Nvidia Shield Pro vs Android TV

[ZACHxAxROO 4]

So simply put I have a homebuilt NAS thats very capable of moving 4K over the network. I have 1080p and 4K content. There are two TV's in the house that are Android TV. Sony X800G and an OLED Sony. Currently the OLED has an Nvidia shield pro on it. I originally had it on the other one before I bought the OLED. I bought it because somewhere I read that the internal processors on the tv's aren't powerful enough to handle 4k from a NAS. I understand they are feeding a 4K tv just fine but something along the lines of handling pulling it from the NAS and displaying it was too much.

 

Another reason was the slow NIC on the TV's. But at this point I have 1G on the Nvidia and my home Wifi far exceeds the line rate of the ethernet connection to it.

 

As much as I love it, I only really use the Nvidia shield for the 1G connection and processor. Is it true the tv can't handle it or could I remove the Nvidia shield and successfully direct play it to the OLED via Wifi? Any recommendations or experiences with this? I could use the Nvidia shield on something else that doesn't have Android TV.

[ZACHxAxROO 4]

I would test it but I am not home right now and was just thinking about it.

[Luke 42077]

Hi, often it depends on the bitrates and hevc/h264 profiles and levels of your files. I think it's something where you will just have to try the Emby app on the TV and see how that compares to using it on the Shield.

What I mean is, yes it is built to play 4K video, but it's not necessarily built for the kind of high bitrate material that enthusiasts such as you and I will want to throw at it. The bitrates coming out of Netflix, Disney, etc are going to be much lower and that is what it's built to handle.

So that's why I think you'll just have to try it and see how it handles it. If it can't keep up, then you will need a more enthusiast grade device such as the Shield.

[ZACHxAxROO 4]

I'm an idiot. I just realized that I had playback set to auto but the player was set to 80Mbpsbwhenever I played anything. I moved the playback to 1000 and everything direct plays without issue. And that is on Wifi.

 

So is there any technical stuff that the shield has that I would benefit from over the TV? Aside from being a faster processor. It's not that I dislike the shield but if I can make my entertainment and inputs a little less complicated that would be good.

[ZACHxAxROO 4]

I did just read one major item that makes a difference. It seems all tvs font pass truehd through earc? So I would have to run a shield or some other player to get it to a receiver then.

[Luke 42077]

1 hour ago, ZACHxAxROO said:

I'm an idiot. I just realized that I had playback set to auto but the player was set to 80Mbpsbwhenever I played anything. I moved the playback to 1000 and everything direct plays without issue. And that is on Wifi.

 

So is there any technical stuff that the shield has that I would benefit from over the TV? Aside from being a faster processor. It's not that I dislike the shield but if I can make my entertainment and inputs a little less complicated that would be good.

What I mentioned above is the main thing, also you may want to compare supported audio formats.

[ZACHxAxROO 4]

It seems that it can pass through any audio via earc. It just can't send out lossless through earc from its own apps. At least that's what I have read.

[ebr 16169]

Correct, other than speed, the difference will be the HD audio formats - which the Shield should handle.

[rbjtech 5284]

The Shield actually has a few advantages over the built in AndroidTV versions -

a) HD Audio Support - If you have an audio receiver (AVR) or soundbar capable of HD Audio (ie TrueHD or DTS-HD) then this is the only way to direct play HD Audio.  ARC or EARC will not pass HD Audio as you mention above.

b) Dolby Vision full profile support - The Shield supports DV5, DV7 and DV8 - the majority of TV's do not support DV7.

c) Full GoogleTV/Android TV integration - meaning 'emby shortcut' rows on the main Google TV menu, and full voice integration - ie just 'say' what you are searching for.

d) Direct mounted remote file system..

e) 1000Mbit Ethernet port - Essential for full bitrate 4K remux rips.

On the downsides - no HDR10+ support, not AV1 decoder ...

So yes, the Shield still has a lot going for it .. but today, I'm not sure if I would buy one given it's starting to show it's age vs the latest streamers, but it's still holding it's own after 4 years ... and 'it just works' has a lot going for it vs tinkering getting things working ...

 

Edited September 24, 2023 by rbjtech

[ZACHxAxROO 4]

Are there other streamers that are better now? I have the shield already but just curious.

 

I know it doesn't pass hd audio through earc from the TV itself but doesn't it pass it if you have a device plugged into it such as a bluray player and pass that through down to the receiver via earc?

[rbjtech 5284]

45 minutes ago, ZACHxAxROO said:

Are there other streamers that are better now? I have the shield already but just curious.

 

I know it doesn't pass hd audio through earc from the TV itself but doesn't it pass it if you have a device plugged into it such as a bluray player and pass that through down to the receiver via earc?

if all the hardware devices are EARC enabled in the chain - then yes, HD Audio is passed just fine.   ie

Blu-Ray Player > HDMI > TV > HDMI(using EARC) > AVR

The issue, as said above is if the source  is any TV App - ie

TV > HDMI(using EARC) > AVR 

then only ARC (non HD Audio) will work

Thus to get the Shield Pro working with HD-Audio (as it's only an ARC device) is to eliminate ARC alltogether - ie

Shield Pro > HDMI > AVR > HDMI(using Monitor/HDMI Out) > TV

 

[ZACHxAxROO 4]

Alright, thank you for a clarification. In reality I would normally go through the AVR anyway but in a case where I couldn't I was curious on that.

