Anurag is an experienced journalist and author who’s been covering tech for the past 5 years, with a focus on Windows, Android, and Apple. He’s written for sites like Android Police, Neowin, Dexerto, and MakeTechEasier. Anurag’s always pumped about tech and loves getting his hands on the latest gadgets. When he's not procrastinating, you’ll probably find him catching the newest movies in theaters or scrolling through Twitter from his bed.
Nvidia now wants $300 for the Shield TV Pro, a streaming box it last refreshed in 2019. That's $100 more than its original price, and you get the same hardware for the extra money. Nvidia blames the RAMpocalypse and rising component costs, which explains the increase but doesn't make it any easier to accept.
I still use my Shield TV Pro daily, whether it's for streaming movies and shows or the media stored on my NAS, and I want a replacement that gives me the same app and playback freedom. I prefer Android, and newer Android boxes still leave me giving up features I already have. I've used this thing for years, and even at $300, I'd rather buy another Shield TV Pro than pay less for a box that leaves me looking for ways to get those features back.
It handles more than streaming apps
My NAS holds the movies and shows I want to watch, and the Shield TV Pro gives me several ways to access them. I can use Kodi, Plex, or Jellyfin, depending on how I want to browse and play the library. These apps are available on other devices too, but the surrounding hardware is a big reason I keep using the Shield TV Pro.
Gigabit Ethernet is particularly useful here. Large 4K remux files can push beyond what a 100Mbps connection comfortably handles, especially when the bitrate spikes. The Shield TV Pro gives my local network enough headroom to deliver those files without making the wired connection the bottleneck. You don't need that bandwidth for Netflix, but it's a nice-to-have when you're playing high-quality files from another machine in your house.
Audio support is another reason the Shield TV Pro remains useful for a home theater. It can pass Dolby TrueHD, DTS-HD Master Audio, and DTS through to a compatible receiver. If your Blu-ray rip includes a TrueHD Atmos soundtrack, you can preserve that immersive audio instead of losing its object metadata during playback. The app and the rest of your audio setup still need to support it, but the Shield TV Pro gives you the option.
The two USB 3.0 ports also let you connect external storage directly, alongside peripherals. You can even attach a drive and run Plex Media Server on the Shield TV Pro itself, serving that collection to other devices. I already have a NAS handling that job, but someone with a smaller library can use the same box to store, serve, and play their media without buying a separate server.
The alternatives still leave me giving something up
Apple comes the closest to replacing it
A Fire TV Stick 4K Max can run Kodi, Plex, and Jellyfin, and its Fire OS lets you sideload Android apps. Amazon even lists TrueHD Atmos passthrough for the second-generation model, so audio support alone doesn't settle this comparison. I'd still lose Nvidia's upscaling, the built-in Plex server, and the convenience of connecting drives directly to the box. You also need to distinguish those Fire OS models from Amazon's newer Vega OS sticks, which have a different app platform.
Apple has just made this comparison more interesting by announcing a new Apple TV 4K for $299, with availability beginning November 13. It has an A19 chip and hardware AV1 decoding, alongside Siri AI and built-in microphones for hands-free control. Apple is offering a hardware refresh at essentially the same price Nvidia now charges for its 2019 box. That makes the Shield TV Pro's price increase even harder to defend.
I still prefer Android's flexibility with sideloaded apps and replacement launchers. Apple can access my NAS through Infuse or the free Swiftfin client, so switching wouldn't mean losing my library. Its new box also includes Gigabit Ethernet, but there's still no USB port for attaching a drive.
The Shield TV Pro still gives me reasons to keep using it
Upscaling and support keep it useful
Older movies, TV shows, and plenty of YouTube videos still arrive at resolutions below 4K. The Shield TV Pro's AI upscaling adds extra detail to that content before it reaches your television, with adjustable enhancement for supported video. It's a useful feature to have alongside a personal media library, especially when a better release of something you want to watch doesn't exist. You can push the processing too far and end up with an overly sharpened picture, but you have control over it. Also, it won't turn an old DVD into a UHD Blu-ray.
Nvidia continues fixing the software, too. Shield Experience 9.2.4 includes January 2026 security patches and addresses problems with Disney+ playback, Bluetooth remotes, and the device waking unexpectedly. These are ordinary maintenance fixes, which is precisely what I want for a box I still use. Nvidia hasn't refreshed the hardware since 2019, yet it continues addressing problems that affect watching something on it.
GeForce Now adds another use for the same hardware. I can connect a controller and stream supported PC games, with an Ultimate membership enabling up to 4K HDR at 60fps on the Shield TV Pro. The games run on Nvidia's servers, so the Tegra processor's age doesn't determine whether it can handle a recent release. I also don't have to worry about storage space, thanks to its 16GB of storage.
