Factory reset because my Netflix is working perfectly, my UI Is lag free.

Something ain't right. Make sure firmware is up to date and then factory reset. Only fuss with these is some of us have remote issues. Other than that, amazing box.

You ether got a bad one or your roku is an over achiever because my roku 3 is way slower than my 2015 shield and neither of the services you mention crash on mine

Rokus are such pieces of shit. How do people stand a fucking ad taking up two thirds of their home screen?

Most people use it as a media hub for local (allows for lossless playback) and streamed content. If you don’t have local content, I’m not sure it’s that much better than other streamers.

I don't have problems with crashes, but one advantage is 4k hdr for your movies.

Also the app coverage is less than roku but substantial, oh and you can chromecast to it as well.

Another is an ability to play local files, and a third is to play games with either nvidia gamestream or steam link.

You'll probably have a lot of updates to roll through as well. Could take a while before things stabilize.

VLC sucked for playback on mine for playback of 4K. Switched to Kodi and it is smooth as butter.

On my old aging Nexus Players, I would have to reboot them once a day in order to get smooth video playback from my HDHomerun Prime. Also, audio would sometimes not load up at all, you would have to kill the stream, then load it up again, maybe the 3rd or 4th time audio would kick in.

All these annoyances went away with the Shield. Oh and now I get Amazon Prime videos, built in ethernet, built in USB 2.0 and 3.0, built in Wireless AC, etc.

I don't have problems with crashes, but one advantage is 4k hdr for your movies.

Also the app coverage is less than roku but substantial, oh and you can chromecast to it as well.

Another is an ability to play local files, and a third is to play games with either nvidia gamestream or steam link.

I bought it to replace my raspberry pi that was running kodi. The pi 3+ could handle everything except 10bit anime which had to be converted after downloading (wrote a python script to handle this). I really like the chromecast support as well (freed up a hdmi port). May use it for retroarch in the future as well.

Mine was a little laggy the first day... software is initializing itself, allocating and indexing..

Netflix app on AndroidTV has a known problem where it will buffer or load up to 90% area and then play audio with no video. The only solution I've seen is to reboot the device. This is not one of the symptoms you described earlier but be on the lookout in the future for this app acting funny.

My first one I had to send back bc it was defective. If you put on kodi and spmc it gets confused and runs very rough too. I've had $30 Chinese android boxes that are stable as anything with both installed and fully loaded. At the end of the day you only need kodi. Also, use the app that allows you to make an icon for sideloaded apps. I had to put chrome on this way as chrome and any browsers for some reason are not made for the shield. By far one of my biggest gripes about it. The biggest benefit would be 4k and 1080P content as most android boxes dont have the DRM permissions to do it with Netflix or Amazon video. I was a little skeptical about it at first but its grown on me. Especially when I got one that was defective and slow as molasses.

Check your wifi settings! Your router wifi may not be handling the hi speed wifi properly. Check your channel settings, move your wifi channel to one by itself in your router.

It's not for everyone! There is a bit of a learning curve for sure and a basic bordering on an advanced knowledge of Android is required!

I had one. Its performance is good if you're into console emulation or gaming otherwise the media playback capabilities are a little long in the tooth. Better to pick up the new Amazon Fire TV Stick 4K for $35 and wait for a Shield TV hardware refresh.

The thing is crazy fast and works flawless for me.

The downside is I absolutely hate the remote. It's nearly a deal breaker. The touch sensitive volume is a disaster and doesn't even use AAA batteries like other remotes. For most people I just recommend the Mi Box S because of it.

Shields are awesome, I just prefer to use my octa core 3gb ram android box

I’ve got one a it’s a little overrated. Solid streaming device for sure, but in general I prefer my Apple TV.

Shield is great for streaming games from a PC. And it works great as a mini Plex server in a location I use it with poor internet.

But when I’m at home with solid internet I stick to the Apple TV.

That’s android