NVIDIA Shield TV Pro or Infuse?

General
1

$199 or NVIDIA Shield TV Pro vs $99 for Infuse. Which one is the better option? I have an Apple TV 4K hooked up to an AVR with a 7.2.4 speaker setup. I’m currently using Plex as my main app to access all my media. When watching movies, it doesn’t have audio pass through for Dolby Atmos/DTS HD MA. Which is why I was considering getting the NVIDIA Shield and install Plex on that to get audio passthrough. I was wondering if Infuse supports audio passthrough? If so I might get that instead.

2

Here’s some info on Infuse audio that may help.

3

it’s the appletv that doesn’t support it, not Infuse.

besides, do you really need audio passthru? i mean really?
is your home setup so advanced that the lack of audio passthru is noticeable?

the shield pro is a 6.5 year old device (based on 11 year old hardware).

4

I used to have one Apple TV and one Shield. Now I have 3 ATVs and 0 Shield. And nothing comes close to Infuse’s quality on Android.

5

i previously had a shield pro as well, moved to appletv and that lack of audio passthru is not something i would ever notice in a home environment.

6

I also have several Apple TV 4k, an OLED TV, a projector, and a good audio system.
Previously, I had Android devices with bitstream audio. After extensive tests and auditions. I didn’t hear any difference in the sound. After that, all Android devices were replaced with AppleTV.
Comfort and stability are two things that AppleTV/infuse offers better than any other device on the market.

7

If you have a true 7.2.4 setup with discrete height speakers, you should go with the Shield. Infuse cannot pass through TrueHD Atmos and DTS:X due to a platform limitation of the AppleTV itself. Infuse will pass through DTS-HD MA just fine, which is what you’ll get when you playback a DTS:X file. If you play back a TrueHD Atmos file you will get TrueHD 7.1.

If you have fake height speakers through a soundbar or something, then stick with Infuse. That is fake Atmos anyway. But for real height speakers you should not use Infuse, unfortunately. The AppleTV simply does not allow that signal to be passed through.