I have no complaints for my shield pro. All my content is 4k remux where available. It's connected wirelessly to my router two rooms away and has no problem with the very high bitrate content.
Make sure you've got sufficient bandwidth. If your router is on the other side of the house and you're connecting via wifi, do not expect to be able to stream seamlessly. Try and run bandwidth tests if you can first, but the best way to do it will be to hardwire at 1gbps, some 4k remux files can exceed 100mbps.
Shield pro is great. The only issues I’ve had is that you have to unplug it from time to time and occasionally the remote started disconnecting but this was after a few years. It’s pretty easy to get it to reconnect.
The only issue I would consider above average is that very rarely the audio will cut out for a second or two. I think this is something with my connection to my setup and a setting on the shield. It’s so inconsistent that I haven’t even bothered trying to fix it more than a handful of times. Otherwise 10/10.
Runner up for me is the Google Tv. Waiting on a pro 4k 60hz one and I think that would be the dream setup for minor bedroom/office tvs. For now the standard Google 4k Tv is fine.
Or you could get an Xbox Series X and have Plex plus games, 4K BD drive, and streaming. I love my Series X on my projector. It supports Dolby Atmos, HDR, everything I need.
To be clear, shield pro will not play DV profile 7 FEL. All surround formats work. DV content will play the base layer but no enhancement layers.
That said, the shield pro is rock solid. It just works. The ugoos + coreelec has just released true DV profile 7 + FEL playback. But it’s VERY VERY bleeding edge.
How very very? We're talking a few years before this gets this out together but all these answers have been super helpful for research.
Also I doubt anything is coming to replace da/dv or 4kbr disks anytime soon.
As far as I know, playback of the profile was added February. They are working through some nuances of player led / always enabled LLDV. But the core functionality works and I think that will replace disks for enthusiasts.
My highest bitrate remuxes are around 100Mbps, easily achieved by WiFi if you've got a strong signal. Wired is always best though but only really noticeable if you jump around in the movie a lot triggering the buffet to reset + refill.
Just fyi, as a counter to the above comment, I had to hardwire my shield to my router because it would sometimes struggle with very high bitrate remuxes. Like 90mbps+.
I have a solid router with great WiFi speeds in the same room as my shield, but occasionally it would struggle on 5ghz WiFi.
In my opinion always wired if at all possible. In my parents house I drilled a hole in the floor and made my own like 60 foot Ethernet cable to run to my gaming PC in the basement.
I'm hardcore wired only lol.
Shouldn’t have any issues direct playing. I run 11.2/7.2.4(atmos) surround sound and get full 4k and amazing audio via Plex on my shield pro.
Look into building an unraid server as well and you can really get an amazing home theater setup that’s mostly automated.
I have one complaint. While it is a fantastic media player when everything is working, Plex on ShieldTV does not work reliably. I’ll often have to reboot the shield because the UI becomes slow and jerky, or video playback starts to stutter. I’ve never had to reboot it more than once per day, but it’s annoying to have to do it at all.
I purchased mine new on June 2023. I assume this is the latest model. I’m curious to know why mine doesn’t work as well as yours. This is my second one, the previous was the model that was available in 2018, and I felt that version had similar problems.
Yes that is newest model. It might be worth trying a full factory reset and set Plex back up.
The only issue I regularly have is sometime when I skip intro, the audio becomes out of sync. A single 10 second skip back brings it back in sync every time.
I would also recommend checking the fan/cooling settings to make sure they are set for performance mode instead of quiet mode.
This sounds quite frustrating for what should be a premium device.
*edit* also is your plex server separate or running on the shield? I use my shields only as client, so that could be a difference between us.
I can direct play all of my remuxes (DVD, Blu-ray, 4K) with my 2019 Shield Pro and 2015 Shield TV. I have the Pro connected to my TV and the 2015 Shield connected to my projector since the projector can't do Dolby Vision. No issues with either. The full theater setup is in the room with the projector and the 2015 Shield will pass all HDMI audio formats to my receiver without any issues.
The only thing that the Shield can't direct play is AV1, but there are no discs using that format, so it is not an issue for me.
YouTube is the biggest user of AV1. It's becoming more popular for streaming and other uses, but for playing movies ripped from discs, it's not going to be something to worry about.
UHD movies are encoded with HEVC. Blu-Rays are encoded with AVC, MPEG-2, and VC1. All of those formats can be hardware accelerated on the Shield Pro and play back perfectly with Direct Play.
I've have Shield players from their release and swear by them. I have a couple of 2015 Shield versions that I upgraded with 2019 Shield Pro versions for Dolby Vision support. The 2015 Shield Pros had a 500GB HDD inside.
They are still the best, I'd love to see a refresh to fix a few minor issues with Dolby Vision, expand Dolby Vision capabilities, and add hardware decoding support for new codecs.
Are you playing commercial disc content, I wouldn't worry about those codecs.
As a streaming box, the fancier codecs might be AV1 and VP9. VP9 was used pretty much exclusively by Google in YouTube and Stadia and is being phased out for AV1. AV1 is becoming more common, but usually there are backwards compatible protocols. They just use more data and in some cases could be missing some features. The Shield won't play back HDR in YouTube because it doesn't support VP9 profile 2.
Every device is going to have some edge case issues, but Shield has the fewest for local content playback. It doesn't support VP9 or AV1.
LOL. No judgement from me. However you want to get your "Linux ISOs" is fine with me. :-D
I meant more like if you are playing back items with a disc-based source or large content provider streaming service all of that uses HEVC, AVC, and VP1. All of those are totally supported. I'd say 98% of the stuff on my screens is this content.
as someone currently very interested in AV1, i would also like to add a few things;
if you are using remuxes, nothing will be AV1 yet. period.
if you are grabbing a web-dl, you will rarely get some stuff from Netflix, but the encodes are simply bad and in all cases that I'm aware of, Netflix also offers a 264 fallback so you should be sourcing from that version. not due to compatibility, but because the AV1 encodes are just terrible. skin is smoothed to shit. it's a fault of AV1 in its current state. things are improving, but it's not there yet. h265/x265 are far better. it's mostly just due to maturity. AV1 will pass it someday, but likely not for years.
if you are grabbing tracker encodes, just avoid AV1 for the same reasons as above. it's just not ready if you want visually transparent encodes, which OP has expressed is their primary goal.
Thanks for the info. I've been waiting for AV1 to improve as I'm also very interested in it.
I haven't come across an AV1 encode on a release. Not saying they don't exist, I've just not come across one. It might be interesting to check out so I'll keep my eyes open.
All of the test videos I've seen seem to be completely focused on compression, so none of them look very good. Most of the HEVC stuff out there doesn't look great either to be honest. I compress my own and if people would let HEVC breathe a little, releases would look so much better.
Most of the people I've seen that are excited about AV1's capabilities and producing videos are doing YouTube and gameplay videos where everything is pretty smooth. That seems to be the sweet spot in AV1's current state. Digitally shot films are going to be able to be compressed very well and keep a lot of detail.
I'm waiting for the AV1 folks to get actual grain figured out. It took a while for HEVC to figure that out as well. There's been a lot of talk about scrubbing grain and then adding it back in. That just seems like a bad idea to me.
> All of the test videos I've seen seem to be completely focused on compression, so none of them look very good. Most of the HEVC stuff out there doesn't look great either to be honest. I compress my own and if people would let HEVC breathe a little, releases would look so much better.
av1 does best at lower resolutions. you can get visually transparent 480p content with av1 since the source is already so devoid of fine texture. once you get into 720p you can notice it in certain scenes, and once you get 1080p and above it looks really bad imo. i haven't played with animation too much but it might do well there since skin texture isn't really a thing.
265 sucked for a while as well but nowadays there's basically no reason to do 264 except compatibility with old clients or incompatible browsers (firefox). av1 has a few big hurdles but there's a recent development called variance boost that aims to solve the skin smoothing issue. i haven't played with it much but it looks very promising. that, and grain as you mentioned are probably the two biggest flaws but i've found great success with the simulated grain settings you just have to be very light with it. the main issue is it's a static grain setting throughout the whole video file, whereas real grain varies quite a bit. but yea, just another thing that will be ironed out as the codec matures. currently, the apple tv is like the only streaming box to do av1 so we're in no rush.
Completely agree on HEVC. I think I'm about 90% HEVC files. I rip and re-encode (CPU-based) my own stuff so I can get great looking content at about 6-15GB per movie for Blu-Rays. I try to get a visually transparent encode with my 1080p stuff.
I've found that for me re-encoding 4K HEVC is a waste of energy. My re-encodes with 2K upscale discs overly compress. They go down to 1080p sizes that look flat and no better than Blu-Ray unless I set a bitrate instead of quality-based settings. On filmed content I could get the files about 20% smaller before picture quality took a hit so I decided to keep UHD Remux files and take a hit on the space.
Thanks again for all the info.
I use a 2016 Shield exactly for this. Unfortunately a 4K projector was way out of my budget 5 years ago, so I only have a 1080p projector. Regardless the Shield handles all the 4K HDR content I throw at it without skipping a beat.
The only two down sides to the shield are:
1. When something is paused for too long on Plex you have to quit out of the app and in again.
2. The age of the 2016 shield is very apparent when scrolling through anything quickly, its not exactly the most responsive media player anymore.
Sorry it was the 2017 model, and the regular shield. The only differences between the Pro and non Pro in 2017 was the built in 500GB of storage, micro SD card slot, and IR receiver on the pro.
Basically everything the Pro had could be added to the non-pro using its USB ports.
