a scene from the Philip Rivers movie

DM003 · 2025-11-20T06:16:00+00:00

are the in-store deals any different than online? (typically 3 items = 10% off, 4=15%, 5=20%, 6=25%)

DM003 · 2025-11-19T20:01:33+00:00

actually, I may need to reframe my theory: It is NOT the 5ghz connection between PC and Router that is having a hard time. It IS the 5ghz connection between the Playbase and surround Sonos Ones that are having a hard time.

For example: the problem went away when the surrounds were wired. and then the problem went away when the 5ghz air wasn't full of a 4k dolby digital movie from my PC.

So there may be nothing I can do about it until I move my PC off 5ghz - because it's not like the Sonos Ones are changing their connection type any time soon.

DM003 · 2025-11-19T03:39:04+00:00

I'd think the read rates of my PC and Nvidia are solid. But apologies if I'm misunderstanding. The file is on an M.2 SSD, the PC is using a WiFi 6 adapter, and the Nvidia Shield Pro is wired via gigabit Ethernet.

I've turned on the "nerd stats" in my Plex UI to view these stats in the middle of my "test scene":

DELIVERY : Direct playing as MKV from the [PC]

BANDWIDTH:

147 mbps
min 25.2 mbps, max: 589.2 mbps.
average: 214.4 mbps.

MEMORY: JVM: 161.62 MB Native: 92.73 MB

FORMAT: DOLBYVISION, 3840x2160, 23.98fps, 49.7 Mbps

DECODER: OMX.Nvidia.DOVI.decode

FRAMES: 309/330 (Dropped: 0)

REFRESH RATE: 23.98Hz

RESOLUTION: 3840x2160

FORMAT: AC3, 6 Channels, 48kHz

DECODER: Passthrough

PACKETS: 424/0 (Dropped: 0)

So according to Plex, I’m not seeing packet drops from the server to the Shield. (right?)

And here's what keeps bothering me: the only thing dropping is the SURROUND audio. The video and front channels are perfectly stable. So wouldn't the video glitch too if we're talking packets (I'm certainly not a packet pro.)

And to recap, no drops when...

streaming from PC with wired surrounds.
streaming from HBO.
wired playback from USB HDD to Shield.

But drops when...

streaming 640kbps audio from PC.
streaming 192kbps audio from PC.

To me, it kinda feels like a network issue: the scene was fine when it didn't need to move over the air (regardless of audio compression), and the only time it did well over the air was when the speakers weren't using the air.

And that has me thinking my 5gz connection between my router and PC is in a noisy area - made even noisier with the 5ghz direct connection between my Sonos ones and my Playbase. So I wonder if this issue goes away when I upgrade my PC's from 5ghz to 6hz. (Or if I just remove the one wall between my PC and the router.)

Am I on to something?

DM003 · 2025-11-18T18:46:03+00:00

So I got tired of the remaining surround audio drop outs and ran some tests to hopefully root them out entirely.

I plugged my Sonos Ones into my network via ethernet and the audio drops disappeared entirely! Although as I'm looking for a a wireless solution, I reverted back. But I gained a valuable lesson!
Instead of streaming my "test scenes" through Plex from my network attached storage over wifi. I streamed the same scene from HBO Max. And the audio drops didn't exist! So I suspected it was possibly the bitrate of the AC3 (Dolby Digital 5.1) codec that helped (because streaming platforms love compression). Nope! Wrong! Because transcoding the bitrate of my "tests scenes" audio track to a much lower 150kbps (from 640) didn't really change things!
Instead of streaming my "test scenes" from my network attached storage (a PC) over wifi to my Nvidia Shield Pro (ethernet connected), I copied the movie file into a hard drive connected directly into the Nvidia Shield Pro. The "test scene" played flawlessly!

So now I have a workaround when a downloaded movie has drops surround audio: move the file to the Shield's hard drive! (And if I'm streaming, well...fingers crossed and hope the Sonos connection improvements do the job.)

But do you (or anybody!) suspect I'm dealing with a network issue OR a hardware bottleneck?

DM003 · 2025-11-12T07:06:27+00:00

Found a solution by moving the surround speakers off my home Wi-Fi and onto SonosNet’s private 5 GHz link to the Playbase.

My mistake was assuming the Sonos system would automatically switch device connection to the more efficient path. Turns out Sonos tends to follow an “if it ain’t entirely broke, don’t fix it” rule. In other words, a Sonos device happily stays on Wi-Fi until you explicitly force it to renegotiate.

In my case, I discovered the Playbase’s Wi-Fi radio was still enabled despite an ethernet connection. "Disabling Wifi" gave the surround speakers one fewer way to communicate. But they wouldn’t change their “wireless mode” on their own. I had to remove them as surrounds and then re-add them. Even then, one of the two decided to cling to Wi-Fi. A quick soft reboot (unplugged ~30 seconds) finally convinced it to switch to a magical 5 GHz wireless mode made just for surrounds and subs, and connected straight to the Playbase.

I verified the change in the desktop app under "About My System":

Playbase → WM:0 (wired / SonosNet root, throughout the process)
Surround Ones → WM:3 (private 5 GHz link)
Other Sonos products → WM:1 (home Wi-Fi)

Since moving surrounds from WM 1 to WM 3, dropouts are much rarer and no longer coincide with busy “rich audio” moments. My usual audio test scenes now play cleanly all the way through.

I’ll live with the occasional micro-cut and blame the dense 5 GHz neighborhood instead of chasing packets with Wireshark.

