WWYD, Devils advocates on Client/server/$$ Decisions

If you haven’t already, you should probably stop and go read the whole thread @ Plex, 4k, transcoding, and you for a lot of discussion and folks opinions.

There is a new samsung app that is under development, it might help with the subtitles, but obviously no guarantees there.

Besides subs, the biggest problem for smart tvs’s is the in-ability to handle truehd+atmos (and dts for some brands/models).

Another possible problem is that most (or all) tv’s come with only 100m ethernet, which can cause problems with those high bitrate remuxes.

E-ARC does not seem to the salvation that was once thought, it does not appear to work at all with tv app/software, but it does work with hdmi devices like bd players and nvidia shield.

My 3c;

  • upgrading your desktop is not help you actually play 4k/hdr content, it may help you transcode 4k/hdr, but typically you want to avoid transcoding 4k in the first place.
  • ps5 - the current ps4 app is pretty crappy (at least from my limited readings of ps4 posts), the ps5 is unlikely to have any affect on the usability of the plex app, and more likely than not, it still isn’t going to support truehd/atmos pass through.
  • nvidia shield is still the only mainstream solution for plex/4k and truehd/atmos direct play.

I have an 2017 pro, and a 2019 tube.

Neither are perfect, but I would still highly recommend a shield, and preferably the PRO, not the tube. The tube has less RAM and can get overwhelmed with some high bitrate remuxes, whether this will ever get resolved/optimized enough, is still up in the air.

If you are not interested in those giant remux rips, or truedhd+atmos, then some other options open up like the apple tv 4k and roku 4k ultra models.

I don’t have either one of those, so others will have to comment on them.