Best Emby streaming client

[Tsch3ns 14]

I have Emby Server installed on a Synology 918+, and the client Software on an Amazon Fire Stick 2nd Generation (quite old, non-4K) as well as on an 4K 1st Generation. My movie files play all fine, but I have some home/holiday vides with quite high resolutions and fps - up to 4K/60 fps and about 30-70 Mbit/s (H264 Level 5.2 or H265 level 5.1). These files do not play well at the 2nd generation Stick, while they play fine (sometimes minor lags) on the 4K stick. 
Therefore, it’s time to exchange the old fire stick. My question is: Which device would offer the best performance for these files with level 5.1 and 5.2?

The upcoming Fire Cube 3rd generation looks promising, but according to the following page, the 4K Max stick seems to offer better support for H264 files with level 5.2:

https://developer.amazon.com/de/docs/fire-tv/device-specifications-comparison-table.html

The upcoming Apple TV 2022 (released on Nov 4) might be an option, but it is not yet on the market and nobody could test and report his experience so far.

The Nvidia Shield Pro is a bit older (2019), but obviously still offers very good performance.

After many hours of reading various online sources, I am still not able to decide which device should be the one with the best performance for home movie streaming with Emby, especially for files with high levels such as 5.1 and 5.2 and high framerates.

A LAN connection and 5G WLAN is be available, so bandwidth is not the problem. However, a more stable and reliable connection would be possible with Gbit LAN. I am not a friend of WLAN for such devices because too many users might cause lags while watching video.

Looking forward to your experiences and opinions,

Jens

 

[Luke 37022]

HI, I think the Shield is still the most popular around here although the upcoming Amazon device does look promising.

[FrostByte 5044]

The lack of support for DV profile 7 on the cube would be a no for me.  Not about to convert all my UHD movies to 8.1

Also, FLAC is limited to 48 kHz and 2 channels? 

HDR10+ and HLG may be a plus over the Shield for some.

Edited October 20, 2022 by FrostByte

[Tsch3ns 14]

I just read that Apple TV has no mkv support. This fact would kick the Apple TV from my list.

Lack of DV profile 7 does not hurt me. I dont even know the difference between the various DV profiles. Most important for me is that my holiday movies made with GoPro Hero 9 and Olympus E-M1 which I cut and export to H.264 or H265 (Full HD or 4k, 30 or 60 fps) with Davinci Resolve run smothly. They have profile 5.1 or 5.2.

[Tsch3ns 14]

I decided for the Nvidia Shield pro and got it yesterday. It absolutely outperforms the 4K Stick. While the 4K Sticks plays my Home Videos H.265 8 Bit (Main) 4K 60 fps up to a Bitrate of 75mbit/s (Level 153 = Level 5.1) and starts to lag as soon as the Bitrate is higher than 75 mbit ( 85 mbit; Level 156=Level 5.2) because they need to be transcoded, Nvidia Shield plays also 100 Mbit without any lag in direct play without transcoding (level 186 = level 6.2). I did not try higher Mbit rates yet.

Fire Stick 4K does not play H265 10bit (main 10) 4K 60fps files with 35 Mbit/s (Level 156=Level 5.2) without lags (need transcoding), while Shield TV pro has no problem at all with these files. Also here I did not test higher bitrates.

None of these files could be played by the old Fire Stick 2nd Generation (non 4K) with was substituted by the Nvidia Shield pro.

It hat an illuminated remote control which works absolutely intuitive! seems I found my new favorite device!

I am even considering now to buy a second one to substitute the 4K Stick on my main TV.

Regards,

Tsch3ns

[jmassaro87 28]

On 10/21/2022 at 12:56 AM, Tsch3ns said:

I just read that Apple TV has no mkv support. This fact would kick the Apple TV from my list.

Lack of DV profile 7 does not hurt me. I dont even know the difference between the various DV profiles. Most important for me is that my holiday movies made with GoPro Hero 9 and Olympus E-M1 which I cut and export to H.264 or H265 (Full HD or 4k, 30 or 60 fps) with Davinci Resolve run smothly. They have profile 5.1 or 5.2.

Just so it is out there, I have Zero issue with playing MKV in Emby on my Apple TV.

[heffeque 38]

On 10/23/2022 at 7:25 AM, Tsch3ns said:

I decided for the Nvidia Shield pro and got it yesterday. It absolutely outperforms the 4K Stick. While the 4K Sticks plays my Home Videos H.265 8 Bit (Main) 4K 60 fps up to a Bitrate of 75mbit/s (Level 153 = Level 5.1) and starts to lag as soon as the Bitrate is higher than 75 mbit ( 85 mbit; Level 156=Level 5.2) because they need to be transcoded, Nvidia Shield plays also 100 Mbit without any lag in direct play without transcoding (level 186 = level 6.2). I did not try higher Mbit rates yet.

Fire Stick 4K does not play H265 10bit (main 10) 4K 60fps files with 35 Mbit/s (Level 156=Level 5.2) without lags (need transcoding), while Shield TV pro has no problem at all with these files. Also here I did not test higher bitrates.

None of these files could be played by the old Fire Stick 2nd Generation (non 4K) with was substituted by the Nvidia Shield pro.

It hat an illuminated remote control which works absolutely intuitive! seems I found my new favorite device!

I am even considering now to buy a second one to substitute the 4K Stick on my main TV.

Regards,

Tsch3ns

Glad you're happy with it!

I'm waiting to see what I actually do: I might wait for the next gen Shield to come out (should hopefully come out in 2023 at last), though... I might end up buying a full blown HTPC once AMD Phoenix Point comes out (also should be 2023).