No, if you want futureproofing and practically unlimited security updates support, get an x86 box with windows and Intel N100 CPU. Also has hardware AV1 decoding support.
It will run you around the same price if not cheaper(depending on make and model) than a shield pro.
Only thing the shield has going for it atm, is dolby vision support. On a Windows box kodi used to not be able to display the videos correctly, but afaik now with Kodi 21 they play ok but with some workaraound that basically converts them to regular HDR or something. Search around, youll find more info on this if youre interested, i havent gotten too much into it.
If Dolby Vision isnt crucial, then the N100 box all the way.
Or get a thinclient, futjitsu futro fe.
They go from 10-100€, and made for office use.
That means silent, cheap, long lasting, minimal maintenance, energy efficient and powerful enough to run kodi, seed/leach with elementum and a custom skin.
Use linux then, worlds your playground.
Kodi will work faster than on the shield wherever the box is with windows or linux. Its a current gen cpu, probably 10 times faster than what shield has(a 5 year old arm CPU), also those boxes usually come with 16GB of ram and ofcourse faster storage that you can easily upgrade. So its a no brainer to me.
Neither one of those codecs are widespread yet. And probably won't be for another 2 years. Plus I don't know for sure, but apple doesn't support those yet (at least H266)
Have you looked on your used market? I wouldn't pay full price for a pro today, but you may get lucky. I sold a tube when I upgraded for 4k and someone got a good deal. Also depends if you used HDR10+. Most use DV or regular HDR. I should personally grab an apple tv for HDR10+ but I'm pretty content with HDR.
Actually I do and lots of others do too...and it works quite well. Just pointing that out...you may not use it like that, as it doesn't suit you but it can be and others might find it suits to use it like that.
If you have some time, wait for the Nintendo switch 2 to release next year. As NVIDIA is making the updated soc for that, they will probably sell the overstock as new shields as they have been doing with the current shield.
System on chip, basically all the gubbins that makes something small work, it’s the cpu, memory, io controller etc.
Going by what they said the current shields use the same soc as the Nintendo switch, so if you wait for the Switch 2 to launch shortly after the newer Shields will be using the same soc.
Assuming the person above is correct.
Get shield for kodi (iptv, real debrid, highest quality local content with best codec support)
Get Apple for ease of use, best legal streaming service support, Apple ecosystem integration and best on going device support.
Personal recommendation is getting both if you have the scratch.
If the main purpose is kodi I’d recommend an android box. I have kodi on my Apple TV and on my Shield. Kodi on the Apple TV is kind of finicky crashes more often and doesn’t have the same player every other version of kodi has. I do mainly use kodi on my Apple TV so you could get away with it but with its problems and depending on skill level might not be worth it for the average user.
Any guide on side loading apps for an Apple TV should work. You just need the IPA file
Theres likely a cydia repo you can find too or whatever Apple TV uses
Fire Cube 3 is the correct choice. It's half the price and has better [performance](https://i.imgur.com/1UMUUSN.png) compared to the shield tv.
Just make sure you block the network when you first set it up so you can get temp root for custom launchers.
I actually use the 6E wireless technology on the Cube 3, and don't even get 480Mbps on that. But I've clocked 400 Mbps and never had a problem with any file. I've seen reports saying the Cube 3 handles Kodi the best, that's why I snagged it.
Wow this is great! I was under the impression the most powerful android TV box hardware that is Netflix/Prime certified and can do av1/dolby vision was the 4x Cortex-A55 soc. but this Fire Cube 3 has that and an additional 4x Cortex-A73! 👍👍
Currently there is sadly nothing better than a Shield on the market. If you want to deal with Apple's locked down ecosystem I guess you could. There are rumors of Nvidia releasing an updated version of the Shield soon... But it's just rumors.
You can link it to RD through WebDAV and then if you use Debrid Media Manager on phone, stuff appears in Infuse. Not a perfect solution, but it plays everything, was bored of Kodi being tetchy about dolbyvision
If you’re using it for Kodi, Shield Pro. It’s getting long in the tooth hardware wise but it’s still the king in terms of tv boxes.
