Apple TV 4k vs Nvidia Shield,which one to buy?

[sylar]

Hi All,

I am planning to buy media player soon and I am confused between Apple TV 4K(2021 model) and Nvidia Shield Pro 2019(latest model).

I have a 5.1.2 setup in my living room and my ultimate goal is good sound quality. My current streaming devices are Samsung TV and MI Box S(and they both suck in terms of sq)

I am more inclined towards Apple TV as high qualities movies are available for rent and also Apple music(which is soon going to launch lossless audio).So in short my ultimate goal is to get high quality video and audio. So which one should I buy? I have heard good reviews about both but not sure which one is better for me

PS - Nvidia shield and ATV will be bought from US, as my friend is coming next month

 

[manav24]

NVidia Shield is no brainer especially if coming directly from USA and no need for duty etc to be paid, Apple's biggest downfall is its very restrictive in terms of its use and there may not be many Indian Apps available, not sure about it as I never used it.
Nvidia shield is open source android TV and thus you can do much more like install third party software like Kodi etc also its AI upscaling is too good, you can officialy get Apple TV 4k 32 gb in India for around 12-14 k I think, You cannot get a Nvidia shield anywhere near this price.
My recommendation is to ask your friend to bring a Nvidia Shield 2019, use it for a week or two and if you do not like it, you can easily sell for over 17-18k on this forum itself and trust me you will get multiple offers in 15 mins.

 

[msankadi]

NVidia Shield is no brainer especially if coming directly from USA and no need for duty etc to be paid, Apple's biggest downfall is its very restrictive in terms of its use and there may not be many Indian Apps available, not sure about it as I never used it.
Nvidia shield is open source android TV and thus you can do much more like install third party software like Kodi etc also its AI upscaling is too good, you can officialy get Apple TV 4k 32 gb in India for around 12-14 k I think, You cannot get a Nvidia shield anywhere near this price.
My recommendation is to ask your friend to bring a Nvidia Shield 2019, use it for a week or two and if you do not like it, you can easily sell for over 17-18k on this forum itself and trust me you will get multiple offers in 15 mins.

Can we install madvr on shield too?

 

[thedude]

Hi All,

I am planning to buy media player soon and I am confused between Apple TV 4K(2021 model) and Nvidia Shield Pro 2019(latest model).

I have a 5.1.2 setup in my living room and my ultimate goal is good sound quality. My current streaming devices are Samsung TV and MI Box S(and they both suck in terms of sq)

I am more inclined towards Apple TV as high qualities movies are available for rent and also Apple music(which is soon going to launch lossless audio).So in short my ultimate goal is to get high quality video and audio. So which one should I buy? I have heard good reviews about both but not sure which one is better for me

PS - Nvidia shield and ATV will be bought from US, as my friend is coming next month

I think this has been discussed in another thread. Did you try to look it up?

 

[manav24]

Can we install madvr on shield too?

I am not sure what madvr but found this

https://www.reddit.com/r/4kTV/comments/e6kuy4

 

[Eight1zero]

I have both in my Ht setup.. i feel Apple tv 4k is superior to shield when it comes to video and Audio.. i watch lot of movies on plex, Apple doesn't support Atmos on Local content .. so for plex i use shield tv pro and for streaming i use apple tv 4k. i use a sony 1080p projector so can't comment on the upscaling of the shield as that works only on 4k . hope this helps.

 

[ankitbhargava]

Hi All,

I am planning to buy media player soon and I am confused between Apple TV 4K(2021 model) and Nvidia Shield Pro 2019(latest model).

I have a 5.1.2 setup in my living room and my ultimate goal is good sound quality. My current streaming devices are Samsung TV and MI Box S(and they both suck in terms of sq)

I am more inclined towards Apple TV as high qualities movies are available for rent and also Apple music(which is soon going to launch lossless audio).So in short my ultimate goal is to get high quality video and audio. So which one should I buy? I have heard good reviews about both but not sure which one is better for me

PS - Nvidia shield and ATV will be bought from US, as my friend is coming next month

I have always liked Xbox One S over Shield and FireTV 4K in terms of Sound quality
Between Apple TV and Shield, only for streaming OTT .. probably Apple TV might perform better.
Shield is more of an all rounder

 

[sylar]

I think this has been discussed in another thread. Did you try to look it up?

Hi

I couldn’t find a thread which discussed the sq part of ATV 2021 model. May be I missed it.

if there is already a discussion going on then please let me know the thread .It will
be very helpful

 

[msankadi]

One question i have is if there is no stutter and artifacts in streaming, how can one streamer be "better" than the other with the same source files (Netflix, prime) that govern the bit rate.

Has their been any blind test purely for low quality video/audio like ott platforms (vs blu-ray and true 4k) on fire stick, Nvidia shield, apple tv or is it just placebo effect where one perceives their device to be streaming better.

I can see a day and night difference between blu ray and Netflix on either my pc or fire stick but I cannot see any difference when I play the same video on my pc and fire stick. My pc is 15x the price of a fire stick and needless to say has most probably better specs than any streamer apple tv, Nvidia shield or fire cube.

