Roku Ultra vs NVidia Shield

General Discussions
1

I am looking at buying one of these. The Shield is 2-3x as much money, but the features set from a HTPC standpoint seem comparable. 4K, NetFlix, Hulu etc and they both support Plex DVR now. My prime usage is consuming local (server) media via Plex, streaming apps like NetFlix and Hulu etc and recording using the Plex DVR for playback.

My goal is to cut the cord from a cable box standpoint but use a single interface/device for everything. Haven’t totally decided whether I’ll cut cable service for my HomePrime and rely JUST on OTA/streaming or just be rid of all the boxes except the cablecard in the HomeRun Prime then use a device on each TV to access my Plex resources.

I am not a gamer so that is not a buying point for me for the Shield. I also don’t know anything about the Android ecosystem as I’ve always used iPhones. Never owned anything Android. That’s not a vote against it from me, it just isn’t a selling point that I know of.

Why should I pick one over the other?

Also, will “live TV” be a feature in any of these (as well as PMP) at some point?

Thanks!

2

The big difference as far as capabilities is that the Shield supports HD audio codecs such as DTS-HD/ TrueHD. If you have local media with HD audio, and have a receiver capable of utilizing it…strongly consider the Shield.

Roku, on the other hand, wins points for user-friendliness, simplicity, size, power-consumption, etc.

3

I can’t help as I have both and use both similar amount of time.

But the Shield can be your server as well as a player!!

4

@DFury said:
The big difference as far as capabilities is that the Shield supports HD audio codecs such as DTS-HD/ TrueHD. If you have local media with HD audio, and have a receiver capable of utilizing it…strongly consider the Shield.

Roku, on the other hand, wins points for user-friendliness, simplicity, size, power-consumption, etc.

Here is an interesting chart:

https://shield.nvidia.com/android-tv/shield-androidtv-vs-appletv-vs-roku-vs-firetv

Of course it highlights the features (mostly Google-centric) that Shield can meet or beat, but it doesn’t mention the price…which is at least twice the price the the next closest device…:wink:

Am I correct in assuming that the only difference between Shield and Shield Pro is the 500GB HDD, which in Plexland is unneeded?

Something I don’t like about it though is the fact it’s kind of meant to be on display. They sell fancy stands for it so you can have your friends over to ogle at it. I want to pack this thing up behind my TV so it’s invisible. The Roku is better for that. In fact everything in this chart is better than the Shield for that. Does this thing have an IR remote that requires line of sight or is it RF like the Firestick? I can’t tell that from the Shield page.

Something nice to know is that Shield also has “private listening” which in Roku-speak is a headphone jack on the remote. I’d imagine Shield does something similar. I would find that useful sometimes.

Frankly, I own a Firestick and it does quite well for a $40 device with voice control. I considered the FireTV and love the Alexa integration, but…

Wait…my LG TV has a Plex app, NetFlix, Hulu and a bunch of other stuff. Last time I tried the Plex app it was wonky. I wonder if it has caught up to the other Plex players with updated features and such…

5

@spikemixture said:
I can’t help as I have both and use both similar amount of time.

But the Shield can be your server as well as a player!!

I have a 24/7 machine that has about 15TB of storage. I’m not sure why I need 500GB more for $100. What am I missing?

6

@spikemixture said:
I can’t help as I have both and use both similar amount of time.

But the Shield can be your server as well as a player!!

Which do you find yourself gravitating towards more often?

7

@KaraokeAmerica said:

@spikemixture said:
I can’t help as I have both and use both similar amount of time.

But the Shield can be your server as well as a player!!

I have a 24/7 machine that has about 15TB of storage. I’m not sure why I need 500GB more for $100. What am I missing?

Yes you will need the 500gb version as the PMS folder will grow too big on the 16gb for your size library.

I have the pro and 16gb - The 16gb can only handle a library of 1-2tb .

I have them both setup as back up servers - the pro handles my 20TB of media

As players I use the Shield in the living room and Roku in the Bedroom.
If $$$ are the issue and you don’t need a server go for the Roku.
But…

8

@spikemixture said:

@KaraokeAmerica said:

@spikemixture said:
I can’t help as I have both and use both similar amount of time.