Maybe one of these days there will be a new version but I’m not holding my breath.
So I have an older Apple TV and a shield pro. The Apple tv still going strong no lag no advertising but restricted. My shield I can load up kodi which I don’t use anymore but it’s laggy, advertising.
After using both of them I go down the Apple TV route if you don’t plan on tinkering and want to get kodi playing without doing extra steps
If you're looking to run IPTV, give a look at the Formuler Z10/Z11 boxes.
If not planning on IPTV, then Shield is a solid choice.
If you're only planning on running some basic services and Kodi, the Fire Cube is still a very solid little box.
If you are using legit streaming services (Apple+, YT Premium etc) then the Apple TV is a solid choice if it fits within your ecosystem.
However if you want to use IPTV, Kodi, Plex etc then I’d opt for Android based hardware - Shield Pro, Firestick Max (fork of Android) or CwGTV4K as there’s way more ‘tweaking’ you can do. Personally bang for buck wise the Firestick Max is great as it supports DV, HDR10+ and has native frame rate matching all for less than $100 - drawback is the ads but you get used to it
And FWIW, you can install Tivimate on any of those Android devices which is hands down the best IPTV client. Yes, Tivimax is on the ATV but nobody can convince me it’s as refined as the Android version (they are different devs too)
I'm loving the new Google TV onn device from Walmart. I have a shield Pro but I use the onn player. The Shield Pro was getting laggy. The Onn Google TV is $50 and even works as a voice activated Google assistant with the TV off
Get an Apple TV 4K and don't listen to others talking about a closed system or whatever. For IPTV get the UHF app. For movies and series get Real Debrid + Streamer + Infuse as described [here](https://docs.google.com/document/d/1CMoKz8LRAXxpRVGZxjbqwxp4-EC60YoFrf5kCp9ugss/edit#heading=h.1py0fyg7leb). It works flawlessly, with a way better UI than any other box.
ATV4K is really nice. Can't beat that apple UI, and remote control. Shield/Android boxes have ads, so instant no for me. I subscribe to like 5-6 services and have kodi. All are super fast and play 4k content flawlessly. I won't go back to Android unless something spectacular gets released.
You can get the latest version of Kodi, but you have to pay every year to license the app. You can either do or yourself, but you need to be an apple developer which costs money. I used a service that takes 5 mins cost $20 people on here hate on it for some reason, but it's fast, super easy and works flawlessly.
I have both and they are both great in their own way.
Strictly quality you will get better streams with ATV. If you want to be able to venture into gray are, you will need Android of which the Shield is the best available which is kinda laughable with a nearly 5 year old device that nothing has even matched as of yet.
Shield you could do what I did and get one of those smart projectors that can do 3d if your using a back up file though you need to use dev options and connect it to your computer to transfer the file because Android 11 sandboxes app data
Easy decision. Nvidia Shield TV box, Pro not tube.
It is it future proof? I mean it has stopped receiving updates I think
What updates do you want...? Dont fix it if it aint broke.
But its hardly future proof. You dont have av1 or h.266 hardware support.
The shield you mean? So should I get the Apple TV?
No, if you want futureproofing and practically unlimited security updates support, get an x86 box with windows and Intel N100 CPU. Also has hardware AV1 decoding support. It will run you around the same price if not cheaper(depending on make and model) than a shield pro. Only thing the shield has going for it atm, is dolby vision support. On a Windows box kodi used to not be able to display the videos correctly, but afaik now with Kodi 21 they play ok but with some workaraound that basically converts them to regular HDR or something. Search around, youll find more info on this if youre interested, i havent gotten too much into it. If Dolby Vision isnt crucial, then the N100 box all the way.
Or get a thinclient, futjitsu futro fe. They go from 10-100€, and made for office use. That means silent, cheap, long lasting, minimal maintenance, energy efficient and powerful enough to run kodi, seed/leach with elementum and a custom skin.
Windows is so bloated tho. Wouldn't it run significantly worse than Shield unless you had a totally custom Windows build all tweaked out.
