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I guess i got lazy and wanted the metadata population that plex seemed to do for me without any work as opposed to a more hands on approach with KODI. KODI is a great solution as well so i can’t knock that solution. Setting plex to direct playback i’ve never had a transcoding issue, BD and UHD BDs playback without a hitch, even something more complex like Billy Lynns Long Half Time Walk which is a 4K/60 title plays back fine. I used to rip all my movies in ISO format and the folder structure but a while back switched to just ripping the movie into a lossless mkv format straight from the disk with makemkv since i wanted quicker movie playback and never actually watched the extras on the disc. I am using a JVC NX7 4K projector and luckily for me my projector does frame by frame tonemapping for HDR so no need for DV. This works better for me than the surprise this doesnt work again when i want to watch a movie, oh plex must have gotten updated and i need to go change the settings again before i actually start my movie. What i’ve done to mitigate the issue is just make app updates manual on my shield this way i can control when plex gets updated since usually when it does it changes the default player to the new one which is super annoying.
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You are correct, there is no perfect solution here. Or use Plex on ATV where everything works fine. With the exception of Apple never adding Blu-ray support to Macs, Plex never adding ISO/BDMV has to be the longest running, most nonsensical thing I’ve seen in this area.Ĭontrol and feedback and media guide work great with Kodi of course on all platforms.Īnyway, to repeat the important point made above, if you do use Plex on Shield today and for some reason need the experimental player, just use the Shield remote instead of the Plex remote. I use Kodi on Shield because then I know for sure it’s not transcoding, and Kodi doesn’t get into religious wars over formats like ISO, BDMV, etc. Even today I often start a Plex session by giving the Shield or ATV a restart first just for hygiene, and then make sure to avoid any maximum quality format regardless. Plex excels in flexibility, watch it anywhere, but getting all the transcode options set correctly and eliminating all hiccups and pauses with high bandwidth formats has at least in my experience been almost hopeless. To use Plex for the use case where you need maximum audio and video quality seems like the wrong tool for the job. But we’re talking very specifically about Plex here. The lack of usable DV HDR on Shield (not the streaming layer type) also makes it imperfect for perfect modern format playback. OTOH if you’re looking for Nirvana, it just isn’t there. If you just have a generic debate between ATV and Shield, then sure the lack of true Atmos is a major issue with ATV.
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