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Optical/Active cables or Shield TV Pro

NE0XY

Not sure if I'm in the right part of the forum here but anyway: 

I'm trying to decide between getting optical HDMI and active USB extensions to go from my PC to the TV in my living room, about 10-12 meters. Or if I should get a NVIDIA Shield TV Pro. The main reason for doing all this is because I want to play some of my PC games on the TV (Samsung 75" QLED Smart TV QE75Q70R). And since my TV already has smart TV functions etc I'm not really interested in those capabilities from the Sheild, they would just be an nice to have sort of thing I guess. 

Which solution would give me the best quality and lowest input lag? Or is the difference negligible? Appreciate any help. Thanks

 

Edit: 

If it's any help my PC has a 12900K, 3080 Strix OC, 32GB DRR5 6000MHz

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6 hours ago, NE0XY said:

I'm trying to decide between getting optical HDMI and active USB extensions to go from my PC to the TV in my living room, about 10-12 meters.

Game streaming adds considerable lag and degrading of the picture quality.  There is literally no comparison between the two options, physical cables are vastly superior.

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4 hours ago, Alex Atkin UK said:

Game streaming adds considerable lag and degrading of the picture quality.  There is literally no comparison between the two options, physical cables are vastly superior.

Thanks for the reply! 

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5 hours ago, Alex Atkin UK said:

Game streaming adds considerable lag and degrading of the picture quality.  There is literally no comparison between the two options, physical cables are vastly superior.

This being said, for things below the top end that require don't the highest of reaction times, SteamLink over my Shield TV Pro (wired gigabit) on my C9 is perfectly playable both in terms of looks and input lag (on game mode of course). I'm saying this from a 1080p perspective mostly, but it's not like it looks bad when streaming. Among things that I played in the recent past Death Stranding didn't look notably worse when streaming compared to playing on my monitor and even Sekiro which does require well-timed and relatively quick inputs was decently playable. 120+ FPS on PC was of course much better for the latter, but it certainly wasn't ruined by input lag.

12 hours ago, NE0XY said:

And since my TV already has smart TV functions etc I'm not really interested in those capabilities from the Sheild, they would just be an nice to have sort of thing I guess.

Depending on what other content you consume the Shield might be able to hande content better, but if you're not interested in its functionality it might not be worth it. What kind of games do you intend to play? Have you checked the price difference for optical cables vs. a Shield?

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9 hours ago, tikker said:

This being said, for things below the top end that require don't the highest of reaction times, SteamLink over my Shield TV Pro (wired gigabit) on my C9 is perfectly playable both in terms of looks and input lag (on game mode of course). I'm saying this from a 1080p perspective mostly, but it's not like it looks bad when streaming. Among things that I played in the recent past Death Stranding didn't look notably worse when streaming compared to playing on my monitor and even Sekiro which does require well-timed and relatively quick inputs was decently playable. 120+ FPS on PC was of course much better for the latter, but it certainly wasn't ruined by input lag.

Depending on what other content you consume the Shield might be able to hande content better, but if you're not interested in its functionality it might not be worth it. What kind of games do you intend to play? Have you checked the price difference for optical cables vs. a Shield?

Thanks, 

I'm pretty much only interested (at least for now) in playing games such as Assassin's Creed, Watch Dogs Legion etc, games that (imo) are better played with a controller. 

And regarding other functionality, the media apps like Netflix, Plex etc my TV already has, and I assume its AI-upscaling would be on par with that in the Shield? or at least negligible? But the addition of playing like android games and that stuff does sound kind of appealing, but not something I'm super excited about, if that makes sense. 

 

Regarding price (in Swedish currency) optcial HDMI would be 750 SEK, active USB 900 SEK, and a Shield TV Pro 2290 SEK so maybe 65-70USD cheaper with the cables. But I'm not against paying the extra for the Shield if it would turn out to be the better option. One concern with the cables though is there are a couple of corners the cable would have to go around, I'm not sure how "bendy" they are

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2 hours ago, NE0XY said:

Thanks, 

I'm pretty much only interested (at least for now) in playing games such as Assassin's Creed, Watch Dogs Legion etc, games that (imo) are better played with a controller. 

And regarding other functionality, the media apps like Netflix, Plex etc my TV already has, and I assume its AI-upscaling would be on par with that in the Shield? or at least negligible? But the addition of playing like android games and that stuff does sound kind of appealing, but not something I'm super excited about, if that makes sense. 

 

Regarding price (in Swedish currency) optcial HDMI would be 750 SEK, active USB 900 SEK, and a Shield TV Pro 2290 SEK so maybe 65-70USD cheaper with the cables. But I'm not against paying the extra for the Shield if it would turn out to be the better option. One concern with the cables though is there are a couple of corners the cable would have to go around, I'm not sure how "bendy" they are

I would very much doubt the TVs upscaling comes close to the Shield.  I have an LG C8 and the ShieldTV is night/day better than the native apps for upscaling content.

However, that pales in comparison to plugging my PC directly in vs streaming for games.  If gaming is your primary use, I don't think its worth getting the ShieldTV.

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23 minutes ago, Alex Atkin UK said:

I would very much doubt the TVs upscaling comes close to the Shield.  I have an LG C8 and the ShieldTV is night/day better than the native apps for upscaling content.

However, that pales in comparison to plugging my PC directly in vs streaming for games.  If gaming is your primary use, I don't think its worth getting the ShieldTV.

Interesting, didn't realise the upscaling would be so much better. 

Thanks for the input, going to try and contact the reseller of the cables to see how "bendy" they are

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4 minutes ago, NE0XY said:

Interesting, didn't realise the upscaling would be so much better. 

Thanks for the input, going to try and contact the reseller of the cables to see how "bendy" they are

I got some relatively cheap (compared to how they have been) HDMI 2.1 10m optical cables from Amazon recently and they are FAR more flexible than your average HDMI cable.

Router:  Intel N100 (pfSense) WiFi6: Zyxel NWA210AX (1.7Gbit peak at 160Mhz)
WiFi5: Ubiquiti NanoHD OpenWRT (~500Mbit at 80Mhz) Switches: Netgear MS510TXUP, MS510TXPP, GS110EMX
ISPs: Zen Full Fibre 900 (~930Mbit down, 115Mbit up) + Three 5G (~800Mbit down, 115Mbit up)
Upgrading Laptop/Desktop CNVIo WiFi 5 cards to PCIe WiFi6e/7

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