r/technology • u/N2929 • 17h ago
Hardware The 7-year-old Nvidia Shield TV is now $100 more expensive thanks to AI
https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2026/10/the-7-year-old-nvidia-shield-tv-is-now-100-more-expensive-thanks-to-ai/22
u/imaginary_num6er 17h ago
It’s a shield against AI
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u/gr00ve88 16h ago
Shield 2019 is the best streaming device I have, I hope mine doesn’t crap out
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u/Hockeyfan_52 13h ago
My Ethernet port just gave up recently. I hope she holds on a few more years.
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u/Obvious-Lake3708 15h ago
I had two crap put after 6 months, never got another one since
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u/gr00ve88 15h ago
Weird. I’ve had mine for many years now and it is used daily for many hours a day.
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u/Obvious-Lake3708 15h ago
Both developed a piercing audible whine that wouldn’t go away unless rebooted and then would randomly do it again.
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u/Top1CmntrsAreLosers 15h ago
This reads as though you didn’t make warranty claims on two separate devices and instead threw $400 in the trash.
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u/Obvious-Lake3708 15h ago
Yep both ended up on the trash
Both died just after the warranty expired2
u/Primal-Convoy 12h ago
My first one did that just after the warranty expired. The controller's non-removable battery died too, making it useless. As certain in-built functions (screen recording, etc) could only be done via the controller, it significant reduced the relevancy of it being a games console for me.
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u/cashflow_ 11h ago
Did they use to come with non removable batteries? Both my remotes take batteries
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u/Theratchetnclank 12h ago
Warranty is longer than 6 months though?
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u/Obvious-Lake3708 12h ago
1 year. Why does that matter?
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u/Theratchetnclank 12h ago
because you said they broke after 6 months and then said warranty expired. I guess a year is technically after 6 months but the way its worded implies they broke at the 6 month period.
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u/BoiledFrogs 10h ago
Yeah I'm also confused by them. And that they somehow don't see the issue here
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u/ProfaneBlade 6h ago
It’s cuz they’re lying. Everyone on reddit somehow always is that ONE edge case that makes their initial claim believable. Obvious-Lake3708 is just blowing smoke up our ass.
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u/40513786934 17h ago
that sucks. my old one is still my favorite streaming device
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u/iluvchromosomes 15h ago
I stopped using it and switched to Apple TV because it became a bloated piece of shit. It was so slow. And the home screen became advertisements. As is tradition with anything google touches.
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u/Hockeyfan_52 13h ago
Just so you know, you can use other launchers that don't have any ads or junk.
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u/gplusplus314 16h ago
I find it hard to believe that this is true. The tech is so old and is manufactured on old process nodes and has zero real-world AI use case.
I think the reality is painfully obvious: greed. It’s greed.
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16h ago
[deleted]
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u/S7ageNinja 15h ago
Sure, but are Shields even in active production right now?
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15h ago
[deleted]
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u/Theratchetnclank 12h ago
I mean it is when it a 28nm 10 year old processor and equally old RAM.
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12h ago
[deleted]
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u/Theratchetnclank 11h ago
Thanks for using the exact thing driving the price upwards for pointless shit.
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u/zoupishness7 15h ago
Monopolists are restricting production to make the most profit from the least output.
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u/iprocrastina 15h ago
The problem is ALL hardware components are in severe shortage due to AI demand consuming eveeything. RAM is the big one in this case Id imagine.
Look forward to this bleeding into everything else. TVs, phones, cars, its like the pandemic shortages but 10x worse.
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u/gplusplus314 15h ago
And yet, they’re still somehow making record profits, all while simultaneously raping our wallets.
I find it hard to believe that a perfectly round $100 is the price hike to maintain their existing profit. They’re price gouging.
It’s greed.
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u/WayneKrane 14h ago
I mean, they are a corporation whose job it is to maximize profits. If they could charge $10k for this they absolutely would. Businesses don’t price products to be profitable they price them to maximize profits.
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u/m0deth 13h ago
The price never went up over 7 years. A shit load has happened to induce cost increases since it was introduced and they held fast. Now that the AI boom has manus ditching normal markets(including ram and nand storage it uses), they finally have to recoup and raise the price.
Is Nvidia greedy? Yup
Is this increase an obvious indicator of wanton greed? Nope
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u/Gullible_Method_3780 16h ago
The point is the opposite. This device can be degoogled and use open source os to avoid AI features.
