New Apple TV 4k vs Nvidia Shield

[dlpowered89]

I apologize for putting up another comparison thread but with the new device out, I feel like it's appropriate for another round.

I have been patiently waiting for Apple TV 4k ever since I purchased 65" OLED TV. Now that it's out, I am unsure if I should purchase it over Nvidia Shield because I plan to run Plex on it and it seems like Apple still hasn't put DTS-HD or any of high quality audio pass-through on Apple TV.

My primary use case is prioritized in this order - Youtube, Chromecast, Plex, Netflix, AIV. What do you guys think?

 

[archer75]

Apple tv doesn't support chromecast. It has dolby vision. No HD audio.
shield has HDR but no dolby vision. It does support HD audio.

If audio is your thing the shield is the right choice.

 

[andrewstirling]

It's a massive own goal not supporting HD sound formats. Also no mention of native frame rates (i.e. 24fps) or whether 1080p content will be upscaled or output natively. My cash is definitely staying in my pocket. Seeing as you have a 65" OLED you most probably also have a decent set of in built apps.

 

[dlpowered89]

It's a massive own goal not supporting HD sound formats. Also no mention of native frame rates (i.e. 24fps) or whether 1080p content will be upscaled or output natively. My cash is definitely staying in my pocket. Seeing as you have a 65" OLED you most probably also have a decent set of in built apps.

Yes, fortunately I do have wide set of apps but want to obtain a device that can share the burden + what you get from TV is rather limited. Fortunately, the TV has chromecast built in so it wasn't necessary a necessary feature I was looking for

 

[2010mini]

I apologize for putting up another comparison thread but with the new device out, I feel like it's appropriate for another round.

I have been patiently waiting for Apple TV 4k ever since I purchased 65" OLED TV. Now that it's out, I am unsure if I should purchase it over Nvidia Shield because I plan to run Plex on it and it seems like Apple still hasn't put DTS-HD or any of high quality audio pass-through on Apple TV.

My primary use case is prioritized in this order - Youtube, Chromecast, Plex, Netflix, AIV. What do you guys think?

with your listed primary uses, any set top box that support what you want will do. Only thing left is price and quality.

 

[andrewstirling]

with your listed primary uses, any set top box that support what you want will do. Only thing left is price and quality.

Apply tv doesn't support any of the lossless sound formats!

 

[pdmpolishing]

I was looking forward to the new AppleTV, so disappointed not having lossless sound formats I ordered a Nvidia Shield straight after the keynote, It just shows the AppleTV is just a portal to the iTunes store.

 

[Seb2k]

A Shield TV is still going to be the top streamer by quite some margin IMHO.

The only real limitations on the Shield TV are no Dolby Vision and no VP9.2 (aka no Youtube HDR).

By comparison the Apple TV 4K doesn't have:

Dolby TrueHD
VP9 (aka no YouTube 4K or HDR)

It's also up in the air as to if it has proper 24hz support or the ability to pass Atmos over DD+ both of which are pretty big deals for me.

I'll still be buying an Apple TV 4K tho, I prefer the overall UX and I imagine the updated screen savers will be absolutely stunning. It'll be my daily driver with the Shield going back to being a cast target for the phone app when I want to watch something with an Atmos sound track.

 

[cardsdoc]

Another very disappointed customer. I usually can see the logic in Apples decisions even when not popular on these forums but not including immersive audio in 2017 just seems stupid. I can potentially understand not supporting hd audio codecs as they really are not used in streaming video and they are probably not too concerned with the small number of us that rip our blu rays but was really hoping. I'm still reserving full judgement until they are in user and developers hands. I think it's still possible they would pass through hd audio or at least DD+ with Atmos and just don't list it as a spec as that's not the use they intend through itunes but not optimistic. Just finished setting up a really good 5.2.4 system and was hoping for a one box solution including my blu ray library via Plex, iTunes music, Netflix, Amazon, etc but doesn't look like that's going to happen. Will probably get a shield and an atv as we are heavily invested in Apple ecosystem.

