Hi,
I'm looking for advice on which Android Box to buy? NVidia Shield is always recommended but isn't it outdated by now?
It should be a powerful device, capable of running plex, capable of streaming 4K video, and I will probably connect it to 4 TVs in total (although likely only 2 will be in use at a time)
You described the shield in your post.
The shield is old, but still has more specs than pretty much ant box currently out there.
And they still have updates.
Still the most relevant and capable device. I've had one for years and recently picked up a second for the spare room/taking with me when travelling.
Nvidia Shield
Nvidia Shield
Nvidia Shield
"You're gonna like the way it works, I guarantee it"
The Shield TV is the most powerful and best supported set top box in the world.
I've recently bought a shield to replace a mac mini I was using as a plex server. It's fantastic. The picture quality coming through it is great and every standard I need is supported. The only caveat to your request is the "capable of running plex". Just be aware that this will struggle to transcode 4k content. My TV is recent and is able to natively play any 4k content via my shield plex server but if you are relying on transcoding then you may with to think about something like a Synology.
Shield TV is very well supported by Nvidia. My only gripe with it is - it'll never have HDR support in YouTube.
Right now it seems like the Shield was 5 years ahead of it's time. 3 years in, no other devices come close, and none are on the horizon. Crazy I know.
Shield is definitely not outdated. It's still the most powerful STB you can buy outside of dedicated game consoles, and Nvidia still actively supports the hardware and plans to continue doing so for the foreseeable future (you can do that when you make all the hardware in the box).
Don't let the release date fool you because it gets more software support and performs better than anything else on the market. I actually don't see anything on the horizon from anyone that would compete with it.
This post will be down voted for sure....
The Shield was impressive hardware when it was released in 2015, in some ways ahead if it's time before competing HDR standards became widespread.
It's still the most powerful Android media player / server on the market. And I did say Android because there is another company that starts with A that has a more powerful media player on sale with the following additional features:
DolbyVision streaming from iTunes, Netflix and VUDU
Dolby Atmos from iTunes, Netflix, VUDU & Prime Video soon as well.
A Dolby Audio Licence which allows remixing of any Audio into Dolby Digital for older audio receiver compatibility. You actually need a Dolby Audio Licence to be able to stream Dolby Atmos MAT 2.0 from the Apps mentioned above, and be able to add OS system sound effects to the Atmos audio stream.
Correct colorspace switching so Reds look red for both SDR and 4K HDR content, not orange or washed out.
high quality hardware upscaling of non 4K content, for class leading picture quality.
better Apps support for Frame Rate and Dynamic Range (SDR/HDR) matching.
I was really surprised that NVIDIA refreshed the Shield at the start of 2017 and did not do any work with the Dolby company getting actual audio licenses and adding additional feature support. The Hardware is fully capable. It does do HD audio passthrough of Atmos and DTS:X well tho using Plex or Kodi.
What will throw the cat amongst the pigeons for straight up video streaming is the new, comparitively cheap 2018 Amazon FireTV Stick that also has that Dolby feature set support just mentioned and HDR 10+ for use with Prime Video.
Yes the Shield is still the most powerful and well supported (OS and Firmware) Android media player on the market, but these days there are mainstream hardware and software features it is now missing.
The comparitively, much younger and smaller Android TV OS Eco system simply does not get the same level of developer support that the other two A's currently enjoy. Especially once you get outside of the USA.
It's not outdated since it's still actively supported and will play almost anything you throw at it.