But the Shield can be your server as well as a player!!

I have a 24/7 machine that has about 15TB of storage. I’m not sure why I need 500GB more for $100. What am I missing?

Yes you will need the 500gb version as the PMS folder will grow too big on the 16gb for your size library.

I have the pro and 16gb - The 16gb can only handle a library of 1-2tb .

I have them both setup as back up servers - the pro handles my 20TB of media

As players I use the Shield in the living room and Roku in the Bedroom.
If $$$ are the issue and you don’t need a server go for the Roku.
But…

I’m missing something here…if you get the non-Pro version it’s just a streaming device. Why does it need local storage except for the app itself which is small? I don’t need storage on any of my other devices that stream from my Plex server.

9

I do not see any difference in picture quality or hear any difference in audio quality between the Shield and the Ultra BUT my eyes and ears are old and anything past Dolby 2.1 and good quality 1080p HD video are wasted on me.

As far as a Plex client I find the Ultra vastly superior because of the user interface and general ease of use.

However the Shield does one thing that makes it the superior choice if you are going to buy only one device for Plex and that is that the Shield makes a pretty good Plex server so you could have a Shield and a TV and have a Plex system. You can even have a hard drive or two connected directly to the Shield and not need a computer at all except for server maintenance. (You cannot manage your server directly from the Shield)

If you have a large library you will probably need some kind of networked storage for your library.

I am close to my ideal setup in that I have a computer with over 50tb of attached storage pooled into one drive using StableBit’s DrivePool. I have a Shield Pro as my Plex server and I use Rokus as my primary clients. I have found this setup to work extremely well.

If I were to recommend a Plex Client for most people I would recommend a Roku.
If I were to recommend a Plex server and client combined or just a decent server I would recommend the Shield.

10

@KaraokeAmerica said:

@spikemixture said:

@KaraokeAmerica said:

@spikemixture said:
I can’t help as I have both and use both similar amount of time.

But the Shield can be your server as well as a player!!

I have a 24/7 machine that has about 15TB of storage. I’m not sure why I need 500GB more for $100. What am I missing?

Yes you will need the 500gb version as the PMS folder will grow too big on the 16gb for your size library.

I’m missing something here…if you get the non-Pro version it’s just a streaming device. Why does it need local storage except for the app itself which is small? I don’t need storage on any of my other devices that stream from my Plex server.

As per Plex’s own support documents, the Shield uses ONLY internal storage to store the metadata database of all your items. Adding a USB drive or SD card can’t be used for this. Note this isn’t the movies/shows themselves, this is all the metadata artwork/pictures etc. I don’t know at what size library the databas becomes too big for the 16GB storage though.

So that means if you have a fairly large Plex library or turn on video thumbnail previews then the 500GB Shield pro is essential.

11

@jayz78 said:

@KaraokeAmerica said:

@spikemixture said:

@KaraokeAmerica said:

@spikemixture said:
I can’t help as I have both and use both similar amount of time.

But the Shield can be your server as well as a player!!

I have a 24/7 machine that has about 15TB of storage. I’m not sure why I need 500GB more for $100. What am I missing?

Yes you will need the 500gb version as the PMS folder will grow too big on the 16gb for your size library.

I’m missing something here…if you get the non-Pro version it’s just a streaming device. Why does it need local storage except for the app itself which is small? I don’t need storage on any of my other devices that stream from my Plex server.

As per Plex’s own support documents, the Shield uses ONLY internal storage to store the metadata database of all your items. Adding a USB drive or SD card can’t be used for this. Note this isn’t the movies/shows themselves, this is all the metadata artwork/pictures etc. I don’t know at what size library the databas becomes too big for the 16GB storage though.

So that means if you have a fairly large Plex library or turn on video thumbnail previews then the 500GB Shield pro is essential.

The 16gb Shield can be used as a server for even a quite large library if you turn off index file for all the libraries and, if they have been on, delete any that were created.
This is easily done by editing your libraries and going to the advanced tab.

