Nvidia Shield questions about Plex, Kodi & Streaming from a Synology NAS

by Ashton1995

Quick question I hope someone can answer. I have been using a Logitech Revue for ages primarily for Plex and also streaming my movie library from my Synology NAS Share using VIMU Player to access my network shares on the Synology NAS. Also I really like the Youtube app on the Revue that allows me to see my subscriptions, playlists and anything new on my subscriptions is displayed whenever I first open the app on the Revue. I use this frequently for my children and shows which I have saved for them.

I am looking at getting the Shield since as you all know the Revue is a bit long in the tooth and needs to be rebooted often probably due to memory and Ram issues. I really wanted something with an ethernet connection so I can hardwire it and not deal with WIFI. The Shield seems to meet my needs with this plus it's got a pretty power packed set of internals.

I want to do all the things listed above...that's the most important and playing some old Nintendo emulators would be fun as well. Will the Shield allow me to use Plex? I have been reading that it hasn't been playing well with other Android TV boxes..is this true? Can I use Kodi or some other App to stream movies/children videos I've taken and pictures from my Synology networked NAS to the Shield. This is very important to me. Can I set Kodi or another app up to access my Synology NAS? Also, is the Youtube app pretty barebones or does it allow me access to my playlists and subscriptions and will it display new content in my subscriptions like my Revue does?

One more thing. I have two small children (4 and 10 month's old) and I like to watch movies at night when they're sleeping and I usually only listen through my TV speakers and my Revue will downmix the 5.1 audio into stereo but when it does this I have to constantly adjust the volume due to the fact that when they are only talking I have to pump up the volume but when there is a big crash or action scene the sound effects will be way too loud...so the sound levels fluctuate at extremes due to the downmixing most likely, so I have found it difficult to watch many movies at night because of this issue. I noticed that the remote you can buy separately has a headphone jack that would possibly allow me to plug in headphones in order to bypass the TV speakers...is this correct? This would be huge for me and allow me to not worry about these sound fluctuations when watching movies. Is this indeed how the headphone jack would work...I would just adjust the volume on the remote for the headphones volume?

Sorry for all the questions, but I haven't been able to find these particular answers and everyone on this board seems pretty knowledgeable. Thanks

bigtaf

Happy Shield owner here with hopefully the answer to most of your questions.

  1. Shield comes with Plex so yes
  2. Kodi can be side loaded and works beautifully and insanely fast, it can also play media via network share. I tested it while playing 1080p videos from my ZFS server
  3. Have not tried the youtube app, you may find useful stuff about it here https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.google.android.youtube.tv&hl=en
  4. Yes the separate remote does have a headset jack and volume control, although I have not tried it.

Another point re Plex vs Kodi they both seem to have pro's and con's currently on Android TV

Plex

  • Works with voice search
  • Integrates into Android home screen
  • Supported directly via play store so updates are easy
  • Does not seem to support auto playing next episode (Although my version of plex server is a couple months old may have been added recently, will try updating tonight)

Kodi

  • Does not require a plex server to do the transcoding
  • Does NOT integrate into home screen or allow voice search
  • Seems faster then Plex for navigating (although neither is slow)
  • Must be side loaded
  • Supports Auto play next episode (this is huge for me)
goodhur

Looks like the other comment pretty much answers your questions. I just thought you would like to know that there ViMu app for android TV. The interface is a bit different because it's designed more in the leanback style

Ashton1995

Do you have the ability to adjust the volume of the headphones if plugged into the game controller? I will be using plain headphones with no volume control on them. I know the remote has a volume control. Also, will the game controller give me audio for all videos through all apps or just video games?