@h1ddendanger
I’ve been using a shield for more than a year now. When I got it, there was no stutter at all. I think It was on firmware 3.3.
But few months later, nvidia released firmware 5.0 and this micro stutter/frame skip started. There is a big thread (26 pages) on the nvidia forum about this here:
https://forums.geforce.com/default/topic/990328/shield-tv/netflix-random-frame-skips-2015-after-5-0-2-2017-with-5-1-/1/
Since then, nvidia release 2 firmwares and did not fix this yet. This stutter appends in netflix, play movie, Kodi, plex, etc. It took me a while to find a work around for this issue. But I’ve been enjoying my shield without stutter for a while now. This stutter is caused by more than 1 cause.
The first cause seems to be deep inside android framework. There is a little app called TVHZ that can be downloaded from Google Play store. This app seems set some flags into android framework and it helps a lot. Basically, after boot, just start this app, toggle to 24hz option, then toggle back to the default option. After that, you are done with it. Don’t close it, just let it in the background.
The second source is disscussed a lot in the nvidia shield forum. My understanding is that the power management rules are too agressive and the CPU goes to slow in idle mode causing stutters during playback. On the nvidia forum, there is a user that created a little app call cpuloop. This app adds a small load on the cpu during playback, keeping the CPU active. This app can be downloaded directly from nvidia forum, the most recent version is 1.2 :
https://forums.geforce.com/default/topic/990328/shield-tv/netflix-random-frame-skips-2015-after-5-0-2-2017-with-5-1-/24/
This app is a little more difficult to install. Need to be downloaded to the Shield, Unknown source must be allowed and some settings must be done in the accessibility menu. Plex, play movie and netflix are already managed by the app. For Kodi, it must be added to the cpuloop config file.
Since I run those 2 apps on the Shield, I don’t have any stutters/frame skip anymore.
I hope this will help you.