Now that Apple TV supports more audio and video formats, I would like to see an Apple TV v. Shield comparison again.

Great comparison thanks for putting this together, Jason! I'm sure it took a decent bit of time to put this all together so its much appreciated from all of us!

Great comparison, love that this has been done. I did my own comparisons - borrowing friends players, etc, and settled on buying three Apple TVs. You mention the Apple TV not supporting headphones, however, the Apple TV does allow the use of AirPods & BT Headphones - which I find very useful when watching content at stupid o'clock...

Great, this is excatly what I was looking for, thank you! Loved your biased/not-biased vibe, I'm a new subscriber now. :)

Any thoughts of updating the comparison with the new Apple TV 4K that’s coming out this month?

As always thanks for this thorough review. Question: Is there any reason to prefer the Apple TV 4K over the Apple TV 4 (HD) if one does not use a 4K screen?

Hey great video, surprised about the cover art load time for the apple tv. Just wondering about something, you know how when the metadata like the cover art is on ssd its faster im wondering what kind of difference if any is there between a cheap NVME SSD and a fast one like samsung 970 plus.

Respect for the Apple TV it’s 4years old and still kicking butt

On the chromecast remote the center select button acts as a play pause by default, and it absolutely has voice commands activated via Google assistant. There's a button for it.

This is a really well done video, and incredibly useful, thanks for making it. Some minor things: Much like you differentiated the ability to play different audio formats, you should have differentiated the ability to play different subtitle formats without transcoding (i.e. SRT, PGS, SSA, VOBSUB). For a future video, some sort of audio format + subtitle format client transcoding matrix would be a really cool guide that people would cite all over the place as a definitive reference. Also, I think you gave the Roku way too much credit on fast-forward/rewind. While time-wise it might be faster, popping up the OSD or switching to that terrible intermittent loading screen and then watching a percent meter count up is incredibly obnoxious compared to the other clients, especially when watching things like sports where you jump back and forward constantly. Imagine watching an NBA or NFL game where you're skipping around and you have to lose the game video feed and look at that dumb loading screen like 50+ times over the course of every hour. It's incredibly obnoxious and the main reason I switched from the Roku to the Shield. Lastly, the big win for Roku is the headphone support, but I'd like to point out that for $20 you can buy a really great attachment for the Amazon Fire TV remotes called the "Amazon Remote Plus attachment" which adds a headphone jack (and volume controls over blueooth!) to your remote. It's a huge benefit for anybody who needs private listening mode. I got it for the 4K stick in my bedroom and it works great, might be worth doing a video on as it pretty much eliminates the one thing Roku does really well. I wish we could get a similar attachment on the Shield remote, or that NVIDIA would just include headphone support default. Oh well. Thanks again for the great content!

Fire cube has an ethernet adapter in the box as well as an IR blaster.

Love this video! Been waiting for it! I just got my Shield TV Pro. Are you planning a full on review/plex setup with it? I have some things I'm trying to accomplish with mine and am running into some difficulties. I am using it as the Plex Server and for playback. I need to be able to use it without internet and play files off a DAS (Qnap TR-004). As soon as I unplug the ethernet Plex fails to load my library even though the DAS has all the files on it and is directly attached via USB. Also I keep getting "Unsupported Content" for the AI upscaling feature. I've tried KZread and Plex. Nothing is upscaling.

Thank you for including the links to the test files. Did you consider weighting the scores for the devices based on cost? It would be interesting to see how an old XBox with XBMC on it would score to see how far we have come.

@lepsycho3691

Жыл бұрын

Yeah, I don't understand that this was NOT a factor in the overall placement!

thanks so much man, very informative. my shield arrives today. very excited :)

What's that thing on top of the NUC you have there? I see a coaxial connector on it... Is that an OTA TV Tuner?

Do you think the standard Nvidia Shield (Non Pro) would perform the same? To save 50 bucks if not interested in the games or increased storage.

Hey, can you do a video for the new apple tv 4k with a comparison? Please do it. Which one should I go for plex? NVIDIA SHIELD or new apple tv 4k?

Hey, which specific NUC did you get? Also, would love to hear what you think of the new Apple TV remote if you get one.

Hi, thanks for this nice review. the apple tv 4k you used was it the new with the Processor: Apple A12 Bionic - 64-bit or the old with the A10X Fusion-chip ?

