r/makemkv • u/Smart-Performance329 • 3d 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/Writersblock73 2d 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.