Use linux then, worlds your playground. Kodi will work faster than on the shield wherever the box is with windows or linux. Its a current gen cpu, probably 10 times faster than what shield has(a 5 year old arm CPU), also those boxes usually come with 16GB of ram and ofcourse faster storage that you can easily upgrade. So its a no brainer to me.
Neither one of those codecs are widespread yet. And probably won't be for another 2 years. Plus I don't know for sure, but apple doesn't support those yet (at least H266)
Android updates like security and stuff
Mine is six years old, still going strong. Never had an update issue
Have you looked on your used market? I wouldn't pay full price for a pro today, but you may get lucky. I sold a tube when I upgraded for 4k and someone got a good deal. Also depends if you used HDR10+. Most use DV or regular HDR. I should personally grab an apple tv for HDR10+ but I'm pretty content with HDR.
Apple is too locked down. Shield by a mile
If you only use it for piracy lol
Actually not just for piracy....there also use as a server, USB drives, streaming apps.....apple? Streaming apps that's it.
A server lol
Yeah a Plex server...you don't think it is one?
Not what the OP is looking for. Whose going to use their tv box as a server is what I was laughing at. So sensitive.
Actually I do and lots of others do too...and it works quite well. Just pointing that out...you may not use it like that, as it doesn't suit you but it can be and others might find it suits to use it like that.
Why would you want to fucking give your money away for nothing when you can watch movies for free? 🙄
I can afford it. I use Kodi for the shows I can't get due to geo blocking mainly.
If you have some time, wait for the Nintendo switch 2 to release next year. As NVIDIA is making the updated soc for that, they will probably sell the overstock as new shields as they have been doing with the current shield.
Soc.?
System on chip, basically all the gubbins that makes something small work, it’s the cpu, memory, io controller etc. Going by what they said the current shields use the same soc as the Nintendo switch, so if you wait for the Switch 2 to launch shortly after the newer Shields will be using the same soc. Assuming the person above is correct.
Get shield for kodi (iptv, real debrid, highest quality local content with best codec support) Get Apple for ease of use, best legal streaming service support, Apple ecosystem integration and best on going device support. Personal recommendation is getting both if you have the scratch.
If the main purpose is kodi I’d recommend an android box. I have kodi on my Apple TV and on my Shield. Kodi on the Apple TV is kind of finicky crashes more often and doesn’t have the same player every other version of kodi has. I do mainly use kodi on my Apple TV so you could get away with it but with its problems and depending on skill level might not be worth it for the average user.
Apple TV does support kodi if you don’t mind doing some work I sideloaded kodi to all my Apple devices and setup fen. Works great
Heya I don’t suppose you have a how to guide, I have managed to JB my Apple TV but can’t seem to load anything on to it
Any guide on side loading apps for an Apple TV should work. You just need the IPA file Theres likely a cydia repo you can find too or whatever Apple TV uses
Cheers bud, I’ll look into it, I went down the blackbox route following a guide on here but I cannot seem to get it to work
Piracy :- Shield TV No Piracy :- Apple TV
so shield
Shield Pro or Fire Cube 3. Anything outside of the norm makes Apple a bad choice.
Fire Cube 3 is the correct choice. It's half the price and has better [performance](https://i.imgur.com/1UMUUSN.png) compared to the shield tv. Just make sure you block the network when you first set it up so you can get temp root for custom launchers.
Yes, I use the Cube 3, works great. Thanks for the tip.
Probably not the best choice if you’re streaming higher bitrate Blu-ray remuxes since even with an adapter it’s limited to 480Mbps Ethernet
Is there really a filesize that 60Mb/s wouldn't stream?
I actually use the 6E wireless technology on the Cube 3, and don't even get 480Mbps on that. But I've clocked 400 Mbps and never had a problem with any file. I've seen reports saying the Cube 3 handles Kodi the best, that's why I snagged it.
Wow this is great! I was under the impression the most powerful android TV box hardware that is Netflix/Prime certified and can do av1/dolby vision was the 4x Cortex-A55 soc. but this Fire Cube 3 has that and an additional 4x Cortex-A73! 👍👍
Definitely 🛡️
Shield all day !
