Looking for comments on whether I should get a $279.99 (Canadian) investment in the Nvidia Shield. Here is my situation;
Roku3 runs Tablo great but about 1/2 my movies are not watchable (bufferring all the time). My choices are to get a better plex capable server (maybe $800-$1000 investment) or get the Nvidia Shield and it should be capable of 100% of my movies.
Comments?
I’d say get it
The Shield, with the upcoming Plex server support, would be perfect for your setup. It also runs the Tablo app better than any other platform I have tried. I bought one and loved it so much I purchased another for my 2nd TV. It’s expensive, but very future proof.
That would be great if it was my plex server! Questions…
1 - how loud is the Shield
2 - how do I move my movies from the current server to the shield ( I only have about 10 movies).
thank u.
The Shield is almost completely silent. I haven’t ever heard it. I believe it does have a fan but I imagine any volume whatsoever coming from speakers would drown out any fan noise.
You can just move the movies to a portable hard drive or micro SD card, then attach it to the Shield. You can also move them to a NAS and the Shield will be able to mount it.
I have the shield and it’s quite a powerful little machine. As long as your movies are in the proper format there is no transcoding from plex. However PGS subtitle files in an MKV will cause transcoding. It’s a bug. I burn all my subs into the movie so it’s a non issue for me.
Plex on shield does not support TrueHD but they are working on it. It does support DTS-MA HD. For anything needing TrueHD I use the built in native player for now.
In terms of servers you really don’t need much power. I’ve used all kinds of desktops over the years with no issues. You don’t need to spend anywhere near $800
What files are you trying to play that the roku doesn’t support? The only thing it can’t play that the shield can would be your HD audio and H.265
Interesting… so maybe it’s not my Roku3 then? I looked at my plex server and it shows;
Codec PGS
Language English
Format PGS
So my low powered netbook is forced to transcode this?
I don’t know if the PGS bug affects roku or not. I know it affects the shield so you would still have transcoding until that is fixed. Or just burn them in the image like I do.
The roku has no problem playing media files that it supports.
What container, video and audio file are you trying to play?
There are also two different shield models. The cheaper 16gb and the more expensive 500gb. I own the 16gb model as I don’t really store much on it. Just some video apps. All my movies are on my drobo connected to my PC.
Yes, but the transcode hit for just subs is very low. I do concur that the Shield is the way to go, and you should be able to run both the Client and Server for Plex on the Shield itself once the 3.2 update is out.
(Although I run a NAS w/ 5.1 TB of content, for a smaller library a USB attached HDD could definitely suffice, but you may need to check details on HDD support- last I checked they prefer HDD to be formatted ExFAT, and I do not know the upper size limit support- I know 2T drives worked…)
Here is a bit more on that problematic movie…
Video Resolution 720p
Duration 1:31:35
Bitrate 5836 kbps
Width 1280
Height 720
Aspect Ratio 1.78
Container MKV
Video Frame Rate 24p
Audio Profile dts
Video Profile high
Now I am leaning more on the get the Shield side and put the Netbook away. Any timelines on the upgrade to the Shield for plex server capabilities?
Now I want a shield. Wife is going to kill me.
that doesn’t show what the video file is. I’d assume it’s h.264
But MKV and DTS are supported by the roku.
The timeline I heard was this month.
And final point; is the extra $120 worth it for 500Gig model?
only if you need that much space. All depends on your usage. But you can also just plug in an external if you really needed more. It’s not worth it to me But it may be to you.
To be honest, I would only get the Pro if you have both a minimal need for storage and a big push for a minimalist approach for aesthetic purposes… You can get a larger external HDD for less than the $120 savings vs the Pro…
If I get a 128gig MicroSD card for $39 and put my 10 movies on it (they only take up 30gig I just checked) would the performance suffer at all? Then I would buy the remote with the money I saved!
I don’t see why it would be an issue. Shop around, there are several bundles out there now including the remote.
If I was going to do that, I would recommend USB3 over MicroSD. More platform-agnostic, marginally faster, similar price.
Newegg Link
Fantastic, appreciate all the help today and going shopping tomorrow! 
amazon is OOS of the Shield, Newegg has 16G Shield for 179, Shield Remote for 50, and Samsung 128G Flash drive for 33, and free 3 business day shipping. (feel free to price match elsewhere, when buying for myself I check Newegg, Amazon, and Best Buy)