No. But save the $100 on the shield and put it toward some usb3 storage. More bang for your buck there. You can get 2tb for well under $100 these days

I'll add my 2 cents in. For primarily streaming (Netflix, DirecTV now, amazon, Hulu, plutotv, GeForce now, Nvidia game stream) 16 GB is more than enough. If you do not plan on using it as a Plex server there are only two situations I would see where you will absolutely need more storage. The first is if you decide to use live channels with a hdhomerun for pausing tv and DVR storage. The second is if you buy games that play native on the shield or start to load Roms and emulators.

It depends....

Thing to remember with ShieldTV Plex Server w/NAS, the NAS is READ-ONLY. You can't save ANY files onto it (Android TV limitation).

So your plex DB, library files, etc. all have to go on the ShieldTV's local storage (whether built-in, SD card, USB drive, etc.). Also for any transcoding needs, you will likely need more than 16GB.

So if you are going with 16GB model for Plex Server, plan on buying a high-speed SD card with it.

16 GB is fine for the average user. The non-average user can use the USB ports for additional storage. Or the SD slot if you have a Gen1 model.

In fact, I'm doing both on my Gen1. 64 GB adopted SD card in the slot, and a 64 GB USB3 stick for ROMs and some movies and TV shows that aren't available via streaming services.

Honestly, while I like that they offer a 500 GB version, I see no real reason for it.

Either way, I'd get the 16GB version and then get e.g. a Samsung T3 external SSD, should the need arise.

It runs out quickly with some bigger games installed. But adaptive storage should work just fine in most cases.

I did run up against the storage constraints on mine. I now have a 64GB U3 MicroSD card in there as adopted storage, and it's humming along fine. If you're looking at the 2017 Shield, you can try using a miniature USB drive like the Sandisk UltraFit instead.

It has been fine for me. I've been running a NAS of some sort for over a decade and the 500GB never crossed my mind when I bought my Shields. I don't play any Shield games, but I do use Gamestream for PC games and console games with Retroarch via the Ice plugin for Steam.

It's been fine for me because I also have a 32gb sd card inside as well

I can't say how much I actually use, but I got a SSD drive and put in a USB3.0 enclosure. Setup as adaptive/internal storage.

It is. I don't even know what you'd use the storage for.

I have a NAS so didn't really need the extra space, and I heard the 500gb uses a normal HDD so things load slower on it. I have some games on it but hardly use it for that, mostly use it for streaming apps.

I don't have a shield, but I have a Mi Box and a Fire TV, and both only have 8GB, which is fine with me. I prefer to keep my content on a server anyway.

I have the 2017 Shield TV with a 1TB Toshiba 2.5 inch HDD adopted.

Working wonderfully and more space than I really need atm.

The general ruling is that 16gb is enough unless you are running a Plex Server on your Shield. Even with Adoptable Storage Plex can only store the metadata on the Shield's internal storage. Games and everything else will function well on a SD card or USB.

Not if you want to use it as a decent sized Plex server.

It's enough for me. I stream

Even with a 64GB adopted micro SD I've had issues with running out of storage, some apps insist on storing data on the 16GB drive and flat out refuse to use the micro SD. I had a persistent low storage warning and then a few crashes before I did a factory reset. I never got to figure out the problem but believe a combination of Plex & Kodi metadata was to blame.

I haven't had any problems for a while now but it did cause a lot of hassle that could have been avoided by buying the higher cap model.

So how do you guys add more content for Plex? Do your u unplug the HDD and then plug it into windows to drag and drop files? I just have my always on desktop serving media to my devices via Plex. I'd like to offload that duty though if I can move files via network to the local external HDD on the shield.

Yes, but all my media content is on my NAS, so I have no need for massive amounts of local storage.

Using the 16 gb shield since late 2015. I have about 8 terabytes of data across multiple hard disk connected to my router playing threw spmc or Archos video player. Using aswell retrobox for retro gaming, all games are stored in my network too so I still have plenty of space into my shield even with many apps. I do not use the network attachment option as samba protocol works well. In my usage (video, music, retrogaming), 500gb is useless.

I went with ShieldTV Pros for my heavy use systems and the 16GB (2015 and found Amazon selling some refurb units) with microSD card slots for the other bedrooms and other rooms. With the 16GB (2015) version its a cleaner look using the sd cards than hanging storage off the USB ports and I needed the IR receiver feature.

I've got an OG 16gb model. I added a 64gb SDcard for games and apps but all my media is streamed either from my server or the internet. No complaints here.

Well GeForce now is streaming games from nvidia servers so that has zero effect on local storage.

Unless you plan on running a Plex server on the shield, go with the 16gb model. As others have said, you can add adaptive storage (sort of like adding a hard drive to a computer) and move the larger apps to that.

Adoptive storage + USB 3.0 flash drive = not a fucking problem