[blgentry 51]

21 hours ago, rbjtech said:

So yes, the Shield still has a lot going for it .. but today, I'm not sure if I would buy one given it's starting to show it's age vs the latest streamers, but it's still holding it's own after 4 years ... and 'it just works' has a lot going for it vs tinkering getting things working ...

 

What streaming box is better than a Shield?  As far as I know, it's still the best, other than AppleTV.  AppleTV is very fast and capable, but the Emby client for it is very primitive.  It's essentially unusable for me with Emby.  But I use the AppleTV for many streaming services and it's very good at that.

 

I would buy something better if there was something available.  To be clear I am not including any kind of HTPC.  I mean streaming boxes only.

 

Thanks,

Brian.

[blgentry 51]

On 9/23/2023 at 8:31 PM, ZACHxAxROO said:

IIt's not that I dislike the shield but if I can make my entertainment and inputs a little less complicated that would be good.

In my opinion, you are asking for trouble expecting a smart TV app to work as well as the Shield.  ARC, eARC, and CEC are awful broken things that should be avoided if possible.  For that reason alone I would stick with the Shield.

 

If your issue has to do with teaching someone else to switch inputs... or if you want to make switching easier for yourself, you should look into a learning remote control with macros.  My remote powers up everything and switches to my main source with one button.  Switching to another source takes two buttons (main, then the name of the source on screen).  I highly recommend the URC MX-450.

 

If you mean that you are switching between SmartTV apps and the Shield,  you should stop using the SmartTV apps altogether.  Use only apps on external streaming boxes and it all gets better and more simple.

 

All of this is my rather controversial and strong opinion.  If you disagree, that's just fine.

 

Best of luck to you,

Brian.

[rbjtech 5284]

10 minutes ago, blgentry said:

 

What streaming box is better than a Shield?  As far as I know, it's still the best, other than AppleTV.  AppleTV is very fast and capable, but the Emby client for it is very primitive.  It's essentially unusable for me with Emby.  But I use the AppleTV for many streaming services and it's very good at that.

 

I would buy something better if there was something available.  To be clear I am not including any kind of HTPC.  I mean streaming boxes only.

 

Thanks,

Brian.

Emby client aside, even as a native player - I'm pretty sure Apple TV still lacks support for any HD Audio, doesn't support Dolby Vision profiles 7 or 8 and I'm not even sure it supports the MKV container....

[blgentry 51]

I'll have to try playing one of my MKVs with the AppleTV Emby client and see if it transcodes to a different container.
For HD audio I'm not sure, but it supports Atmos, which *should* contain lossless audio streams.  I know that it can optionally have lossy streams inside too.  The information available makes it hard to figure out what the source is and what the ATV is decoding into PCM.  PCM is what I see on the AV Receiver side.

 

Brian.

[rbjtech 5284]

6 minutes ago, blgentry said:

I'll have to try playing one of my MKVs with the AppleTV Emby client and see if it transcodes to a different container.
For HD audio I'm not sure, but it supports Atmos, which *should* contain lossless audio streams.  I know that it can optionally have lossy streams inside too.  The information available makes it hard to figure out what the source is and what the ATV is decoding into PCM.  PCM is what I see on the AV Receiver side.

 

Brian.

I'm just going by what AppleTV says in it's official specifications - Apple TV 4K - Technical Specifications - Apple (UK)

In short - no HD Audio formats are listed - so from that, I believe it only supports lossy audio.  Atmos is not related to whether it's lossy or not.   Dolby Digital Plus can have Atmos, but it's still lossy.  Likewise Dolby THD may or may not have Atmos - but it's lossless.    Same scenerio with DTS - it has lossy, lossless and object based options (DTS-X) - all playable on the Shield.

Conversion to PCM is probably just lossy to PCM rather than passthough, or even if it is HD Audio, its very unlikely to be 8 channel.

[ZACHxAxROO 4]

I was thinking on building an htpc but not sure. I will definitely look into that URC MX450.

[blgentry 51]

1 hour ago, rbjtech said:

In short - no HD Audio formats are listed - so from that, I believe it only supports lossy audio. 

You have taught me something.  While the AppleTV supports FLAC and Apple Lossless (music formats), it does not support any of the lossless surround formats.

 

Some research indicates that InFuse can decode DTS-HD correctly on the ATV.  Apparently it's not a hardware thing, it's a software thing.  Apparently Apple does not think it is necessary (lossless surround support) so their API does not support it.  But you can write your own software that does (like InFuse has done).  

 

This seals the deal for me:  ATV isn't really a player in the "playing back your own collection of high resolution surround movies" arena.  My Shield seems to do that pretty well.

 

Thanks for educating me.  I look forward to eventually purchasing a streaming box that's better than the Shield.  For now I'm relatively satisfied with it.

 

Brian.