[XorNot]

Trying to buy an Nvidia Shield has always led to mixed sounding reviews on what I should buy. The number one problem I would really like to solve right now is my Chromecast's chronic inability to output 5.1 audio from streams (sometimes) meaning I can barely hear dialog due to the stereo downmix.

But no one can positively tell me what works, and what doesn't.

[whatevertrevor]

Don't have any issues playing 5.1 audio on the shield or my old google tv stick, it might be a problem with the sources you're using. The only time I had an issue was with the AppleTV app refusing to realize a particular show had dolby vision and surround sound available, so I had to force-stop and clear the app's cache and then it worked fine.

[AviationAtom]

I'm not a huge audiophile, but everyone I saw commenting on Reddit said that Plex works amazing on the Shield, with the various audio on their files. I think the primary audio feature they sought was Atmos.