I recently transitioned from a Roku 4 in hopes that the Nvidia Shield could offer more capability. The Roku 4 remote has a dedicated << and >> buttons that enable users to jump forward and backwards in media ~30 seconds or so. Plex for the Nvidia Shield lacks this capability and instead forces us to seek through time by a fact x2, x4, x8 etc... Does anyone know if I can replicate the Roku's ability to jump forward/back 30 seconds?
I don't know much about the normal Plex client, but I do know that Kodi can act as a Plex client (it's a pretty neat/easy setup) and does have options for both ways of seeking. By default Kodi does time steps, configured in the GUI, such as 1x for 10s, 2x for 30s, or configured only use a single time step.
Question from someone considering a Shield: if you remote control the plex app on the shield using your phone, can you get access to the skip ahead/back buttons on the phone app?
You can partially "fix" that by buying an universal IR remote which features dedicated << and >> buttons. I use one from One for All and it works great with the Shield. You'll still have to press more times to increase skip speed, but atleast it's instant with dedicated buttons.
It cannot. This is a design decision by the Plex team unfortunately, something about it being the recommended implementation by Google for exoplayer (the Android TV player that Plex uses).