However it is correct that Shields cannot use external storage or even storage that has been adopted as internal.

That is a VERY good reason to get a 500gb Shield if you plan on implementing the Plex server on it.

If you turn off index files it is still possible to run out of space on the smaller Shield because there are other things stored in the Plex database directory but the index files are by far the most space intensive part of what Plex stores in its directory.

There are people that have reported success using the 16gb Shield as a server with quite large libraries.

BTW: I recommend the 500gb Shield for use as a server in spite of what I said because I STRONGLY believe that the server system is NOT the place to scrimp when setting up a Plex server.

12

Now I’m really confused.

I have ZERO intention of using a Shield as a Plex server.

I ONLY want such a device to STREAM from my existing server. I can do this with my Firestick, HTPC or even the built in app on my TV. I have no idea what all this “storage” requirement is for. AFAIK, there is no local “metadata” stored unless it’s perhaps some sort of cache. The DB is on my server already unless I simply have been using Plex for a couple years and have zero idea how it works.

I just checked this PC I’m typing on, on which I have PMP installed and there is a program folder. The ENTIRE folder with all its contents is 224MB. I realize that the Android/Shield or smart TV app may not represent exactly the same thing, but on devices like my Firestick there is ZERO storage space requirements that I know of other than the space the app itself uses. If there is local storage used it can’t be much.

How can the Shield have such high storage requirements JUST to be used as a streaming device?

13

@KaraokeAmerica said:
Now I’m really confused.

I have ZERO intention of using a Shield as a Plex server.

I ONLY want such a device to STREAM from my existing server. I can do this with my Firestick, HTPC or even the built in app on my TV. I have no idea what all this “storage” requirement is for. AFAIK, there is no local “metadata” stored unless it’s perhaps some sort of cache. The DB is on my server already unless I simply have been using Plex for a couple years and have zero idea how it works.

I just checked this PC I’m typing on, on which I have PMP installed and there is a program folder. The ENTIRE folder with all its contents is 224MB. I realize that the Android/Shield or smart TV app may not represent exactly the same thing, but on devices like my Firestick there is ZERO storage space requirements that I know of other than the space the app itself uses. If there is local storage used it can’t be much.

How can the Shield have such high storage requirements JUST to be used as a streaming device?

People refer only to the Shield running PMS (server). If you don’t intend to do, you are probably totaly fine with 16 GB. These suggestions are probably only there in case you change yur mind and you want to run PMS on the Shield. Who knows…

14

@Coxeroni said:

@KaraokeAmerica said:
Now I’m really confused.

I have ZERO intention of using a Shield as a Plex server.

I ONLY want such a device to STREAM from my existing server. I can do this with my Firestick, HTPC or even the built in app on my TV. I have no idea what all this “storage” requirement is for. AFAIK, there is no local “metadata” stored unless it’s perhaps some sort of cache. The DB is on my server already unless I simply have been using Plex for a couple years and have zero idea how it works.

I just checked this PC I’m typing on, on which I have PMP installed and there is a program folder. The ENTIRE folder with all its contents is 224MB. I realize that the Android/Shield or smart TV app may not represent exactly the same thing, but on devices like my Firestick there is ZERO storage space requirements that I know of other than the space the app itself uses. If there is local storage used it can’t be much.

How can the Shield have such high storage requirements JUST to be used as a streaming device?

People refer only to the Shield running PMS (server). If you don’t intend to do, you are probably totaly fine with 16 GB. These suggestions are probably only there in case you change yur mind and you want to run PMS on the Shield. Who knows…

I hope so, but since I never mentioned wanting this device as a server I don’t know why. In fact the OP was Shield vs Roku and the Roku CAN’T be used as a server so I don’t know why anyone would go there. I hope you’re right!

Thanks!

15

@KaraokeAmerica said:

@Coxeroni said:

@KaraokeAmerica said:
Now I’m really confused.

I have ZERO intention of using a Shield as a Plex server.

