overscan isn’t happening ad that’s where it should be.
I tried “Match content color space” on and off but that didn’t fix the noise and banding or the frame skips.
I uninstalled and reinstalled the app. It has a new HDMI 2.3 (whatever the new version is) cable.
Another thing that happens is instead of playing my pre-rolls right away it’ll play a half second of the movie and THEN it starts the pre-roll (a bug … and it does it every time). And the prerolls, all of which are in 1080p look so much worse on the Shield that it makes me wish I had 4K versions of them.
I’m shocked that this doesn’t look anywhere near as good as my $30 Roku. I figured, if anything, the quality would be equal since it’s supposedly just Direct Streaming but this is bad.
I’d love to fix this as i love how quick the Shield is. I can see the potential … i just can’t see the picture quality.
What it looks like is the Shield is taking a 1080p streaming and blowing it up to 4K instead of just plaging the 4K stream in its original format (everything is set on both to play in their original form).
It doesn’t matter what I play whether it’s Saw, Planet Earth II, John Mulaney doing standup … there’s a palpable decline in quality on the Shield.
I know what the shield can do ( I have 3 of them – they’re that good )
It plays into one 2160p OLED LG C1 and two 1080p TVs all of which are DirectPlay
(The shield does the conversion down from 2160p → 1080p for those two TVs)
Might try this…
While watching the video you have shown above.
Use your remote to scroll down.
Scroll to the right to the 3 dots.
Select Playback Settings
Scroll to the bottom to Display Mode
Select Letterbox by scrolling left or right to change the display mode.
Hope this helps.
I’ve come to realize that the Roku just does a better job at playing content that isn’t 4K or in perfect digital quality.
While the Shield is so much faster than the Roku, the Roku also doesn’t randomly freeze or crash like the Shield does.
I’m keeping the Shield in hopes that I’ll just get used to it but for someone who can’t unsee banding, artifacts, and just other digital nastiness, it kinda sucks to have paid so much for it. The $30 Roku shouldn’t be better but when you’ve got files that aren’t all in 2160p, it does a better job simply because it doesn’t have the same amount of detail as the Shield does.
