2019 Tube Nvidia Shield 4k issues

[deej1978 5]

2019 Nvidia Shield, not Pro. Emby struggles with 4k media over a certain bitrate, trying to play a 21 Mbps TV episode here and Emby just locks up, cant use menu, even Android background apps start crashing, google play services etc.. it can take a really long time for the shield to shit itself before it comes back to life, all this whilst VLC plays it fine. Playing same file in Emby on a Sony TV and even on a  Samsung Phone doesn't have any issues, the TV and the phone are naturally less powerful than the Shield. I've tried changing settings in Emby, Resume Rewind to None, Skip back and foward to lowest, Player Buffer Size small, enabled refresh and framerate etc... Any idea what could be causing this? My 2017 Shield is not having the same issues, It's not my home network, everything is Cat6, I've done various speed tests so that can be ruled out, it's only this shield that is having issues. Feels like the Shield Client for the 2019 tube shield needs an update to me. 

[vdatanet 1549]

Sorry to give you bad news, Nvidia Shield Tube is not suitable for playing high bitrate HEVC content. Take a look and you will see several posts talking about the issue.

[rbjtech 4289]

You can 'try' and reduce the buffer size to small - but @vdatanet is correct in that this is a well know and publicised issue (on Pl*x as well) - for UHD Remux Rips, you cannot use the Shield Tube until either Android or Nvidia fix their poor hardware/memory management.

[deej1978 5]

1 hour ago, rbjtech said:

You can 'try' and reduce the buffer size to small - but @vdatanet is correct in that this is a well know and publicised issue (on Pl*x as well) - for UHD Remux Rips, you cannot use the Shield Tube until either Android or Nvidia fix their poor hardware/memory management.

Rather silly that my Sony TV that struggles with Pacman 265 is able for a 4K remux better than a Shield isn't it?

[ebr 14935]

Hi. If you sideload this app on the device, does it fare any better?

 

[neik 837]

6 hours ago, vdatanet said:

Sorry to give you bad news, Nvidia Shield Tube is not suitable for playing high bitrate HEVC content. Take a look and you will see several posts talking about the issue.

The Pro isn't affected by this issue, right?

>50 Mbit isn't a problem for the Pro?

[rbjtech 4289]

11 minutes ago, neik said:

The Pro isn't affected by this issue, right?

>50 Mbit isn't a problem for the Pro?

Correct - I've tested up to the Max HEVC UHD Spec which is 144Mbit/sec - no issues.

[deej1978 5]

This has to be something to do with Emby though because there is no issue playing the highest bitrate files in VLC?

[neik 837]

Thanks, @rbjtech
Is the bitrate known at which the tube begins to struggle?

Just now, deej1978 said:

This has to be something to do with Emby though because there is no issue playing the highest bitrate files in VLC?

Have you tried what ebr suggested?

[vdatanet 1549]

Just now, deej1978 said:

This has to be something to do with Emby though because there is no issue playing the highest bitrate files in VLC?

II believe this is an interaction between the Exoplayer and the Nvidia Shield Tube firmware. All applications that use Exoplayer have the same problem. Who is the culprit Google or Nvidia Shield? The culprit is not clear, but what is clear is that the victim is the user.

[FrostByte 5052]

You could try using VLC as an external player with ATV.  Take Exoplayer out of the picture.

[deej1978 5]

1 hour ago, FrostByte said:

You could try using VLC as an external player with ATV.  Take Exoplayer out of the picture.

I've tried setting external player but the client just tells me there is no compatible player, not sure how to get it working.

[deej1978 5]

1 hour ago, neik said:

Thanks, @rbjtech
Is the bitrate known at which the tube begins to struggle?

Have you tried what ebr suggested?

Tried everything. Bitrates north if 18Mbps are problematic. I have a 4k Projector so setting myself to something lower like 12Mbps is noticeable. I don't mind though but I would prefer the higher quality stuff. 

[FrostByte 5052]

17 minutes ago, deej1978 said:

I've tried setting external player but the client just tells me there is no compatible player, not sure how to get it working.

Odd, if VLC is loaded on your Shield then it should detect it.  I think the first time it asked me if I wanted to give VLC access to my libraries, but after that it just worked.  Works with MX player and a few others also

[FrostByte 5052]

If you try sideloading the standard Android app and have issues that one can use external players also.  I think they are both using the same version of Exoplayer from last February.

[deej1978 5]

3 hours ago, ebr said:

Hi. If you sideload this app on the device, does it fare any better?

 

Thanks I'll give this a go tonight.

[Luke 37119]

Let us know how you get on.Thanks.

[deej1978 5]

5 hours ago, ebr said:

Hi. If you sideload this app on the device, does it fare any better?

 

Thanks for the link to the APK, it's definately better with this sideloaded version, although the UI and navigation is causing Shield to struggle a bit. These high bitrate files are definately playing on it better though. I am going to look into getting this VLC working via the client and I'll see how that goes. 

Edit: Yes the UI is partially unusable unfortunately. Even though the file doesn't stutter the menu/ui is taking several mins to display and we're back to the errors. Looks like getting VLC working maybe the only option. Like I said in a previous post, enabling external player on the Emby client doesn't seem to go anywhere. 

Edit: Yes, I managed to get External player (VLC) working on this sideloaded version of Emby, I like how I can now actually view the server settings now. Thanks guys. The unresponsive UI has now naturally gone away because its not fighting anymore.

 

Edited January 3, 2022 by deej1978
Additional Information

[FrostByte 5052]

I still think you will be much happier if you can exchange your Shield tube for the Pro.  The tube is only 32bit vs 64bit of the Pro and has less memory.  Everyone who has switched say it definitely was better/faster with the Pro.

[deej1978 5]

I have the older Shield Pro, is that OK with this issue? I do like the AI upscaling though which the older one doesn't have. Maybe I have just have to go 4k all the way if the old Shield can handle them?

[FrostByte 5052]

The older Pro versions don't seem to have a problem with 4K remuxes that I'm aware of.  Newer pro will have things like DV and better upscaling.  

[justinrh 175]

So it is not completely accurate to say the tube has a problem with 4k files.  It is certain software on the tube, namely ExoPlayer.

[FrostByte 5052]

13 minutes ago, justinrh said:

So it is not completely accurate to say the tube has a problem with 4k files.  It is certain software on the tube, namely ExoPlayer.

Possibly. It's a very well-known fact that the tube has problems with very high bitrate 4K files using Plex and Emby.  If you search this forum, Plex and nVidia you will find numerous threads on the subject.  Lower bitrate 4K isn't a problem.  It may be Exoplayer related as both Plex and Emby use Exoplayer as you said.  I don't know if anyone can say 100% if it's Exoplayer, but it may be.  Kodi, VLC, and others don't seem to have an issue though which is why I suggested using an external player as a test to see if it helped.

Edited January 3, 2022 by FrostByte

[rbjtech 4289]

I may try and get one and test in the return window   -

To my surprise, I have played high bitrate 4K Remux's on the FireTV Max without issues - this too uses Android 9/Exoplayer, it is 32bit and only has 2Gb RAM - it works fine..

edit - ouch - @£130 they are crazy expensive still - you can get the FireTV Max for £35 on Amazon (full price is £55) - unless you NEED the Shield for it's other features, it's a no brainer to get the FireTV Max..  Added bonus, it also supports AV1 h/w decode - not even the Shield incl Pro can do that ..

Edited January 4, 2022 by rbjtech

[FrostByte 5052]

Seen mentioned it may be a memory leak that affects Exoplayer apps when running on the Tube.