I ONLY want such a device to STREAM from my existing server. I can do this with my Firestick, HTPC or even the built in app on my TV. I have no idea what all this “storage” requirement is for. AFAIK, there is no local “metadata” stored unless it’s perhaps some sort of cache. The DB is on my server already unless I simply have been using Plex for a couple years and have zero idea how it works.

I just checked this PC I’m typing on, on which I have PMP installed and there is a program folder. The ENTIRE folder with all its contents is 224MB. I realize that the Android/Shield or smart TV app may not represent exactly the same thing, but on devices like my Firestick there is ZERO storage space requirements that I know of other than the space the app itself uses. If there is local storage used it can’t be much.

How can the Shield have such high storage requirements JUST to be used as a streaming device?

People refer only to the Shield running PMS (server). If you don’t intend to do, you are probably totaly fine with 16 GB. These suggestions are probably only there in case you change yur mind and you want to run PMS on the Shield. Who knows…

I hope so, but since I never mentioned wanting this device as a server I don’t know why. In fact the OP was Shield vs Roku and the Roku CAN’T be used as a server so I don’t know why anyone would go there. I hope you’re right!

Thanks!

That’s how I understood it. People often buy overpowered stuff just in case they might need the extra function/power at some point in the future. This is probably one example for this. Client-wise you won’t need much space as you already pointed out yourself.
Have fun with whatever device with whatever sized HDD :wink:

16

@Coxeroni said:

@KaraokeAmerica said:

@Coxeroni said:

@KaraokeAmerica said:
Now I’m really confused.

I have ZERO intention of using a Shield as a Plex server.

I ONLY want such a device to STREAM from my existing server. I can do this with my Firestick, HTPC or even the built in app on my TV. I have no idea what all this “storage” requirement is for. AFAIK, there is no local “metadata” stored unless it’s perhaps some sort of cache. The DB is on my server already unless I simply have been using Plex for a couple years and have zero idea how it works.

I just checked this PC I’m typing on, on which I have PMP installed and there is a program folder. The ENTIRE folder with all its contents is 224MB. I realize that the Android/Shield or smart TV app may not represent exactly the same thing, but on devices like my Firestick there is ZERO storage space requirements that I know of other than the space the app itself uses. If there is local storage used it can’t be much.

How can the Shield have such high storage requirements JUST to be used as a streaming device?

People refer only to the Shield running PMS (server). If you don’t intend to do, you are probably totaly fine with 16 GB. These suggestions are probably only there in case you change yur mind and you want to run PMS on the Shield. Who knows…

I hope so, but since I never mentioned wanting this device as a server I don’t know why. In fact the OP was Shield vs Roku and the Roku CAN’T be used as a server so I don’t know why anyone would go there. I hope you’re right!

Thanks!

That’s how I understood it. People often buy overpowered stuff just in case they might need the extra function/power at some point in the future. This is probably one example for this. Client-wise you won’t need much space as you already pointed out yourself.
Have fun with whatever device with whatever sized HDD :wink:

You ask for comparisons and that’s what you got.
You have not told us all your setup. What is your current server? Where is your media stored?
Give all the info and you will get better advice!!

17

@Coxeroni said:

@KaraokeAmerica said:

@Coxeroni said:

@KaraokeAmerica said:
Now I’m really confused.

I have ZERO intention of using a Shield as a Plex server.

I ONLY want such a device to STREAM from my existing server. I can do this with my Firestick, HTPC or even the built in app on my TV. I have no idea what all this “storage” requirement is for. AFAIK, there is no local “metadata” stored unless it’s perhaps some sort of cache. The DB is on my server already unless I simply have been using Plex for a couple years and have zero idea how it works.

I just checked this PC I’m typing on, on which I have PMP installed and there is a program folder. The ENTIRE folder with all its contents is 224MB. I realize that the Android/Shield or smart TV app may not represent exactly the same thing, but on devices like my Firestick there is ZERO storage space requirements that I know of other than the space the app itself uses. If there is local storage used it can’t be much.

How can the Shield have such high storage requirements JUST to be used as a streaming device?

