I have a 2 year old Nvidia Shield Pro that I use for Netflix, Amazon and Syncler. But, I’m about to start looking into IPTV and finally cutting the cord completely. This morning I looked at Troy’s 7 Best IPTV Boxes for Buffer Free TV (Updated 2025) and was surprised he rates the Shield #3. I then searched online for Shield Pro vs Formuler Z11 Pro Max, which I never heard of. Since I’m retired, we tend to look closely after our money so I can’t afford to just go with the latest and greatest then buy something else in 2 years. Since I’m about to dedicate my Shield to IPTV with TVmate, which of these two systems do you believe is best? (Shield/Formuler) If there’s a very good reason to purchase the Formuler, I’ll do it.
The shield is hands down better than the formuler boxes, which i think are overpriced anyways. The shield is still a very capable box.
So you just need the one box?
I have had my shield pro for almost 4 years and it still does IPTV perfectly. I have now purchased an Ugoos SK1. About $307CDN. More than I have ever spent on a device, but Santa was generous this year and as we are in our 70s we do watch a lot of TV. The Shield is slipping and is #3 for a good reason as the tech is now falling behind the times. In tech terms 4 yrs is like my human age 70. Still quite capable but can’t quite do the 100 meter dash like it use to, and tends to be a bit glitchy at times. The SK1 has 8 GBs of RAM and 128 of memory and has the latest codecs. Running Android 11 same as the Shield. If you are only watching TV then the Shield really doesn’t need replacing yet. It will still handle that quite admirably.
Not sure what you are doing but if you just need a box to watch IPTV and VOD (KODI, Stremio, apps, etc…) NOTHING beats the value and performance of the $50 ONN 4K Pro
Happy new year, Miki! Does the Ugoos upscale 1080 to 4K? Does it have the capability to attach a USB drive and share the drive on one’s home network, thereby allowing devices throughout the home to access content on it?
I got a $100 gift card for Christmas and used it to get a Shield for my Florida place. It handles an NTFS drive right out of the box for IPTV recording. Also, it will be a network node so you can SMB record to it from other boxes that won’t record to an external drive. Add in the fact that it is a certified box and the video upscaling means it is still worth it.
That being said, I don’t think I would buy a second one for a system, however. There are a lot of great value Android boxes out now.
Your 2019 model Shield Pro is plenty is plenty capable for what you’re intending on using it for, with plenty of overhead room to do plenty more if your needs grow.
The hardware is certainly not modern gen, but the recipe of hardware that Nvidia used in your shield proved to have an amazing functional lifespan. This is especially so if your use is limited to streaming, VOD, IPTV, etc.
I own several different android and Amazon streaming devices. My shield pro remains as my primary workhorse device in my home theater. My Onn 4k is my primary travel device. My Onn Pro is in charge of my secondary rooms (bedrooms, rec room, etc).
Unless you have a need for a device that can decode HDR10+, your Shield can do pretty much everything else until next gen media is mainstream. New devices that market better SoC and system RAM is more sales marketing than actual real world benefit for this hobby.
Save your retirement money and let your shield continue to serve you. For your next jump, you will be happy with what you have already. For tivimate, you’ll find that the shield remote is mapped out much better than remotes like that included with Z11.
I haven’t received it yet and I don’t ever record. However it has 128GBs of storage and I’m going attach my 256GB SSD Samsung EVO to play around with. As for upscaling I can easily mitigate that by properly selecting the source I am using like 4K HDR or HDR 10+ or 1080 at the least. Give me a month or two and I’ll have it tamed by then. Happy New Year.
I have had a on going problems with my Shield Pro 19 . Some of my apps are closing on their own an I having to reopen them . I have air sprayed the vents . Have it on top of a fan to keep it cool but some apps still will close by their selves . Rebooting everything every 3 days helps for a while . It can’t be a memory issue because I have it hooked up to a 1 tig hard drive . Any ideas ?
Hmmm that is odd. I have a Shirld Pro as well but not had issues like that. I will do some asking around. Oh one idea I have. Go into settings>device preferences>energy saver and make sure under Turn off display and set to “never”. Also how much free RAM and Storage do you have? Also dbl click the home button and check that all your background apps are closed.
I assume then that you are running your main apps like Kodi or TiViMate or Stremio or VPN off the internal storage of the Shield and keeping the external drive for recordings? There are many possibilities that need to be eliminated. Are there specific apps that shut down?