Will the Nvidia Shield Pro display artwork of USB attached hard drives

[3db]

Sadly my WD TV Live streamer stopped working on my 2nd system and I'm looking at the Nvidia Shield Pro as a possible replacement. I will use it mainly to serve music stored on a USB WD 3TB hard drive to my AVR. Will it display album artwork on a per folder basis like my Iomega and Roku drives do as shown below in the attachments. The android streamer I has will only display the artwork via genres, artist, and albums but not when I use it as a folder navigator.

The Iomega


The Roku

 

[panteragstk]

This type of thing is no problem. It has Plex built in and can act as a server to all your other devices if you want it to. If your music is organized and tagged, then Plex will pick it up pretty quickly. They've made a lot of good changes on the music side of things.

If you don't want to go that route, you can at least use the shield as a network share so your other devices can just do what they want with what's on your drive.

 

[3db]

This type of thing is no problem. It has Plex built in and can act as a server to all your other devices if you want it to. If your music is organized and tagged, then Plex will pick it up pretty quickly. They've made a lot of good changes on the music side of things.

If you don't want to go that route, you can at least use the shield as a network share so your other devices can just do what they want with what's on your drive.

Is the remote supplied with the Nvidia an RF or Infrared? Im hoping the latter so I can control it with a harmony remote.

I looked it up and they say IR blaster so Logitech will handle it. NOw just to find out if the file explorer used in the Shield displays artwork like the Roku.

 

[3db]

This type of thing is no problem. It has Plex built in and can act as a server to all your other devices if you want it to. If your music is organized and tagged, then Plex will pick it up pretty quickly. They've made a lot of good changes on the music side of things.

If you don't want to go that route, you can at least use the shield as a network share so your other devices can just do what they want with what's on your drive.

I went to their online chat help and I was told that they dont have a native file explorer on the device and that I need to download it from Google Play. Based on 4 or 5 downloads with my other Android device, none of them will duplicate what I get from the Roku or the Iomega.

 

[panteragstk]

Is the remote supplied with the Nvidia an RF or Infrared? Im hoping the latter so I can control it with a harmony remote.

I looked it up and they say IR blaster so Logitech will handle it. NOw just to find out if the file explorer used in the Shield displays artwork like the Roku.

My harmony hub connects via bluetooth, so not a lot of help on the remote front. I think some models have an IR blaster.

 

[panteragstk]

I went to their online chat help and I was told that they dont have a native file explorer on the device and that I need to download it from Google Play. Based on 4 or 5 downloads with my other Android device, none of them will duplicate what I get from the Roku or the Iomega.

That's not a great method for playback anyway. Kodi or plex or something else that will actually look at the files and group them accordingly.

There are plenty of decent file explorer apps though, but that's just not the way I'd do it. Too many clicks to get what I want.

 

[3db]

That's not a great method for playback anyway. Kodi or plex or something else that will actually look at the files and group them accordingly.

There are plenty of decent file explorer apps though, but that's just not the way I'd do it. Too many clicks to get what I want.

Only 4 clicks to get to playing the song I want..1-genre, 2-artist, 3-album, 4-play . I have tried 4 different versions of file explorers with my other android device and none of them list the artwork until I get to the album. Other player apps reorganize the genres and display albums or artists into one big mess so I have to scroll endlessly to find the album of the artist I want to play. That fustrates me more than the clicking.

 

[panteragstk]

Only 4 clicks to get to playing the song I want..1-genre, 2-artist, 3-album, 4-play . I have tried 4 different versions of file explorers with my other android device and none of them list the artwork until I get to the album. Other player apps reorganize the genres and display albums or artists into one big mess so I have to scroll endlessly to find the album of the artist I want to play. That fustrates me more than the clicking.

I would try Plex and see how it does for you. Shouldn't take more than a few min to set up and it works locally for free. Plus, you can use folder mode to browse your stuff if you want to.

