Do you like your Shield TV?

Its my favorite electronic purchase since the OG Motorola Xoom in 2011. I liked it so much I bought another to replace my Nexus Player in the bedroom.

Amazon still works but I personally hate the app. I would hesitate to recommend the shield as a primary device if you rely heavily on Amazon. It works for now, but they have disabled it in the past when it was sideloaded so there is the very real possibility it could happen again.

I love it so much I bought a second. I don't game often, but I do run Retroarch and play some of the old console games along with using various apps and Plex for my viewing.

I love mine so much, I got another for my mother for upstairs. And Nvidia keeps taking care of this device with consistent meaningful updates like allowing it to be a full Plex Media Server.

It's easily the best box on the market. It's so fast and snappy. It honestly destroys the fire tv.

You will not regret it.

One of the best consumer electronics devices I've ever purchased. It's a rare case of a relatively cheap device being over engineered performance-wise.

edit: I side-loaded Amazon Video and it plays videos fine. The UI is weirdly slow.

Since you mentioned emulators, I use the robert broglia emulators on mine. They work perfectly with my usb controllers (buffalo snes controller and a buffalo famicom controller). I haven't tried anything too hardcore like playstation, N64, Gamecube, etc but I've heard good things about them. I don't think xbox controllers work on android, though.

I've also successfully been able to use various sideloaded apps (cartoon network, adult swim, amc) and I use them with an Aerb wireless remote which also works pretty well (the back button is mapped to a right click so I need to press ESC on the back keyboard). It's got an air mouse which is required for non-leanback apps. The NBC Sports app worked perfectly fine as well during the olympics.

All the regular streaming apps work well (youtube, twitch, netflix, vudu). I especially love the live channels app and use that to watch Pluto TV (as opposed to using the actual pluto tv app).

Kodi also works really well, both for online plugins and viewing local media (I keep an external hardrive plugged into it since I don't have any network storage nor do I really need any). I hear Plex works well on it too and can act as a plex server.

I have no tried to sideload the amazon app but I hear support for it should be coming to android tv.

I've tried the gamestream a few times and it seemed to work decently enough but I had already bought a long-ass hdmi cable hooked up to my PC so I have very little need for the gamestream. I have also not tried Geforce Now but it has a three month free trial. I'd recommend an ethernet connection if you're going for that.

To answer your question: Yes I like the Shield TV. It perfectly satisfied my needs of having something to run all the main streaming apps, to sideload regular android apps, of running emulators well, and being able to run Kodi. It supports 4k I believe but I probably won't be buying a 4k tv anytime soon.

The Amazon Video for Android TV app can be sideloaded on the Nvidia Shield TV and still works up to 1080p (although I guess it's possible that Amazon could block it at some point in the future if they wanted). There are rumors that Nvidia is working with Amazon to get the app officially supported and installed on the Shield TV. Perhaps we'll see that happen when Nvidia rolls out an updated version of the Shield TV, as expected soon. Meanwhile, it has been confirmed that sideloading the Amazon Video app on the Mi Box does not work.

I fucking love mine. No gadget has ever been as mindblowing for me. I had a Nexus Player and was quite happy but there was just some stutters here and there in the UI and with playing back certain media. I figured I'd just see if the hardware was the issue so I bought a Shield TV. This thing devours anything I throw at it. No device I've used, especially most Android devices, are just about lag-free. The Shield is as smooth as they come.

I also have the Amazon apk sideloaded on mine. It works great, just a bit odd to navigate through since the remote doesn't have the same buttons. It's doable though.

It's not perfect, but it's the best out there. I went from a full dedicated PC connected to my TV to this and it's great. I run Plex, Kodi (Kodi responds much better than Plex and the video/audio quality are better without having to worry about transcoding. I also run Emby because it's so much better with live TV and the HDHR.

I am not a gamer, but I play some games now, mostly because it's there. The drawbacks, not that many apps, although you can sideload pretty much anything. Problem is, sideloaded apps end up with iffy UI's.

Recommendations:

1- Do not buy the one with the extra memory if you are looking to save money. you can always add a memory card later if needed and you will be able to access your file shares via ethernet/wifi

2- Do not buy their remote. I have both the game controller that it comes with and the remote. The remote is a POS and if you want to, you can get something much better for less than the $50 they charge. BUT, the game controller comes in handy b/c it can be used as a mouse in apps that support that, and some apps even make use of the extra buttons.

Love mine so far. Strongly recommend the August PCR500 - Air Mouse and Keyboard. Works great with Kodi and the rest of the apps.

If you get that airmouse, note that you can toggle between "mouse" and "remote" mode. In remote mode, almost everything will work great. When the mouse pointer is on, things can be a little dodgier, but its helpful for when you need to interface with a sideloaded app.

I love mine. Replaced a Chromecast and Fire TV with one. I'll replace another set and a Roku with another when the new one comes out. Harmony remote support is a killer feature for me.

It's amazingly good, and even better if you have a gaming PC with an nvidia card in it.

Do you like your Shield TV?

Honestly, I feel like it's the best streaming box I've ever used. App availability can be an issue at times, as with any Android TV device, but it has the heavyweight stuff covered.

Primary use is streaming 1080p content from various sources (including network attached storage).

Unless you have a fairly high end (x86-based) NAS that is running Plex Media Server, I feel like the Shield is going to be very useful for you here. Plex is really fantastic at delivering your content to you, both across your network and outside of it, and the Shield is the only non-x86 device that can transcode in Plex.

Eventually I hope to get a 4K TV and stream 4K content. Thought about getting the Mi Box, but I'm kind of worried about being future proof.

I've heard that the Mi Box struggles with 4K content. The issues appear to be software based rather than hardware based, but that doesn't necessarily mean they're going to be resolved at any point. The Shield is the safer bet.

Does the Amazon Instant Video app still work if sideloaded? We have a fairly decent size Amazon library...

Haven't tried Amazon since I let my Prime membership lapse a couple of weeks ago, but it did work then.

All in all, if you have the budget for it, I'd say go for it.

Absolutely amazing

Thanks everyone! Looks like the base model is starting to go out of stock at multiple locations (including Amazon), which indicates a new version is likely incoming. I am going to wait a bit to see if a new version drops.

Best electronics purchase I have ever made (own two and will probably get a 3rd eventually).

Exponentially better than Fire (box and stick), Roku, etc.

I cut the cord and use the shield tv as my main system. I couldn't be more happier the Shield tv is worth every penny