There’s a new “google tv streamer” about to be released, but I have no info if this is equal or higher spec compared with other options.
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We’ve always taken the 4K option the picture is so much better. The upgrade as I recall was a lot cheaper than €10 you quoted.
I’ve just bought another Shield TV for the other TV. All streaming issues were gone since we use the Shield and there are apparently good black friday deals around.
I much like the device.
Does the Sheild have an optical audio out? My Apple TV 4th gen doesn’t and now that I have a projector I want the audio to go directly to my Auralic Vega S1 DAC, but can’t seem to find any decent box that still has a digital audio out. 
Nope. USB, HDMI, power, utp and that’s about it I’m afraid. My current one uses hdmi to the tv, the tv has coax out to my Naim AV2 and this works very good. There are several options for down sampling audio signals, but that’s also possible on the Apple TV I believe.
Thanks, I was afraid that would be the case. It seems all manufacturers have now abandoned optical audio out.
I’ve had okay results sending the audio over AirPlay from my AppleTv to my streamer/DAC. There is a slight sync issue however, so been looking at other options.
I’ve tried one of those HDMI signal splitters from an online retailer but found the device very unreliable. It would work one day and choose not to the next.
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I use a 4k firestick and feed it in to a 20 euro converter which has an hdmi pass through to the tv and an optical output for sound to whatever device you have, soundbar or Auralic etc. I got mine from Amazon but not sure I’m allowed to post a link here.
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Thanks Bruss. Yeah that’s what I tried, although that was a few years ago. So maybe these things have improved since then.
Might give it another try. Can always return it I guess if it doesn’t work.
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SDKDZKG 4K x 2K HDMI Audio Converter Adapter, HDMI to HDMI Audio and Optical TOSLINK SPDIF Audio Optical Extractor Splitter with 3.5mm Stereo Adapter Separator, Black SDK-A78
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I have the ‘latest’ shield pro though in today’s terms it would be geriatric. One of nvidias own chips and a very good one to it’s probably the best box on the market.
Apples 3rd gen 4k is ok, but Apple being Apple they assume everything is perfect so offer no controls. Lip sync is an issue.
Shield has controls for this.
For hdr I would say shield is better than apple. For audio the shield has better options and more reliable. Apple are arseholes and insist every thing goes via atmos. Have dts hd content? Tough poopy, atmos for you. Shield no such issues and dts hd is passed through.
I would say colour on apple is a bit better. In terms of compatibility with video and audio though it’s:
- Shield
- Amazon fire tv cube
- (At some distance) Apple TV . They are just assholes.
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I’ve recently found that for those with really large DVD 480p rip collections, playback on Kodi in the Shield is far superior to plex. While they both behave fine with HD content, the framerate smoothness and picture of older SD content through Kodi is nothing short of incredible. Apparently it also supports ISO rips with original disc menus and features. Gonna try that next weekend.
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Yes, ISO rips with original disc menus and features are supported. However, a bug in Kodi 21.0 for Android broke this feature, so ensure that your Shield is updated to Kodi 21.1, in which this bug was fixed.
I’m another highly satisfied NVIDIA Shield TV Pro user (full disclosure: I got mine for free as a perk of working for NVIDIA). Picture quality streaming upscaled HD content through apps like Netflix and YouTube is noticeably better than with the same apps on my new 4K Samsung Smart TV.
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This sounds really interesting - often have really poor quality on some films using the projector - not on tv that I have noticed. Eg, it’s a wonderful life has some really awful quality on the projector
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