 

[prombough]

I am an Apple guy with 7 and often more guest Apple devices in the house, but for movies and my projector screen I got a Shield TV and love it. Not sure what apps are there on the Apple TV but I love being able to install Kodi for specific uses (and the quality seems better for some reason than VLC?), use external and network storage for media, and now I am even using it as a Plex server which is a great find! Ironically, I hardly ever use its builtin Chromecast receiver, but much more often use a 6 dollar AirPlay/DLNA Receiver app to airplay to the shield from phones/ipads in a pinch. It works flawlessly. I use if for music rather than Chromecast too. It's hard to see me wanting an Apple TV 4K, even when I do get a 4K projector someday. (FYI, they dropped the price today for the shield)

I am most curious about the audio capabilities of the Nvidia Shield mentioned in this forum. Seb2k mentions a "phone app" to cast Atmos audio. Which app? Which source film has that audio? Also would love the best solution quality wise for streaming audio to the Shield tv from my media library which is all in Apple Lossless. Anyway, hearing that the Shield seems better for HD audio makes me even happier I went this way...

 

[ZeRoLiMiT]

i have and shield and a appletv4 (waiting for the 4K version Friday) and i personally dont like the shield. I only use it to play 4K movies lol besides that i hate the feel and look. Its really a personal preference

 

[Seb2k]

I am most curious about the audio capabilities of the Nvidia Shield mentioned in this forum. Seb2k mentions a "phone app" to cast Atmos audio. Which app? Which source film has that audio?

Hiya, I'm referring to the Plex phone app and it's ability to see the Shield TV as a cast target. The mobile UI is really slick and much speedier than using a remote to control the Shield through HDMI CEC. Just choose your Shield's Plex app as your target player in the cast icon on the top right corner of the iOS Plex app and play as normal.

 

[dlpowered89]

Looks like Apple is bringing Dolby Atmos. Now I am considering returning the nvidia shield pro

 

[Che Castro]

Apple TV 4k + Plex + Provenance
Is all I need

 

[Hustler1337]

Looks like Apple is bringing Dolby Atmos. Now I am considering returning the nvidia shield pro

Was it just lack of Dolby Atmos that deterred you from the Apple TV? Going by what you said in your first post about Youtube, Chromecast, Plex and Netflix being your priorities, the SHIELD outperforms the Apple TV in almost all these aspects. The new Apple TV doesn't currently support Youtube in 4K, doesn't have native Chromecast support (obviously), and Plex on the SHIELD is far better with Plex Media Server support and transcoding on the fly.

 

[Spankey]

Also infuse will pass the lossless codecs as pcm.

 

[dlpowered89]

Was it just lack of Dolby Atmos that deterred you from the Apple TV? Going by what you said in your first post about Youtube, Chromecast, Plex and Netflix being your priorities, the SHIELD outperforms the Apple TV in almost all these aspects. The new Apple TV doesn't currently support Youtube in 4K, doesn't have native Chromecast support (obviously), and Plex on the SHIELD is far better with Plex Media Server support and transcoding on the fly.

Yeah. I would love all of tech ecosystem to work natively with iOS devices but I can't stand sparing my cash on something that does not have decent audio support. I do use Chromecast extensively but that feature can be replaced by Airplay. What I expect from my device, however, is full plex support. I currently bought all necessary tools, techs needed to support this. (Mac mini connected to RAID storage which houses all medias I have) I was not aware of limited functionality of Plex in tvOs. Can you elaborate on that a bit more?

 

[Spankey]

Yeah. I would love all of tech ecosystem to work natively with iOS devices but I can't stand sparing my cash on something that does not have decent audio support. I do use Chromecast extensively but that feature can be replaced by Airplay. What I expect from my device, however, is full plex support. I currently bought all necessary tools, techs needed to support this. (Mac mini connected to RAID storage which houses all medias I have) I was not aware of limited functionality of Plex in tvOs. Can you elaborate on that a bit more?

I find inFuse to be better on my home network than Plex. Infuse lets the Apple TV do the decoding and has full support for advanced codecs. You can still run Plex for when you are away from home.

