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The Gunslinger posted:I spent a fair amount of time farting around with HDR10 and DV on both my OLED and the newer TCL screen today, I can't see enough of a difference to care. The only real snag I have with the Shield is the color space switching and some shoddy handling of refresh rates in a few Android TV apps. I actually liked the new UI once I customized it. Yeah, I'm not really impressed with whatever minor differences I've seen on HDR10 vs DV. But, I haven't went out of my way to give both their best chance to impress me either.
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Jun 18, 2018 19:51
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Just a final update on my woes with this TCL Roku/Plex stuff then I'll shut up about it: - Tried disabling pi-hole and going back to regular DNS - Tried wired/wireless, no difference - Factory reset, different regions, new Roku accounts, etc. No joy, just crashes out to the home screen every time. Literally every other app works fine so I doubt its a problem with the set. Plex support is non-existent so far, same with Roku and TCL. For an HTPC replacement, this built in stuff is only good if everything goes well. If it doesn't you have zero logging or other diagnostic info to go on. So yeah sticking with the Shield to do most things and just using the Roku for Netflix/Dolby Vision. I noticed the Shield TV gamut switching is improved in Oreo by the way. Still not perfect but definitely improved.
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Jun 19, 2018 14:02
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Whatever I was lamenting about before on the state of hardware, I take it back. I tried the Android TV implementation on my Bravia (x930e) again after disabling a lot of the shitware Sony leaves running. To my complete and utter surprise, it runs Kodi very well. SPMC and MrMC run equally well. There is a bit of lag when browsing a library and Wall view, but nothing I can’t deal with. I’m just insanely thankful I don’t need to rely on Plex. I like subtitles on most things I watch, and Plex doesn’t transcode 4K content very well, and to my knowledge it is utterly incapable of transcoding 4K content and still passing HDR metadata
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Jun 19, 2018 20:50
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bobfather posted:Whatever I was lamenting about before on the state of hardware, I take it back. I tried the Android TV implementation on my Bravia (x930e) again after disabling a lot of the shitware Sony leaves running. Subzero does a fantastic job automating subtitles for Plex - not just grabbing them, but grabbing good ones, and updating to better ones if released, and multiple languages if you want, from multiple providers (not just OpenSubs) and forced sub support - though I grant you that the process to actually enable subs in the Plex Roku client is a couple more clicks than really needed. I do miss being able to program a single key to enable them in Kodi. My 4k/HDR experience has so far been the opposite - I have 3 Shields, and the Ultra does a better job than all of them with that content. On the Shields I use Kodi or MrMC, the latter of which I bought. The Roku doesn't transcode anything but audio when I play them on a TV I don't have passed through to my AVR (basically everywhere but my home theater/Atmos system). That said, I still like the Shield a lot. It's great. And I have them both hooked up except to my TCL upstairs, which I mostly use for gaming because it is an excellent TV for the 4k consoles. I find myself on the Roku lately most of all though since it has all the streaming I care about, plus runs Plex well.
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Jun 20, 2018 01:32
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The Gunslinger posted:Just a final update on my woes with this TCL Roku/Plex stuff then I'll shut up about it: Sorry to hear that. Hope it doesn't happen to me! BTW I also run a Pi-hole server, they are great.
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Jun 20, 2018 01:35
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Does anyone else get stuttering with 4k HEVC 10 bit hdr files played in Kodi on their Shield TV?
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Jun 26, 2018 22:53
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Thermopyle posted:Does anyone else get stuttering with 4k HEVC 10 bit hdr files played in Kodi on their Shield TV? I've only tested a handful of files but all were fine.
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Jun 27, 2018 14:00
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Thermopyle posted:Does anyone else get stuttering with 4k HEVC 10 bit hdr files played in Kodi on their Shield TV? What version (or offshoot branch) of Kodi? They played fine for me when I used the mainline or MrMC on the Shield.
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Jun 27, 2018 14:45
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Just basic Kodi installed from the Play Store. I'll rip out a sample clip here some time today and see if any of you guys can test it out for me. I did forget a wrinkle...I'm playing them back on a 1080p TV, so the Shield has to scale the file.
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Jun 27, 2018 16:56
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Oh, I think I figured it out. It was a TrueHD file and I didn't have the settings right in in System > Audio. Oopsie.
