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...
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
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
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 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.
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.
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.
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 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.
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.
With 4 NVIDIA SHIELDs I can tell you they are great devices, but if you're looking for stability the Roku Ultra is the way to go, especially if it's for a Plex live TV setup! That's one factor to take into consideration as that would change your scoring significantly;).
Thanks. Would have liked to see the price of each device on that final breakdown page. The shield looks great but if I can get 2 Roku Ultras and have money left over, that might be another selling point for someone. Keep up the excellent content!
Agreed that price should have been a factor to consider. $200 vs $100 or less isn't an insignificant data point, especially for the more budget conscious out there.
If you are concerned about things working properly, why would you buy something because it is cheaper? I have all Rokus in my home. I'll will be switching shortly, because of all the problems the Rokus give me.
@@ingeborgdot What Roku version? I'm on the old FireTV and Plex crashes every time I start a video, and sometimes just spins forever, so I have to back out and start it again. I ended up with Roku Ultras, for price, got 3 for under $70ea, and they've been good so far (about 2 weeks), I can still send them back, but they are working so far.
@@Yrocmoto Ultra. They just don't handle stuff as smoothly as the Shield Pro. It is so smooth and fast. It costs more, but for 4K videos, there is nothing that touches it. You get what you pay for.
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.
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.
@@MikeBuiltaPizza and Atmos support. And usbC hub support. You can set a routine and just ask the remote to activate that routine (like it's movie time-and have it dim lights, turn on AV gear etc)
The Chromecast literally has a button on the remote for voice recognition. Plus, there is an adaptor available that provides wired ethernet (extra $20). Also, mine feeds Atmos 5.1.4 and TrueHD 7.1 to my receiver with no issues.
Hi the chromecast is on sale for $40 now... and I got a $10 off coupon and $13 store credit... So I can get it for $20 after tax. Is this worth it to replace LG webOS on my LG C1? I have a Sonos Arc Soundbar/system and want to play Atmos 5.1.2 and TrueHD 7.1 along with all HDR and DV files.
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.
It's a shame you missed a LOT about the chromecast. Like it's ability to pair any BT remote, that it has a voice activation button right there on the remote AND you can connect it to ethernet by either using the official ethernet adaptor or just use a USB C hub(which even allows keyboards,mice and direct HDD connection). Even allows webcam connection. It's also able to use Atmos. Probably just the weak Plex app not supporting the features yet. Most apps have voice support and search and even the Disney app has Atmos on it. Let's see your shield control your home theatre by voice via the remote 😂 (with Google compatible devices obviously) Also not sure why your app takes so long to open. Much much faster on mine with the ethernet adaptor.
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!
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.
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.
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
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.
Pretty sure the chromecast TV has voice control? It is literally the core of their home devices, I find it hard to believe it is the only one without voice control?
We’ve got two in our household. It’s not my daily device, but I found you can’t dictate the keyboard for passwords. Google assistant is there and will lookup on RU-vid and others.
I gave up on Amazon products after they dropped the ball on Dolby Digital and purchased an Apple TV based on your last test and haven't been disappointed. This is the way.
The AppleTV audio part is misleading for sure as it tested uncompressed atmos prob which is TrueHD with added on metadata. Digital Atmos has full support. Also find the whole controller part on the apple side is also weird when you count iPhones into the picture and how easy it is compared to other mobile controllers makes it a real alternative.
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!
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?
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.
I'm sorry but this is most likely going to sound harsh. But the results are what would be expected when comparing a 200$ device against a 50$ device. The 200$ device will mostly always win. So, in my mind, not including a score for the price, does skew the result highly towards the more expensive devices being the bests, of course if you're only trying to find the best device performance wise, it becomes kinda redundant to include devices like the Tivo and Chromecast in my opinion. Unless you show something like a score per $. So some ideas for next time could be to include a price category, score per $ or maybe just to have devices roughly around the same pricepoint. Other than that great video
The way Roku handles subtitles is just the absolute worst. They basically override per-app settings in favor of their global settings, which forces burn-in subs like you mentioned.
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.
You should have had a Value category or a normalised for Price ie points / $purchase price to determine Value. Of course the most expansive item is likely to produce the best performance results!
Roku can do Subtitles, just have to enable captions in the device settings then make sure Subtitle are enable in the app. Also like others, I am shocked at the size of the shield!!! 😱😱😱
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 use Plex from pc before but I prefer Kodi than Plex because HDR only can be automatically turn On and Off in Kodi. With Plex, I need to manually toggle HDR On if I want to play video with HDR.
Great test, I agreed 100% because I have Nvidia Shield TV Pro, Cube Fire TV, firesticck 4K max, Google Chromecast TV, MI box. The sure winner is NVIDIA SHIELD TV PRO. Anything you throw on this media player, it will do using PLEX APP. Even loading 25GB movie Nvidia shield still did it with no issues.
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.
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.
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 have the Chromecast tv and prefer it because it has other apps other than plex available. It has the anime streaming apps like Crunchyroll and funimation also I use a type c USB hub and I now have gigabit ehternet on my chromecast but it is very picky picky about which one you use as to whether it the ethernet port will work or not. Also a suggetstion do a video on all them as general purpose players/streamers.
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.
I feel like devices that can gain an ethernet connection through their usb port should've gotten credit too, especially if the price of the client plus the adapter would have been cheaper than a more expensive one with ethernet built in.