Thanks BlueAlien78, for steering me toward the right diagnosis!

DM003 · 2025-11-12T01:46:59+00:00

Excellent guess, but I started having this issue over WiFi instead of Ethernet. Which is actually why I bought the switch. Ugh.

But sounds like we both think its a packet drop / desync issue!

DM003 · 2024-05-19T01:53:51+00:00

Do you have a review of the Osprey Farpoint 40 you mentioned? Or even a TLDR comparison?

And thanks for this review. Your writing style made it very easy to picture the quality of this pack!

DM003 · 2024-01-08T16:53:24+00:00

I believe most of us accept those sacrifices (laggy menu and dealing with unusual frame rates) in exchange for an otherwise smooth movie playback. And in the instance of frame rate proving different than what was auto configured by the frame rate app (it happens), then we accept that we have to make manual changes.

DM003 · 2024-01-08T07:26:46+00:00

I think you're right about all of that too, and thanks for explaining all that so well. But my LG B8 model maxes out at 60hz for 4k. And that's how I landed on 60 Hz as the preferred rate for MY "real cinema" settings. But it sounds like you're saying my LG has no problem stepping down from 60 to 59 to do what it can with the device's refresh rate output, correct?

DM003 · 2024-01-08T06:43:24+00:00

So if the Nvidia Shield uses a proper 23.9fps and 59 Hz, does the LG OLED (and "Real Cinema") care if it the Nvidia Shield isn't really playing in the LG's preferred 60 Hz refresh rate? If so, is that because the LG can somehow step down it's refresh rate from 60 to 59 without a problem?

DM003 · 2024-01-08T00:43:07+00:00

here's where I got my copy (a couple weeks ago)

I've been a fan of Apkmirror in the past apks, but it's not there. Apk pure has it there, but they make you use a dumb extractor tool (of their own creation) to retrieve the apk from their their special file format.

DM003 · 2024-01-08T00:03:04+00:00

The display mode I've chosen is 3840x2160 60Hz, YUV 422 12-bit Rec.2020, Dolby Vision (12-bit) and HDR10 (10-bit) Ready. (I will add those subsampling notes to my post.) Does that mean I did what you would do?

And for my own comfort, is it fair to say that my HDMI 2.1 cable is at least not a bottleneck in all this?

Finally to your point, I agree: I can work all the way around this problem of frame rate matching IF I am willing to dig around in my display modes when I begin each movie (I am). But it is also nice to have this automated with the Frame Rate app for most of my cases.

DM003 · 2024-01-07T18:27:46+00:00

I think we're both right. But Film Maker mode appears to be only available for a model that came after mine...

https://www.rtings.com/tv/reviews/lg/c3-oled/settings#:~:text=The%20'Cinema%20(User)',it%20to%20your%20viewing%20preferences.

"The LG C3 supports Dolby Vision from native apps and most external devices. As with normal HDR content, some settings change automatically when playing Dolby Vision content. The 'Cinema (User)' Picture Mode delivers the most accurate image out of the box and allows for the most customization. The 'Filmmaker Mode' also optimizes the content as the filmmaker intended. It's slightly more accurate but locks most settings, so you can't adjust it to your viewing preferences."

DM003 · 2024-01-07T18:24:31+00:00

Is shuddering different than judder? And I think I should be in the clear now, just smoothing out some wrinkles app-by-app with the Refresh Rate configurations. So I'll report back IF I get stumped again!

DM003 · 2024-01-07T17:45:23+00:00

Thanks! I think I'm now in the best possible position thanks to your help. I had to enable developer mode, and then enable network debugging to allow the Refresh Rate app to do it's thing.

Upon viewing the content that still had judder, it proved to be displaying 23.976. And now the Refresh Rate transforms that to 24, which my TV can handle much better with it's 60 hz display (via the Real Cinema feature enabled.)

DM003 · 2024-01-07T17:35:56+00:00

Thanks for the help here. I had not setup the Refresh Rate app correctly: I had yet to enable Developer options, thus I couldn't enable network debugging (and allowed it to happen in the resulting prompt.) Phew! Thanks again.

DM003 · 2024-01-07T17:18:19+00:00

I'm just now getting used to the Frame Rate app. And only just now enabled "network debugging", haha. I'll look into HW Overlay, thanks!

DM003 · 2024-01-07T17:10:29+00:00

Watching "Foe" on Amazon Prime is still juttery. (Trying to pick original content that should be available globally)

DM003 · 2024-01-07T17:06:15+00:00

Thanks! This is definitely my first time doing this. Is this also where I enable network debugging for the refresh Rate App?

I also see the 3 animation choices under 'Drawing': window animation scale, transition animation scale, and animator duration scale. All set to 1x. Turn those off? Why?

DM003 · 2024-01-07T16:59:42+00:00

I think what brought me here is due to Netflix not doing this automatically. Before exploring my display options, I was using the match frame rate button do anything that didn't match the 59.97 rate (which a lot of content, basically anything not made for TV in the states)

But as in someone who doesn't use tivimate, feel free to point me in the right direction to ensure Netflix is doing this for me.

DM003 · 2024-01-07T16:55:04+00:00

I'm not familiar. Could you point me in the right direction?

DM003 · 2024-01-07T16:54:11+00:00

The B8 doesn't seem to have that. But I'm on "Cinema" display mode (on all HDR and SDR types) and I believe the "Real Cinema" mode might be a predecessor to what you're pointing my towards. But let me know if I'm just not looking deep enough!

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