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Jun 27, 2018 22:47
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Ixian posted:
Is it confirmed the color space switching stuff isn't fixed in Oreo for Shield? I updated my Shield before I left this morning and all I had time to see is that it reset my resolution/color space setting back to auto (and along those lines, what do I set in order to make 1080p stuff not look bad if it's not fixed)? WhyteRyce fucked around with this message at 00:35 on Jun 29, 2018 |
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Jun 29, 2018 00:25
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WhyteRyce posted:Is it confirmed the color space switching stuff isn't fixed in Oreo for Shield? I updated my Shield before I left this morning and all I had time to see is that it reset my resolution/color space setting back to auto (and along those lines, what do I set in order to make 1080p stuff not look bad if it's not fixed)? It's inconsistent. And to be totally fair here: A lot of this involves Kodi and pirated (what? You can download movies for free?) 4k HDR content and how well it does/doesn't auto-switch. I think Netflix handles it ok after their latest update though I am sure there are 20 Reddit posts complaining about some obscure aspect of it still. The big problem is Roku - loving Roku! - and Plex seem to have figure this out, overall. Which takes some of the shine off "just buy a Shield morons" advice.
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Jun 29, 2018 02:21
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Sooo, the Shield 7 Oreo home background color is a mix of, what, light burgundy and diarrhea brown/green, huh? What goddamn committee sat down and agreed this looks good? (It’s loving awful. And, no, it doesn’t change with highlight app. It’s static.) Real edit: Oh, it’s a bug. Only happens now and then and it clears upon wake from sleep. Tapedump fucked around with this message at 05:16 on Jun 30, 2018 |
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Jun 30, 2018 05:11
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So, bit of a trip report. The TCL P6 range in Australia have Android TV units in them instead of Roku, I'm guessing because Roku isn't really a big thing here. I picked up a 55P6US the other day, and I'm really stoked with the way it handles Kodi, Netflix, and even Steam Link (although I haven't tested anything more resource intensive than Stardew Valley yet). There's not a lot of info available about the hardware, but it seems to chug along okay. 4K Remux's take a few seconds to smooth out on start, but seem to be working fine by the time you get past the distributor logos etc at the beginning of the film. Sixaxis doesn't seem to work on it out of the box, but my old 360 wireless PC dongle worked fine, as did my Logitech K400 keyboard/touchpad unit. I haven't booted my HTPC since I got the thing, and the quality of life improvements from not having to janitor a (loving problematic) Win 10 machine are amazing. The only thing that sucks is downgrading from 6 channel PCM via HDMI to lossy 5.1 via TOSLINK, because I haven't upgraded my receiver yet, and it doesn't support ARC (if the implementation on this TV can even do 5.1, apparently that's all over the shop). But who knows if my damaged 36 year old ears could even tell the difference anyway? It'll never see Oreo, but hell it works well right now, if you're in Aus (probably NZ?) I wholeheartedly recommend one of these, vs dropping the $366 Amazon wants for the Shield over here and getting a Sony or whatever.
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Jul 3, 2018 08:47
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Been dying to get a Shield for a while now, and I'm about to come into a little bit of money I can play with. Is it still a good time to buy? There isn't an upgraded model coming any time soon or anything is there? I also plan to use it for the controller and steam/emulators so keep that in mind if you're gonna recommend the apple tv or anything else.
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Jul 4, 2018 14:40
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codo27 posted:Been dying to get a Shield for a while now, and I'm about to come into a little bit of money I can play with. Is it still a good time to buy? There isn't an upgraded model coming any time soon or anything is there? I also plan to use it for the controller and steam/emulators so keep that in mind if you're gonna recommend the apple tv or anything else. You're gonna do that poo poo for like an hour and then never touch it again
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Jul 4, 2018 15:37
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I understand where you are coming from but I'm getting kinda tired of playing Dark Souls and other controller games sitting at my desk, would rather stream them to the TV and sit on the couch, especially seeing I'm hoping to upgrade the TV too later on in the summer.
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Jul 4, 2018 17:30
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The Shield will be a fine device for you...provided you understand the HDR issues talked about over the past page or two.