Thanks a ton for another one of your awesome vids Jason.Im a very happy proud owner of my Intel nuc Extreme,and my Nvidia shield pro,your so right about the power in this Intel nuc.Running one of my plex servers off it is a dream.Thank you again for another brilliant video. Keep them coming Brilliant work as always.

I've actually been looking for this comparison for quite some time. Thank you! I wonder if my built in Android TV on my Sony can do everything the Shield can. It could direct play everything but I don't have a set up to test all audio types. Would be interesting since they're essentially the same app to see how the built in TV version stacks up, helping eliminate a streaming device.

Should have said: " if it is {me} box, then {me} bad" 😂🤣😂🤣😂🤣😂

@jasonhalljaxyt

3 жыл бұрын

2:54 Yea he set that up so perfectly that I was expecting it - was slightly disappointed when it didn't happen heh :)

Thanks Jason for all you do. You make great Plex videos I try to watch everyone you make

I wouldn't mind this becoming a regular thing, yearly or bi-yearly testing of all the most popular available clients. It's super informative. But I can imagine the cost of having to purchase all the players. If you do, do another in the future. I would love to see the ASS subtitle included as a test as the format is known for not being able to be directly played on practically anything outside of a computer and the Apple TV 4K, and is super common with anime. This is because of the customized fonts and effects that come with the format. PGS is a blu-ray subtitle format, which nowadays usually can be direct played on most devices, but I could see some older devices not supporting it.

I would love to see how the desktop app player app for plex compares.

Great review, very well thought out. So the Shield Pro won't play 400Mbps Panasonic GH5 video?

Hello, can You confirm now with the New Apple TV, it’s ok with all 4k mbps and audio decoding/passthrough?

@ByteMyBits Is this still correct? Hasnt the AppleTV gotten better at Atmos/DV? Or is this still correct for Plex playback?

I find it kinda strange that the AppleTV Failed on the Atmos as with the latest tvOS and Apple4k, Apple brought Atmos support and even shows in it's support documents how to set it up. Are you sure you had it setup correctly? Or is Apple using another Codec for Atmos than you tested?

Wish more of the clients had passthrough audio. Any reason why it's such a hard feature to find? I'm pretty sure my high end receiver handles those audio formats way better than whatever the plex client hardware does.

You're the best man. Thanks for taking the time to do this!

I remember a couple of years ago when you bought a shield and returned it. Gonna buy me another one just for backup for the 3 i already have. Great video jason.

Good vid! Next time I’d be curious to see how an Xbox or PlayStation stack up. I watch plex a lot on my Xbox one

Is this real life? Congrats on finally finishing this one up.

Will the Nvidia Shield support a touchscreen monitor output? Also would the Nvidia support HD music files if an audiophile wanted to listen at ultimate quality? I have an Arcam SR250 and an amazing pair of stereo speakers... Two visual screens one a touchscreen (silent > music) the other a projector (fan noise > movies)

Thanks for the Information. I have been trying to find a replacement for WMC for several years now. I have migrated to Plex due to the "Live TV & DVR" feature. I haven't found a client that My wife and i are happy with, I have demo'ed several of the items you have reviewed, but none have the small preview thumbnails during the FF/RR function to show us where in the recording we have just jumped to. I was wondering how I could get those back? P.S. love the garage renovation videos!

You need to activate subtitles in Roku settings. Also there is different format of subtitles and some client need to transcode them some can direct play wich is a huge deal.

I'm now super curious, how did you test DTS through the AppleTV? Did it truly decode out as a DTS or as PCM, or even as Dolby somehow?

Super newbie here, so pardon my rudimentary question. Does PLEX just transcode on the server-side or does it also transcode on the client-side as well? If on both sides, how is that managed (references please)? I am just starting this journey, so I am looking for wisdom from others who have been on this ride for a while...

Being able to remap buttons should be another point for the shield remote

3 жыл бұрын

any android can do it

@zippitydoodads9947

2 жыл бұрын

Fuck the remotes.

This is the content I want to see. Great video thank you Sir!

Great comparison very well done, the only thing I think it's missing is a category for the price and/or value for money, as it's not the same a $20 and a $200 device.

Any chance of an updated version of this? I agree that scrolling is a key part of the experience.

I'm planning to buy a plex server for my family Most of my movies are 4k Blu-ray (mostly Mkv & some Mp4) so the server storage should be over 40 TB at least I am not sure how many devices will run movies from my plex at the same time but may be 5 at least Internet upload & download is very good So i need your advice which server should i buy or its features? I am thinking of My Cloud Pro Series PR4100 from WD ...Is it a good choice ?

