How does the Nexus Player holds up in terms of performance in 2016?

by ThePotatoRage

Hi, I'm considering buying a Android TV box because my old Chromecast is lagging drasticly, sometimes unsuable. I really want the Shield, but It's just too expensive. I need a device that can performe good at playing media. Not really need it for gaming, as I got a Playstation 4 connected in my living room.

So I thought about getting the Nexus Player, as It's cheaper. The thing is - It's old. I heard that it struggles with x265 videos, and I want something to play media from my Plex server perfectly.

So my question is - is the Nexus Player still worth getting for media use in 2016?

eternal_peril

It runs fine for me.

I have it upstairs, Shield TV downstairs.

While it may not be "as fast" as the shield. I rarely have freezing in shows/movies.

I would buy another one, if I could find it.

pawdog

I have seen no change in UI responsiveness or video playing ability. I run Kodi (SPMC) with Emby Server as the backend. It also plays the Emby and Plex apps perfectly. I don't have a lot of h.265 files but the ones I have play without transcoding. All streaming services work as they should. I run with Ethernet and a micro USB drive through a USB hub for expandable storage.

I must admit though that I have lately moved mostly to the Fire TV. It does everything the Nexus Player does video wise, but with a lot worse UI. Amazon however is outworking Google in getting app support and the hardware is better. Built in USB, Micro USB card slot and Ethernet.

The Nvidia Shield TV is also a beast of a device in which I hope to have some day.

Aquifel

It plays any media I throw at it fine. The bottleneck for me is mostly internal network speed but, not much more I can do about that without an actual hard-wired ethernet connection. You will need it to be in the same room as your wifi router and, you will need your router to support AC.

Most of my content is 720p. I haven't noticed any problems at 1080p but, that's a very small amount of my content so, sample size will be tiny. I have no 4k content and, doubt the nexus could handle it.

As far as h265, most of my stuff is still in h264. I do have h265 content but, again, not a tremendous amount. I have noticed no problems specifically for h265 with what I do have.

The only issues I have with my nexus are occasional buffering when the wifi is having problems and, a bit of interface lag in some places. An otg cable and a usb network adapter/hub could fix the wifi issue but, I don't think it's worth it considering the rarity of the problem.

JoeLuna

Ive had it since release day, works even better now. Still missing some key apps like Watch ESPN. If you can get it for $50 or less its a bargain.

rillo561

Mine works great, responsive and fast. Mainly use it for kodi (XBMC)

JimboLodisC

runs fine for me, could use more internal storage for apps though

any transcoding would be done on the server side, the NP does Plex without an issue as a client

Izacus

Works just fine, UI speed it good, plays everything H.264 related up to fullHD.

It doesn't have a H.265 / HEVC decoder so it probably will struggle to decode high-resolution HEVC videos. If you wanna watch those (even though they're very rare) you'll need the Shield.

nyteryder79

h265 content stutters bad on my NP and it's wired in. I've tried a few different media apps too.

evilkayak

Can someone with nexus tv install the xfinity app and see if it runs or crashkes?

infeststation

Like shit. Get a shield on eBay.