Hi all, After weighing the options of SFF, NUC and a Shield i've decided a Shield would be my best bet for direct playing my media collection, up to and including 4K content. Currently using a Win10 laptop and OpenPHT. My only hesitation, is how well does the Shield handle subtitles (.srt and internal) using Plex or Kodi? I really need a smooth experience, no lag or intermittent issues, reponsive menus etc. My previous experience with Android App-based clients is a lot of hitching and lag. I'll be streaming from a low power NAS, DS418J.
I've experienced flickering in plex when subtitles were enabled in an instance when streaming 4k content, but I don't normally use subtitles so I can't say if it's applicable in all scenarios or not. It is a known bug with a workaround, though: https://forums.plex.tv/t/video-streaming-problem-when-subtitles-srt-are-on-shield-tv/343159
I run a synology 918 nas and use kodi to watch 4k hdr content... works perfectly fine. Can't use plex though cause it needs a license to use hardware decode which is required for 4k.. 1080p is fine. The subtitles is not a problem for me, i dont think it does it in the most beautiful fashion but i can clearly read it.
Hmm, so basically seems like I'd have to ditch Plex and use Kodi. What do you mean by "not the most beautiful fashion"? You mean the font isn't super clear? WAF is of prime importance. I remember years ago, media players were $<100 so this thing needs to be A1 to be worthwhile. I'm still on the fence. Unfortunately the NUC's don't have HDMI 2.
You can see the pixellation of the letters a bit, but that makes sense because the have to come up quickly to match the dialogue, making them all smooth and beautiful would take time. I'm fussy, but I think they're absolutely fine.