Interested to see an updated vid with the 4K apple tv, I don't have it but I know they made a much better remote and can support Atmos and 4K HDR

The Shield Pro continues to blow my mind handling 4K HDR Atmos movies from my USB drive via ethernet flawlessly! The upscaler makes hockey streaming look native 4K with zero blur.

At 14:30, with the high bitrate files on the AppleTV, it would be cool to know if using Infuse would play these smoothly (its arguably the better player app build for Apple only). I know this is a Plex only test video but now im curious about this as people with ATV’s specifically have access to an alternative

How does the non-pro tube version compare?

Jason since you had brought up an issue i have, playing high bitrate files over LAN (on a gaming PC with gigabit connection on cat 6 using Chrome), i am curious, if i navigate to my media share and just play a 30k+ bit rate file via VLC it plays fine and does not stutter, but if i try to stream in Original Quality above 20k it stutters and jumps around, example is The Office Blu Ray uncompressed files. is this a limitation of Plex/UnRaid?

love the content...been very helpful in setting up multiple plex servers... I am looking for a client for my theater room and It has come down the Apple TV 4k or Roku 4k Ultra Even though both natively support Atmos /TrueHD Seems from your testing that Roku 4k Ultra supports Atmos from plex but Apple does not. Do you know if there is anything in the works on the Apple Plex side of things to fix this...

Can you do this test with consoles? Xbox one S/X, Xbox Series S/X, Playstation 4 & 5

There is one test that I would like to see on both the Shield and the new Amazon Cub. The Shield pixelates on OTA live TV on 1080p channels when the video panning like in football and other sports. Does the Cub do the same thing? It is my understanding that it can not decode mpeg2video in 1080p and this is on all Shield models. Thanks for you good work

What file formats can the Plex client play on the Nvidia and Apple boxes? Can they play MP4 and MKV?

I would like to see a test of watching a show from the beginning while recording. Will this work on any plex client? Also the firestick cube has a ethernet port

I have Shield Pro on WiFi and I downloaded all the jellyfish files. The highest i could play was 180 mbps h264 and HEVC. Anything above this would go to transcoding or not play (with transcoding disabled on server). Is there some way to force the server or client to direct play 300-400 mbps with buffering?

Outstanding. Just what I was looking For. Thank you.

Here we go. 1) wow the size of that Nvidia shield! No one shows the device, this is the first time that I see it! It seems so big in the pictures, I though it was the size of a console. 2) I have had a lot of problems with a lot of devices! Thank you so much for the video, it really needs more likes!!! 3) You reaaaally need more problematic videos, I have several in my collection, some of those do have trouble in the format is reproduced, troubles having to transcode when direct play is supposed to hit off (I think you probably tried to test that one) and recently the way they handle the MOV_TEXT subtitles and other subtitles format, chromecast for example will just stop reproducing the subtitles randomly, fire TV will transcode the file due to its subtitles... So.. These might be worth considering in the tests :) the suggestion is just ask the community to provide the file sources that we have that we know as a fact they are problematic with certain CLIENTS (not server side) so you can test them :D I'm so grateful for the video and for all you have helped us! Thank you so much... I will probably buy a shield now XD

@daevien

3 жыл бұрын

The shield will basically take pretty much anything you throw at it for format and just deal with it. I had some 4k stuff that other things didn't really like, not a single issue with them. It's fairly expensive option, but you basically buy it, setup it up and never fuss with it again. Great for someone that is less technical as well

@NotBROLL

2 жыл бұрын

That was my first thought too, I was like, that's the shield?! I thought it was huge.

I love the shield tv pro but I haven't been able to figure out how to get plex to work since switching my external hard drive

I'm so curious to know how the Samsung or LG native apps compare to these boxes. Also the PMP from windows!!

What files did you use to test ATMOS 5.1.2 and ATMOS 7.1.2 on the Roku Ultra? On my Roku Ultra Only ATMOS 5.1.2 files playback as Atmos to my Denon AVR-x1600 which is a 5.1.2 system. ATMOS 7.1.2 files only playback as DD+ 5.1. I expected it to drop the back two channels and give me ATMOS 5.1.2.

Does anyone know which clients will work offline? My Apple TV doesn't work when I don't have a WAN connection.

do you have a spreadsheet with all the data?

I have an old chromecast on two of my TVs and even though the video files play on my phone I am constantly getting a H4 error when trying to play on either TV...... any suggestions?

