Plex says (Opens in a new window) the Shield implementation is possible thanks to the powerful hardware Nvidia used. Some people simply use their main computer as a Plex server, but it has to remain online all the time to work. This is a cool feature because in the past heavy Plex users would have to build reasonably powerful media servers to make their libraries streamable - transcoding does take some horsepower. The Android 6.0 build running on Shield also supports adoptable storage, so you can treat external storage as internal to make managing files easier. However, both models support expandable storage via microSD cards and USB ports for external hard drives. The $300 Shield bumps that to 500GB (Opens in a new window). The base model Shield costs $200, but it only has 16GB of included storage.

Now, it can actually be the media server (Opens in a new window). Prior to the new Shield update, the hardware could only play video from your media server like any other Android device. Plex relies upon two components to get this done: a media server and a streaming client that actually displays the video. Thus, it supports just about any type of video on any screen. Plex actually transcodes your videos in real time, then streams them to your chosen screen. It can handle virtually any video file, presumably ones you've obtained from legal sources, but we're not here to judge. Plex, for those who are not aware, is a piece of software that lets you stream your video files over your local network or the internet from a central media storage box. The Shield 3.2 update adds the ability to run a full Plex media server on the box. The Shield has been bundled with the Plex streaming app since launch, but now the Shield is learning a new trick. While the handful of other devices running on Android TV stick closely to the standard Google-prescribed feature set, Nvidia has added a plethora of gaming and streaming features to the Shield. The Nvidia (Opens in a new window) Shield is an Android TV box, but it's much more than that.

Plex on nvidia shield