[Shield Android TV Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] brb1985:
Hi,

First time poster, so if I am in the wrong spot feel free to point me in the right direction!

I recently bought an Nvidia Shield Pro (2019) exclusively to watch Amazon Prime Video and Netflix. Normally I'd watch streaming videos on my gaming PC (more on this in a second), but with at least Amazon Prime Video (and possibly Netflix) I cannot watch anything 4k, even though my gaming PC is more than capable. Amazon restricts 4k to specific devices only. Some anti-piracy crap I can only imagine.

The caveat here is that I listen to everything through a soundbar+surround system (Nakamichi Soundwafe 9.2.1). What I noticed is that the surround system sounds just "ok" out of the box with certain built-in equalizer settings set, but when I play videos through my gaming PC and utilize a system-wide equalizer (EqualizerAPO), it sounds great.

What I am trying to do is replicate this setup as much as possible, but on the Shield.

I've searched all over for system-wide equalizers that work on Android. So far the usual apps came up:

1. Poweramp Equalizer

2. Wavelet

3. viper4android

4. RootlessJamesDSP

5. Dolby-Atmos-MagicRevision

I've tried all of these to varying degrees of success. That is, some of the equalizers would work for system/UI sounds (and probably some media players but I didnt try), but none of the above would work for Amazon Prime Video or Netflix. I'd test it by changing the equalizer to make it sound like garbage, such as killing all the bass and increasing treble, then playing the video. No amount of tweaking knobs in the respective apps would change anything. My prevailing theory is that the shield is passing-through the audio signal straight to the TV (then straight to the soundbar via eArc).

Question 1: Has anyone had any success in using an equalizer with Amazon Prime Video and/or Netflix? Either rootless or root. Im assuming I am missing a configuration somewhere, but I don't quite know what to look for.

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Following that, I've been having a weird issue in using the SafetyNet-fix Magisk module (SafetyNet-fix version 2.4.0, and Magisk version 27.0). I can take the 9.0.0 user/non-rooted Nvidia Shield Pro image and apply Magisk+root easily. No problems there. And like many other posts here have mentioned, once the bootloader is unlocked, AI-upscaling is disabled until you apply the SafetyNet-fix Magisk module.

The SafetyNet module does work to re-enable AI-upscaling from what I can tell, but it leaves me with two problems I don't know how to get around.

1. When I have my shield connected to an old 1080p LED television, the Android OS boots up fine and I can do all the things I need to do. However, when I unplug the HDMI cable from that LED television and plug it into my 4k LG C3 television, it's a black screen. No amount of rebooting fixes it. Plugging it back into my 1080p LED displays everything again. Disabling or removing the SafetyNet-fix Magisk module allows the Nvidia Shield to display everything on my 4k again. This issue even persists across a factory reset and starting over.

2. With the SafetyNet Magisk module enabled, when I flip "Dolby Atmos Processing" in the Sound Preferences to the ON position, the entire Android OS locks up hard. No response from the remote, no response from a plugged in keyboard. It requires a hard reboot via power cord unplug. It does not do this when the SafetyNet-fix Magisk module is disabled or uninstalled.

Question 2: Has anyone ever had these types of problems before with SafetyNet?

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Sorry for being long winded, I just wanted to be sure I included as much detail as possible.

Thanks!