Apple TV got all the checkmarks under video codecs, but the they were red under 4K!?

@themightyredemption

3 жыл бұрын

It was a slideshow for 4k.

@greyaye8565

Ай бұрын

He literally explained why...

For the 4k loading section, it appears the Apple TV won since the Nvidia Shield had a hiccup and skipped a part of the "Universal" logo. Also, I'd be interested to see how many of the remotes have features not mentioned in the test (i.e. a built-in rechargable battery). Any chance to see this updated with the new Apple TV with the updated remote and Dolby Vision, etc?

@noobfishing101

2 жыл бұрын

Exactly, I was wonder why the Apple TV loaded the video and started playing first yet the nvidia somehow pasted it up. I had to watch it again and u can see the nvidia shield has a weird fast foward hiccup. Apple TV def won.

How does the shield handle multichannel FLAC? I don't fuss around with any of those DTS or Dolby codecs.

@SeanVedell

3 жыл бұрын

Nope. It plays everything you throw at it which is why I bought one. I love my 4K Apple TV but Apple won’t let the Plex app play Atmos audio. It hobbles the damned device to only allow Atmos from paid streaming services. Apple makes me mental.

Help me out here. I dnld 4K uhd rips. ( my backups ) through a USB drive . I want to direct play them onto my 4K 60 tv. These are 80gig files. My laptop chugs. I’m looking for the best way to play these back. Can a shield play these back. Or will it chug too. ?

Network connection speed would be great as it seems many cheap out in this department. The other that would be great is which ones work without internet.

Nice video... I wouldn't mind seeing a review of the Plex performance as it relates to the video game consoles. I use a Xbox One X as my client and it would be interesting to see if there's a performance difference between the One X and Series X.

@coltonmilne1371

3 жыл бұрын

Agreed. I had nothing but problems with my Xbox One X playing back 4K. Ended up switching to Apple TV because of it.

@tomvg87

3 жыл бұрын

I tried using the Plex app to play some 4K files on my Series S but couldn't get anything to load properly. So switched back to my 2017 Shield which plays all of them without issues. This seems to be a problem of the Plex app and not the hardware since the Series S is more powerful than the Shield.

The Roku doesn't have to use burn in subtitles; you just have to hit the * button during playback and enable subtitles. Not the most user friendly system, but I could see it being a good thing to just have to enable subtitles once and have them active in all your apps.

i am still trying to brain how did the apple tv playback started first before the nvidia shield and the shield got to the back to the future logo first? is there a playback speed variation?

What model number Roku Ultra was used? 4800R is the newest.

The Chromecast can have a ethernet connection. Plug in a powered USB C dock with ethernet. If you wanted to, you could also plug in a mouse and keyboard - though I don't know what that would be good for.

Man, you do love that Simply NUC. :-P Have you considered moving your Plex server there, leaving the media where it is now?

I like this tech channel, It's different. Keep it up. Subbed.

Chromecast has voice control, also supports Ethernet via Google adapter, or 3rd party adapter using a usb hub. You should also include a price vs performance, or bang for buck rating.

@Ipeacocks

3 жыл бұрын

Those internet adapter could provide only 100mbps

@DylanKylethe17th

3 жыл бұрын

@@Ipeacocks Third party gigabit adapters work (depending on the brand), haven't tested anything faster personally though. I have no idea why Google didn't just make their official one gigabit.

@ingeborgdot

2 жыл бұрын

You get what you pay for. Chromecast is an inferior product compared to the top 2. If you want something cheap, then fine. If you want something that works best, you'll have to pay more.

@meetthehutchys5801

2 жыл бұрын

@@ingeborgdot the chromecast has stadia so goes to second place for that reason on my list

@hammerheadyak

Жыл бұрын

​@@meetthehutchys5801 not anymore it doesn't haha

IR blasters would have been a good item to add to the remote section

@jasonpowell7704

3 жыл бұрын

He has to draw the line somewhere. The poor guy took 4 months already , lol

Is there a link for the NUC or did I totally miss it in the detail section? Nice video, totally expected results. Have a shield at home (2017 edition) and it just works. However recently, had an experience with an apple tv and boy is that thing smooth. The normal plex client for the Apple TV is already pretty good, however you can take it to the next level by getting infuse. The app is just damn good and there's nothing that compares to at the moment.

Any thoughts on Xbox one as a client?

