So you’ve got determined to run a Plex server on the Nvidia Shield over the myriad different choices. Nvidia has been making variants of the Shield Android TV field for occurring seven years now, and it is turn out to be a strong, feature-rich media streamer. It can stream virtually any kind of media to your TV, even fancy uncompressed audio codecs, however it will probably additionally serve up media in your different units with the built-in Plex server. Setup is not too advanced, however there are some things to know.
What you want
Before you get your coronary heart set on utilizing the Shield as a Plex server, you will want a number of issues. First, be sure to’ve acquired the proper Shield. The base mannequin Shield TV, which is formed like a tube will not work, because it runs 32-bit apps and isn’t appropriate with the Plex server. You want a previous-gen Shield or the current-gen Pro mannequin (that is what we’re utilizing to check).
Unlike some earlier variations of the Shield Pro, the present one solely has 16GB of inner storage. If you are going to run a Plex Server, you will in all probability wish to add exterior storage. For most fashions, which means a USB flash drive or an exterior arduous drive. The present Shield has two USB 3.0 ports on the again. Some older variations sport a microSD card slot. You can mount community storage for Plex, however this introduces one other potential level of failure.
Lastly, you want a dependable community connection to the field. Ideally, this ought to be an Ethernet cable. However, I’ve used Wi-Fi 6 with the Shield, and Plex nonetheless streams my uncompressed Blu-ray rips reliably.
Enable the server
If you’ve got by no means launched Plex on the Shield, it would provide to allow the Plex server proper off the bat. You can take it up on its provide to avoid wasting a number of clicks, however you need to make a visit to the Play Store earlier than you dig in. For some unknown cause, the media server package deal generally will get out-of-date even with auto-update enabled. It’s a good suggestion to make sure you aren’t working an historic model earlier than attempting to make use of the server. Nine instances out of ten, issues with connection are due to an outdated app.
To toggle the server on (or off), you simply must pop open the Plex app and scroll down towards the underside of the settings. Under “Plex Media Server” you may allow/disable the server or change the storage location. The Shield is a succesful streaming field, nevertheless it’s not superb for configuring libraries and managing settings. The finest strategy to handle your server is to go to the Plex net interface out of your pc. Make positive you are signed in with the identical Google account as your Shield, and the server might be accessible.
After going by the setup course of, you need to give the default settings a going over. The Shield is tuned for transcoding on the fly, however you in all probability don’t desire all the things down-sampled to 720p. I all the time set the default streaming to unique high quality, so I can direct play uncompressed media. You can all the time manually set the streaming high quality in the event you’re on a poor connection.
With the server on-line, you may set up Plex on all of your units, together with telephones, tablets, TVs, and even lesser streaming packing containers. They’ll all hook up with your Shield to stream your content material, and it really works even when the Shield is asleep. Be conscious, the server might take a while to get up in the event you level the Plex library to a community storage location. Luckily, you may get monumental storage in some fairly tiny USB flash drives lately.
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