this post was submitted on 17 Mar 2025
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You should not buy a Shield. They haven't been updated since...2019? And there's really no reason to. Get the $20 WalMart one.
They just put out a huge update for the shield. Mine still plays the vast majority of things perfectly, even hevc and 4k content. I am perfectly happy with my shield pro. I'd buy one again if the current one shits the bed.
What are my other options? Apple TV and what else? Everything else is ad ridden underpowered and lacking licenses to play media.
I obviously meant a hardware update.
Anything that runs on Android TV?
And the Shield doesn't have ads? You can bypass all the ads by installing productivity launcher, same as on the Shield.
How much power do you think you need to stream videos?
I don't even know what that means.
As someone who owns both Nvidia Shield TV and standard cheap (Google certified) devices, all running Projectivy, it's not really comparable.
The Shield runs smoother, has significantly less minor/annoying issues, and actually receives fairly regular updates.
Now, the new Chromecast with Google TV does get updates, but it doesn't resolve the first two differences.
If you can't afford, or justify the extra expense, for an Nvidia Shield TV, completely understandable. But don't pretend that the user experience is the same, because it's not.
All "standard cheap" devices are not the same. I recommended a specific one, which was tested and featured on LTT.
I also own both and there's no discernable difference, other than one costs literally 10x more.
I said Playstore Certified, and yes, they are mostly the same when you look under the hood, at least for those classes of devices, per generation.
Same, or similar SoC, with 2/8 (sometimes 2/16) specs.
Once you get up to the 4/32 range, you're already looking around the same price (+/-) of a Shield TV.
Also, lol @ citing LTT, for anything. Just because a broken clock is right twice a day, doesn't change the fact that it's broken.
And for the sake of being fair, I didn't even mention the 1/8 boards.
Okay, clearly you have no interest in learning anything new. Have a nice day.
I'm confused. Are you saying YOU can't tell the difference, or that their is no technical difference?
Because, anecdotally, I've owned a variety of these devices, and I can absolutely tell the difference. Which sucks, because I bought cheaper devices hoping for reasonable parity of experience. I'm not saying my cheaper devices are bad, just that clearly the Shield TV performs better.
As to the actual specs, there is also clearly a real world difference between the bog standard Amlogic SoC (1/8, 2/8, 2/16), and the Tegra SoC.
It's entirely reasonable to argue that the difference isn't worth the extra cost, fine. But it's dishonest to say there is no appreciable difference.
TBF I haven't used the newer "low cost" Shield with the 2/16 Tegra SoC, so I can't really speak to how it performs relative to something like Chromecast with Google TV.
The hardware is 10 years old and it wasn't even shiny at the time. Shield is a damned joke.