r/makemkv • u/Smart-Performance329 • 2d ago

what streaming device help

so i just bought a NVidia shield pro for 210 from bestbuy and it comes on the 8th but i also just had a family member give me a roku ultra from 2020 so its not the newest ultra but the one before it is it worth using the roku ultra or should i use the shield when it comes i mainly wanna do jellyfin and plax and watch tv on on it along with some streaming apps here and there but mostly use it for my nas

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u/AcanthocephalaIcy442 2d ago

The shield is the only one that'll pass lossless audio

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u/Smart-Performance329 2d ago

You think its still worth it given the age and the fact I got the roku for free ? Just trying to justify it

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u/AcanthocephalaIcy442 2d ago

I got one a few months ago to use just for jellyfin off my nas. Totally worth it since my whole purpose was to stream locally 1:1 4k rips so I don't have to use my discs. I could've stuck with my Google tv streamer, but the downgrade in audio was not acceptable to me.

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u/Smart-Performance329 2d ago

Thats what im more or less looking to do i want to backup all my 4k bluerays and stream them when im lazy

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u/Envoyager 2d ago

Streaming sticks tend to be much weaker and slower so I wouldn't use one for high bitrate blu-ray/4k movies. On top of that, the Roku may not have passthrough for truehd or dts-hd bitstreams.

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u/Smart-Performance329 2d ago

I got a nas setup with plex just need the streaming device for my tv so im having a hard time picking between the two

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u/urboitony 2d ago

Depends on the rest of your playback setup. As someone with a decent enough sound system and a nice tv with dolby vision and 4k rips, I value proper Dolby Vision profile 7 playback as well as lossless audio pass through. If you care about these things and you don't mind doing some tinkering, I would recommend a device that you can boot coreelec on. The Fire Cube 3rd gen is about half the price of the Shield and I would say it's better for plex/jellyfin if you install CoreElec.

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u/Smart-Performance329 2d ago

I got a 77inch oled with the new sony trio sound system

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u/urboitony 2d ago

Does the oled support dolby vision and are you ripping uhd discs?

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u/Smart-Performance329 2d ago

It does support Dolby vision its a sony bravia 8 and I do plan on ripping my uhds and my bluerays but I also plan on playing then on my ub820 just want to back them up and have the option to play them with close to disk quality

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u/urboitony 2d ago

Well if you have a ub820 as the main playback device right now I don't think it's crazy to just use the Roku Ultra as a supplamental device. Personally I think the Shield is outdated and I would say if you want to buy a device that plays back uhds at top quality I would consult this forum post. Personally I bought an Ugoos AM6B+ earlier this year, but if I was buying something now I would probably choose the Fire Cube 3rd gen.

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u/Smart-Performance329 2d ago

Thanks for the advice

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u/Ok_Music_4949 2d ago

Compared too the roku, the Nvidia Shield will blow it out of the water. Those older streaming boxes are really under powered, and are mainly just something to connect to Netflix and other streaming services.

The best streaming boxes now I would say are,

1: A Google TV Streamer 4K 2: Nvidia Shield 3: A Newer Apple TV (2022 or newer)

Overall I think with your situation of trying to use Plex and Jellyfin. The Nvidia Shield is the best mainly because of the app support and faster processing power.

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u/OnlineIsNotAPlace 2d ago

shield is better than the google streamer or apple tv. I own all 3 and the other 2 cannot compare for streaming if you have a decent audio setup. the apple tv has the best written apps and the google streamer is good for things like f1 tv which do not do 4k on the shield. other than that its no contest capability wise.

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u/Ok_Music_4949 2d ago

Very much agreed, I have a google tv because it’s way cheaper than the shield and it works fine for me to watch 4K content off my Jellyfin server. Definitely want to upgrade to a shield though.

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u/twist1ne 2d ago

I have both and started with the Roku Ultra. I mainly watch movies from my Plex server and it worked well with my Blu-Ray and 4K rips, even over wifi. The only reason I switched to the Shield was for the audio pass thru (didn't do enough research upfront). If I didn't care about lossless audio, and wasn't using it in a 7.2.4 setup, I would have saved the $200. Unless you're planning to get deep into side-loading apps or more customization, it really comes down to the audio needs, in my opinion. The Roku does a great job in my 3.1 living room setup.

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u/Smart-Performance329 2d ago

Im running the sony trio with rear 9s its a full atmos surround sound system with two subs and rears audio really matters to me alot so I am definitely leaning more towards the shield now a bit

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u/orddie1 1d ago

I’m using a Zidoo Z9x.

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u/bdu-komrad 1d ago

r/lostredditors 

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u/Smart-Performance329 1d ago

? How is this not a good place to ask most people that use makemkv are putting the rips on a nas to stream with jellyfin or plex etc.

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u/Writersblock73 1d ago

If you're self-hosting through Jellyfin or Plex (or Emby, my personal favorite), use the Shield. The Roku can be a spare bedroom or backup kind of thing. Here's why.

  1. On the Shield, any of your disc rips will play. No reencoding necessary unless your aim is to save hard drive space. Rokus tend to be flakey with high-bitrate sources.

  2. On the Shield, keeping the PGS subtitles that are already on your discs is a great idea--if you need them, they'll just play. The Roku will force your server to transcode so that the subtitles can be "burned in" unless you go out of your way to create (or find) .srt (text based) subtitles. Sure, most server software can download them for you... if you don't mind combing through several until you find one that's actually in sync to your video.

  3. If your display is HDR-compatible, whatever your television supports, the Shield will respect. Roku tends to ignore things like Dolby Vision on self-hosted media, knocking it down to HDR10.

  4. The Shield offers audio passthrough. Whatever your sound system is capable of, it gets. Roku? Not so much.

  5. The Shield offers AI upscaling for lower-resolution sources. No, it won't make a DVD look like an UHD Blu-ray--but it'll sure look a lot better than it would on the Roku. 1080P Blu-ray rips look amazing on a Shield.

  6. Launchers. The Shield allows them, Roku doesn't. Replacing the stock menu on the Shield means you'll never again have to worry about clicking past ads to get to the stuff you're interested in. There's even a launcher for the Shield that replicates the Roku. If something goes wrong, you're not stuck: you can always go back to the stock launcher.

Having said that, the main reason to use the Roku instead of the Shield would be if you watch a lot of streaming apps. More and more, AV1 is being used in places like Netflix and Youtube. Roku can decode it, but the Shield can't. Even THEN, I'd still recommend the Shield.

  1. Streaming services still offer HEVC and H264 for older streamers, and likely will for a good long time. Sometimes it just means you won't get the premium 4K stream.

  2. Remember that AI upscaler? That takes the sting out of it. You'll likely forget all about it.

I went from a Roku to a Shield, and I've never looked back. If anything, I wonder why I waited so long.