 

[dlpowered89]

I find inFuse to be better on my home network than Plex. Infuse lets the Apple TV do the decoding and has full support for advanced codecs. You can still run Plex for when you are away from home.

Is it better to let Apple TV to do all the groundwork or the server? I reckon Mac mini (latest model) is powerful enough to process anything I throw at.

 

[Hustler1337]

Yeah. I would love all of tech ecosystem to work natively with iOS devices but I can't stand sparing my cash on something that does not have decent audio support. I do use Chromecast extensively but that feature can be replaced by Airplay. What I expect from my device, however, is full plex support. I currently bought all necessary tools, techs needed to support this. (Mac mini connected to RAID storage which houses all medias I have) I was not aware of limited functionality of Plex in tvOs. Can you elaborate on that a bit more?

Not sure what features of Plex you're specifically looking to use, but out of the Apple TV and NVIDIA Shield, the Shield is by far the stronger competitor in terms of Plex support. Plex often recommend the Shield and they say it's 'born to run Plex'. It's pretty good from my experience and they do have a good partnership with each other. The Shield is powerful enough to transcode 2-3 streams simultaneously quite well but I think you'll get the best Plex experience by running Plex Media Server on a computer or NAS if you want the best out of Plex.

 

[Spankey]

Is it better to let Apple TV to do all the groundwork or the server? I reckon Mac mini (latest model) is powerful enough to process anything I throw at.

The mini should be fine, but if you want to use advanced audio codecs use Infuse. It will output them as PCM. Plex is still fine when outside your home and streaming to a device. I use both. It's nothing to have them both on your ATV.

 

[dlpowered89]

Not sure what features of Plex you're specifically looking to use, but out of the Apple TV and NVIDIA Shield, the Shield is by far the stronger competitor in terms of Plex support. Plex often recommend the Shield and they say it's 'born to run Plex'. It's pretty good from my experience and they do have a good partnership with each other. The Shield is powerful enough to transcode 2-3 streams simultaneously quite well but I think you'll get the best Plex experience by running Plex Media Server on a computer or NAS if you want the best out of Plex.

I purchased Mac mini as a server to hook up my Drobo (not NAS. just RAID only.) I plan to install Plex on the mini so I can access all of my media files via Apple TV / Nvidia shield.

 

[prombough]

Hiya, I'm referring to the Plex phone app and it's ability to see the Shield TV as a cast target. The mobile UI is really slick and much speedier than using a remote to control the Shield through HDMI CEC. Just choose your Shield's Plex app as your target player in the cast icon on the top right corner of the iOS Plex app and play as normal.

Okay, great! Thanks. I have done it that way myself too. I do like the Plex app for sure. For films, and with passthrough audio I do see things like DTS, but not sure about quality. So I guess the idea is that the Nvidia will support certain audio/video streams that the Apple TV won't? I am curious because indeed I have thought of using Plex to play my music library too.
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I purchased Mac mini as a server to hook up my Drobo (not NAS. just RAID only.) I plan to install Plex on the mini so I can access all of my media files via Apple TV / Nvidia shield.

Agreeing with Spanky, it is good to have several options. On Nvidia Shield I use Plex with passthrough audio sometimes when accessing a computer's storage of Movies, then either VLC or Kodi (better I think) when playing directly from Airport Extreme external hard drive where permanent storage is to my Nvidia Shield. I guess Infuse would do something similar on ATV.

 

[EmPPgamer]

I was a die hard Apple TV fan. Eventually just got tired of the very limited functionality.

Can I install:

iFlix - no
HooQ - no
Kodi - no
Prime Video - no (but supposedly coming soon)
Spotify - no

Ah OK. So it's useful for what exactly. Netflix, You Tube and anything iTunes. Pass.

Switched to Shields now and couldn't be happier.

 

[ActionableMango]

Can any of you using a Shield comment on whether or not it will display HDR when mirroring an HDR-capable PC game with suitable Nvidia card?

Basically, I know the Shield can do HDR for streaming TV/Movies. And I know it can stream PC video games. But I don't know if it can stream PC video games in HDR.