Well, that explains it. Thank you so much for looking into it!!
Don't know if you've already tried these, but three different AI's (I know, AI's aren't the end all) pretty much gave the same answers below;
- Cold Reboot the HDMI Chain: Physically unplug the power from your Shield, TV, and Soundbar/AVR for at least 30 seconds. Plug them back in one by one, powering the Shield on last.
- Toggle Dolby Audio Processing: Go to Settings > Device Preferences > Display & Sound > Advanced sound settings and turn Dolby audio processing to Off.
- Manual Format Selection: Instead of "Auto," select Manual in the Advanced sound settings and manually enable only the formats your sound system supports (e.g., AC3, DTS).
- Check Match Content Frame Rate: If using apps like Plex or Kodi, ensure "Match Content Frame Rate" is enabled in the app settings to prevent timing drifts between video and audio.
- Enable Stereo Upmix: For some apps (like YouTube TV), turning on Stereo Upmix in the Shield's sound settings has been reported to resolve persistent sync issues.
- Switch Audio Packers (Kodi Users): If this occurs in Kodi, try changing the "IEC Packer" from Android to Kodi in the system's expert audio settings.
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The developer literally said what the problem is. AI is not going to solve this. Only Nvidia can. Thank you for trying to help though.
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Sorry, but when he said "my guess is...", I thought I would try to help. I won't bother you anymore.
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You're not bothering me. I spent about a month with Claude on this. So anything that AI could possibly come up with, I've tried already. So I apologize for being short.
I actually narrowed it down to something audio related and I'm not surprised that this came up in the logs. It actually turns out this was something that was patched sometime in 2024.
Just by chance I plugged in another patch cable today, a brand new one, Cat6, and it seems to not be buffering. I'm going to have to watch for a few days or at least a few hours to know for sure, but I think all along it was a bad patch cable.
It doesn't explain why the same cable was fine on an Apple TV. Maybe Apple TV is a little bit more resilient to network jitter, but it seems like replacing the patch cable might have fixed it. Fingers crossed.
edit: Ran a test, old cable had like 80 ms of jitter this one has like 11. I will probably use the ATV for Channels day to day since it is really optimized for that but the Shield for home theater Plex stuff.
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Interesting. Channels DVR on my Chromebook is seeing 11 Ms jitter over wifi. And that's remote viewing from the server at home. The 50 foot wired connection to the Shield TV Pro client has 13.8 ms jitter.
Didn't you say that both of your Shield clients were having the same symptoms? Have you changed both cables to Cat6?
I actually swapped the 2017 Shield into the same room... with the same cable.
The ATV was fine with this cable but this brand new cat 6 so far seems to be solid. I only touched it because I bought a Sofabaton U2 and realized I could at least use the Shield for Plex and the Sofabaton would make that convenient.
That sounds encouraging. I can't tell you how many fights I have had with my network only to find that it was a bad cable. I wish I could reclaim all of those lost hours.
Well, I can't believe this was most likely just a bad cable. That's really encouraging and also hilarious and frustrating at the same time.
Two nearly identical devices had the same issue with the same cable. That sounds like the most likely culprit. I sure hope that the new cable resolves the problem with your Shield TV boxes. They are still really good devices, even compared to more modern equipment. Fortunately, mine never give me any trouble. They are my main Channels DVR clients, with one in the family room at each location.
Yeah, I mean, if it continues to work, I'm on the fence about taking the Apple TV back to Walmart.
Considering you're using ADB tuner also and LinkPi's, I would imagine that it is something in my environment like the cable, considering you're not seeing buffering on your Shields.
I'd have to say that every issue I have ever had with streaming video quality was related to network problems. (Physical and technical) I have battled router and mesh network settings and replaced bad cables. I have never had to replace a client device, even though I hang onto old equipment a very LONG time. I still use my old cheapo onn UHD boxes. 
Yeah, I mean, it's been stable ever since I swapped the cable, so I'm calling this case closed.
I did actually find a bug with the Android TV client that I reported, but it's so minor. I think I might be taking the Apple TV back to Walmart. I don't use Multiview ever, so there's no point in me keeping it for that.
If the shield is working I just don't see any point in spending $150 on an apple tv when I don't really like the ethics of the company that makes it, lol.
That $150 will cover your investment in a few of those osprey tuners. Regarding your buffering, I will say that I don't use my Shields for live viewing of channels pulled in through ADBTuner like you do. Most of my live watching is TVE or the FRNDLY container. Most of my recordings are either TVE, FRNDLY, or Roku Tuner Bridge. I'm still fiddling with getting ADBT, DirectTV, and my onn 4k's to play nice with each other.
Ah good to know. I still have to watch for a while to make sure it's good. Don't want to return and then it starts buffering again.
Edit: The Shield is definitely good now. But I hate to say this as an Android and Windows guy, but the Apple TV is just too smooth to give up. I think I'm going to have to use it, and it's just a happy/unfortunate accident. It's a really good device. I think I'm just going to keep them both side by side for now. I also really hate returning stuff. I feel uncomfortable walking into a store and bringing something back after a month and a half. It feels wrong to me morally.
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