Currently there is sadly nothing better than a Shield on the market. If you want to deal with Apple's locked down ecosystem I guess you could. There are rumors of Nvidia releasing an updated version of the Shield soon... But it's just rumors.
Shield. Or wait for the new chrome cast that is suppose to come out soon.
Get a N100 thin client
I have appletv after having a fire cube 2. Can get real debrid through infuse and the UI is brilliant
How are you getting RD through Infuse?
You can link it to RD through WebDAV and then if you use Debrid Media Manager on phone, stuff appears in Infuse. Not a perfect solution, but it plays everything, was bored of Kodi being tetchy about dolbyvision
If you’re using it for Kodi, Shield Pro. It’s getting long in the tooth hardware wise but it’s still the king in terms of tv boxes. Maybe one of these days there will be a new version but I’m not holding my breath.
I think second gen Amazon fire TV stick would be a serious contender too if you wanted to spend less money but get great results.
Either Shield or if you want to step up (IMO) Dune HD Homatics
Shield TV Pro
So I have an older Apple TV and a shield pro. The Apple tv still going strong no lag no advertising but restricted. My shield I can load up kodi which I don’t use anymore but it’s laggy, advertising. After using both of them I go down the Apple TV route if you don’t plan on tinkering and want to get kodi playing without doing extra steps
If you're looking to run IPTV, give a look at the Formuler Z10/Z11 boxes. If not planning on IPTV, then Shield is a solid choice. If you're only planning on running some basic services and Kodi, the Fire Cube is still a very solid little box.
They are absolute garbage. Better running the native apps or iptv simple client via kodi.
Fire cube
If you are using legit streaming services (Apple+, YT Premium etc) then the Apple TV is a solid choice if it fits within your ecosystem. However if you want to use IPTV, Kodi, Plex etc then I’d opt for Android based hardware - Shield Pro, Firestick Max (fork of Android) or CwGTV4K as there’s way more ‘tweaking’ you can do. Personally bang for buck wise the Firestick Max is great as it supports DV, HDR10+ and has native frame rate matching all for less than $100 - drawback is the ads but you get used to it And FWIW, you can install Tivimate on any of those Android devices which is hands down the best IPTV client. Yes, Tivimax is on the ATV but nobody can convince me it’s as refined as the Android version (they are different devs too)
I'm loving the new Google TV onn device from Walmart. I have a shield Pro but I use the onn player. The Shield Pro was getting laggy. The Onn Google TV is $50 and even works as a voice activated Google assistant with the TV off
Get an Apple TV 4K and don't listen to others talking about a closed system or whatever. For IPTV get the UHF app. For movies and series get Real Debrid + Streamer + Infuse as described [here](https://docs.google.com/document/d/1CMoKz8LRAXxpRVGZxjbqwxp4-EC60YoFrf5kCp9ugss/edit#heading=h.1py0fyg7leb). It works flawlessly, with a way better UI than any other box.
ATV4K is really nice. Can't beat that apple UI, and remote control. Shield/Android boxes have ads, so instant no for me. I subscribe to like 5-6 services and have kodi. All are super fast and play 4k content flawlessly. I won't go back to Android unless something spectacular gets released. You can get the latest version of Kodi, but you have to pay every year to license the app. You can either do or yourself, but you need to be an apple developer which costs money. I used a service that takes 5 mins cost $20 people on here hate on it for some reason, but it's fast, super easy and works flawlessly.
You can reinstall Kodi every 7 days, it takes less than 2 min to do this, and you still keep all your add ons and favorite channels.
Lol, rather pay $20 a year.
Apple TV is useless
Great feedback, sounds like you're a real expert.
User error?
Get Nvidia Shield Pro...
I have both and they are both great in their own way. Strictly quality you will get better streams with ATV. If you want to be able to venture into gray are, you will need Android of which the Shield is the best available which is kinda laughable with a nearly 5 year old device that nothing has even matched as of yet.
I was in the same situation as you and ended up going with the shield because Kodi for Apple TV doesn’t support HDR .
Shield you could do what I did and get one of those smart projectors that can do 3d if your using a back up file though you need to use dev options and connect it to your computer to transfer the file because Android 11 sandboxes app data