Interesting i didn't know that..... are the prices similar between the two? I don't know anyone with one so I haven't had a chance to ask.
I should of just googled it. So the NVIDIA Shield is really 200$. I'm not so sure that a good price point in this current market space. But I would absolutely expect and demand it do whatever feature it was on plex you wanted it to do and a whole lot more. That price is why I've never seen one in person. I've heard the name but that's it. It's probably great and if it wasn't that would be a problem. Is the NVIDIA the most expensive streaming device on the market? I can't think of another that's more expensive.
The Shield Pro is $200 (occasionally on sale for a bit less) but there's also the Shield TV (sometimes referred to as the Tube) that is $150. The differences are the Tube has no USB port, and the operating system is 32 bit instead of 64 bit. It still has a Gigabit Ethernet connection, and has an SD card slot for expanding the internal memory (which is also a bit less than the Pro). I have both and the Tube had no issues playing my 4K Blu Ray rips with full lossless audio sent to my AVR, so I have no problem recommending the lower cost model for most users.
There's one place the Roku beats the Shield, and that's in a couple of codecs supported. The Ultra can decode AC-4 audio to AC-3, and it supports VP-9 Profile 2, which YouTube uses for some HDR content. But YouTube appears to be moving to H.265 for HDR, and the Shield will play that.
The Shield is the best, the fact it hasn't had a new model since 2019 says a lot about its quality.
It still hasn't been surpassed.
However, if you are just looking to stream, you really don't need it. Roku is GREAT for streaming.
If (like me) you are an audio/video nut and convert blu-rays/4-Ks to lossless MKV files to create your own personal premium streaming service, the Shield is the way to go.