 

[sylar]

I have both in my Ht setup.. i feel Apple tv 4k is superior to shield when it comes to video and Audio.. i watch lot of movies on plex, Apple doesn't support Atmos on Local content .. so for plex i use shield tv pro and for streaming i use apple tv 4k. i use a sony 1080p projector so can't comment on the upscaling of the shield as that works only on 4k . hope this helps.

Hi

I too need it for streaming purpose,but have you tried Infuse to play atmos content?

I think it supports atmos for local content as well

 

[Murty P N]

Hi All,

I am planning to buy media player soon and I am confused between Apple TV 4K(2021 model) and Nvidia Shield Pro 2019(latest model).

I have a 5.1.2 setup in my living room and my ultimate goal is good sound quality. My current streaming devices are Samsung TV and MI Box S(and they both suck in terms of sq)

I am more inclined towards Apple TV as high qualities movies are available for rent and also Apple music(which is soon going to launch lossless audio).So in short my ultimate goal is to get high quality video and audio. So which one should I buy? I have heard good reviews about both but not sure which one is better for me

PS - Nvidia shield and ATV will be bought from US, as my friend is coming next month

Always apple is best

 

[Love4sound]

For local content and flawless play back of any format it’s an easy win for the shield. Before I settled with shield I also had the dilemma of Apple TV but it’s useless in an atmos HT set up for pple who is going to play a lot of blu ray files locally. Also u can stream blu ray remux files using kodi and real debrid subscription. You will only benefit from Apple TV if all u watch is Netflix,prime and other OTT

 

[drkrack]

Hi All,

I am planning to buy media player soon and I am confused between Apple TV 4K(2021 model) and Nvidia Shield Pro 2019(latest model).

I have a 5.1.2 setup in my living room and my ultimate goal is good sound quality. My current streaming devices are Samsung TV and MI Box S(and they both suck in terms of sq)

I am more inclined towards Apple TV as high qualities movies are available for rent and also Apple music(which is soon going to launch lossless audio).So in short my ultimate goal is to get high quality video and audio. So which one should I buy? I have heard good reviews about both but not sure which one is better for me

PS - Nvidia shield and ATV will be bought from US, as my friend is coming next month

Both ATV and Nvidia shield pro will be an upgrade over MI tv, The thumb rule in deciding between the two is quite simple ; if you are more into Streaming video services than downloaded Content, & you're invested in Apple Ecosystem like iphone, ATV wins over Nvidia shield pro. Otherwise Nvidia is a no brainer.

On a lighter note, Friends aren't coming from USA quite often nowadays, Get both ATV and Nvidia shield pro ; Play with them for a while, make an informed decision & sell the one which you don't like on HFV classifieds

 

[sylar]

I think the best decision is to get both from US (as suggested by many)and sell the one which I dont like

Thank you all for helping me

 

[liverpool_for_life]

Can we install madvr on shield too?

No. You'll need a HTPC for that.

 

[liverpool_for_life]

So in short my ultimate goal is to get high quality video and audio. So which one should I buy?

Upscaling of HD content: Shield
HDR tone mapping to SDR (BT.709 only, if I'm reading things correctly): Shield
Playback of local Atmos rips: Shield

With the very recent availability of the Apple TV app on the Shield, you also now have access to Apple's original programming as well as the iTunes movie store. Which leaves Apple Music unavailable from your list if you go with the Shield.

Speaking for myself, I have the ATV 4K (previous gen) and I can't say I have too many complaints. Netflix and Apple TV+ (both original programming) looks and sounds pretty darned good. When my internet is stable, I sometimes wonder if I can tell the difference between streaming vs not a lot of the time. I wish there were a "Source Direct" option, though.

 

[Eight1zero]

Hi

I too need it for streaming purpose,but have you tried Infuse to play atmos content?

I think it supports atmos for local content as well

I use infuse.. infuse works for dts master HD and Dolby true HD.. it also supports atmos on Web rips but does not support atmos from blu ray rips. For streaming only I would go for Apple TV . It’s auto frame rate adjustment also works better than shield tv in my opinion. Shield has that option but if I am if I am not mistaken it’s in beta form as of now .. haven’t used it in a while so don’t know if that has changed

 

[paansingh]

Nvidia shield tv pro available on Amazon.in for around 29k. It says last 2 units though.

 

[manav24]

Nvidia shield tv pro available on Amazon.in for around 29k. It says last 2 units though.

Better buy it from amazon.com and it will cost around 23500/- including shipping and customs.

 

[rainbowsong2000]

Upscaling of HD content: Shield
HDR tone mapping to SDR (BT.709 only, if I'm reading things correctly): Shield
Playback of local Atmos rips: Shield

With the very recent availability of the Apple TV app on the Shield, you also now have access to Apple's original programming as well as the iTunes movie store. Which leaves Apple Music unavailable from your list if you go with the Shield.

Speaking for myself, I have the ATV 4K (previous gen) and I can't say I have too many complaints. Netflix and Apple TV+ (both original programming) looks and sounds pretty darned good. When my internet is stable, I sometimes wonder if I can tell the difference between streaming vs not a lot of the time. I wish there were a "Source Direct" option, though.

BT 2020 is available in Shield. Also AI enhancement option in shield pro helping in upscaling the 720p n 1080p contents