NVIDIA Shield TV | Still One of the Best Streaming Devices Today?

Okay, we need to take a minute here to talk about something that's getting old, absolutely getting old, but also better than ever. In fact, I'm willing to bet that we can compare it to some things that are much more. Much younger, no, we're not talking about me, although I can understand why you think older is better. I get it, no, we're actually talking about Nvidia Shield TV. Now he made a brief mention in our video about the

best

streaming

devices

that you can buy in late 2022. Those of you who watched the video, you got it, you saw it.

For those who didn't, they were upset that it wasn't there, except it was, but it was a fair question, I think why. Wasn't the Nvidia Shield a bigger part of that video? Why don't we recommend it? It is one of the

best

streaming

devices

you can buy now. This is not an apology video, if that's what you're here for, it's not happening. I'm

still

thinking. For most people, Chromecast with Google TV is the way to go, period, but for others, for some of you, Shield TV is absolutely the way to go; In fact, if you know what Nvidia Shield TV is, this video is not for you.

If you know you know, move on, everyone else wants more, including TV, here we go, but first subscribe to the channel, like the video, do everything you know, we have over a million subscribers, that's super exciting. but we need more I want more okay done let's do this in a nutshell Shield or Shield TV as we call it a lot is a super powerful streaming platform created by Nvidia, now it is a company mainly known for things like graphics cards . and other computer hardware and has been around forever, an Nvidia Shield itself isn't exactly new, it actually started life as a portable gaming console, think Nintendo Switch or Steam Deck, that sort of thing, in fact, I had one in the past for a long time. ago, but in 2015 Shield became Shield TV and became the Android TV platform we know

today

, it received hardware updates in 2017 and again in 2019 and has pretty much stayed the same since then, we have Shield TV and Shield TV pro, which is a bit. top end, so the regular

shield

became something cylinder looking in 2019, that's cool, but the Pro

shield

kept the same basic design now.

Shield isn't just about streaming, it's also about gaming, which makes sense because we're talking about NVIDIA. about Nvidia, it's been anonymous with gaming since day one, the Tegra Apple has done it with the Apple TV, right? A lot more power than you really need, but that's a good thing because it allows you to stay fresh for years. Think about it, the current hardware you see behind me here is three years old, that's crazy, it's forever. old and that also makes it the perfect platform for

nvidia

's cloud-based GeForce now gaming program, which has become even more important as we move into 2023 because Google is shutting down Stadia, its own gaming platform in the cloud, there just aren't that many anymore now.

What you need to know here is that you have the regular shield The Shield Pro Shield Pro is what's going to make AAA games okay, so if you're really into cloud gaming and that kind of stuff, think about Steam, think about GeForce, now you go to I Want Shield Pro and while we're getting into the topic, Shield and Shield Pro are great for running Plex, in fact they are full Plex servers, they run right there, you just plug in a hard drive and you can play locally. media on your entire home network is great, want more woven stuff, okay, I mean, think back to 2019, when this version of Shield started doing its own AI boost, it would take lower resolution content, 720p, 1080p, you name it, I would improve it and then run AI machine learning with AI. process and just make it look better, right?

TVs do that now, other platforms do it now, now Nvidia Shield was one of the first to do it, which brings us back to the original question here, why recommend Chromecast with Google TV on Nvidia Shield to me? actually a very simple decision, probably maybe a Shield TV

today

in late 2022 is a niche device that wasn't always that way. Well, it used to be a lot harder to get a good Android TV device; In fact, for a long time I only had a real option for Seal TV now that we have Chromecast with Google TV. Google makes sure the software is always up to date.

Here's the trick when it comes to price. Chromecast with Google TV costs $50. Nvidia Shield and Shield Pro 125 or 175 retail. Alright, that's a big difference for hardware guys and gals designed in 2019, that's a big difference and I'm telling you, if we were talking about new hardware, if Nvidia updated it right now, it would be singing a different tune, I think fifty dollars. for something new or 120,575 for something that's three years old and counting, it's a pretty big discrepancy, so unless you absolutely have to have Shield TV for one of those niche things, it's ideal for the Plex server for gaming in the cloud or it's okay to find AI processing.

I have a hard time arguing that spending two, three, four times as much money on a three-year-old device doesn't mean you can't argue for, look, it's

still

getting software updates, that's awesome. really good, I'll be the first to say it still does all the app stuff, it still does all the Google stuff. Google assistant is there and it's still ridiculously overpowered and just 4K vision and W and Dolby Atmos and all that and it looks great. So if you're a die-hard Android fan or you have to have cloud gaming here, you should have Plex by all means, go for it, your money will be well spent here, but again, I can't say this enough, those are niches. use cases on older hardware and you have to balance that with a retail price, okay that's not to say the Shield isn't good, it absolutely is, but for everyone else, people just trying to stream some Netflix videos and YouTube and use the Google Assistant.

Things I'm going to tell you, go buy a Chromecast with Google TV for fifty dollars, that is, until Nvidia decides to upgrade the Shield TV, maybe they will, maybe they won't, they haven't told me yet, but until that happens, I will Think of Shield TV as I think of myself. Older, wiser, still very good, but definitely older. Okay, that's all. I know you don't agree with me. Let me know in the comments. Make sure you like the video anyway. Subscribe to the channel if you haven't already. Stay tuned, we have much more coming from Digital Trends, see you around.