I already have a shield, and it is 100% the best device I have ever owned. I got it mostly for Plex, and the options to pause/record OTA TV.
My bedroom TV is a dumb TV, and it currently uses FireTV, but 90% of the time I watch Youtube before i go to sleep, I have a chromecast, but that is not sadisfying... I just want something with a remote.
What are some of the other AndroidTV options out there?
Well, you could get a MiBox, but frankly a Chromecast is the easiest thing when it comes to YouTube. Next easiest would be a Roku I suppose. If you want to stay in the AndroidTV ecosystem though, you want to go MiBox.
Mi box?
My Mibox works great, just no Amazon video (or geforce gaming). Everything else is nearly as good as the shield for just watching TV (various apps, including kodi/spmc).
I mean, the MiBox works..But I have the new fire Tv and the MiBox and the New Fire TV is easy two-three times faster. It's a seriously nice product.
This may or may not be entirely useless to you, but...
Because if it's just the latter, then you can tell a Google Home device to "Turn off my ____ TV" and it will turn it off.
Just buy a cheap used roku. I've got two I don't need if you can't find one elsewhere.
Add silk browser and play YouTube on that. Problem fixed for free. Lol
Currently, the best general advice for streaming devices is to buy a Roku if you want something under $100. If you want to go high-end, then buy either an Nvidia Shield TV or an Apple TV. If you want something cheap to watch YouTube and just about any other app, it's hard to go wrong with a Roku. You can even cast to the YouTube app on Roku from your phone/tablet. The new $30 Roku Express is plenty quick. For a little more, you can get the Roku Stick with a voice remote that also controls TV power and volume.
I have a Mi box on my bedroom tv (720p Dynex 😂), almost exclusively used for ps vue and you tube. The interface is a little slower than the shield (not surprising), but it does its job just fine. If you don't need ps vue, Roku is about the cheapest option if you want a remote, but its channel ui is garbage for live tv services like sling or vue. That's actually the reason I bought the Mi to replace the Roku we had there.
Not AndroidTV but it's completely neutral and will continue to have Prime Video and Youtube as well as is cheap, is the Roku.
If you are only using it for legit streaming and not Kodi then I would just get a used Apple TV non-4K. It’s definitely the best device for casual use. The Shield is the only Android TV worth buying.
Are you wanting a new device just because Youtube is going away on FireTV? If so, I would wait until it goes away and see if there's a workaround. I assume simply sideloading Youtube will work.