this post was submitted on 29 Feb 2024
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Piracy: ꜱᴀɪʟ ᴛʜᴇ ʜɪɢʜ ꜱᴇᴀꜱ
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Pick up a Nvidia Shield Pro 2019 on ebay. Connect an external hard drive through one of the two USB ports and run Kodi as your library manager. That should be all you need. Supports HDR, 4k, upscaling.
If you go that route, run a launcher for a more streamlined home screen. I’m running Projectivy Launcher because it was easy to install and does what I need it to, but there are other options out there.
Why is a 5 year old device still the best bet? It's frustrating that nothing better exists on the market.
The Android market sort of split into cheap streaming sticks vs more expensive but niche boxes (like the Zidoo or Dune players). The former are meant for streaming but lack power. The latter are more capable players but often can’t stream from legit services due to DRM.
The Shield sits in this weird middle ground where it’s actually good for a variety of use cases….but unlikely to get an update due to small market demand.
Although I’d argue that unless you need atmos audio passthrough for Bluray rips…the AppleTV 4K is the best option these days. Super fast processor, no ads or bullshit in the OS, reliable frame rate matching, good track record of software updates and vendor support, and apps like Infuse which is a superb Plex and Jellyfin client. It’ll do 4K REMUX playback with lossless 7.1 audio, and the UI never lags…ever. Just a shame about no audio passthrough which prevents it from being an enthusiast player.
Hey hey, check your facts, the Shield did get an update recently. They did in fact add ads to the home screen./s But I assume you mean a hardware upgrade.
But on a serious note I don't see a reason why I need anything else than the Shield. It has flaws and bugs but generally plays everything. Combined with my Plex home server the experience is great. Can take the shield anywhere I go and stream content from my home server.
I play everything in 4k blueray remux without any problems (except for a memory leak every few weeks).
That's not on Nvidia but the fault of Google tho (they use stock Android TV) you can just use another launcher and set it to auto start ( not like the Fire Stick where they barred that option with updates sigh).
Most of what these devices do is fairly light compute-wise. There's no real need to have the most powerful hardware when all it will really do is add to cost. Are there use cases for more powerful hardware, of course but for most people what we have is good enough. That said, I would love an updated Shield or competitor.
Even my Shield TV Pro 2019 lags a lot when using Kodi (With Umbrella, TMDBHelper and a nice skin with not too many widgets) I can only imagine how thrash it would be to attempt to do that setup with worse hardware.
Which version, pro or tube? My 2015 pro is a champ, including in Kodi. Adding the Samsung SSD a few years back was a game changer though. Boot time dropped to 7 seconds, and no trouble with h.265 and even 1080 AV1.
Edit: To OP, I currently host my files on the shield local drive and watch with Kodi. I used to have a NAS, but am living leaner lately, and local works fine. Can easily move files to it over the network
Nvidia Shield TV Pro 2019, no tube, and I even downgraded it to 8.2.3 but Kodi is the heaviest app by far and using it as a streaming client has always given me headaches, as a media player is top notch shit though.
Because it's good shit.
Much less than the $150 for the smaller shield and you don't have a lot of margin for a decent chip in there.
I use the 2017 edition and it works great. Has the same SoC AS a switch Lok but supports 4k
It's going to be cheaper and fulfills OP's need. I don't know what else you'd want, what better things were you looking for?
i'm still running a hardware steam link for our in home streaming (and have another one as backup should it die). the shield and the SL were the best options back then, and everything afterwards kinda sucked
Wait, hardware steam link? Please tell me more. Mine is collecting dust. Can I throw Kodi on it?
I just looked it up and yes, you can install kodi on it: https://www.makeuseof.com/tag/steam-link-install-kodi/
the latest kodi release for steam link is pretty old tho, dating from 2019. https://github.com/garbear/kodi-steamlink/releases
i personally just stream my desktop and then use jellyfin/plex or my browser for whatever media i need.
I'll have to check it out. I would love to replace my fire stick. I am trying to get jellyfin setup.
Old hardware is cheaper, and these devices don’t need to be expensive.
Even when newly manufactured they’ll still use ancient CPUs because nobody wants to spend $500 on an android TV stick.
Even the latest shield pro uses a CPU from 2015 and it’s $200 brand new.
Or even better flash LineageOS on it!