What about the best device for a family member with a 1080p or even 720p TV, no need for HDR/Surround sound support etc, just ease of use for non tech people, i would guess its fire stick or one of the newer roku's.

Dell R610 with a netapp disk shelf. 36Tb of zfs raid. Think that will work for a while. Still have not filled up the storage.

Since when does the Apple TV 4K direct play from a NAS?

Watched this and bought an Invidia shield pro to replace my Roku extreme. I'm having trouble getting it to default to my Plex server on the Lan. When I get it to play it shows up as playing indirectly. I'm confused by this.

I'm late to the table on this video to see it. I've got the Roku Ultra about 2 years ago. It's always lately having issues buffering from Plex. I record live tv from a HD Home Run cablecard box and also have movies I have on Plex in MKV files from original Blu-Rays and DVD's. I'm connected via Ethernet as well. Can't pin down the buffering which isn't all the time it seems and not on all recorded tv shows or stored movies. And like you said, I can never play subtitles w/o it buffering every minute. Don't know the workaround to these issues so if anyone has some suggestions they would be appreciated (short of saying get an Nvidia Shield... ;)

I'm pretty new at all this.. So its better to get something like the shield or Apple TV instead of using the built in smart tv? I have Andriod TV on a Sony.

@krisbeefilm545

2 жыл бұрын

Or using the built in chromecast in the TV

Very nice review! I think that Fire Cube has an ethernet adapter included in it’s box, like chromecast. :/

Got my network issues sorted out. I have At&t Uverse fiber system and to get past the double nat issue I had to set up my Windows 10 server with a fixed IP address to get things to work correctly and take advantage of the gigabit hardwire network connection. Thanks.

This was a great video. Good work.

but how do they compare to the default plex app of a smart TV, say a Samsung one?

Nice job, 👍 I don't think there was ever a doubt on which client was going to win. 😉

Nice comparison. I do however doubt some of the tests being completely accurate. I have some of the streaming devices throughout the house and one particular, the mibox S, is able to handle ATMOS audio without an issue and has passthrough via Plex. However, it pales when compared to the shield.

I've been using the Shield for years, got 2 of them now. I actually bought my first one after your first plex client showdown video after you mentioned that it was the only client that could pass through DTS (other than the NUC). Great work on this video!

Will you get the chance to review the latest Apple TV? I’m considering the Apple TV or NVidia Shield TV…

@marp04

2 жыл бұрын

Infuse is the reason to buy Apple TV

What's your favorite client in 2023 now? Is the N100 cpu with only efficiency cores sufficient or not snappy enough? (Has AV1 decode, but might be a bit slow without any performance cores)

I've been using the Plex client on my LG WebOS which is built into the TV. Would be curious to see how it performs against an external device such as these

@johncena6701

2 жыл бұрын

How does it work? Good?

@resistnonexist

2 жыл бұрын

@@johncena6701 it's alright, pretty slow compared to my roku premiere but then I only have to deal with 1 remote instead of 2

Great video! A bit of elaboration would be nice with how the NUC was faster than your server.

@wes95z28

3 жыл бұрын

Watch his review of the NUC

How in the world do you encode your video files?! Have the big Nuc, ATV4's and a very robust network and I get popups all the time that the connection to the server isn't fast enough, or I get constant buffers!

@ryanscullen

3 жыл бұрын

Switch to Ethernet, or check the IOPS / health of your NAS HDs, or check the Plex server logs to see if you’re getting SQL Lite DB errors. All those can impact what you’re experiencing.

What is the difference between the mini NVidia Shield Pro and the normal NVidia Shield Pro? The big one is more expensive so there has to be something right?

@RickyCash

3 жыл бұрын

Several things, It really is a totally different device but mainly, less ram, less storage, no USB ports,

New Chromecast does have voice control, Jason.

@TheDarkstorm77

3 жыл бұрын

That was gonna be one of my comments I noticed he had it marked red.

@chrisradtke

3 жыл бұрын

Still doesn't help the score much 😂

@frankmthompson

3 жыл бұрын

It also has Ethernet of you get the adapter from Google with the Ethernet port on it.

@ibslice

2 жыл бұрын

It also does do Dolby atmos now too.

@dags170291

2 жыл бұрын

Also loading time on Chromecast is much improved

seems your test of the playback capabilities is a bit older. As AppleTV 4k is able to play DolbyVision since some time now. For Atmos: Atmos in DD+ container works also great on AppleTV 4k. Only fails in TrueHD container