 

[Eppie]

I have my music sorted into folders on my PC by artist and then by album. I had Plex Media Server running on the PC so when I setup the Shield I unchecked the box for setting up a server and just run the Plex client on the Shield. Took only a few steps to connect to my server. As panteragstk mentioned, Plex has a folder view option that would let you navigate by folder. I'll have to try it tonight to see if displays album art, but if memory servers me correctly I think folder view does not display art until you either select an album folder or start playing a song. I'll try and remember to post some pics tonight.

Should be able to plug a thumb drive into a USB port as well and see how it shows up. If you're accessing music on a USB attached hard drive, you'll need to enable the Plex server option on the Shield and let it index your hard drive. Not sure how it handles moving files around if you use the same portable drive on more than one system.

 

[3db]

I have my music sorted into folders on my PC by artist and then by album. I had Plex Media Server running on the PC so when I setup the Shield I unchecked the box for setting up a server and just run the Plex client on the Shield. Took only a few steps to connect to my server. As panteragstk mentioned, Plex has a folder view option that would let you navigate by folder. I'll have to try it tonight to see if displays album art, but if memory servers me correctly I think folder view does not display art until you either select an album folder or start playing a song. I'll try and remember to post some pics tonight.

Should be able to plug a thumb drive into a USB port as well and see how it shows up. If you're accessing music on a USB attached hard drive, you'll need to enable the Plex server option on the Shield and let it index your hard drive. Not sure how it handles moving files around if you use the same portable drive on more than one system.

Thanks Eppie. I look forward to seeing your response. I have one more level of hierarchy then your structure which is genre with the following folders, Rock, Alt Rock, Blues, Country, Folk, Pop, Country. If Plex doesnt show the artwork, I will stick with the ROKU.

 

[panteragstk]

Plex didn't show artwork when using folder mode.

It does it when you use Library mode though.

This might help answer some questions.

Music

www.plex.tv

 

[Eppie]

Plex folder mode (one pic) followed by library mode on Shield:

 

[3db]

Plex folder mode (one pic) followed by library mode on Shield:View attachment 53654
View attachment 53655
View attachment 53656
View attachment 53657
View attachment 53658

Thankyou. Looks like I will stick with Roku until Android fixes its file folder navigation to display the tagged information or the plex library allows genres to be chosen by the user. I have over 2000 albums and countless artists that makes using this system unworkable for me.

 

[panteragstk]

Thankyou. Looks like I will stick with Roku until Android fixes its file folder navigation to display the tagged information or the plex library allows genres to be chosen by the user. I have over 2000 albums and countless artists that makes using this system unworkable for me.

I get that you're used to navigating a certain way, but why not let Plex find metadata automatically and see how you like it? I feel like you will is the only reason I keep asking.

If not, you only wasted a few minutes telling plex to try to organize your music. It won't actually modify anything in your folder structure.

Alternatively, something like Foobar 2000 for android TV would be great for you. It'd let you do exactly as you want, but I'm pretty sure it's a windows only app.

 

[Eppie]

I forgot to check Plex for searching by genre. Most music player apps allow that but I would need to do some more research. What I found in the past is that some apps do not support multiple genres in ID3 tags. My preference is that I can tag a song as Rock;Alt-Rock or Rock;Prog-Rock;Metal. Pulling up the genre Rock would play both but pulling up Alt-Rock or Metal would play just one of the two. Some players do not recognize the separator so "Rock;Alt-Rock" is considered a single separate genre from Rock and it breaks the genre list. I think Foobar recognizes the ";" as a genre separator but there does not seem to be a recognized standard. The "\\" acts as a separator by inserting a null but some tagging apps will create multiple genre tags with \\ instead of one genre tag with multiple values, and multiple genre tags will cause other apps to choke.

I suppose that's why apps like Plex and Roon maintain their own database. You can add multiple tags to the database without concern for creating incompatible ID3 tags. Roon's AI seems to be pretty good at grouping songs similar in style but I haven't researched whether it uses tag info or relies on its cloud metadata.