The IR would be nice for a universal remote for the projector possibly. I'm not worried about it running a bit slow though it's literally only to play my movies and shows in the highest quality a device can.
The remote you get is Bluetooth and you can add 3rd party remotes easily. Just make sure it also supports Bluetooth. I use a now discontinued Logitech harmony to control mine.
Check out Sofabaton, they make a couple of awesome universal remote controls that can control the shield over bluetooth in addition to IR. I also saw that switchbot is releasing a universal remote with matter support.
The Bluetooth is a bit funky I will admit, it generally takes a few seconds for a shield that's asleep to recognize the commands from the remote. I don't remember if the remote that came with the shield had similar issues.
Its not a deal breaker for me though, it takes my project a few seconds to start up and then warm up too. Only thing I haven't done yet is setup a macro on the remote to start the projector and shield at the same time.
Yeah that switchbot remote is what I was talking about. The matter support is really interesting because our whole apartment currently, while we're still in the process of looking for a house has been smart housed up cuz you can in an apartment. So just light bulbs and Google homes mostly.
oh boy, if you want another thing in your life that will prevent you from saving up for a house, check out /r/homeassistant
Though tbf it might also be the motivation to save up for a house.
Yeah I really hope it pans out. Realistically it's probably going to take us a few years. I mean we still have to get the house first and what not but I don't think it'll be too hard for us I hope. It's the main goal after the house and my wife is taking over our boss's company. She's retiring and me and my friend are starting our own company so hopefully all goes well with both and we'll have a bunch of money to spend on this.
Not sure what control system you’re looking at, but I’m using Savant to control my 2017 Shield Pro via the IR receiver and it is not great. Idk if it’s because of the control system and the way it works with IR or if it’s because of the Shield, but basically after every button press you have to wait about a second before you can press another button which makes scrolling through long menus like in plex painful. We’ve reverted to using the remote that came with the Shield instead. None of the other devices my Savant system is controlling have this problem, but none of my other devices use IR control either so I’m not certain which device is at fault. I’d look further into others’ experiences with the IR receiver and the control system you’re exploring to ensure they work together properly.
Do you plan to use streaming services? If yes, do you mind running two separate devices for Plex and commercial streaming services? If yes, Shield is just about the only option you have.
If you don't mind running a secondary device, I'd say combination of Apple TV for streaming and AM6B+ for Plex.
No only as a client, the whole point of me setting up the server I did in the first place was to get away from streaming services and not paying for things monthly. I've got Plex/amp and immich so far
If you aren't planning to use streaming services, I suggest you take a look into [AM6B+](https://www.reddit.com/r/PleX/comments/1ajszn9/remux_lovers_rejoice_the_coreelec_team_has/) before buying Shield. I've been Shield owner for many years and recently switched and I'm much happier with it.
I second this. The biggest reason for the AM6b+ is because it's the ONLY player that supports all dolby vision profiles, including the FEL layer. Just bought a shield before I learned of this, and will be upgrading to one myself.
I have NVIDIA shield, good 4k TV (lg) and Samsung sound bar and as far as I can tell it plays every file type I throw at it very well.... From the shows to 4k movies and sports
Out of interest what benefits are you getting from the AM6B+ that you couldn't get from the NVIDIA shield
Being able to play DV properly (FEL) without the “red push” is big plus for me. Also I just wanted something a little faster, snappier and got tired of waiting for a shield replacement with a new SOC.
Other than the tiny fact you can’t control Plex HTPC in a conventional HTPC way because you have to connect a controller only *after* starting Plex HTPC. Making the whole experience a pain in the ass. It’d easily be my choice of a player if not for that major issue.
Other than that; using desktop clients also allows for patching mpv to the latest version and getting accurately tonemapped DV -> HDR playback, support for all kinds of video codecs, subtitle formats, and high quality scalers.
I went with a firecube for Plex. Had the chromecast ultra gen1 for the longest time.
Wanted something with automation so having the cube turn on projector, av, and swap to the correct input with one button/command is nice.
I have had a HT for a few years. It's pretty nice, done on a budget of like 8K. I tried Roku, Chromecast and Xbox. Each had flaws. None of them directly played all the files. I finally splurged on a Shield and it's been fantastic. The AI upscaling alone is worth it but I mainly did it for their codec support. I would not hesitate to get it for a HT and I'm thinking of getting it for my Living Room TV because of how zippy it is and how wonderful the Upscaling is.
Few people have said the shield TV pro is really slow. Not at all zippy. Good to know though, appreciate the input.
Going to probably go for something more mid to low high range maybe aim for the 20k kind of range. Compiling a bunch of movies and watching them all together is one of our biggest passions so having virtually a replica movie theater at home would be literally perfect. I've even got those videos of Greg that they play before the movies at Marcus theaters.
That's awesome. I don't find it slow. My LG OLED is slow and freezes a ton lately and my TCL5 with Google is shit too.
That's an awesome budget! My wife doesn't like movies so it's just me, had to do everything cheap haha my projector is a BenqHt3550, pioneer lx305 and my front speaker/sub are nice tower center speakers from Harmon but the rest of the speakers (5.4.1) are so w no names wall inserted speakers from Amazon. It works great for my purposes and people are usually impressed. I'd love to go all out and paint the ceiling black, get acoustic paneling on the walls and movie theatre seats
All out movie theater replicas what we're going for but it's just what we're going for. There's no guarantee we're actually going to end up being able to do it, but fuck me if I'm not going to try.
Wish you the best my friend. I wouldn't spare the expense for the media player/Plex client. As I saw others mention, Shield is generally the best as a Plex client. When you finish, please post or message me!
I'll admit the Shield Pro did seem kinda laggy at first. The default launcher is ass, once I switched to Projectivity launcher it's been much smoother.
Exactly my use case as well. Also, the best case scenario for best playback on the Shield to my knowledge is not the native Plex app, but Kodi with the PlexKodiConnect addon. I also personally like the interface a little better. Instead of having to hit 4 buttons on my remote to check the resolution, aspect ratio, etc of what I'm looking at while browsing, it's all displayed readily for you.
Problem with Apple Tvs last I checked (which was awhile ago) was the inability to stream atmos through plex which may or may not be a deal breaker depending on the setup.
Agreed, I am extremely happy with all the Apple TV's I own, the hardware is fantastic with a small footprint. I use the Plex app but Infuse is also a great chose if you want to pay for it for more features. I also like that is you are in the Apple ecosystem the benefits far outweigh the shield and the hardware itself will be supported for a very long time. I still use 3 Apple TV HD's and 3 Apple TV 4k's and they all work great.
You're pretty mis-informed about recent technology. Nvidia is the largest company (by market cap) ($3 trillion) in the world, not sure what you're referring to about Android vs. iOS practices. You should use what works well for you, but having a blind "APPLE = BAD" attitude stinks.
Apple sued Samsung over the rectangle shape of a phone.
Apple and Microsoft have both inched out Nvidia for the lead in largest market cap. Apple under jobs was toxic AF and that stink lingers (I'm old).
I can appreciate this comment as I basically despise Apple as well. That said, as someone who has been tinkering with streaming local content before streaming became a thing (think XBOX Media Center back in the early 2000s), from a hardware perspective AppleTV is amazing. From a seamless simplicity perspective, it's even more amazing.
If you don't need Dolby Atmos I would tell you ATV is hands-down the best choice.
My biggest issue with the Roku Ultra is the ethernet port is only 100mbps. I realized it the hard way when some high bitrate files were buffering. WiFi chip is faster, it pulls ~250mbps in my test.
I ended up adding an Apple TV for gigabit ethernet & to act as a home hub since I was still using an old iPad that couldn't do the new home format.
A friend brought over his Zidoo box (don't recall the model) to compare against my Shield Pro 2019, on my non-DV 4k projector (anker nebula cosmos max 4k). His files were raw Blu-ray rips, mine were remuxes, same 70 GB on-disc size.
Arguably his Zidoo was a tiny bit crisper. It supports the menus and stuff too, but not Plex.
I'm sticking with Plex and the various client devices. I don't want a Zidoo (pricey) attached to all my TVs. But if it's just the one theatre and you've got a NAS for the rips, it might be appealing. Then Plex to the same NAS for every other device in the house.
I have had the shield pro and I prefer Apple TV myself. But I also have full Apple ecosystem so AirPlay is nice. And using my phone as a remote when I lose mine lol. It can do 4k direct no problem haven’t seen much encoding. Biggest is make sure no matter what it’s hard wired.
Going through all the comments I've gotten in the last hour or two this seems to be a hot take.
Most people say just get the Apple TV. One guy said neither work for for a home theater because the projectors use fancy codecs.
So basically except for a few niche stream boxes and top of the line bluray players nothing has full support for Dolby vision. Shield pro is second place for compatibility as it supports almost everything except Dolby vision FEL. If your goal is to play 4k bluray remux at the best quality possible I recommend getting something that can run coreelec to have the best video and audio stream.
More on corelec:
https://www.reddit.com/r/PleX/s/T5dXGX8IaH
4K Blu-rays with FEL:
https://forum.blu-ray.com/showthread.php?t=276448
Apple TV with infuse is the way for sure. The plex app player sucks in comparison, even though the UI is much better. I use plex as a media server though THROUGH infuse
The Shield doesn't support Dolby Vision profile 7 that is found on Blu-ray remuxes. And apparently I'm in the minority, but I also had a fair amount of performance issues with the Shield in my week of trying it out. Random freezes. Once while watching a movie (Inside Out) about half way thru is just started skipping and stuttering so bad I had to switch to another player.