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Jul 4, 2018 17:31
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I'm less insane over TV as I am my PC setup. Gf will use the TV more than me, and half the stuff I will watch will be old Frasier and Simpsons, in any case mostly old stuff regardless. Though I want to get the best quality possible I'm just not as anal about it when it comes to the TV. Long as the motion is good and everything is nice and sharp. I don't foresee a lot of Kodi use either, I must say I really like Plex for my local stuff
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Jul 4, 2018 18:07
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codo27 posted:I'm less insane over TV as I am my PC setup. Gf will use the TV more than me, and half the stuff I will watch will be old Frasier and Simpsons, in any case mostly old stuff regardless. Though I want to get the best quality possible I'm just not as anal about it when it comes to the TV. Long as the motion is good and everything is nice and sharp. I don't foresee a lot of Kodi use either, I must say I really like Plex for my local stuff Bruh just get a Chromecast or Firestick something
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Jul 4, 2018 18:22
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I was gonna ask did you not read the part about the games but you already replied to that post too soooo
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Jul 4, 2018 18:29
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codo27 posted:I was gonna ask did you not read the part about the games but you already replied to that post too soooo Just ignore him, he's insane.
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Jul 4, 2018 18:57
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You can get a Steam Link for like nothing. Edit: Valve will sell you one for $2.50 for the next 24 hours. Stream your games on that. Don't listen to me, though, I'm insane. Go spend $150+ to watch Plex and stream your games instead TheScott2K fucked around with this message at 19:07 on Jul 4, 2018 |
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Jul 4, 2018 18:59
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TheScott2K posted:You can get a Steam Link for like nothing. I got one for $5 over Xmas and never set it up. Forgot I owned it for a while. I should at least check if it works!
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Jul 4, 2018 19:04
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Also, any Android device (up to and including your TV, probably) will run Moonlight, which acts like a Shield and lets you stream games. Works flawlessly. My Bravia even lets me hook up a Windows Xbox 360 dongle to play games using a nice controller.
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Jul 4, 2018 19:36
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For your gaming use case codo27, the Sheild may be awesome. There are other ways to cobble together the functionality, but there's nothing wrong with buying a device that isn't the lowest-cost theorycraft. I've got three, and the ability to game with an Xbone controller (or M&K) in any room that has a good TV using the horsepower of your gaming rig is awesome. My wife and father (and sis and kids at her house) have no problem using it, but they don't game. If you've got a Harmony remote you want to continue using, add the cost of a FLIRC to the Shield and get Kodi (or Plex) working just like you're used you. This last bit may not apply to you.
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Jul 4, 2018 23:46
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bobfather posted:Also, any Android device (up to and including your TV, probably) will run Moonlight, which acts like a Shield and lets you stream games. Works flawlessly. My Bravia even lets me hook up a Windows Xbox 360 dongle to play games using a nice controller. Yeah, Moonlight is the solution they are looking for. In the dumb opposite universe where easy things are made harder for fun, maybe. If game streaming is really important then combined with everything else "buy a Shield, dummy" is still the right advice followed by "get a cheap as poo poo Steam Link if that service is important". The Shield has some problems with autoswitching colorspace for HDR media. Which for all practical purposes right now means "HDR media I downloaded via bitorrent or my custom NZB/Usenet setup". If this use case fits you, you already know it, otherwise it doesn't mean two shits and the Shield is still the right answer for the other 99.9% of use cases. Ixian fucked around with this message at 00:19 on Jul 5, 2018 |
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Jul 5, 2018 00:17
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Ixian posted:Yeah, Moonlight is the solution they are looking for. If Moonlight is hard to use, I’m not sure what’s easy. Function and feature-wise it’s identical to the Shield. Also, Netflix and Vudu both serve a ton of HDR content. The Shield not having good colorspace switching means that every time you choose to watch non-HDR content on Netflix it’s going to look like rear end. 3 years ago that was a fine limitation. Today it’s unacceptable, and you’d be an idiot to pay $150 for a Shield when Chinese Android TV boxes can do everything the Shield does including automated color-space switching, for cheaper.
