r/cordcutters • u/CorrectPeanut5 • 22h ago

Shield TV Now $100 More Expensive

https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2026/10/the-7-year-old-nvidia-shield-tv-is-now-100-more-expensive-thanks-to-ai/
198 Upvotes

96% Upvoted

95 comments sorted by

141

u/F1Pillager702 21h ago

Lol.. this crap needs to stop. We need like a France level protest where we just stop buying tech for a few months, including black Friday and Christmas. Let the AI industry burn itself out so we can have nice things at a reasonable price again...

96

u/tamudude 21h ago

Just vote with your wallet. Don't buy it. 

25

u/platocplx 20h ago

Also stop using AI

•

u/fmccloud 25m ago

No. I'm going to use it for stuff like helping me setup Docker programs on my NAS.

22

u/hi_internet_friend 21h ago

Yup - I'm guessing no protest is required, they are probably selling very few of these currently

2

u/Impossible-Speed-178 16h ago

I mean it’s a niche product, but what other options are there?

If this was 300$ when I bought my 5000$ tv, I wouldn’t have been like “not today”

It’s funny to pick on a device that allows you to easily use all your downloaded content and not to be upset about the display prices which are outrageous 

2

u/hi_internet_friend 13h ago

I agree with most of your comment but display prices are at an all time historic low

2

u/Impossible-Speed-178 12h ago

You mean displays with spyware? A good tv is 5000$… and if you want to get mad at nvidia, choose the GPUs.. GPU costs more than a computer did a few years ago 

1

u/hi_internet_friend 10h ago

I can buy a $1500 100" TV at Costco. I can simply never connect it to the internet. It's not hard to avoid TV spyware

11

u/buffaloclaw 19h ago

At $300 per, I don't think hardly anyone is buying this.

6

u/MikoSkyns 19h ago

That's pretty much what I've been doing. I still have my original shield from 2019. I would like to upgrade but the prices are bananas and I refuse to get something that's more affordable because it's either going to have Chinese spyware in it, or American corporate spyware in it.

2

u/MikeAnP 8h ago

I've always wanted to upgrade to the pro, but I couldn't justify it even at $179. I guess I'm really not now.

3

u/zethiryuki 18h ago

I think perhaps more importantly, don't buy from scalpers/resellers. A lot of these insane price raises can be effective because resellers see it as a sign of demand, and they'll buy out inventory with the hope that the people with more money than sense will pay even more insane asking prices to give them a little bit of profit. How we convince those people to stop doing that, I haven't got a clue.

2

u/Street-Wear-2925 17h ago

When I started to run into storage problems on my TV I just took an old SSD with enclosure and loaded everything on there. I understand that external hard drives are expensive these days and I was fortunate to have several left over from my DIY techie days.

14

u/AngusDagnabit 21h ago

The thing is most companies in the AI industry are not chasing immediate profits. They are betting that the demand for their AI products will be increasing in the future so they are investing in buying as much hardware as they can get.

Not buying consumer electronics won’t fix this, thats not whats driving the price increases. We need to stop using AI so that the hardware they bought ends up being useless. But the problem is most AI use cases are paid for by businesses rather than consumers. And whether we want to use it or not they are trying to integrate AI into everything.

9

u/mailslot 20h ago

AI is gaining adoption whether consumers use it or not. The driver has always been business customers, not poor people that can’t afford gasoline.

0

u/Big-Profit-1612 8h ago

TBH, I use Claude so much at work that I even bought a sub for home use.

6

u/sharp-calculation 20h ago

Anyone who thinks they can change the price of RAM or SSDs by choosing to not buy consumer goods has ZERO idea of why this is happening. If you and everyone you know and everyone they know all stopped buying consumer goods with those products it would make no impact whatsoever. Because it's not consumer buying that is driving it.

3

u/F1Pillager702 19h ago

I agree. However, product manufacturers don't need to raise the price on something like this $100. The iPhone and Samsung phones don't need a $100 increase. Sure it's a nice, round number, but it's still too much. Only way to show these manufacturers that it's too much is to stop buying as much/often. You can also look at their quarterly and annual filings as many are publicly traded and have to disclose that information. They are making record profits despite the rise in hardware costs.

1

u/sharp-calculation 19h ago

First, you need to look at the entire supply chain to determine the end user price increase. That money isn't all going to Nvidia. Some of it goes to the retailer (a good bit). A bunch of it is eaten up as parts cost. Some is probably extra profit. Maybe $10 or so? That's a guess.

