Bought an Nvidia Shield media server

[sd_shooter]

I had a home made Kodi box, it died for no apparent reason - suspect power supply problem.

Anyway it's a good excuse to upgrade. I did a quick web search for a replacement, it turns out there are tons of commercial Kodi boxes these days! The king of the hill is the Nvidia Shield, an Android TV unit.

https://shield.nvidia.com/android-tv

My intended uses:
- Kodi!
- Streaming family movies from a 2TB USB drive. Most are in MTS format (Sony camcorder)

I know this thing can do so much more, if we didn't already have a PS3/PS4 this would likely be our only media center.

Anyone else have one? Part of the reason I picked this one is the included Plex software, it should lead to effortless MTS file streaming from my USB.

PS. If you don't know what Kodi is, look it up. For most people it means "Free live sports over the internet"

[Mute]

Do a review. I've been thinking about getting one of these.

[therealnickb]

Why does Norton flag the kodi app as high risk?

[yellowsulphur]

Why does Norton flag the kodi app as high risk?

I think Kodi needs read, write, execute permissions along with internal and external network access.

[fishmonger]

I had a home made Kodi box, it died for no apparent reason - suspect power supply problem.

Anyway it's a good excuse to upgrade. I did a quick web search for a replacement, it turns out there are tons of commercial Kodi boxes these days! The king of the hill is the Nvidia Shield, an Android TV unit.

https://shield.nvidia.com/android-tv

My intended uses:
- Kodi!
- Streaming family movies from a 2TB USB drive. Most are in MTS format (Sony camcorder)

I know this thing can do so much more, if we didn't already have a PS3/PS4 this would likely be our only media center.

Anyone else have one? Part of the reason I picked this one is the included Plex software, it should lead to effortless MTS file streaming from my USB.

PS. If you don't know what Kodi is, look it up. For most people it means "Free live sports over the internet"

i heard good things. one good thing is now you can use it as a plex media server vs just a client. i think its a little pricey depending one what you want to do with it.

Why does Norton flag the kodi app as high risk?

norton is a virus lol will never use it.

[sl0re10]

let us know more when you can.

I was really excited about android as a tv media system years ago but the all implementations of it were horrible. Hobbled by either buggy hardware, low internal storage (could only store a few apps; media storage was ok), buggy software (basic apps had compatibility problems... even on the Sony), and bad video codecs (video looked all flashy and jumpy).

After many tries I gave up. But this one looks interesting...

[mavericksun]

I had thought of doing the same thing but decided to go the extra few miles and build myself a NAS. I now have two sets of HDD arrays to store my video collection(ripped my dvds and blu-ray) with plex server and have my own cloud where all my computers/phones/tablets backup data to. I can watch my media from anywhere in the world now with an internet connection. Majority of my cost went into the NAS grade HDDs($140 per 4tb NAS HDD) but it was worth it. android machines like the shield is nice but limited in expandability and good if you are limited to kodi and plex client. Kodi is nice but it's only as good as your sources and your internet speed. I use roku 3 boxes as plex clients on various TVs and some of the smart TVs have plex built in.

[sd_shooter]

Had it about a week now, here is my review.

Setup
- Plug ethernet if you have one, plug in HDMI, plug in power
- Go through a few pages of options
- It will ask you to enable the device via your Android phone

Kodi
- Install was a piece of cake, it's just an app in the Google play store
- Had to manually install the repository for Exodus and other Kodi "add ons", did so via the Kodi GUI. See this site, it shows how to install the "Addon installer" which lets you point-n-click for subsequent addon installations:

https://www.tvaddons.ag/fusion-installer-kodi/

Exodus will give you all the movies and TV shows you can imagine. SportsDevil will give you live sports, it's an easy install once you have the addon installer.

Performance:
- It's much faster than my old custom build Kodi box.

Home movies:
- The included Plex software is a POS. It forced me to register with Plex and it still didn't work very well. I won't be using it.
- Kodi can be used to play all home movies, whether MTS files, MOV, MP4.. whatever.
- I just plugged in my 2TB USB drive and the shield recognized it although it was formatted on a Mac! You can select "external storage" or "internal storage" depending on how you wish to use it

Summary:
- It's a fast environment for Kodi with an easy install
- Works will for home movies on a USB Drive via Kodi
- Would likely be great for Netflix/Hulu/Pandora/Whatever as well

[Rink Rat]

I am running the new Wookie build on my fire tv box and it's pretty awesome.

[OldAudioNerd]

I own 2 of the shield boxes. One regular and one "pro" with the 500gb hard drive built in. I absolutely love them. With a little google magic finding installation instructions for kodi add on's is a breeze. So far there is very little I haven't been able to find on it.

Netflix / Hulu / Google play movies etc run like a champ on it (depending on the add on's not sure why anyone would keep subscription services though. And yes I have kept the subscription services because the wife still wants them LOL)

[Ninety]

I own 2 of the shield boxes. One regular and one "pro" with the 500gb hard drive built in. I absolutely love them. With a little google magic finding installation instructions for kodi add on's is a breeze. So far there is very little I haven't been able to find on it.

Netflix / Hulu / Google play movies etc run like a champ on it (depending on the add on's not sure why anyone would keep subscription services though. And yes I have kept the subscription services because the wife still wants them LOL)

Didn't you show her that she can watch her real house wives with the bravo add-on ? And kodi has new episodes list as well

Sent from my HTC Desire 626s using Tapatalk

[OldAudioNerd]

Didn't you show her that she can watch her real house wives with the bravo add-on ? And kodi has new episodes list as well

Sent from my HTC Desire 626s using Tapatalk

Not only did I show her That all of her programs are easily found, I also built a watchlist on trakt and synced it all up to the addons lol. Finally cancelled the hulu account, kept Netflix because I think she uses it on her phone and when she goes to visit her dad