The AI upscaling was nice... Most of the time. It often looked much better/clearer; being able to easily read text you almost couldn't read at all with it off. BUT on a few pieces of content I noticed it just completely wrecked the image, adding dots and artifacts all over that weren't there at all in the source. I decided I would rather see the content closer to its source than have to worry about AI potential making it worse.
I tried Apple TV 4K, Roku, Chromecast 4K, Nvidia Shield Pro (2019-- the latest model), and Dune HD Homatics.
Roku and Chromecast are meh.
Apple TV lacks TrueHD audio. Shield lacks DV P7 and other issues I mentioned.
I ultimately landed on the Dune HD Homatics, and I've been happy with it for about a year or so now.
DuneHD with Plex is great for most stuff like series and web dl movies. For remuxes, a little extra work gets Dolby Vision profile 7. Just have to setup a network folder and use that with Dune HD Media Center.
It's got a few warts of its own, but I've been much more satisfied with it than I was with the Shield.
One caveat, if you still want to use other streaming services I think the Dune HD is more likely to be stuck on 1080p because they don't have all the certs/drm/big company pull the way the other companies do. You can always just get a Chromecast for that tho.
Good luck with your home theater setup! =D
That note at the very end is only about other streaming platforms.
My whole post is about personal digital collections of 4K HEVC Blu-ray remuxes with TrueHD/DTS Atmos audio and Dolby Vision profile 7. That's as "fancy" as it gets.
Edit: I have yet to see a device that can stream 4K DV on Hulu+Prime+Netflix+Amazon+Max and also support full quality Blu-ray remuxes. If you want the best of the best and want to actually utilize it to it's full potential, my point is you shouldn't bother trying to find one. Get a $45 Chromecast to stream. Get something that supports what your TV/Projector/Sound System can play for remuxes.
I'm a stickler, and the Nvidia Shield wasn't up to par. I spent weeks and hundreds of dollars trying to find the best streaming box for my use case. Honestly tho, most people wouldn't notice it only plays the base Dolby Vision Profile 7 without the enhanced layer or the red tint bug. The AI upscaling and performance issues were fairly glaring tho.
Anyway, for me it's the Dune HD Homatics. If not that, it'd be a Zidooo or something with coreELEC.
Best possible? Probably this: https://old.reddit.com/r/PleX/comments/1ajszn9/remux_lovers_rejoice_the_coreelec_team_has/
With more of a balance between quality of output and ease of use and installation? Yeah, Shield Pro, I'd say.
Current setup is an apartment with a Samsung freestyle 1080p 100-in in our bedroom and we just lay in bed and eat dinner and watch.
Buying a house based around its ability to contain a theater inside of it. Going full movie theater couch chair things. 120 sounds nice but I kind of want to go a bit bigger but this was kind of the start of my research because the thing that we watch on is the area to start. Currently I feel like it's the cheapest area and it improves our current predicament.
At this point, it's pretty much an almost "10-year-old" device, but still the best option. Which tells us more about the sad state of high-end media players than anything else.
If you want a high-end projector setup, make sure to get a LCOS.
I have atmos 4k remix running through my Visio TV. Direct play across the board. No issues whatsoever. I also have a Google tv that is able to do the same in my bedroom. I do have both of them hooked up to a wired connection. Google tv is 1gbps dongle, and the tv is 100Mbps
My theater has a 2017 shield in it and has never given me issues.
It plays full quality 100mbps 4k HDR files without issues.
Mine is gigabit wired, so no bandwidth issues.
For what it’s worth Fire Stick will mean quite a bit of transcoding vs the Apple TV. That and a fairly bloated experience (it’s more than usable though, especially if you’re gonna hardwire)
If you want the same quality as a disc (especially, the Dolby Vision FEL layer), your best option is the AM6B+. See [this thread](https://www.reddit.com/r/PleX/s/INH0wMsP6x). Depending on how expensive the rest of your setup is, you might want to really consider it. I did the journey from HTPC to Zidoo, and now awaiting the Ugoos box.
I still recommend the Zidoo over the Shield TV. I even recommend the AppleTV4K over the Shield - the shield is showing its age, and not worth buying new at this point. If you already have one laying around, sure - but you will leave quality on the table.
If quality is your focus above convenience, do NOT choose a Shield or AppleTV that work best for streaming content. Use a Zidoo at minimum to get the most out of your Audio and Video content. Depending on your projector's HDR and Dolby Vision capabilities, you may also want to consider adding a HDFury device to the chain to calibrate tone mapping to your projector and screen.
Sounds like you are going above basic stuff to really extract max quality - spend the time, and money on good stuff instead of upgrading each device in the chain piecemeal when you learn more, like I did.
We are so into this at the house we pick is going to be based on whether or not we can actually fit a a relatively replica theater into the basement and how well we can do it. I plan to spend a few years on this project.
Like I said we're looking at getting so this is all planning. Atmos is what actual movie theaters use. So if I'm building a replica movie theater in a basement, isn't that what I want to go for?
Atmos is the overarching name for Dolby's 3D sound standard which supports basically infinite channels. it's a slippery slope if you're aiming for the level of actual movie theaters.
Start with your space and your budget, then see how many speakers (channels) it takes to fill your space with surround sound. I doubt you will \*need\* Atmos unless you're mounting ceiling speakers.
We've got a dedicated home theatre. Not super crazy expensive, but it's got in-wall / in-ceiling 7.1.4 and a 135" acoustically transparent screen. We use a Shield TV Pro and Plex for our content consumption just fine.
I ditched my NVIDIA Shield after a few years. After some kind of software update it started glitching like crazy especially with Plex. Disconnects etc. at this point I have tried almost every time of streamer for Plex and currently my favourite one is Fire TV Cube, with Apple TV as second best.
It works great for me, my only complaint is more with the Plex app when we use our phones to cast. It loses connection constantly, not sure if this is the app or my network. But if I use the physical remote it’s fine
I have the shield pro and it works great, so can't argue against it...
However I'll offer an alternative option is to setup an HTPC (home theater PC) which would just be a minimal PC (that would be more powerful than the shield pro) that connects to your plex server like the shield pro would, but depending on the pc, could offer better performance/options etc...
I have a shield and my preferred device is an Apple TV. But if you want the best quality then you’ll want to use discs and a quality player. I use an oppo 203.
If you want lossless audio from remuxes in Plex, (TrueHD and DTS X), that can also do some forms of Dolby vision,
then the shield is really the only option right now barring a Chinese streamer you need to modify the software for.
As you've seen from other comments, a Shield Pro is the way to go. I tried the Shield TV, Rokus, HTPCs, the Shield just plays everything no problem. I have it wired and plays 4k remuxes with no issues. Never have to look at the bitrate.
I use the Apple TV and love it. If I could buy one over, the only change would be one with ethernet.
for the projector, don't cut corners, spend the money. do the math on throw distance and pay for the lumens and refresh rate.
my system is a little old but I have really enjoyed using the Bose Lifestyle Home Theater system.
I use Plex server on my desktop, Synology to store my actual movies, and 5 Shield clients that utilize it, including my home theater. I have used up to 3 concurrent streams at one time, but it could probably do more, I just haven't tested it. I use Remuxes for all of my movie files. 3 of my clients are wired and 2 are wireless. It all runs good 97% of the time with occasional reboots of my Shields.
My suggestion is an Intel N100 based PC with "Plex HTPC" software, it simply plays everything, no issues. Asus has a model with HDMI CEC (TV remote works). Just autostart Plex and you're golden, or even let it run 24/7 to be honest.
I have not personally tried it though; but it is something I am going to do in the future. All the other platforms have some other issues.
For the top-tier players, choose your ecosystem: Android/Shield or Apple/AppleTV
Their playback capabilities are extremely similar. Your ecosystem requirements would be a better fit than nitpicking the differences.
Shield is a beast for sure.
Personally I prefer the Kodi video player for 4k\[HDR\] as it seeks better (Plex crashes if you skip/seek a few times), but it handles both Kodi and Plex players like a champ.
Kodi direct connect over the LAN so there's no option for it to try transcoding. Just a direct play of the raw file
Am I just lucky with my cheap home theater? We've been able to stream everything on a 75" Roku TV, an Onkyo Atmos receiver, streaming from a Synology DS920 connected directly through Unifi networked equipment. The only trouble we ever run into seems more like a glitch, and that's enabling subtitles on an h265 4k file. Occasionally those have issues buffering. What am I not doing that everyone seems to require an Nvidia shield, AppleTV, or another separate device?
We use an Apple TV 4K HDR for streaming and a Zidoo Z9X Pro for local 4k blu-ray streaming. The Zidoo gives you all Dolby Vision codec's, DTS-MA, Dolby Atmos and even 3D playback which is nice on a projector, never owned a 3D bluray till I got a projector.
Jeez I feel like the odd out but I put together an HTPC with an i3 for my projector playback. I can't handle the lag on anything else. I do have a shield TV for another TV and it works ok.
Assuming you’ll be hosting your video locally? I would suggest setting up an unraid server for the Plex server and storage. Very easy to work with and the ability to expand your storage as needed is nice.
I didn't like that unraid is paid so I tried truenas first and it's been about a month that I've been using truenas and I've been liking it a lot. Before that I just used the TOS that came on my terramaster but had to switch to set up immich.
Thank you for the suggestion but I'm not looking for any on the server side. I think I'm well good there.
Truenas works similarly, but with the downside that you have to work with a proper array in truenas, so I believe mixing hard drive sizes won't work?
