This question is regarding Android TV, Plex and Passthrough Codec support. unless you know right off the bat what i'm talking about, you might want to skip this wall of text/post.
i have 3 roku's because it is the only box that has no problem sending the correct audio codecs to my receiver while using Plex. No transcoding, no blah blah blah. it just sends the correct codec to my AVR, weather that is AC3, DTS, DD, DD+, DTS-HD, etc.
This is not the case with AFTV, MII BOX, NVidia shield or anything android tv based. Roku has no problem sending the correct codec over to my AVR, while Android TV based devices has issues with certain codecs (such as DTS). It will either transcode the audio at some point to get the audio data to the AVR. Either at plex server level, or it decodes and re-encodes on the STB. neither of which are ideal.
here is an ongoing discussion about it. https://forums.plex.tv/discussion/201537/bug-no-dts-audio-for-android-tv/p3
From what i gather, this problem is basically an android problem. and since most apps use the android API to send audio, then these programs have the same issues, but most apps know which codec works correctly, so this only really effects Plex users or other apps like plex. Kodi was able to circumvent (not on purpose) this issue on a AFTV because it didn't use the Android API to send audio. so it passes through all codecs like they should. but since Plex is in the app stores, its not going to go against google anytime soon.
I would love to convert all my HT boxes to android TV but this main issue is what holds me back every time.
I know there are going to be a few "i have never had that problem comments" but trust me, it is a thing.
best way to prove it is to plug a roku and whatever android tv box into your AVR, play something with DTSHD audio with Plex. Notice, the difference on your AVR when playing the same thing in the same plex app but on different devices (roku vs aftv for instance)
most recievers will let you know that it is getting a DTSMA signal or whatever specific codec. some android players that have this issue try to get around it by transcoding the audio through your plex server, or some how decode it on the device, as apposed to sending it bit for bit to the AVR.
what have you found? Does the latest Nvidia Shield TV update address this LONG ongoing problem?