NVIDIA Shield TV | Still One of the Best Streaming Devices Today?

The current generation of NVIDIA Shield TV is still REALLY good, especially given how old it is. But that doesn't necessarily mean it's what you should spend your money on. How does it compare to more recent devices like Chromecast with Google TV and is it still one of the best streaming devices you can buy?

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00:00 Intro
01:27 Shield TV Overview
02:17 Gaming & GeForce Now
03:20 Plex
03:34 AI Upscaling
03:56 Compared to Chromecast with Google TV
04:55 Final Thoughts

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[jaysantiago-BX-NY]

RELIABILITY!🔥 Purchased my Nvidia Shield TV Pro in 2015. I have friends who have gone through SEVERAL streaming devices, but, my shield is still working flawlessly! Worth every penny!

[jorgebarajas]

Uncompressed Atmos, no other device does it. For an enthusiast channel, you think they would mention this. Especially for those of us with a full Atmos home theater setup.

[faboohaahh]

Audio, audio, audio... THAT is the reason to buy the Shield TV. That's why I'm praying they keep making them or hopefully refresh the line. If other device manufacturers would allow you to use the different audio formats, even if I had to buy a license for those formats, I would consider buying another player. Until then it's Shield TV and only Shield TV for my home theater.

[janthomassrensen]

The Shield is one of the most perfect products I have ever purchased. I use it 95% as a Plex streamer and very rarely to watch HBO Max. Used to stream Netflix, but I cancelled it. Never had any problems with the Shield. No hickups, no buffering, no formats unable to be played. At least for my consumption pattern. Others way have a different experience, but it works like a charm for my needs 😍👍

[joaorlorem]

I have the Shield tube. For me it's incredible, cause my TV is connected to a 25 year Sony Hi-fi, and with only the shield remote which has an ir blaster, I can power on or off both the TV (Hdmi-cec) and the Hi-fi (ir blaster).

[kman]

I avoided The Shield for years because of the price and went through a few cheaper streamers and much frustration. Finally got one and never looked back. I get virtually everything I could possibly want using kodi etc and it never lets me down. I have set up 3 more for friends and they always rave about it.

[cmair]

Oh man! Love my shield, bought the 2017 with 500gb just awesome, plenty of power still using it today, worth every penny.

[MihaiTarmure]

You definitely get what you pay for. Chromecast might be 3x-4x cheaper but it has bad UI lag, and it takes 3x-4x longer to fast forward through a beefy 4k video streamed locally through Plex. You can feel the wimpy hardware at every step. And why hog the WiFi trying to stream 4k to a device that is essentially static? A reliable home setup has everything static connected via a LAN port, which the Chromecast hasn't. The Chromecast remote is awfully bottom rounded, as if it was actually designed to be slippery. I dropped it like every day from the couch and it always goes with a loud, heart wrenching bang. Overall the Chromecast is a Lite device with wimpy hardware, it lacks essential ports and it only leaves you wanting a better home streaming experience. It is better suited to enable smart functionality to an old, secondary TV that is approaching end of life. I wish I would have bought the nVidia TV Shield Pro from the get go.

[jrod]

Considering the 2015 OG shield tv is still powerful enough and is STILL getting updates, I DEFINITELY think that the 2017 & 2019 models are ABSOLUTELY power enough and current.

[burnzy]

As a 2017 shield owner, it could really do with a hardware update, 128gb storage and min 6gb ram at minimum. A SoC update would be *very* welcome too but the storage and ram are more critical

[johnmatheny]

People seem to really forget about the upscaling, that stuff is amazing if you want the best picture

[bankruptsee]

To take advantage of your OTHER hardware like your new OLED TV or sound system, you need a quality streaming box. All the Dolby Vision, HDR, audio formats, buffer-less streaming, fluid interface, gigabit ethernet.. you don't get a lot of that with other streaming boxes.

[reRt]

Hi, you are not talking about HD audio what is the really outperform of this tvbox and why is working for years and still will win... is one on the only certified android with dts-hs, dolby atmos, dtsx and Truehd.

[GOMIN]

Wish we could get a refresh. Reasons I’m still keeping the Shield is for the Plex server and support for different Hi-Res files such as Dolby TrueHD, DTS-HD MA, etc.

[tommyg]

I went from the Raspberry Pi 3B to the Shield TV Pro as my Plex server. Gigantic difference. Whereas the Pi couldn't be accessed remotely because it just couldn't handle it, the Shield Pro does it without a problem. Simply awesome as a Plex server. I also have the Firestick Pro Max, and the Shield Pro just puts out a better overall picture for everything...Plex, streaming, etc. I'm fully invested in the Apple ecosystem, but since the Apple TV can't act as a Plex server, this is my box of choice. Was worth every penny.

[DanVanMalsen]

The AI Upscaling makes the Shield TV our favorite option. I do wish Google would create a more powerful CCw/GTV that had more memory. I still can't get over the fact that they put time and effort into producing an HD version to save $20!

[jaackasss]

No match frame rate, their "beta" feature barely works - I see many image issues with the new shield pro and keep going back to ATV 4K. Even the 4K upscaling looks a lot better with ATV 4K. I ain't big on apple but nothing comes close to ATV 4K (except for lack of audio passthrough which Shield does)...

[xFrozenxSnowx]

It is the only player other than a PC that supports any format you can throw at it and direct play it without transcoding on Plex.

[AlvinUT]

Unless something has changed recently, too bad there isn't native support for YouTube HDR, at least not with the 2017 models that I have. Otherwise, they have been great for almost every other streaming use-case.

[Matt-rqwz]

It is wild to me the once market leader on a high volume consumer device is silent about a potential refresh. I suspect we’ll get a refresh mid-late next year with the new Tegra T239 and Ampere GPU that’s slated for the Switch Pro.