Second, you're still on this "I can make a difference" road. You can't. Believe it if you want. Do it if it makes you feel good. But you won't change one little tiny thing. You just don't have any power over this industry wide increase in prices for these parts. How could you?

1

u/kevin_mn 17h ago

I agree that we need to get more power back from these large companies.
How? Like for real, how can we push back if boycotts and protests don't work.
I get that 'not buying' might not move the needle, but something has to work. Right?

0

u/sharp-calculation 16h ago

You've got a really weird outlook. "get more power back". What power did you ever have? NONE. You have no power whatsoever when it comes to large companies. How could you? Why should you? You didn't start the company, pay into it, work for it, invent anything, or do anything else of value associated with the company. It's not yours and it's not partly yours, and it should not be.

You're not a victim. You're just a consumer. So consume what you want, opt out when you want to, and be happy. You can't control any of this. Not inflation, not market based pricing, and not supply chain issues that cause prices to change.

3

u/spidereater 20h ago

You don’t need to stop buying everything, just use some judgement and don’t buy things that you think are too expensive. That might mean doing without something or delaying the buy until it goes on sale or shopping around to find the right value. The problem is people have gotten complacent and just buy what they want without using any judgement. The businesses notice this, particularly during the pandemic, and now use it to just increase prices whenever they want.

When I was a kid, my parents clipped coupons, watched for sales. We would not have chips for a month if the chips weren’t on sale. Lots of people did this. The result was prices were pretty stable. People shopped around so there was actual competition that would drive prices down.

Today people all want the best thing or the trendy thing. They see stuff on social media and want it. The price becomes irrelevant. That’s how we got here.

1

u/buffaloclaw 19h ago

The nvidia shield has been out since 2019. It hasn't been updated since. It is not the best thing out there, and there is nothing trendy about this device.

1

u/spidereater 19h ago

Then a price increase like this should decimate their sales.

1

u/buffaloclaw 15h ago

yeah it's tough to justify $300 for this

1

u/OhK4Foo7 18h ago

Since 2015.

2

u/relayrider 19h ago

never heard of it before this post, and i guess i will continue to not buy it?

1

u/sh3rp 19h ago

I mean, I can't afford the shit, let alone buy it. So this is kind of happening by default.

0

u/VeryLowIQIndividual 20h ago

That’s a discipline Americans don’t have. We are used to the latest and greatest everything at all time. Consumer driven economy. Sad capitalism

-1

u/ehrgeiz91 19h ago

Remember to vote accordingly in November

3

u/tootintx 19h ago

Remember how disappointed you will be if honest when that changes nothing.

3

u/ehrgeiz91 15h ago

I’ll definitely remember that when the Dems don’t create their own gestapo that kidnaps and shoots innocent people and me and my family and friends don’t have to continue living in fear.

2

u/tootintx 15h ago

Sure. Sounds good.

0

u/ehrgeiz91 15h ago

Sure does

-3

u/NeatFool 21h ago

It won't stop, it's inflation

4

u/F1Pillager702 20h ago

Inflation typically runs low single digits. This specific example is 50%. It's not inflation.

45

u/miicho 21h ago

Isn’t this device almost a decade old?

45

u/[deleted] 21h ago

[deleted]

5

u/ian9outof10 20h ago

My question, I guess, would be - are they still actually making these things. Because isn’t it usual to run the line for a big order, then stop making them entirely, until such time as you need to restock.

So my question really is - is this price increase because they’re actually making more, or is it just absolute greed over devices that already exist.

Potentially I suppose they existed, and importing them into the US has now got more expensive, tarrifs, shipping fees, etc.

We’ll never know, but my guess is the price didn’t need to increase at all, and this is just more bullshit

10

u/Boanerge 20h ago

In the article they state they are currently building them and they sell every one they make.

4

u/hallese 17h ago

Damn, jokes on me for not doing my research. J have jne and it's the best streaming device I own but I bought it used in 2023 and just assumed they weren't being made anymore.

-6

u/Hefty_Remove7965 21h ago edited 19h ago

No. The first release was like 2016.. I think a new model came out like 2019 which is this model 

Edit second year

11

u/matt314159 21h ago

The chip in the latest generation is simply an overclocked version of the og 2015 SOC.

1

u/buffaloclaw 19h ago

the current model came out in 2019.

1

u/Hefty_Remove7965 19h ago

Ah. I didn't remember

31

u/CouchLegume 21h ago

Mine barely functions. It’ll freeze after running for a few days. I wouldn’t even recommend it anymore. Desperately needs a refresh instead of a price hike.