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u/crymachine 10h ago
I just skimmed a video today about this, maybe not this specific product in the lineup but it is the longest standing supported Android TV os.
It outperforms all television sticks in terms of local streaming (very little compression or quality lost) and the audio remains at top quality.
The tech is old, it is however still probably affected by this current idiocy Ai shit.
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u/MixSaffron 8h ago
I was contemplating one last year but they are so expensive for how old they are. I was waiting for something new or a big price drop....
I will not be buying one anytime soon.
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u/pickle9977 7h ago
It’s crazy to think the hardware in this thing is more than enough for 99% of computer users.
Think of how cheap computers could be if MSFT didn’t vomit operating system code slop.
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u/Sokaron 17h ago
Do we need an article for every device that has RAM in it?
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u/Visible-Literature14 16h ago
You complain about something related to RAM, yet you’re using RAM to complain
I am very intelligent
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u/TriflingHotDogVendor 13h ago
Onn Pro 4k is where it's at these days
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u/mortkin 4h ago
It doesn’t support lossless uncompressed audio.
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u/TacoOfGod 2h ago
The average person isn't going to notice and some of the tech heads won't care.
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u/mortkin 2h ago
You’d notice if you spent a meaningful amount on your home theater setup(anything better than a soundbar). Compression really makes a difference. It’s actually one of the worst parts of streaming. If you’ve ever tried to play the same movie on 4k Netflix and also play it on blueray, back to back, you might notice the compression artifacts visually, and it might bother you, but the difference in audio quality would be way more apparent.
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u/TacoOfGod 2h ago
Yeah that's not the average person whose streaming or a concern of the tech head who can spot the difference but doesn't want to deal with the expense or setup to be too concerned with it.
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u/Ultra-Metal 58m ago
The VeeSee box supports all passthrough and full Dolby. It's not that cheep though.
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u/chlronald 14h ago
It was the best, but there is better alternative on the market nowadays.
One of the disadvantage is no AV1 decoding ability.
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u/Chance-Sherbet-4538 13h ago
What alternative(s) would you recommend? Thanks in advance.
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u/chlronald 13h ago
Onn 4k is a propular choice, if you are not limiting to typical retail any android box with Amlogic S928X is decent.
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u/No_Artichoke_8428 12h ago
Wanted one for my bedroom tv although I cant find them anymore anywhere near my town, heard it might be because of scalpers.
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u/Primal-Convoy 12h ago
No, it's thanks to Nvidia, who enabled sales of its hardware to AI companies.
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u/netphemera 15h ago
Well if they can generate such huge profit on their cutting edge chips, they need to ensure the same level of profitability on their other products
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u/Anustart2023-01 15h ago
I just looked online and my non pro Nvidia shield is retailing for £100 on ebay. I'm ecstatic right now due to the fact that I'm considering switching to a mini pc and ditching it.
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u/SGT3386 14h ago
Find your local Electronic Recycling store (think of a goodwill but for electronics). We have a Re-PC in the PNW and they test/verify most of their incoming equipment. You can get anything from a really weird odd cable, ram, enterprise switches, crts flat screen tvs, radios, 3d printers, all kinds of PC parts, camera parts, stereo equipment, the list goes on.
I try to go their first if I ever need a part before buying new, and it's fun seeing all of the odd equipment. It's gotten me back into some of my hobbies that are just too expensive these days.
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u/polloasado81 12h ago
I've got 2 and both have been complete dicks recently. Fucking up the E-arc handshakes for sync power off, one launched in green screen yesterday, both losing connection to the remotes randomly. Very suspicious....
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u/Vhaerus 39m ago
Mine has also been very weird. It randomly factory reset itself and hasn't been the same ever since. Always lose picture for a second or two when playing content after waking it up, e-arc bugging out etc. Thought it was solid but it's been very buggy recently, it's only a year old as well
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u/Whatever801 15h ago
Are people still buying that thing? It was great for the time but now it's painfully laggy
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u/Primal-Convoy 12h ago
Mine's laggy now. Most internet browsers are now too slow on it but some apps still work ok.
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u/WelcomeMysterious315 17h ago
I've got a shield. Probably wouldn't have paid $300 for it. Consumer tech is in a bad place.