Skip to main content

NVIDIA Shield will be ‘first all-in-one Plex box’ as it gains full Media Server support

Nvidia-shield-plex-media-server

The Nvidia Shield set-top box is about to become the “first all-one Plex box” as Plex announced today the Android TV-based device will gain full media server support later this month. That’s in addition to the Android app offering it currently has and will make the Shield the first device other than a dedicated PC, Mac or NAS with full support for the popular Plex Media Server.

The big difference between just running the Android TV app and having the full Plex media server built-in is support for hardware-accelerated video transcoding and 4K video @ 60fps. 

As you might know, we’ve had a lovely Android TV app for quite some time now, and it’s getting better all the time. But the NVIDIA SHIELD, with its 8-core 64-bit CPU and massive GPU, allows us to make it extra special by letting you run the entire Plex Media Server directly on the device! You read that right: the SHIELD is so powerful that it can not only run our Android TV interface better than just about anything out there, it can also run the full media server, including support for hardware-accelerated video transcoding (H.264, MPEG2 and HEVC)!

As far as storing all that 4K content, Plex points out that the Shield comes with 500GB built-in for storage and users can add more over the air or via USB. The company says the feature is made possible by Shield’s “extremely powerful CPU/GPU,” but it does confirm that it’s evaluating other devices and platforms for the media server and hardware-accelerated transcoding features. 

The Plex app for Shield will gain the media server feature later this month alongside a firmware update to the device. You can check out our original hands-on video with the Nvidia Shield from last year here

FTC: We use income earning auto affiliate links. More.

You’re reading 9to5Google — experts who break news about Google and its surrounding ecosystem, day after day. Be sure to check out our homepage for all the latest news, and follow 9to5Google on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn to stay in the loop. Don’t know where to start? Check out our exclusive stories, reviews, how-tos, and subscribe to our YouTube channel

Comments

Author

Avatar for Jordan Kahn Jordan Kahn

Jordan writes about all things Apple as Senior Editor of 9to5Mac, & contributes to 9to5Google, 9to5Toys, & Electrek.co. He also co-authors 9to5Mac’s weekly Logic Pros series and makes music as one half of Toronto-based Makamachine.