The most expensive box to buy is two or three crappy cheap boxes that die early or just plain suck, and then a Shield. Buying Shield from the get-go is much cheaper.
It is simply the best android player out there.
Yes agreed simply because of the ARM Chipset power, especially the GPU and NVIDIA's excellent ongoing Firmware support.
A winning combo. :)
It is the best media player.
Not quite because it does not fit the "plays anything you throw at it criteria" when you compare it to other media players. Old VC-1 and DVD Rips playback for example will cause problems. So will Youtube 4K HDR.
The Shield is missing Dolby Audio and DolbyVision support as well these days simply because the still impressive Tegra Chipset is nearly 4 years old. Which is an eternity in ARM Tech terms.
non 4K video content picture upscaling is pretty poor as well. NVIDIA have said they might improve that hopefully.
I still scratch my head why basic Dolby Audio support for Dolby audio downmixing (DD+ > DD) was left out. That has caused a number of problems.
For leading edge 4K HDR tech the Apple TV 4K is a more powerful media player, it should be because it's only just 1 year old. Apps support, especially outside the USA is better with that eco system as well.
Really it depends on what a users actual needs and priorities are.
Word to the wise, watch for online sales and bring that ad into Bestbuy or some other store and price match. Then continue watching the prices for 2 weeks. If the price goes down again, go back in.
This is what I did, ended up getting mine for ~$150 cad
I’m considering buying a shield now, anyone may have experience:
Thank you in advance ;)
MiBox3 Ultimate device.
Not everyone here wants last century active cooler noise and dust present in Shield nor crazy enough to pay 3 times more.
I got a Shield for Christmas and it blew my shitty ass Mi Box out of the water.
Agreed. Shield is the best, but my mi box s do all i want with a good performance. I just have refresh rate problem but i hear they open a beta build to fix it already.
Other than the horrible volume control on the remote I love the Shield TV.
In fact I feel if you can't get the shield, just get a Chromecast, it really does everything that is needed. Shield is the only box that really adds that "extra"
Please don’t buy the mi box. Mine is now essentially a brick with no Bluetooth.
As someone who has purchased 3 Mi Boxs, then tried the Mi Box S, I can safely say that you should not consider Xiaomi as a serious competitor to Nvidia Shield TV. The Mi Box is riddled with odd deal breaking software bugs and Xiaomi has demonstrated that they have zero software commitment to it's North American customers. Since switching to the Shield TV I have had zero complaints besides the volume buttons being a touchpad on the remote, which is not intuitive to new users (guests in the house, elderly, etc).
I mean, sure, the Shield is decent, but like all other Android boxes, it refuses to connect to e[x]hentai. None of the Android readers OR web browsers can connect to the domain. Definitely a bummer.
Hands down both my shields are the best money I’ve spend on my media setup.