Nvidia Shield vs Firestick 4k What’s the $100 difference?

by Kathleensr

I currently use a Firestick 4k. I mainly side load third party apps for streaming, no gaming. Amazon keeps installing apps on it that take up a lot of valuable space and cannot be uninstalled. Examples are Freetime and now IMDB. I will never use these apps and the space they take up affects the efficiency of my streams. That said, looking at the Nvidia Shield I don’t see much difference in them. I use the mute button a lot and the Shield doesn’t have one. They both have 8 gB of storage and 2 gB of RAM which in my opinion are the two biggest selling points of a streaming device. What’s so great about the Shield other than the fact that Amazon can’t randomly install stuff on it?

protik7
  • It has two USB 3.0 ports which means you can add a USB stick or a SSD in an enclosure and make that internal storage.
  • The Shield UI is cleaner than Fire stick 4K, doesn't have the ads.
  • The Shield doesn't support HDR10+ which is what most Prime contents come in.
  • You can pair your 4K remote with your Shield and get the mute button.
  • Shield has more powerful hardware, so it's more responsive.
simiwood

Basically your asking whats the difference between a Toyota camry and a corvette.

commentsOnPizza

I think Amazon's push isn't just about being able to install things. Amazon gets to determine the whole UI experience. They can push Prime and IMDB (which they own) above competing services to keep you in their ecosystem.

The Nvidia Shield is also based around the Tegra X1 processor with a 256-core Nvidia GPU. This will be a much more powerful processor and graphics chip than the cheap stuff Amazon uses in the Fire TV Stick 4K. Of course, the question is whether you want or need that extra hardware. For gaming, sure. The Nvidia Shield is positioned towards gamers. The UI might be a bit more responsive with better hardware, but the Fire TV probably has more than enough for a good experience there.

The Nvidia Shield is definitely a more powerful device, but when you're just streaming video (which is decoded using dedicated hardware decoding), you don't really need that much power.

ninkorn

#AI Upscaling of streaming videos

tonymurray

Shield actually has a mute function. Not sure on the new remote but on the old one, you double tap the volume slider. New one, I think you push both vol up and down simultaneously to mute.

afavourifyouwill

If all you want is streaming then there’s honestly not much that makes the Shield worth the extra $$. But I run a DVR and media server on my Shield and it has zero performance hit, it’s a very powerful box. But if you don’t need it, don’t pay it (unless the Amazon ads annoy you I guess)

Nigules

You can stream games from your PC to play on your shield, I use it all the time for when I have people over and we play jackbox on the tv

mangolimon3

If you're the type of person that is concerned with privacy/security I can tell you that you will receive 100x amount of DNS queries from the fire stick vs the shield

WazWaz

IMDb works on an Android TV? Damn, doesn't on MiBox.

jnbernard

If you watch a lot of content on you TV, you’ll be glad you spent the extra $100 with the shield. It’s faster, more customizable and can expand more. Only con is that IR on the remote is slow when changing volume.

pawdog

Also the Shield is not ad subsidized, the interface is much cleaner and customizable. SD card support for increased device storage. Gigabit Ethernet, support for lossless Audio tracks. Fire Stick 4K has 1.5GB RAM. It's very easy to see the price difference. Amazon also uses the Fire Stick as a loss leaser so they make no money on it from initial sales. The Shield has to be sold and make a profit So Fire TV devices will always have an advantge in price. If all you do is pirate streaming apps Fire TV will serve you well, as those are non demanding applications.

MarineMom47

I'm interested in this also.

bobniborg1

Does your stream stutter? Are you having issues? If not, stay with the stick. If so, the shield probably fixes most of your issues if not all of them. I use a mibox, it was occasionally twitchy but was fine if reset. So I was resetting it weekly instead of buying a shield. I 'upgraded' to a mibox s ($25) at the last sale. Only reset monthly now so it's worth it to me. If I start gaming more I might get the shield, but the shield is overkill for plex and what I use.

Caddyroo23

Android tv and actually responds to button presses