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Jul 5, 2018 00:32
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bobfather posted:If Moonlight is hard to use, I’m not sure what’s easy. Function and feature-wise it’s identical to the Shield. There was a time when I would have agreed with you. These days, I've learned enough to know that "random Chinese Android TV box" equals "pile of poo poo for day to day use". I've seen them all come, and go. The dream of One Box to Rule Them All is good and dead. Find a remote solution to switch between a couple-three inputs on your TV - which frankly is dead easy these days - and go with that. The Roku Ultra handles HDR stuff *perfectly* right now, unless you have a hosed up TV (in which case, good luck). Get another box for other stuff. I mean, the Steam Link is practically a dollar and a quarter these days, to give one example. There's lots of poo poo it doesn't do well, but there's other boxes that do. If you have 3 inputs on your TV you can figure it out for cheap, and it's easy. A lot easier then hoping just one of them will eventually do it all the way you want.
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Jul 5, 2018 07:13
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The Roku Ultra doesn't support Dolby Vision though, I was going to replace my Shield with one but neither supports it! Only the TCL Roku's do apparently, I assume because TCL was willing to pay the DV licensing fees. I love standard wars  I suspect Nvidia will work on the colorspace stuff soon now that the groundwork has been laid by Google to actually fix it. The Gunslinger fucked around with this message at 14:29 on Jul 5, 2018 |
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Jul 5, 2018 14:25
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The Gunslinger posted:The Roku Ultra doesn't support Dolby Vision though, I was going to replace my Shield with one but neither supports it! Only the TCL Roku's do apparently, I assume because TCL was willing to pay the DV licensing fees. I love standard wars I have the TCL that supports it and you aren't missing much with HDR-10 vs DV for streaming content that supports it. One of the reasons external streamers haven't adopted it is because many of them don't have chipsets that support 12 bit color depth over HDMI. The other is because Dolby charges nearly $3 a device as a royalty which is a problem for a low margin streaming box, particularly when HDR+ is finally getting widespread support and is free. There are endless debates over which is better, what content supports it well, and so on over at AVSForum. It'll never end. Some of them are still arguing with one another over whether HD-DVD was truly better than BluRay. My advice would be don't worry about it from a "future proofing" standpoint, particularly when it comes to streaming boxes. The latter are cheap and easy to swap out as updated models are released.
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Jul 5, 2018 16:42
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I don't want to "cobble together" anything, I work in IT and the last thing I want is to have to gently caress around with my own stuff at home. I'm usually a thrifty shopper but when it comes to my electronics I don't cheap out. I like to get a deal but I'm glad to buy something from a company I know, that I know works well and does the things I want with little effort. I was mainly just wondering if Shield 2 (or 3 would it be?) was coming any time soon or if another company might have a competing box, because none of the popular apple/Roku/Amazon etc alternatives I'm aware of offers the gaming stuff I really want to incorporate.
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Jul 5, 2018 17:41
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The most likely near term one box to rule them all is the current gen Shield TV with a software update to fix the HDR stuff.
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Jul 5, 2018 17:48
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The best part though, for those cringing over how much it'll cost. In Canada, it'll cost me about $300 with the controller.
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Jul 5, 2018 17:56
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I'd rather have an Apple TV and a switch for an extra hundo.
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Jul 5, 2018 18:09
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Still cant stream games from Steam so what do I do if I want to play something besides the 2 good games that come out for any given Nintendo console? And the switch alone costs an extra 100, then the apple tv 4K costs the same as a Shield without controller. So double essentially to still not do what I want
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Jul 5, 2018 18:39
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They're actually working on the steam app for tvOS. It's not dead.
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Jul 5, 2018 18:41
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If you're married to "I want one box and just one box, gently caress changing inputs ever" then basically the only answer is a Shield unless you're going to to buy a new Smart TV and be selective about which one. Your video needs seem Firestick-basic and Steam Links are cheap as hell, though, so it's worth considering whether not having to switch to HDMI2 to stream your PC games to your TV is worth an extra hundred-plus bucks. It's your money, though. Do what you want. Just don't get an HTPC.
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Jul 5, 2018 18:45
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The HTPC Thread - Dont buy an HTPC
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Jul 5, 2018 18:46
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Don Lapre posted:The HTPC Thread - Dont buy an HTPC This would be a good thread title and the only reasonable answer. Especially when most TVs have at least 3 HDMI ports.
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