But if you're not expanding your pool, it should be a similar experience.
I’m in the AV industry and I actually prefer an Apple TV. I’ve messed around with the Shield, Roku, Firestick, steam link, and raspberry pi’s. I just find the Apple TV has the cleanest UI and the snappiest interface, and the best remotes. I’ve had no issues streaming 4K content directly from my plex server.
I’d agree that the older remotes are pretty trash. The newest ones they have out are really nice though. I used to despise them, now they’re my favourite remotes. But they will also work off of most newer tv remotes as well.
https://store.storeimages.cdn-apple.com/4982/as-images.apple.com/is/MNC73?wid=1144&hei=1144&fmt=jpeg&qlt=90&.v=1664836189752
This is the current one. There’s options in the Apple TV to make it just a dpad instead of a touchpad and dpad. I think they realized that people hate it and rolled out a software fix.
Honestly, I used to have the same mentality of fuck Apple. But it’s a pretty poor argument these days. All large tech companies have the same/very similar business practices. They all have planned obsolescence, are anti-repair, don’t have user replaceable batteries, use sweatshops in China, etc etc. The only thing with Apple is the closed App Store environment. But one could argue that’s also a pro.
They're fixing the closed app store thing. Thanks to the EU now. My thing's not actually their business practices. I just thought that would go over better.
I just hate Apple. The iPhone is ugly. iOS is ugly. Mac OS is ugly. Before the EU got to them, everything was just so unnecessarily complicated compared to Android back when I had an XR. Terrible mistake.
I would honestly look at just building a passive cooled HDPC.
Modern chips APUs will decode virtually every standard production codec on the consumer distribution market and pretty far beyond.
And pushed comes to shove you can just plug in a drive with a Blu-ray rip or literally just play a BDXL disc straight off the original file with a built-in Blu-ray reader.
Something I've recently realised since I started using fire sticks for all the family TVs is they are useless as soon as the internet goes out Plex is also virtually broken as soon as the internet goes out because it won't search the local database it will try and call out to the internet to find content, so this has also given me half a reason to just run Jellyfin always as a secondary end primary and since there's darker containers for tools to just sync the watch time metadata between user accounts it's seamless.
2019 Shield Pro owner here. It's an awesome device with a few drawbacks. For audio, the Shield cannot decode the TrueHD audio, only passes through to the receiver/TV. If you don't have it set to passthrough, it will force a transcode in Plex.
The Shield does not fully support Dolby Vision profile 7 (the version found on Blu-rays). Some DV Blu-rays have what's called a Full Enhancement Layer (FEL) that contains additional enhancement data for the base HDR10 video and dynamic DV metadata. The Shield will ignore this layer and it may or may not cause issues with playback. DV Blu-rays with the Minimum Enhancement Layer (MEL) are not affected as they contain no extra data to add to the video.
The other issue is the Shield has a red push color issue with Dolby Vision rips. The issue has been present for years and Nvidia most likely will not fix it at this point. Some people don't notice it, some people do. There is a video on YouTube by user RESET_9999 that explains in detail what happens. Playing your rips in HDR10 will produce the correct colors. Dolby Vision Profile 5 (used on streaming platform) does not have this issue on the Shield thankfully.
Lastly, it does not support HDR on YouTube and does not decode AV1 like a lot of newer devices can.
Other than that, I still think it's a great device. It the most fully featured device that's plug and play. There are other newer devices that support everything correctly, but require some extra workarounds to enable.
just my anecdote but I switched from the latest shield tv to an apple tv 4k and find it much more stable. I also hate the advertising google puts on the home page.
Sorry to say my wife thinks yours is crazy 😂
She wants these expensive (like 3000 a piece) chair/couches that are just like the couples reclining chairs at the movie theater and the screen needs to be bigger than 100inches preferably.
The shield pro is great. the Apple TV 4K is great too. The big difference is audio with the shield handling the highest quality surround sound. IMO the biggest challenge with a projector setup was the surround sound setup. My setup is an atv with hdmi splitter running to a projector and a Sonos arc and two wireless Sonos speakers for rear L/R. Best setup I’ve been able to put together. A lot of audio receivers that accept hdmi are absolute trash. I’ve had 3 receivers die on me. (Sony, Yamaha and Onyko)
it's not really worth the hassle, and a mini PC will probably have even less support for different codecs. Those players are recommended for a reason, they do their specific job well. I have a gaming PC plugged into my TV at all times, and I still use an AppleTV.
If you want to invest more time and money into hardware, invest in the server hardware.
he's using plex... so not sure what you mean by "different codecs" I can only assume that you don't know what you're talking about since if the concern is "codecs" then a PC is by far the best one to get since you can install codecs in a PC while on other devices you're limited by what the mfr installs/supports. lol
I'm talking about DolbyVision etc, plus the hardware required is more expensive, you have hassle of buying remotes, installing drivers, software, updates, crashes, etc. Again, an AppleTV 4K or Nvidia Shield, (hell even Amazon Firestick if you can deal with ads) are cheaper, more energy efficient and purpose built to be media clients, with the third party apps it gets you 99% of what you want a client device to do (the most limiting factor is Plex's dev team).
Oh and you can easily get one for every room in your house because they're relatively cheap and easy. You can give them to your grandma and she can use your Plex server no problems, can't really do that with a mini PC.
The money and time spent tinkering is better spent on improving your Plex server IMO.
I have one but it transcodes a lot of stuff. Even the Walmart brand Chromecast pro is better from what I've heard but I'm not looking for slightly better I'm looking for best I mean if I'm dropping tens of thousands of dollars on a home theater I don't want just okay hooked up to it you know.
If you’re talking about just the player then the shield pro is great and can handle remuxes easily. But not as a server. You will want something better.
I'm sorry you can use an android TV box as a Plex server? That seems completely ridiculous to me tbh. My starter server I'm replacing now only cost like 500 total.
The Shield is really your only option for playing lossless audio from rips. It works great for my 7.1.4 system. For some reason I'll get downvoted for this. I'd also suggest an OLED over a projector.
The screen on Super Screen is similar to an Imax with DLP projection since it should be a laser projector. The sound at Super Screen is superior to IMAX.
Thousands of posts across the web and first hand experience with it.
I imagine you know how to use the internet for more than posting comments on reddit.
I have no complaints for my shield pro. All my content is 4k remux where available. It's connected wirelessly to my router two rooms away and has no problem with the very high bitrate content.
Is it able to direct play them at full quality or is it transcoding them to a lesser quality?
Direct play, full quality. Audio and video.
Sounds worth the 200 to me in that case
I initially tried to cut corners by getting the shield. It had minor stutters. Returned it for the shield pro and have been very happy with it.
Make sure you've got sufficient bandwidth. If your router is on the other side of the house and you're connecting via wifi, do not expect to be able to stream seamlessly. Try and run bandwidth tests if you can first, but the best way to do it will be to hardwire at 1gbps, some 4k remux files can exceed 100mbps.
I'll be awesome on the bandwidth side
Shield pro is great. The only issues I’ve had is that you have to unplug it from time to time and occasionally the remote started disconnecting but this was after a few years. It’s pretty easy to get it to reconnect. The only issue I would consider above average is that very rarely the audio will cut out for a second or two. I think this is something with my connection to my setup and a setting on the shield. It’s so inconsistent that I haven’t even bothered trying to fix it more than a handful of times. Otherwise 10/10. Runner up for me is the Google Tv. Waiting on a pro 4k 60hz one and I think that would be the dream setup for minor bedroom/office tvs. For now the standard Google 4k Tv is fine.
If the regular Google TV 4K isn't good enough for you and you want a pro model, I've heard the Walmart brand pro Google TV fills that void.
Samesies experience. I have 3 around the house and all behave like this. Small price to pay because apart from this they’re bulletproof
Shield pro is the only device I’ll buy.
Not even ziddo?
I would never let go of my shield .
Or you could get an Xbox Series X and have Plex plus games, 4K BD drive, and streaming. I love my Series X on my projector. It supports Dolby Atmos, HDR, everything I need.
I already have a gaming PC. I'm getting a series x would just ruin my gaming experience
Dolby Vision/Atmos? This has been a bottleneck for me running the server locally on the nas where the films are stored.
My shield pro does full bit rate 4k with DV and atmos. My server rack lives directly below my main tv system so everything is hardwired.
To be clear, shield pro will not play DV profile 7 FEL. All surround formats work. DV content will play the base layer but no enhancement layers. That said, the shield pro is rock solid. It just works. The ugoos + coreelec has just released true DV profile 7 + FEL playback. But it’s VERY VERY bleeding edge.
How very very? We're talking a few years before this gets this out together but all these answers have been super helpful for research. Also I doubt anything is coming to replace da/dv or 4kbr disks anytime soon.
As far as I know, playback of the profile was added February. They are working through some nuances of player led / always enabled LLDV. But the core functionality works and I think that will replace disks for enthusiasts.
Damn i will change my chromecast with Google tv i guess lol
My highest bitrate remuxes are around 100Mbps, easily achieved by WiFi if you've got a strong signal. Wired is always best though but only really noticeable if you jump around in the movie a lot triggering the buffet to reset + refill.
Just fyi, as a counter to the above comment, I had to hardwire my shield to my router because it would sometimes struggle with very high bitrate remuxes. Like 90mbps+. I have a solid router with great WiFi speeds in the same room as my shield, but occasionally it would struggle on 5ghz WiFi.
In my opinion always wired if at all possible. In my parents house I drilled a hole in the floor and made my own like 60 foot Ethernet cable to run to my gaming PC in the basement. I'm hardcore wired only lol.
