Best picture/audo (Atmos) without buying nvidia Shield withTrueHD passthrough?

by Status_Donut420
  1. Can Plex transcode Bluray Remux with Dolby TrueHD Atmos to DD+ Atmos?.
  2. Just Stream (netflix,HBO...)
  3. Use 5.1 and surround upmixer to get atmos
  4. Obvious, waste a whole lot on shield pro
alex3305
  1. Transcoding is only done at server level, not on the Android TV device itself. Except that the Shield Pro can run Plex Server which provides transcoding.
  2. Any Android TV device
  3. Impossible in Android TV or Plex. Only your receiver or soundbar can do this
  4. This is the most stupid point from post and made me question myself to even answer this. The Nvidia Shield Pro is an expensive device. It is not for everyone and there are cheaper alternatives, such as CCwGTV, Amazon's FireTV 4K Max or a TV with Android TV. However in my experience with all of these devices the Shield is the most responsive and feature complete. It has no issues playing any stream I throw at it. Even the high bitrate ones at 80MB/s+.
Nuklear92

To answer your questions in a simple answer.

NO, you won’t get Atmos. As far as I know transcode is a bit of an old tech in todays day and age and it’s still mainly done ONLY for converting any Audio Codec your Soundbar or A/V Receiver might not support into the mainstream supported lossy audio codec of (AC3 - Dolby Digital) or in rare cases either uncompressed Multi-Channel or Stereo PCM. I still haven’t seen a transcoder on Kodi or Plex that does Dolby Digital Plus, there’s no such thing as a transcoder that retain any Atmos or height channels surround for that matter.

Look at Transcoding similar as to “Downmixing” a higher Audio Quality source to a lesser Audio Experience BUT in cases of transcoding to AC3 - Dolby Digital retaining some kind of standard Dolby surround sound.

Edit: if you want Atmos in TrueHD, you either get a Shield TV or simply skip those sources all together and play something that your Soundbar or A/V receiver can decode natively. Transcoding, Downmixing, etc will always compress the original sound quality and surround you would be hearing as if you had the right equipment that supports decoding of the audio codecs you’re trying to play.

pawdog

Getting a Shield means you won't have to transcode TrueHD Atmos since it can pass it though to the AVR. any other device will have to transcode to something less than Atmos.

schneidernet

Shield TV is a PIA but for me, nothing does it better. All else in the chain must support what you are using through it. That's Internet speed/bandwidth, router, WiFi and/or LAN, cables, receiver, display, and speaker numbers and layout. You cannot get blood out of a turnip.

The best outcome for me is offerings in Vision and Atmos.

Also, I think Plex is worthless.