Media player recommendations?

[alleycat]

I've been reading how the Shield cannot play Dolby Vision Profile 7 FEL layers, which affects the playback of ripped discs. What from I've read it drops the FEL layer and effectively converts it to Profile 8. Anyway I've just ordered a Ugoos AM6B+ from Aliexpress, which is one of the few devices that can play Profile 7 FEL. You need to install Coreelec on it but it seems simple enough. How much real world difference it will make I don't know, but it will be more accurate.

[alexp2000]

Interesting, I had not realised there were players that could handle the FEL now. Look forward to hearing how you get on with it.

I ended up selling my Zidoo 9X due to some really bad lip syncing issues. It seemed like any MKV with a delay applied seemed to drift throught playback. Just using my Oppo now which means no DV at the moment - like you, not sure how much real world difference it really makes!

[alleycat]

Interesting, I had not realised there were players that could handle the FEL now. Look forward to hearing how you get on with it.

I ended up selling my Zidoo 9X due to some really bad lip syncing issues. It seemed like any MKV with a delay applied seemed to drift throught playback. Just using my Oppo now which means no DV at the moment - like you, not sure how much real world difference it really makes!

Sure I will let you know. To be fair I don’t think the player is supposed to be able to handle FEL, however the CoreELEC software exploits something that makes it work. Once it’s installed you boot straight into coreelec which is basically kodi.

[Stamper]

Rvolution as far as I'm concerned.

[stwd4nder2]

I've been reading how the Shield cannot play Dolby Vision Profile 7 FEL layers, which affects the playback of ripped discs. What from I've read it drops the FEL layer and effectively converts it to Profile 8. Anyway I've just ordered a Ugoos AM6B+ from Aliexpress, which is one of the few devices that can play Profile 7 FEL. You need to install Coreelec on it but it seems simple enough. How much real world difference it will make I don't know, but it will be more accurate.

Curious to see how it works for you. At this point the only thing I like about my shield is the HDR to SDR conversion which I use in the living room. For the main setup I'd gladly replace it with something else.

[Beber]

Rvolution as far as I'm concerned.

I kinda would too, but with reservations because of the way they handled the transition from a dying Zappiti brand to their rebirth under the name R_volution regarding their historical customers. Having us to pay 50€ per year to use the R_video software on prior Zappiti mediaplayers we just bought before the brand died was a bitchy move, especially when the R_volution is the exact same product with a different name.

[ThePipes]

I've been reading how the Shield cannot play Dolby Vision Profile 7 FEL layers, which affects the playback of ripped discs. What from I've read it drops the FEL layer and effectively converts it to Profile 8. Anyway I've just ordered a Ugoos AM6B+ from Aliexpress, which is one of the few devices that can play Profile 7 FEL. You need to install Coreelec on it but it seems simple enough. How much real world difference it will make I don't know, but it will be more accurate.

Wow. I wasn't aware of the different profiles which just led me down a deep dive. Very informative. Seems safe to say that the physical discs played in a compatible blu-ray player remains the single best quality version than even a remux rip of the disc. Except maybe for the single work around mentioned above.

For what it's worth. I use Jellyfin and I love it. Of course I just learned it won't play Dolby Vision profile 7; otherwise, I've had no issues. Playing on my phone did struggle transcoding some 4K videos, but I installed Kodi and installed the Jellyfin plugin and it played smoothly with no transcoding. I also enabled hardware acceleration in my Jellyfin which ended up allowing me to play on my phone separate from Kodi. Either option works great now.

[ThePipes]

Well, did more research after reading this thread and discovered my LG CX doesn't support passthrough for TrueHD and DTS-HD for native apps on the TV including Jellyfin. $2000 TV that doesn't support the top audio codecs?? It's like a Ferrari with Camry wheels on it!

I don't currently have a high end sound system, so wasn't something I looked too deeply at I guess. But now I'm wanting to upgrade and discover my TV won't support it anyway.

All this to ask, is NVIDIA Shield still highly recommended here? I've read it will support audio passthrough.

Also. Is that custom launcher referenced further up the thread still relevant?

Thank you!

[Hitcher]

Well my Shield Pro is still going strong although I've switched to Projectivy Launcher.

[alleycat]

I still love the Shield, I've had no problems with it and it wasn't like I noticed the lack of Dolby Vision FEL. Audio passthrough works perfect. I've only ordered this other device as a curiosity really and if that takes over my main viewing room I will repurpose the Shield to another room.