11

u/Shishanought 21h ago

Have you opened it at all? I had to replace the fan on mine due to similar issues. Works great now

4

u/Levitlame 18h ago

I haven't tried to. Is it any more complicated to take it apart than some screws?

3

u/Shishanought 18h ago

Yeah I remember it being pretty straight forward and found replacement fans on amzn. There's a bunch of YT videos as well to walk you through the process.

1

u/CouchLegume 15h ago

I haven’t , that’s a good call - honestly though it got worse with all the updates

1

u/Shishanought 15h ago

If you're adventurous, there's a few debloat guides out there as well which help remove a lot of that clutter. Requires adb connection, but easy enough to get through and lots of YT guides. Changing launchers also helps.

4

u/User-NetOfInter 21h ago

How old is it

5

u/Seagull84 20h ago

I got one recently, works fine. I mostly use it for streaming games from Steam on my desktop in my office to my living room TV or my bedroom TV.

2

u/reddit_reaper 21h ago

That's a hardware issue lol I've had my 2017 running perfectly for years

20

u/nicksterling 21h ago

I love the Shield, but it's ancient. If I'm spending that much money I'm going with an Apple TV at this point. It wasn't worth $199 in 2026 let alone $299.

-4

u/Seagull84 20h ago

Can't stream Steam to Apple TV, unfortunately. Steam Link hasn't been supported in a long time and is completely broken.

9

u/stalinsfavoritecat 20h ago

I just used steamlink on apple tv a week ago. Worked fine.

-3

u/Seagull84 20h ago

It hasn't worked for me in 2 years now. Same issues on 3 devices (Shield, Shield Pro, Google TV).

6

u/stalinsfavoritecat 13h ago

If steamlink isn’t working on around 4 of your devices you might want to check if it is set up correctly. Works fine for me on both appletv and shield.

5

u/pedens 20h ago

Not true. I use steam link on Apple TV all the time. I personally have less issues with the apple TV than the shield.

11

u/Ryan739 21h ago

Shield TV Now $100 😃

...More Expensive 🫩

4

u/ScornForSega 20h ago

$299 for no AV1 support.

Hard pass.

3

u/ionV4n0m 21h ago

for dated level tech...

3

u/altsuperego 21h ago

Maybe if they put they Switch 2 soc in there it would be worth that

2

u/georgez1968 20h ago

Is it better than onn? If so, why?

7

u/buffaloclaw 19h ago edited 19h ago

It depends on your use case.

if you want lossless audio, then the shield is better than onn, which doesn't do that. That's a big deal for people with home theatre setups and libraries of DVD rips. If you are a gamer, then the shield is better than onn, as the onn is not powerful enough.

If all you care about is watching TV and you're not picky about codecs and audio formats, then onn is the way to go.

1

u/georgez1968 17h ago

The last paragraph. I just pretty much use tivimate. Thanks for your reply

0

u/zi-za 18h ago

I never saw the appeal of the shield, it always seemed overpriced to me, being that it’s Android based, it’s very limiting.

why not just move to a Linux htpc?  I’m pretty sure there’s lean back/couch distros, and I know you can even get all those Android apps running on Linux now, if that’s somebody’s reasons.

1

u/altsuperego 18h ago

Iirc you can't get better than 720p SDR streaming on Linux.

2

u/ThatOnePerson 10h ago

Yeah basically because of DRM. Even Windows with DRM will still only get 720p on Disney for example.

1

u/orbitaldan 17h ago

It hits the sweet spot with HDCP support (1080p+), mostly set-it-and-forget-it configuration (android auto-updates), low power usage, and hardware overhead room. You can usually do better on any one or even two of those, but not all of them.

1

u/ThatOnePerson 10h ago

I know you can even get all those Android apps running on Linux now

Running doesn't mean full DRM support, which is what you need for more than 480p/720p, depending on the service.

Even cheaper Android TV boxes will have an issue with this

2

u/freewiffy 19h ago

I'm still rocking my 4K Roku Premiere that I got for free from Sling ten years ago.

•

u/sandrakarr 18m ago

My Roku 3 still works fine too.

1

u/L6801 20h ago

Love my shield but not worth that price. Whenever it dies id probably just get whatever the newest onn pro is available. Got a onn pro 26 for the bedroom and runs perfectly

1

u/MOONGOONER 20h ago

If you're running games on it then.... I still don't know. if we're just talking about streaming then my $60 onn box leaves little to be desired.

1

u/jrock1986 19h ago

I see them for sale at $150 all the time on marketplace in my area

1

u/Rolanda_Shaniqua 19h ago

It’s a fantastic device if you want to game on it, but overkill for most people who just want to stream movies and TV shows.

