I wish I did not have to bother everyone here, but after searching for a long while and trying so many settings, I have to admit that I’m making no progresses
I’m streaming 4k content directly from my computer’s HDD ( 6GB/S 7200 RPM) to my Nvidia shield, and 4k content is not playing well.
I’m using an wired connection, my computer has a i7-6700K CPU
I’ve been trying a ton of different settings on the plex server, most of them I do not understand, and the best result I can get is 4k movies buffering after 15-20 min of Playback.
I’ve found a few threads offering some really good knowledge but I still can’t get 4k content to work…
Anyone has knowledge/settings to share? Let me know if you need more info on my setup and I’ll try to answer as best as I can
Server Version#:1.20.1.32.52
Player Version#:8.6.0.20351
The CPU handles Plex - I actually can’t game when someone is watching Plex (whether inside or outside my network), as most of the CPU’s resources seem to be used by Plex.
I would definitely put that 2080 Ti to work for transcoding! The NVENC (nvidia encoder) on that card can handle a lot of simultaneous tasks without impacting the GPU much. The CPU won’t be used during these activities, as well.
I’m afraid I did that already. I believe that’s how I managed to go from constant buffering to being able to watch 15-20min « segments » my movies before the buffering starts again every time
Both my shield and desktop computer are connected to a LG C9 via HDMI, and both of them are connected to my router through an Ethernet cable.
also using a Samsung HW-Q70R soundbar connected to the TV via HDMI (ARC)
If I play Batman Vs Superman or Interstellar both the video (4K HEVC Main 10 HDR) and audio (True HD 7.1/5.1) are in direct play. I briefly checked other 4K movie and sometimes the audio is transcoded while the video is always in « direct play »
The Ethernet port on the LG is 100 Mbps. This can sometimes be an issue with high bit-rate media such as 4K HDR, as it can burst above 100 Mbps. If that happens you would experience buffering,
If you’ve a strong 5 GHz 802.11ac WiFi signal at the TV, you might try connecting via WiFi instead. The WiFi radio in the TV is faster than the Ethernet connection.
If possible, consider connecting the Shield to the HDMI input on the Q70. According to the Q70 manual (PDF), pg 39, it supports TrueHD and TrueHD + Atmos. Connecting the Shield to the Q70 should ensure TrueHD audio direct plays.
Due to HDMI-ARC limitations it cannot pass TrueHD audio. With the Shield connected to the C9, TrueHD audio will be transcoded by Plex Server or by the Shield before being passed to the TV & soundbar.
Also something to keep in mind, unfortunately nvidia created the tube with less ram (2gb) than the shield pro (3gb).
This means the tube has less ram to help buffer/cache the video as it gets streamed from the server.
While watching the plex dashboard, also keep an eye on the bandwidth graph, if you see a small drop, then large spike in bandwidth during any stuttering or pauses/buffering, then most likely there is nothing wrong, other than the tube itself is not able to handle the high bit rate of the video.
If you see the server is transcoding the video or audio, then you may want to try to identify why it is doing so, and try to alleviate what is causing it.
As FordGuy mentioned, how/where the shield is plugged into can matter, best is to connect shield to the AVR or soundbar directly, instead of the tv.
this huge thread @ [INFO] Plex, 4k, transcoding, and you - aka the rules of 4k may be helpful explain the various issues with 4k streaming, the thread is very long, but worth reading to see all the different points of view and opinions.
I did not mention earlier that I’m running Plex from the Nvidia shield.
I plugged the shield into the soundbar, and the soundbar to the LG C9, I tried a few movies, both sound and video are in « direct play »
Still had some buffering but I need to test more.
How much of a difference would the Nvidia shield pro make?
And if I still have the buffering despite the « direct play » and have a pretty good router, what’s my next best option? I tried hardware acceleration but it didn’t help
If you are still within your return/refund window on the tube, I would recommend returning or exchanging it for the pro.
If you have had the tube for a while and unable to exchange/return it, then it comes down to how badly you want to stream those movies.
I have both a tube 2019, and an older shield pro 2017.
Generally I use the tube for all non-4k bluray content (the ai-upscale looks decent IMO), and I use the older 2017 pro for 4k rips.
Both nvidia and plex are actively aware of the performance issues with the tube, but whether or not things will ever be optimized enough to handle difficult files with only 2 gig of ram, is unknown.
I personally put the blame on nvidia for reducing the ram in the tube (all the shields except tube have 3 gig ram).
What kind of router you’re using? To get the best performance while streaming at home, you will need a strong router AC. And making sure your movies are streaming at Original File.
