Getting the most out of streamed video: Netflix and Plex (with NVIDIA Shield Pro?)


For those of you running audiophile grade surround sound setups, I'm wondering what your approach is to achieving HQ results from either
  • Netflix, which will naturally be compressed, lossy 
  • or Plex, which streams local network media.  Depending on your source can be blu-ray equivalent.
For example, when using a smart TV to stream both of these you have 2 choices for connecting audio to your A/V processor:
  1. HDMI ARC (audio return channel) with limited audio bandwidth support
  2. Optical with even less audio bandwidth support.
The verdict:  Smart TV streaming = bad

The solution: Use an external box to stream the services, which has full HDMI output to A/V processor.  Then A/V processor distributes to rest of your system.

Have any of you found a suitable box to stream Plex/Netflix in this way?  

On the short list is NVIDIA Shield Pro.  Although skeptical due to tiny form factor.  comments?

irave

Showing 1 response by insanezebruh

Hi irave,

I know this thread is over an year old but I wanted to share my HT setup in case you're still having issues. And also in case anyone has advice to throw my way as well. 

Currently I have about 400+ bluray discs (300@1080p & 100@4KUHD) all ripped to my FreeNAS 32TB server (now also called TrueNAS). I used MakeMKV with a 4K Libre friendly external drive to rip ONLY the core movie to a single MKV file. Which I understand is a 1:1 copy of the movie (not the entire disc). My FreeNAS server also acts as a Plex Server which sites in my server rack in my basement. 

My LivRm TV which is my Home Theater TV is where I have a 5.2.4 Klipsch setup with the Shield Pro connected to my Denon X3700H AVR (AVR is also connected to an Emotiva A5 amplifier) which then goes to a LG CX77 OLED. I use the Plex app on the Shield to access the FreeNAS PlexServer over ethernet via the LAN (wireless works too but kinda laggy when streaming 4KUHD MKV files even with Wifi 6).  I am able to get HDR, Dolby Vision, Dolby Atmos TruHD, DTS:X etc... just fine so far. 

In my 3 other bedrooms I have a normal shield stick and 2 Chromecasts w Google TV and they all use the Plex app to access the server as well. None of them have home theater set ups so simple plex watching is good to go there. 

So far I haven't had any video or audio issues with streaming these uncompressed rips to any of my devices. What I'm wondering now is if adding a bluray player like the Sony UBP-X800M2 or the Panasonic DP-UB820 be a welcome upgrade or not worth it? First of all I HATE inserting and removing discs to watch anything from my library, hence the Plex Server.  But if there's a player out there that has a great video processor that also plays MKV/M2TS files over LAN with no loss in video/audio quality, Dolby Vision/HDR and TruHD/DTS:X, then I definitely would want to know if it is worth considering compared to the video quality coming out of the Shield Pro with Plex. 

Side note - I'm aware that the OPPO 203 can check all these boxes but at the cost of $1,500 is the upgrade in quality worth that? 

Thanks for listening and If you have any questions with my setup please feel free to ask away :) 

Zebruh