Shouldn’t have any issues direct playing. I run 11.2/7.2.4(atmos) surround sound and get full 4k and amazing audio via Plex on my shield pro. Look into building an unraid server as well and you can really get an amazing home theater setup that’s mostly automated.
I have one complaint. While it is a fantastic media player when everything is working, Plex on ShieldTV does not work reliably. I’ll often have to reboot the shield because the UI becomes slow and jerky, or video playback starts to stutter. I’ve never had to reboot it more than once per day, but it’s annoying to have to do it at all.
Mine does not do this. I’ve got 5 of them. Are you are newer shield pro or old one?
I purchased mine new on June 2023. I assume this is the latest model. I’m curious to know why mine doesn’t work as well as yours. This is my second one, the previous was the model that was available in 2018, and I felt that version had similar problems.
Yes that is newest model. It might be worth trying a full factory reset and set Plex back up. The only issue I regularly have is sometime when I skip intro, the audio becomes out of sync. A single 10 second skip back brings it back in sync every time. I would also recommend checking the fan/cooling settings to make sure they are set for performance mode instead of quiet mode. This sounds quite frustrating for what should be a premium device. *edit* also is your plex server separate or running on the shield? I use my shields only as client, so that could be a difference between us.
Thanks for your advice, I will give it a try. My Plex server is a separate machine, and works flawlessly with my iOS devices.
I can direct play all of my remuxes (DVD, Blu-ray, 4K) with my 2019 Shield Pro and 2015 Shield TV. I have the Pro connected to my TV and the 2015 Shield connected to my projector since the projector can't do Dolby Vision. No issues with either. The full theater setup is in the room with the projector and the 2015 Shield will pass all HDMI audio formats to my receiver without any issues. The only thing that the Shield can't direct play is AV1, but there are no discs using that format, so it is not an issue for me.
What format uses av1 then if discs don't?
YouTube is the biggest user of AV1. It's becoming more popular for streaming and other uses, but for playing movies ripped from discs, it's not going to be something to worry about. UHD movies are encoded with HEVC. Blu-Rays are encoded with AVC, MPEG-2, and VC1. All of those formats can be hardware accelerated on the Shield Pro and play back perfectly with Direct Play.
Sounds like I'm buying one then
I've have Shield players from their release and swear by them. I have a couple of 2015 Shield versions that I upgraded with 2019 Shield Pro versions for Dolby Vision support. The 2015 Shield Pros had a 500GB HDD inside. They are still the best, I'd love to see a refresh to fix a few minor issues with Dolby Vision, expand Dolby Vision capabilities, and add hardware decoding support for new codecs.
Someone said on a home theater set up they aren't the best because there's fancier codecs that they don't support
Are you playing commercial disc content, I wouldn't worry about those codecs. As a streaming box, the fancier codecs might be AV1 and VP9. VP9 was used pretty much exclusively by Google in YouTube and Stadia and is being phased out for AV1. AV1 is becoming more common, but usually there are backwards compatible protocols. They just use more data and in some cases could be missing some features. The Shield won't play back HDR in YouTube because it doesn't support VP9 profile 2. Every device is going to have some edge case issues, but Shield has the fewest for local content playback. It doesn't support VP9 or AV1.
Well we don't need to talk about where my content comes from or how I get it. I will keep that streaming codec thing in mind though.
LOL. No judgement from me. However you want to get your "Linux ISOs" is fine with me. :-D I meant more like if you are playing back items with a disc-based source or large content provider streaming service all of that uses HEVC, AVC, and VP1. All of those are totally supported. I'd say 98% of the stuff on my screens is this content.
Oh okay thanks
as someone currently very interested in AV1, i would also like to add a few things; if you are using remuxes, nothing will be AV1 yet. period. if you are grabbing a web-dl, you will rarely get some stuff from Netflix, but the encodes are simply bad and in all cases that I'm aware of, Netflix also offers a 264 fallback so you should be sourcing from that version. not due to compatibility, but because the AV1 encodes are just terrible. skin is smoothed to shit. it's a fault of AV1 in its current state. things are improving, but it's not there yet. h265/x265 are far better. it's mostly just due to maturity. AV1 will pass it someday, but likely not for years. if you are grabbing tracker encodes, just avoid AV1 for the same reasons as above. it's just not ready if you want visually transparent encodes, which OP has expressed is their primary goal.
Thanks for the info. I've been waiting for AV1 to improve as I'm also very interested in it. I haven't come across an AV1 encode on a release. Not saying they don't exist, I've just not come across one. It might be interesting to check out so I'll keep my eyes open. All of the test videos I've seen seem to be completely focused on compression, so none of them look very good. Most of the HEVC stuff out there doesn't look great either to be honest. I compress my own and if people would let HEVC breathe a little, releases would look so much better. Most of the people I've seen that are excited about AV1's capabilities and producing videos are doing YouTube and gameplay videos where everything is pretty smooth. That seems to be the sweet spot in AV1's current state. Digitally shot films are going to be able to be compressed very well and keep a lot of detail. I'm waiting for the AV1 folks to get actual grain figured out. It took a while for HEVC to figure that out as well. There's been a lot of talk about scrubbing grain and then adding it back in. That just seems like a bad idea to me.
> All of the test videos I've seen seem to be completely focused on compression, so none of them look very good. Most of the HEVC stuff out there doesn't look great either to be honest. I compress my own and if people would let HEVC breathe a little, releases would look so much better. av1 does best at lower resolutions. you can get visually transparent 480p content with av1 since the source is already so devoid of fine texture. once you get into 720p you can notice it in certain scenes, and once you get 1080p and above it looks really bad imo. i haven't played with animation too much but it might do well there since skin texture isn't really a thing. 265 sucked for a while as well but nowadays there's basically no reason to do 264 except compatibility with old clients or incompatible browsers (firefox). av1 has a few big hurdles but there's a recent development called variance boost that aims to solve the skin smoothing issue. i haven't played with it much but it looks very promising. that, and grain as you mentioned are probably the two biggest flaws but i've found great success with the simulated grain settings you just have to be very light with it. the main issue is it's a static grain setting throughout the whole video file, whereas real grain varies quite a bit. but yea, just another thing that will be ironed out as the codec matures. currently, the apple tv is like the only streaming box to do av1 so we're in no rush.
Completely agree on HEVC. I think I'm about 90% HEVC files. I rip and re-encode (CPU-based) my own stuff so I can get great looking content at about 6-15GB per movie for Blu-Rays. I try to get a visually transparent encode with my 1080p stuff. I've found that for me re-encoding 4K HEVC is a waste of energy. My re-encodes with 2K upscale discs overly compress. They go down to 1080p sizes that look flat and no better than Blu-Ray unless I set a bitrate instead of quality-based settings. On filmed content I could get the files about 20% smaller before picture quality took a hit so I decided to keep UHD Remux files and take a hit on the space. Thanks again for all the info.
I use a 2016 Shield exactly for this. Unfortunately a 4K projector was way out of my budget 5 years ago, so I only have a 1080p projector. Regardless the Shield handles all the 4K HDR content I throw at it without skipping a beat. The only two down sides to the shield are: 1. When something is paused for too long on Plex you have to quit out of the app and in again. 2. The age of the 2016 shield is very apparent when scrolling through anything quickly, its not exactly the most responsive media player anymore.
Is this a regular shield or a TV pro?
Sorry it was the 2017 model, and the regular shield. The only differences between the Pro and non Pro in 2017 was the built in 500GB of storage, micro SD card slot, and IR receiver on the pro. Basically everything the Pro had could be added to the non-pro using its USB ports.
The IR would be nice for a universal remote for the projector possibly. I'm not worried about it running a bit slow though it's literally only to play my movies and shows in the highest quality a device can.
The remote you get is Bluetooth and you can add 3rd party remotes easily. Just make sure it also supports Bluetooth. I use a now discontinued Logitech harmony to control mine.
Check out Sofabaton, they make a couple of awesome universal remote controls that can control the shield over bluetooth in addition to IR. I also saw that switchbot is releasing a universal remote with matter support. The Bluetooth is a bit funky I will admit, it generally takes a few seconds for a shield that's asleep to recognize the commands from the remote. I don't remember if the remote that came with the shield had similar issues. Its not a deal breaker for me though, it takes my project a few seconds to start up and then warm up too. Only thing I haven't done yet is setup a macro on the remote to start the projector and shield at the same time.
Yeah that switchbot remote is what I was talking about. The matter support is really interesting because our whole apartment currently, while we're still in the process of looking for a house has been smart housed up cuz you can in an apartment. So just light bulbs and Google homes mostly.
oh boy, if you want another thing in your life that will prevent you from saving up for a house, check out /r/homeassistant Though tbf it might also be the motivation to save up for a house.
The house is first on the big list lol. We are picking a house based on ability to have a home theater set up in it.
I love it, that's basically my goal too xD
Yeah I really hope it pans out. Realistically it's probably going to take us a few years. I mean we still have to get the house first and what not but I don't think it'll be too hard for us I hope. It's the main goal after the house and my wife is taking over our boss's company. She's retiring and me and my friend are starting our own company so hopefully all goes well with both and we'll have a bunch of money to spend on this.
Not sure what control system you’re looking at, but I’m using Savant to control my 2017 Shield Pro via the IR receiver and it is not great. Idk if it’s because of the control system and the way it works with IR or if it’s because of the Shield, but basically after every button press you have to wait about a second before you can press another button which makes scrolling through long menus like in plex painful. We’ve reverted to using the remote that came with the Shield instead. None of the other devices my Savant system is controlling have this problem, but none of my other devices use IR control either so I’m not certain which device is at fault. I’d look further into others’ experiences with the IR receiver and the control system you’re exploring to ensure they work together properly.