I have 4 Mi Boxes and they start up very quick. Plex does not take 24 seconds to load. 4-5 seconds max. There was definitely something going on there with your unit. Its a great Budget Player and very flexible. I prefer to use a USB wired network adapter over wireless.
I ended up replacing my 2 Minix Boxes with 2 Nvidia Shield Pro's, because the Minix's kept refusing newer content, and crashed occasionally requiring reboots , and I am well happy. I did have the option of the Mi Box and I had to give some serious long thoughts about it, Glad I did. This was before this video was made.
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.
Very interesting video. Although, some mitigation on the test would have been maybe interesting. For instance, I,(personally) give so much more importance to scrolling than to finder or headset.
i still dont understand why the shield doesn't look ahead and cache the thumbnail data, why your looking at 1 screen it could be caching the other titles. Scrolling at his point shows the next set of titles already cached thus giving a more fluid experience.
Already knew the Nvidia was awsome, but I feel like I want that NUC, NEED that NUC, But after watching your indepth video I think it may have done something to my eye sight as I can't see the NUC link ;)
Oh my god, why isn't this higher in the search results, google or youtube. I have been looking for EXACTLY this for the past few days. Did numerous google searches for Apple TV 4K vs Nvidia Shield, specifically for the UI use etc. Found a few threads but was undecided. THIS video is exactly what I needed. Thank you so much. I am looking forward to the new Apple TV 4K 2021. It will probably blow everything else out the water.
I use an Nvidia Shield pro for my main TV plex client and I love it but for anyone looking to get into plex I feel the iOS plex experience is far more polished and less buggy than the nvidia experience. NUCs are great plex servers. Currently using an 8th gen NUC with Iris Pro onboard graphics and I have mine in an Akasa Turing passive cooling case so I never have to worry about cleaning out the NUC's laptop-like cooling fan. Great job on the review. Choosing the right plex client can make a big difference in how much you enjoy your plex experience/how much time you have to spend troubleshooting it for friends and family.
I wish you had included the previous "nVidia Shield" and the non-pro model, because I have 2 friends with it and they are asking me if they should update to the Pro.
Same. I have that one and it is terrible. Loading almost any 4k movie will make it stutter to no end. It eventually crashes after a while of non-responsiveness.
@@jbwzrd213 I still waiting to receive my 1st Nvidia shield. Initially I purchase the cylinder version but change my mind to choose pro instead. Maybe tomorrow I will receive it.
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 RU-vid and Plex. Nothing is upscaling.
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?
Welcome to the club buddy. You will love the shield. If you have any questions about it feel free to hit me up. I'm very experienced with my shield and I'm very satisfied with the setup I have. I have some external storage with a 1 TB SSD which can easily be upgraded in the future using the adaptive storage feature so it uses it like internal storage. I also have a USB hub with a few other USB sticks for additional storage connected as well but honestly if you want to run Plex with it and need more storage you could connect a NAS box or whatever. Opinions about the best file browser will differ but I prefer FX file explorer. X-Plore is another popular choice. Depending on UI preference really those two are the only two that should be considered. Not sure if you have added an additional better remote yet but for typing etc I use a Rii i8+ keypad which works great for things like Kodi, web browsing, renaming files and general organization of files and folders for my Plex setup etc. You'll love the flexibility of just how powerful you can make your shield set up. One of the only limiting factors is really your creativity since it can be configured and set up so many different ways. Hell you can even use it as the hub for a home security system if you want. EDIT: also be sure to install MX player. I still find it's my preferred favorite way to play back 4K files since a lot of my 4K video comes in HDR 10-bit color and my TV which is a 2015 UHD Samsung is not HDR compatible so MX player will automatically convert HDR to SDR so it becomes a non-issue. You can easily find the extra codec support from XDA forums for MX player. The last couple versions of the codec the fix seems to be to simply rename the version number for the version number it requests and it works. MX player is really excellent on the shield with the codec. For those of us who don't have Plex pass 4K playback is not really a feature Plex offers. It's a paid feature so because of this MX player works really well.I know a lot of people will say Kodi also and yes you can but it takes a lot longer to load up Kodi than to just play the file with my default video player set to MX. Instantaneously versus waiting for an app to load, navigating, then playing.
Yeah it's pronounced 'Me Box' , I'm glad someone finally did a comprehensive one for 2021. The Mi Box S is great for everything up to x265 4K 10bit, if you add HFR to that (50 - 60fps) then it breaks the camels back.
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.
Hi there. On your recommendation I bought a 4K 32GB. Fantastic device and just plain WHOOPS the Samsung TV Plex app. It was once OK, but due to Samsucks and their continual 'updates', bit by bit they have wrecked the TV. But there is some sort of weird problem with the Apple TV. When viewing my photo albums in the Plex app on the Apple TV 4K, I get about 10 photos into the album, each photo loading quick and snappy, and then BAM, fuzzy photo. I mean fuzzy enough to not even be able to tell just WTF the photo is! Hit the back button, go back into the album thumbnail view, select the last pic, and start viewing again. All good, until about it does it again. And again. And again. The 4K TV box is connected via 1Gb ethernet. The TV is no longer connected at all. Any ideas? Thanks P
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.
Except you can grab a Roku Ultra for around $69 some of the time, while the Shield Pro is an additional $130 and never drops in price. For that big a difference, #3 is just fine.
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?
The reason Apple TV couldn't play those high bit-rate files and the Dolby Vision file is because of an issue with the Plex client. Those files play without issue, perfectly smoothly, with the Infuse client on my Apple TV 4K (1st gen)
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!
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.