 

[panteragstk]

I forgot to check Plex for searching by genre. Most music player apps allow that but I would need to do some more research. What I found in the past is that some apps do not support multiple genres in ID3 tags. My preference is that I can tag a song as Rock;Alt-Rock or Rock;Prog-Rock;Metal. Pulling up the genre Rock would play both but pulling up Alt-Rock or Metal would play just one of the two. Some players do not recognize the separator so "Rock;Alt-Rock" is considered a single separate genre from Rock and it breaks the genre list. I think Foobar recognizes the ";" as a genre separator but there does not seem to be a recognized standard. The "\\" acts as a separator by inserting a null but some tagging apps will create multiple genre tags with \\ instead of one genre tag with multiple values, and multiple genre tags will cause other apps to choke.

I suppose that's why apps like Plex and Roon maintain their own database. You can add multiple tags to the database without concern for creating incompatible ID3 tags. Roon's AI seems to be pretty good at grouping songs similar in style but I haven't researched whether it uses tag info or relies on its cloud metadata.

When you're in Library view for Music there is a drop down at the top left under Recommended that says All. If you select that you can show specific Genre, Mood, Style, Country, Collection or Unmatched. At least, that's what's in my list. There are a lot of different sub options depending on what you pick.

I don't actually use these much, but I'm interested to see what it picks for Mood. It looks to have grabbed all of my tag info, but I use a program to do all the tagging and such for me so I know those are good. Makes it much easer on Plex when everything is organized and tagged well.

 

[3db]

I get that you're used to navigating a certain way, but why not let Plex find metadata automatically and see how you like it? I feel like you will is the only reason I keep asking.

If not, you only wasted a few minutes telling plex to try to organize your music. It won't actually modify anything in your folder structure.

Alternatively, something like Foobar 2000 for android TV would be great for you. It'd let you do exactly as you want, but I'm pretty sure it's a windows only app.

Thank you for helping me. I guess I'm an old fart and stuck in my ways. If Plex did redo this, I'm sure I would have classify my music into more niche genres than I care to go through which just adds another layer of complexity for me.

 

[panteragstk]

Thank you for helping me. I guess I'm an old fart and stuck in my ways. If Plex did redo this, I'm sure I would have classify my music into more niche genres than I care to go through which just adds another layer of complexity for me.

It will probably add some extras, but it seems to do a good job of it. I thought there would be a music app that works the way you want, but there don't really seem to be any.

 

[BMXTRIX]

The problem with what you want is that for most companies, it is VERY difficult to turn this idea into something which makes them money, so they aren't spending their time, money, and effort on it. Especially when there is a reasonably solid solution in something like Plex. Which does a lot of what you want already. I definitely think you might have some added effort to go through the albums tags on Plex to put them into the specific genre you want them in, but it should allow it. Then you can just sort by Genre to get the albums/artists you are looking for pretty easily.

I will say that I was super hesitant about installing Plex, but the process literally took me about fifteen minutes to setup the first time. It worked amazingly well and I've enjoyed it for several years now. Mostly, because it is painless.

 

[3db]

The problem with what you want is that for most companies, it is VERY difficult to turn this idea into something which makes them money, so they aren't spending their time, money, and effort on it. Especially when there is a reasonably solid solution in something like Plex. Which does a lot of what you want already. I definitely think you might have some added effort to go through the albums tags on Plex to put them into the specific genre you want them in, but it should allow it. Then you can just sort by Genre to get the albums/artists you are looking for pretty easily.

I will say that I was super hesitant about installing Plex, but the process literally took me about fifteen minutes to setup the first time. It worked amazingly well and I've enjoyed it for several years now. Mostly, because it is painless.

Roku lets me keep my existing tags and I'm afraid Plex will retag my albums with genre into sub genres; ie blues be broken down in electric blues, chicago blues, east coast blues, etc. So when looking for an artist, I have to search all these sub genres instead of simply going into blues folder and scrolling alphabetically to the artist I want.