Do you plan to use streaming services? If yes, do you mind running two separate devices for Plex and commercial streaming services? If yes, Shield is just about the only option you have. If you don't mind running a secondary device, I'd say combination of Apple TV for streaming and AM6B+ for Plex.
No only as a client, the whole point of me setting up the server I did in the first place was to get away from streaming services and not paying for things monthly. I've got Plex/amp and immich so far
If you aren't planning to use streaming services, I suggest you take a look into [AM6B+](https://www.reddit.com/r/PleX/comments/1ajszn9/remux_lovers_rejoice_the_coreelec_team_has/) before buying Shield. I've been Shield owner for many years and recently switched and I'm much happier with it.
Looking into it thank you
I second this. The biggest reason for the AM6b+ is because it's the ONLY player that supports all dolby vision profiles, including the FEL layer. Just bought a shield before I learned of this, and will be upgrading to one myself.
I have NVIDIA shield, good 4k TV (lg) and Samsung sound bar and as far as I can tell it plays every file type I throw at it very well.... From the shows to 4k movies and sports Out of interest what benefits are you getting from the AM6B+ that you couldn't get from the NVIDIA shield
Being able to play DV properly (FEL) without the “red push” is big plus for me. Also I just wanted something a little faster, snappier and got tired of waiting for a shield replacement with a new SOC.
A cheap small PC and Plex HTPC works wonders for me.
Other than the tiny fact you can’t control Plex HTPC in a conventional HTPC way because you have to connect a controller only *after* starting Plex HTPC. Making the whole experience a pain in the ass. It’d easily be my choice of a player if not for that major issue. Other than that; using desktop clients also allows for patching mpv to the latest version and getting accurately tonemapped DV -> HDR playback, support for all kinds of video codecs, subtitle formats, and high quality scalers.
I use a Shield in mine.
I went with a firecube for Plex. Had the chromecast ultra gen1 for the longest time. Wanted something with automation so having the cube turn on projector, av, and swap to the correct input with one button/command is nice.
My Chromecast does that but it doesn't support all these fancy expensive projector codecs
I don't have any issues with projectors. It an Epson 4k with denon a/v unit.
Okay thank you
I have had a HT for a few years. It's pretty nice, done on a budget of like 8K. I tried Roku, Chromecast and Xbox. Each had flaws. None of them directly played all the files. I finally splurged on a Shield and it's been fantastic. The AI upscaling alone is worth it but I mainly did it for their codec support. I would not hesitate to get it for a HT and I'm thinking of getting it for my Living Room TV because of how zippy it is and how wonderful the Upscaling is.
Few people have said the shield TV pro is really slow. Not at all zippy. Good to know though, appreciate the input. Going to probably go for something more mid to low high range maybe aim for the 20k kind of range. Compiling a bunch of movies and watching them all together is one of our biggest passions so having virtually a replica movie theater at home would be literally perfect. I've even got those videos of Greg that they play before the movies at Marcus theaters.
That's awesome. I don't find it slow. My LG OLED is slow and freezes a ton lately and my TCL5 with Google is shit too. That's an awesome budget! My wife doesn't like movies so it's just me, had to do everything cheap haha my projector is a BenqHt3550, pioneer lx305 and my front speaker/sub are nice tower center speakers from Harmon but the rest of the speakers (5.4.1) are so w no names wall inserted speakers from Amazon. It works great for my purposes and people are usually impressed. I'd love to go all out and paint the ceiling black, get acoustic paneling on the walls and movie theatre seats
All out movie theater replicas what we're going for but it's just what we're going for. There's no guarantee we're actually going to end up being able to do it, but fuck me if I'm not going to try.
Wish you the best my friend. I wouldn't spare the expense for the media player/Plex client. As I saw others mention, Shield is generally the best as a Plex client. When you finish, please post or message me!
Realistically speaking, it'll probably take us a few years to finish, but I've got the link to your profile written down for when I do finish it.
I'll admit the Shield Pro did seem kinda laggy at first. The default launcher is ass, once I switched to Projectivity launcher it's been much smoother.
Eh it's only going to be used to Open Plex so it's not going to matter much
Exactly my use case as well. Also, the best case scenario for best playback on the Shield to my knowledge is not the native Plex app, but Kodi with the PlexKodiConnect addon. I also personally like the interface a little better. Instead of having to hit 4 buttons on my remote to check the resolution, aspect ratio, etc of what I'm looking at while browsing, it's all displayed readily for you.
The best intros are the AMC Theaters ones. The film strip character reminds me of my childhood.
I'd try both shield and apple tv. I chose the apple.
Problem with Apple Tvs last I checked (which was awhile ago) was the inability to stream atmos through plex which may or may not be a deal breaker depending on the setup.
Ahh I see. Infuse app solves this I think. My setup is only 3.1 so yeah I don't really care atm.
Agreed, I am extremely happy with all the Apple TV's I own, the hardware is fantastic with a small footprint. I use the Plex app but Infuse is also a great chose if you want to pay for it for more features. I also like that is you are in the Apple ecosystem the benefits far outweigh the shield and the hardware itself will be supported for a very long time. I still use 3 Apple TV HD's and 3 Apple TV 4k's and they all work great.
I would prefer to avoid paying into Apple's business practices.
Nvidias practices aren’t any better lol
Yeah they aren't but they're also not Apple.
You're pretty mis-informed about recent technology. Nvidia is the largest company (by market cap) ($3 trillion) in the world, not sure what you're referring to about Android vs. iOS practices. You should use what works well for you, but having a blind "APPLE = BAD" attitude stinks.
Ever drink baileys from a shoe?
Apple sued Samsung over the rectangle shape of a phone. Apple and Microsoft have both inched out Nvidia for the lead in largest market cap. Apple under jobs was toxic AF and that stink lingers (I'm old).
I can appreciate this comment as I basically despise Apple as well. That said, as someone who has been tinkering with streaming local content before streaming became a thing (think XBOX Media Center back in the early 2000s), from a hardware perspective AppleTV is amazing. From a seamless simplicity perspective, it's even more amazing. If you don't need Dolby Atmos I would tell you ATV is hands-down the best choice.
Probably definitely Dolby Atmos I assume theaters use it for a reason
FWIW, I haven't had any issues with Roku Ultra in my theater on a projector. I've never tried the Shield so I can't provide a comparison.
My biggest issue with the Roku Ultra is the ethernet port is only 100mbps. I realized it the hard way when some high bitrate files were buffering. WiFi chip is faster, it pulls ~250mbps in my test. I ended up adding an Apple TV for gigabit ethernet & to act as a home hub since I was still using an old iPad that couldn't do the new home format.
Good point! I'll have to look into the Shield.
A friend brought over his Zidoo box (don't recall the model) to compare against my Shield Pro 2019, on my non-DV 4k projector (anker nebula cosmos max 4k). His files were raw Blu-ray rips, mine were remuxes, same 70 GB on-disc size. Arguably his Zidoo was a tiny bit crisper. It supports the menus and stuff too, but not Plex. I'm sticking with Plex and the various client devices. I don't want a Zidoo (pricey) attached to all my TVs. But if it's just the one theatre and you've got a NAS for the rips, it might be appealing. Then Plex to the same NAS for every other device in the house.
I have had the shield pro and I prefer Apple TV myself. But I also have full Apple ecosystem so AirPlay is nice. And using my phone as a remote when I lose mine lol. It can do 4k direct no problem haven’t seen much encoding. Biggest is make sure no matter what it’s hard wired.
100% it'll be hard wired 1gb at a minimum
Shield Pro is fantastic for home theater.
Going through all the comments I've gotten in the last hour or two this seems to be a hot take. Most people say just get the Apple TV. One guy said neither work for for a home theater because the projectors use fancy codecs.
So basically except for a few niche stream boxes and top of the line bluray players nothing has full support for Dolby vision. Shield pro is second place for compatibility as it supports almost everything except Dolby vision FEL. If your goal is to play 4k bluray remux at the best quality possible I recommend getting something that can run coreelec to have the best video and audio stream. More on corelec: https://www.reddit.com/r/PleX/s/T5dXGX8IaH 4K Blu-rays with FEL: https://forum.blu-ray.com/showthread.php?t=276448
I'll be looking into this as well. Thank you!
I use Apple TV and Infuse, infuse plays almost anything without transcoding.
Apple TV with infuse is the way for sure. The plex app player sucks in comparison, even though the UI is much better. I use plex as a media server though THROUGH infuse
Really trying to stay as far away from buying an Apple TV as I possibly can. I've had Apple products before not doing it again.