People refer only to the Shield running PMS (server). If you don’t intend to do, you are probably totaly fine with 16 GB. These suggestions are probably only there in case you change yur mind and you want to run PMS on the Shield. Who knows…

I hope so, but since I never mentioned wanting this device as a server I don’t know why. In fact the OP was Shield vs Roku and the Roku CAN’T be used as a server so I don’t know why anyone would go there. I hope you’re right!

Thanks!

That’s how I understood it. People often buy overpowered stuff just in case they might need the extra function/power at some point in the future. This is probably one example for this. Client-wise you won’t need much space as you already pointed out yourself.
Have fun with whatever device with whatever sized HDD :wink:

Fair enough. I was starting to get wigged out by the possibility that I had absolutely no idea what I was doing!! Thanks!

18

@spikemixture said:

@Coxeroni said:

@KaraokeAmerica said:

@Coxeroni said:

@KaraokeAmerica said:
Now I’m really confused.

I have ZERO intention of using a Shield as a Plex server.

I ONLY want such a device to STREAM from my existing server. I can do this with my Firestick, HTPC or even the built in app on my TV. I have no idea what all this “storage” requirement is for. AFAIK, there is no local “metadata” stored unless it’s perhaps some sort of cache. The DB is on my server already unless I simply have been using Plex for a couple years and have zero idea how it works.

I just checked this PC I’m typing on, on which I have PMP installed and there is a program folder. The ENTIRE folder with all its contents is 224MB. I realize that the Android/Shield or smart TV app may not represent exactly the same thing, but on devices like my Firestick there is ZERO storage space requirements that I know of other than the space the app itself uses. If there is local storage used it can’t be much.

How can the Shield have such high storage requirements JUST to be used as a streaming device?

People refer only to the Shield running PMS (server). If you don’t intend to do, you are probably totaly fine with 16 GB. These suggestions are probably only there in case you change yur mind and you want to run PMS on the Shield. Who knows…

I hope so, but since I never mentioned wanting this device as a server I don’t know why. In fact the OP was Shield vs Roku and the Roku CAN’T be used as a server so I don’t know why anyone would go there. I hope you’re right!

Thanks!

That’s how I understood it. People often buy overpowered stuff just in case they might need the extra function/power at some point in the future. This is probably one example for this. Client-wise you won’t need much space as you already pointed out yourself.
Have fun with whatever device with whatever sized HDD :wink:

You ask for comparisons and that’s what you got.
You have not told us all your setup. What is your current server? Where is your media stored?
Give all the info and you will get better advice!!

Sorry. I was definitely looking for a streaming device, not a server.

My actual server is a custom, Core i5 with 8GB RAM and 15TB+ of storage in it in the form of multiple platter disks and a 4TB USB drive. Not superpowered, but sufficient.

There is no way I could ever move to a Shield as a server. It doesn’t have a fraction of the storage space I need and since I also use that PC as a file server it’s running anyway. I can’t shut it off.

Appreciate the input!

19

And you do know that the shield can be the server and get the data from your current server.
So you PC is just storage and not used as PMS.
But I would suggest that 95% of persons using shield as a server have it connected to a NAS or USB drives.

What I am suggesting is the Shield makes for a very good player and can at any time be used as a backup/spare server.

So what are you going to get ?

20

@spikemixture said:
And you do know that the shield can be the server and get the data from your current server.
So you PC is just storage and not used as PMS.
But I would suggest that 95% of persons using shield as a server have it connected to a NAS or USB drives.

What I am suggesting is the Shield makes for a very good player and can at any time be used as a backup/spare server.

So what are you going to get ?

“And you do know that the shield can be the server and get the data from your current server.”

I’m not sure what that even means. If my server is on 24/7 and on my LAN, what advantage does this offer? I use streaming devices on most all my TV’s. Even the pro wouldn’t come close to backing up my primary server, capacity wise.

Still undecided on what to do. I am going to play with all the smart apps on my TV itself to see if I really need anything for the living room. That isn’t one interface (App) for everything, but it’s one remote and from the standpoint of maintenance and extraneous distractions (like software updates and such) it’s pretty maintenance free even for a non-techie.

Still pondering…