NVIDIA Shield TV or Shield TV Pro

[LindaH]

Is anyone familiar with either of these products?

I just ordered my 4th Fire Stick -- they seem to stop working after about a year, so I'm looking for a better solution to streaming.  I came across this article, Grab an NVIDIA Shield TV Pro During This Rare Sale – Review Geek, and the two products it discusses sounds interesting, although I don't know if they have the same limited life as the Fire Sticks do.

I would probably go with the less expensive Shield TV Streaming Stick rather than the Pro since I don't need most of the features the Pro has (i.e., local media files, cloud & Android games).  I know it's expensive, but based on what I've already spent on 4 Fire Sticks, it's affordable, particularly if it has a longer life.  If it's going to stop working after a year, I'll just stick with the Fire Stick.

[rollinbrian]

We ordered a Shield TV summer of 2019 and still use it every day as our primary device.

Remote died early but we just use the nVidia Shield app on our phones.

The Google Amazon spat has a slight impact - any Prime Streaming purchases have to be conducted in a browser and not through an app from the Google Play store.

I'd buy another one over the two free Firesticks I have without hesitation.

Notes for bias - I'll take an android device over Amazon/Apple any day, but do stay out of the Google ecosystem as much as possible.

[Chalkie]

2 hours ago, LindaH said:

Is anyone familiar with either of these products?

I just ordered my 4th Fire Stick -- they seem to stop working after about a year, so I'm looking for a better solution to streaming.

I'm not familiar with either those products but I agree the Firesticks seem to have planned obsolescence. I replaced a Firestick with a Roku 4K and it is far more robust that the Firestick at a comparable price.

[LindaH]

1 hour ago, rollinbrian said:

We ordered a Shield TV summer of 2019 and still use it every day as our primary device.

Do you have the Pro or the less expensive one?  Have you had any problems that this guy, Charles (Vine Voice) -- first review here -- has had?  (As an aside, I've never had the problems with the Fire Stick that this guy talks about.)

[LindaH]

32 minutes ago, Chalkie said:

I'm not familiar with either those products but I agree the Firesticks seem to have planned obsolescence. I replaced a Firestick with a Roku 4K and it is far more robust that the Firestick at a comparable price.

I'll be taking a look at the Roku, too, although the guy that did the review on the Nvidia, that I referenced above, says the Nvidia's interface is better than the Roku Ultra.  I don't know how the Ultra differs from the 4K that you have.

I do have a question about the Roku (and it applies to the Nvidia, too):  Do you have to pay for your Amazon Prime Video on the Roku?  I'm a Prime member and on my Fire Stick, the Prime Video app is free.  However, a neighbor who has a Roku and is also a Prime member, says he has to pay for Prime Video.

[Chalkie]

3 minutes ago, LindaH said:

I do have a question about the Roku (and it applies to the Nvidia, too):  Do you have to pay for your Amazon Prime Video on the Roku?  I'm a Prime member and on my Fire Stick, the Prime Video app is free.  However, a neighbor who has a Roku and is also a Prime member, says he has to pay for Prime Video.

We still have Firestick on the bedroom TV that hasn't worn out, simply I think because it isn't used as often, but anything we can watch on the Firestick we can watch on the Roku, including Prime Video. You just add the app for whatever you subscribe too plus there are a lot of apps for free viewing and Roku has its own channel with lots of stuff. We have the Roku Streaming Stick 4K and our daughter has the Roku Ultra for twice the price. The only real "advantage" that I can see the Ultra offers is a rechargeable remote. The battery life on our remote seems pretty adequate as we have only replaced the batteries twice over the last year and it takes 2 AAA batteries. 

[melon]

Shield Pro is a super solid device, handles everything I throw at it. Have also gone through a few cheaper devices but they come up short in one way or another. But the Shield is still going strong after about 5 years of heavy use. 
If you’re going to spring for a shield, I’d get the pro. It has more connectivity options and more memory. 

[trailertraveler]

We have a Roku Ultra, a 4K, an older Roku and 2 Roku TVs. The features that the Ultra model (at least two years old) we have has that the others do not is an ethernet input port and an earphone jack on the remote. Our Ultra remote is not rechargeable. Batteries do not last that long if the earphones are used a lot. I suspect the older Roku is at least five years old and still works although rarely used these days. The ultra is used every day. The free Prime app works on all our Roku devices. We do not purchase pay for view on Prime. The Roku Ultra seems to be very forgiving about slower connections. Set on 780dpi it will stream pretty reliably even when it says the connection is less than 1mbs. I have used it numerous times after my Verizon high speed data has throttled down. I always tether my phone to the router (a Wifi Ranger Spruce) and connect the Ultra to the router by ethernet cable to maximize the speed to the Ultra.

Edited January 18 by trailertraveler