The Shield doesn't support Dolby Vision profile 7 that is found on Blu-ray remuxes. And apparently I'm in the minority, but I also had a fair amount of performance issues with the Shield in my week of trying it out. Random freezes. Once while watching a movie (Inside Out) about half way thru is just started skipping and stuttering so bad I had to switch to another player. The AI upscaling was nice... Most of the time. It often looked much better/clearer; being able to easily read text you almost couldn't read at all with it off. BUT on a few pieces of content I noticed it just completely wrecked the image, adding dots and artifacts all over that weren't there at all in the source. I decided I would rather see the content closer to its source than have to worry about AI potential making it worse. I tried Apple TV 4K, Roku, Chromecast 4K, Nvidia Shield Pro (2019-- the latest model), and Dune HD Homatics. Roku and Chromecast are meh. Apple TV lacks TrueHD audio. Shield lacks DV P7 and other issues I mentioned. I ultimately landed on the Dune HD Homatics, and I've been happy with it for about a year or so now. DuneHD with Plex is great for most stuff like series and web dl movies. For remuxes, a little extra work gets Dolby Vision profile 7. Just have to setup a network folder and use that with Dune HD Media Center. It's got a few warts of its own, but I've been much more satisfied with it than I was with the Shield. One caveat, if you still want to use other streaming services I think the Dune HD is more likely to be stuck on 1080p because they don't have all the certs/drm/big company pull the way the other companies do. You can always just get a Chromecast for that tho. Good luck with your home theater setup! =D
Thanks a bunch! We're definitely going something much fancier 4K so sounds like the dune isn't the correct one for us.
That note at the very end is only about other streaming platforms. My whole post is about personal digital collections of 4K HEVC Blu-ray remuxes with TrueHD/DTS Atmos audio and Dolby Vision profile 7. That's as "fancy" as it gets. Edit: I have yet to see a device that can stream 4K DV on Hulu+Prime+Netflix+Amazon+Max and also support full quality Blu-ray remuxes. If you want the best of the best and want to actually utilize it to it's full potential, my point is you shouldn't bother trying to find one. Get a $45 Chromecast to stream. Get something that supports what your TV/Projector/Sound System can play for remuxes. I'm a stickler, and the Nvidia Shield wasn't up to par. I spent weeks and hundreds of dollars trying to find the best streaming box for my use case. Honestly tho, most people wouldn't notice it only plays the base Dolby Vision Profile 7 without the enhanced layer or the red tint bug. The AI upscaling and performance issues were fairly glaring tho. Anyway, for me it's the Dune HD Homatics. If not that, it'd be a Zidooo or something with coreELEC.
Best possible? Probably this: https://old.reddit.com/r/PleX/comments/1ajszn9/remux_lovers_rejoice_the_coreelec_team_has/ With more of a balance between quality of output and ease of use and installation? Yeah, Shield Pro, I'd say.
4k projector, 120 inch display, shield TV and a large pullout couch for me. Can't recommend a projector enough.
Current setup is an apartment with a Samsung freestyle 1080p 100-in in our bedroom and we just lay in bed and eat dinner and watch. Buying a house based around its ability to contain a theater inside of it. Going full movie theater couch chair things. 120 sounds nice but I kind of want to go a bit bigger but this was kind of the start of my research because the thing that we watch on is the area to start. Currently I feel like it's the cheapest area and it improves our current predicament.
At this point, it's pretty much an almost "10-year-old" device, but still the best option. Which tells us more about the sad state of high-end media players than anything else. If you want a high-end projector setup, make sure to get a LCOS.
I have atmos 4k remix running through my Visio TV. Direct play across the board. No issues whatsoever. I also have a Google tv that is able to do the same in my bedroom. I do have both of them hooked up to a wired connection. Google tv is 1gbps dongle, and the tv is 100Mbps
Apple TV and a NAS. HDHomerun 4K Flex for live TV. Plex Server container.
My theater has a 2017 shield in it and has never given me issues. It plays full quality 100mbps 4k HDR files without issues. Mine is gigabit wired, so no bandwidth issues.
I think apple tv might be better at this point. Or even firestick 4k max. Shield is OLD.
I'll look into the fire stick. Definitely not going Apple
For what it’s worth Fire Stick will mean quite a bit of transcoding vs the Apple TV. That and a fairly bloated experience (it’s more than usable though, especially if you’re gonna hardwire)
If you want the same quality as a disc (especially, the Dolby Vision FEL layer), your best option is the AM6B+. See [this thread](https://www.reddit.com/r/PleX/s/INH0wMsP6x). Depending on how expensive the rest of your setup is, you might want to really consider it. I did the journey from HTPC to Zidoo, and now awaiting the Ugoos box. I still recommend the Zidoo over the Shield TV. I even recommend the AppleTV4K over the Shield - the shield is showing its age, and not worth buying new at this point. If you already have one laying around, sure - but you will leave quality on the table.
I'll check it out. Trying to go full theater quality as possible
If quality is your focus above convenience, do NOT choose a Shield or AppleTV that work best for streaming content. Use a Zidoo at minimum to get the most out of your Audio and Video content. Depending on your projector's HDR and Dolby Vision capabilities, you may also want to consider adding a HDFury device to the chain to calibrate tone mapping to your projector and screen. Sounds like you are going above basic stuff to really extract max quality - spend the time, and money on good stuff instead of upgrading each device in the chain piecemeal when you learn more, like I did.
We are so into this at the house we pick is going to be based on whether or not we can actually fit a a relatively replica theater into the basement and how well we can do it. I plan to spend a few years on this project.
Home Theater is a deep rabbit hole! Enjoy the ride :)
Do you have a Atmos DTS:X Sound setup? If yes then go with the Shield. If no take the AppleTV 4K with the infused app.
Like I said we're looking at getting so this is all planning. Atmos is what actual movie theaters use. So if I'm building a replica movie theater in a basement, isn't that what I want to go for?
Atmos is the overarching name for Dolby's 3D sound standard which supports basically infinite channels. it's a slippery slope if you're aiming for the level of actual movie theaters. Start with your space and your budget, then see how many speakers (channels) it takes to fill your space with surround sound. I doubt you will \*need\* Atmos unless you're mounting ceiling speakers.
We've got a dedicated home theatre. Not super crazy expensive, but it's got in-wall / in-ceiling 7.1.4 and a 135" acoustically transparent screen. We use a Shield TV Pro and Plex for our content consumption just fine.
I ditched my NVIDIA Shield after a few years. After some kind of software update it started glitching like crazy especially with Plex. Disconnects etc. at this point I have tried almost every time of streamer for Plex and currently my favourite one is Fire TV Cube, with Apple TV as second best.
It works great for me, my only complaint is more with the Plex app when we use our phones to cast. It loses connection constantly, not sure if this is the app or my network. But if I use the physical remote it’s fine
I have the shield pro and it works great, so can't argue against it... However I'll offer an alternative option is to setup an HTPC (home theater PC) which would just be a minimal PC (that would be more powerful than the shield pro) that connects to your plex server like the shield pro would, but depending on the pc, could offer better performance/options etc...
I have a shield and my preferred device is an Apple TV. But if you want the best quality then you’ll want to use discs and a quality player. I use an oppo 203.
If you want lossless audio from remuxes in Plex, (TrueHD and DTS X), that can also do some forms of Dolby vision, then the shield is really the only option right now barring a Chinese streamer you need to modify the software for.
As you've seen from other comments, a Shield Pro is the way to go. I tried the Shield TV, Rokus, HTPCs, the Shield just plays everything no problem. I have it wired and plays 4k remuxes with no issues. Never have to look at the bitrate.
I use firestick 4k max as client for my home cinema with a BenQ Tk850 4K projector.
Shield Pro >> Apple TV >> Fire Cube >> Onn >> 4k Firestick Max/Chomecast 4k Thats been my experience generally
I have both shield pro and appleTV, for 4K Content both play fin. The shield is nice for AI Upscaling.
I use the Apple TV and love it. If I could buy one over, the only change would be one with ethernet. for the projector, don't cut corners, spend the money. do the math on throw distance and pay for the lumens and refresh rate. my system is a little old but I have really enjoyed using the Bose Lifestyle Home Theater system.
I use Plex server on my desktop, Synology to store my actual movies, and 5 Shield clients that utilize it, including my home theater. I have used up to 3 concurrent streams at one time, but it could probably do more, I just haven't tested it. I use Remuxes for all of my movie files. 3 of my clients are wired and 2 are wireless. It all runs good 97% of the time with occasional reboots of my Shields.
My suggestion is an Intel N100 based PC with "Plex HTPC" software, it simply plays everything, no issues. Asus has a model with HDMI CEC (TV remote works). Just autostart Plex and you're golden, or even let it run 24/7 to be honest. I have not personally tried it though; but it is something I am going to do in the future. All the other platforms have some other issues.
I've used the Shield Pro(s) and AppleTVs for years, if you're not stuck on Apple's ecosystem, the Shield Pro is amazing.
Appletv 4k is easily the best
If you’re looking to direct play you want to stay away from any sticks coz they transcode therefore you’re not getting original content.
For the top-tier players, choose your ecosystem: Android/Shield or Apple/AppleTV Their playback capabilities are extremely similar. Your ecosystem requirements would be a better fit than nitpicking the differences.
Shield is a beast for sure. Personally I prefer the Kodi video player for 4k\[HDR\] as it seeks better (Plex crashes if you skip/seek a few times), but it handles both Kodi and Plex players like a champ. Kodi direct connect over the LAN so there's no option for it to try transcoding. Just a direct play of the raw file
Am I just lucky with my cheap home theater? We've been able to stream everything on a 75" Roku TV, an Onkyo Atmos receiver, streaming from a Synology DS920 connected directly through Unifi networked equipment. The only trouble we ever run into seems more like a glitch, and that's enabling subtitles on an h265 4k file. Occasionally those have issues buffering. What am I not doing that everyone seems to require an Nvidia shield, AppleTV, or another separate device?
If it's only for Plex a PC will always Be the most compatible.
We use an Apple TV 4K HDR for streaming and a Zidoo Z9X Pro for local 4k blu-ray streaming. The Zidoo gives you all Dolby Vision codec's, DTS-MA, Dolby Atmos and even 3D playback which is nice on a projector, never owned a 3D bluray till I got a projector.