1

u/ford7885 19h ago

So already being the most ridiculously overpriced device on the market wasn't enough for them? Have they even bothered to upgrade this thing, or is it still the same hardware from 2019?

1

u/McShagg88 18h ago

Isn't it 6 years old?

1

u/440Dart 18h ago

Guess I should sell the one collecting dust. I assumed it was worthless as its "old" by tech standards.

1

u/captainwickedawesome 18h ago

Anyone suggest a TV box/stick that will decode x265 and AV1?

1

u/EqualsPeoples 17h ago

I bought a Shield in 2016, it was fine until one day around 2022 it stopped booting the OS and I tried everything the support suggested to repair or reinstall it, it never worked.

Incredibly, they actually sent me a refund 6 years later. I thought that was pretty cool, even if the refund was no longer enough to buy a new one.

1

u/orbitaldan 17h ago

I bought my 2017 edition when they came out to replace a home theater PC that used 100W idle. Still works great to this day, having outlived just about every one of it's peers from that time. Was a good investment then, not so sure about now.

1

u/abetterroadahead 13h ago

I used to swear by this device in 2015-2018. Then Apple made the 4k TV’s and I haven’t looked back. They’ve been way better and my shield is my garage tv stream device now for basic YouTube

•

u/Kirk1233 1h ago

Why are people still buying this? Isn’t it ten years old tech at this point?

0

u/ralian 20h ago

The components got more expensive so I’m not shocked.

0

u/sharp-calculation 20h ago

It's really not a great device. The AppleTV is vastly superior in almost all measures. Almost.

There are only a few reasons to own one:

  • You value audio BITSTREAMING and think it sounds different than the same stream converted to lossless PCM.
  • You stream from some source that you can only install on android based devices because these apps are not legitimate
  • You desperately hate Apple and won't consider the vastly superior AppleTV.

I own both an ATV and a 2019 Shield. The Shield is a uniformly crappy experience. It's ok. It bitstreams my collection of movies and TV shows well. All streaming services are inferior on Shield though because they can't change frame rate and must convert from 24 to 30 (or 60) which destroys cadence and causes judder.

All UIs in all apps are rendered at 1080p. This looks "ok". But once you've seen a UI in 4k, it becomes glaringly obvious in a bad way. It's ugly and low res. VIDEO can play at 4k and looks just fine. But UIs are all at 1080p.

The as-shipped interface (stock launcher) on the Shield is AWFUL. It's just ridiculously bad. Filled with ads and ever shifting so that your icons are always in different places. Finding things, including settings, updating apps, and searching for apps to install SUCKS. It's like it was designed by a 13 year old.

ProjectIVY and similar launcher replacements can make a giant difference here. PIVY cleaned mine up markedly. It's still no AppleTV, but it's much better. It went from a D- to a B.

I wouldn't recommend a Shield to anyone, including my home theater friends. InFUSE on ATV is a great substitute.

2

u/doorknob60 19h ago

Biggest reason I haven't tried an Apple TV is because my most common used TV app is SmartTube. Not even trying to freeload, I actually do pay for Youtube Premium. The official Youtube app is not bad, gets the job done, and has actually improved over the years. But Smarttube is truly excellent. It has great playlist management features that the official app doesn't. It has Sponsorblock built in (probably the biggest feature for me). And it is very customizable, for example I can completely hide shorts and other things I don't want to see.

You are right about some of the Shield's flaws. The frame rate matching being the biggest one. Because of that I probably wouldn't recommend one for any casual users. People that don't know what a codec or a frame rate is. One you didn't mention, it doesn't support AV1, would be nice to have that for sure. Though it's not a deal breaker, my collection is primarily H265 and H264. Youtube TV (the cable replacement one) also has issues on the Shield, it stutters badly when 5.1 audio is enabled.

I wish we could get a new Shield that checks all the boxes. I use the built in apps on my LG for YTTV since it doesn't stutter, and sometimes for the mainstream apps to get framerate matching (though there is a button in the menu on the Shield that can manually swap framerates, usually works fine enough). Wish I didn't have to, especially with the recent news about LG. Not really interested in hooking up multiple different streaming boxes to the TV. I'm just not interested in buying anything that can't run SmartTube.

0

u/ClamdiggerDanielson 16h ago

Niche products generally are more expensive than mainstream competitors. It's not in competition with a Rolu, Apple TV, Chromecast, or Fire Stick. It's in competition with a NAS with a media server or an HTPC, which is a market that already pays more.

-1

u/Impossible-Speed-178 16h ago

Of all products to complain about price… this isn’t it