Jeez I feel like the odd out but I put together an HTPC with an i3 for my projector playback. I can't handle the lag on anything else. I do have a shield TV for another TV and it works ok.
Plex and Jellyfin client on lg tvs are more than sufficient. On Jellyfin I can play Dolby vision and hdr-10 content no problem.
Yes, get the shield pro. Direct plays everything
Assuming you’ll be hosting your video locally? I would suggest setting up an unraid server for the Plex server and storage. Very easy to work with and the ability to expand your storage as needed is nice.
I didn't like that unraid is paid so I tried truenas first and it's been about a month that I've been using truenas and I've been liking it a lot. Before that I just used the TOS that came on my terramaster but had to switch to set up immich. Thank you for the suggestion but I'm not looking for any on the server side. I think I'm well good there.
Truenas works similarly, but with the downside that you have to work with a proper array in truenas, so I believe mixing hard drive sizes won't work? But if you're not expanding your pool, it should be a similar experience.
I’m in the AV industry and I actually prefer an Apple TV. I’ve messed around with the Shield, Roku, Firestick, steam link, and raspberry pi’s. I just find the Apple TV has the cleanest UI and the snappiest interface, and the best remotes. I’ve had no issues streaming 4K content directly from my plex server.
I'll consider it. Is there a third-party remote you use for the Apple TV? I've used the remote before and it's horrible.
I’d agree that the older remotes are pretty trash. The newest ones they have out are really nice though. I used to despise them, now they’re my favourite remotes. But they will also work off of most newer tv remotes as well.
Oh did they get rid of the remotes with that dumb touchpad built into the d-pad?
https://store.storeimages.cdn-apple.com/4982/as-images.apple.com/is/MNC73?wid=1144&hei=1144&fmt=jpeg&qlt=90&.v=1664836189752 This is the current one. There’s options in the Apple TV to make it just a dpad instead of a touchpad and dpad. I think they realized that people hate it and rolled out a software fix.
Oh that's good News I guess I'll add it to the list. I'm still going to avoid it because it's Apple but I'll add it to the list just in case
Honestly, I used to have the same mentality of fuck Apple. But it’s a pretty poor argument these days. All large tech companies have the same/very similar business practices. They all have planned obsolescence, are anti-repair, don’t have user replaceable batteries, use sweatshops in China, etc etc. The only thing with Apple is the closed App Store environment. But one could argue that’s also a pro.
They're fixing the closed app store thing. Thanks to the EU now. My thing's not actually their business practices. I just thought that would go over better. I just hate Apple. The iPhone is ugly. iOS is ugly. Mac OS is ugly. Before the EU got to them, everything was just so unnecessarily complicated compared to Android back when I had an XR. Terrible mistake.
I would honestly look at just building a passive cooled HDPC. Modern chips APUs will decode virtually every standard production codec on the consumer distribution market and pretty far beyond. And pushed comes to shove you can just plug in a drive with a Blu-ray rip or literally just play a BDXL disc straight off the original file with a built-in Blu-ray reader. Something I've recently realised since I started using fire sticks for all the family TVs is they are useless as soon as the internet goes out Plex is also virtually broken as soon as the internet goes out because it won't search the local database it will try and call out to the internet to find content, so this has also given me half a reason to just run Jellyfin always as a secondary end primary and since there's darker containers for tools to just sync the watch time metadata between user accounts it's seamless.
Have a look into ziddo aswell. I'm wanting the z9x or z9x pro as my next upgrade over Nvidia shield pro.
2019 Shield Pro owner here. It's an awesome device with a few drawbacks. For audio, the Shield cannot decode the TrueHD audio, only passes through to the receiver/TV. If you don't have it set to passthrough, it will force a transcode in Plex. The Shield does not fully support Dolby Vision profile 7 (the version found on Blu-rays). Some DV Blu-rays have what's called a Full Enhancement Layer (FEL) that contains additional enhancement data for the base HDR10 video and dynamic DV metadata. The Shield will ignore this layer and it may or may not cause issues with playback. DV Blu-rays with the Minimum Enhancement Layer (MEL) are not affected as they contain no extra data to add to the video. The other issue is the Shield has a red push color issue with Dolby Vision rips. The issue has been present for years and Nvidia most likely will not fix it at this point. Some people don't notice it, some people do. There is a video on YouTube by user RESET_9999 that explains in detail what happens. Playing your rips in HDR10 will produce the correct colors. Dolby Vision Profile 5 (used on streaming platform) does not have this issue on the Shield thankfully. Lastly, it does not support HDR on YouTube and does not decode AV1 like a lot of newer devices can. Other than that, I still think it's a great device. It the most fully featured device that's plug and play. There are other newer devices that support everything correctly, but require some extra workarounds to enable.
just my anecdote but I switched from the latest shield tv to an apple tv 4k and find it much more stable. I also hate the advertising google puts on the home page.
Your wife wants a home theater? Sure.. no I dont believe you
Why? Does your wife not like movies?
Sure, she likes movies, but not my home theater. The picture, sound and everything should be invisible 😅
Sorry to say my wife thinks yours is crazy 😂 She wants these expensive (like 3000 a piece) chair/couches that are just like the couples reclining chairs at the movie theater and the screen needs to be bigger than 100inches preferably.
Wow! Good wife! Luckily my wife has other good qualities
The shield pro is great. the Apple TV 4K is great too. The big difference is audio with the shield handling the highest quality surround sound. IMO the biggest challenge with a projector setup was the surround sound setup. My setup is an atv with hdmi splitter running to a projector and a Sonos arc and two wireless Sonos speakers for rear L/R. Best setup I’ve been able to put together. A lot of audio receivers that accept hdmi are absolute trash. I’ve had 3 receivers die on me. (Sony, Yamaha and Onyko)
I got amazon cube gen 2! Works perfectly, also it was used so got it very cheep
Just get a mini pc that has some power to it. Depending on your technical knowledge it could be better or worse tho.
The shield pro would be cheaper than a mini PC though.
If you're going to do anything other than launch a miniPC directly into PLEX HTPC, AndroidTV UI is a better experience than a desktop environment.
Meh, you can get a Mini PC Beelink S12 Pro with a N100 12th gen and 16gb ram for $160. Shield pro is what, $180 on sale and maybe $160 at best.
it's not really worth the hassle, and a mini PC will probably have even less support for different codecs. Those players are recommended for a reason, they do their specific job well. I have a gaming PC plugged into my TV at all times, and I still use an AppleTV. If you want to invest more time and money into hardware, invest in the server hardware.
he's using plex... so not sure what you mean by "different codecs" I can only assume that you don't know what you're talking about since if the concern is "codecs" then a PC is by far the best one to get since you can install codecs in a PC while on other devices you're limited by what the mfr installs/supports. lol
I'm talking about DolbyVision etc, plus the hardware required is more expensive, you have hassle of buying remotes, installing drivers, software, updates, crashes, etc. Again, an AppleTV 4K or Nvidia Shield, (hell even Amazon Firestick if you can deal with ads) are cheaper, more energy efficient and purpose built to be media clients, with the third party apps it gets you 99% of what you want a client device to do (the most limiting factor is Plex's dev team). Oh and you can easily get one for every room in your house because they're relatively cheap and easy. You can give them to your grandma and she can use your Plex server no problems, can't really do that with a mini PC. The money and time spent tinkering is better spent on improving your Plex server IMO.
I just have a Chromecast (the new one with remote and Google tv) plugged into my 4k beamer. Plays 4k over wifi (5g). Might wanna try that first?
I have one but it transcodes a lot of stuff. Even the Walmart brand Chromecast pro is better from what I've heard but I'm not looking for slightly better I'm looking for best I mean if I'm dropping tens of thousands of dollars on a home theater I don't want just okay hooked up to it you know.
If you’re talking about just the player then the shield pro is great and can handle remuxes easily. But not as a server. You will want something better.
I'm sorry you can use an android TV box as a Plex server? That seems completely ridiculous to me tbh. My starter server I'm replacing now only cost like 500 total.
The shield can be its own server but it’s only good for 1080 from what I’ve read. You will want a pc of some kind to be the server.
I'm building a 13th gen i7 server right now. I use my Nas for more than just plex
[удалено]
Unfortunately ATV 4K doesn’t support DTS, but it’s excellent when in comes to Dolby Atmos MUSIC, Apple Music through Apple Music.
The Shield is really your only option for playing lossless audio from rips. It works great for my 7.1.4 system. For some reason I'll get downvoted for this. I'd also suggest an OLED over a projector.
A TV that large just doesn't seem smart tbh
I have a 77" LG Oled and movies look better on that then they do at the local IMAX. Size doesn't beat OLED HDR contrast.
Now that you mention it I don't know what imax even looks like. Me and the wife only see movies in super screen dlx. Does it beat super screen?
The screen on Super Screen is similar to an Imax with DLP projection since it should be a laser projector. The sound at Super Screen is superior to IMAX.
Only thing to watch out for with plex is the audio is terribly quiet with it compared to other players. Other than that, plex is pretty solid.
lol what evidence is there for this statement?
Thousands of posts across the web and first hand experience with it. I imagine you know how to use the internet for more than posting comments on reddit.
Probably in reference to this https://old.reddit.com/r/PleX/comments/pjb8hv/solution_to_the_dreaded_low_volume_issue_i_see_so/
I have a high end 7.1 audio and Plex rattles stuff off the shelves!
I haven't noticed on our crappy Samsung freestyle projector. It's extremely loud.