Six years after launching the latest versions of its Shield TV and Shield TV Pro, Nvidia is dramatically shaking up its lineup. Unfortunately, not with new models, but by axing one and raising the price of the other.
This all started back in July, when Nvidia’s cheaper, tube-shaped Shield TV went out of stock everywhere. At the time, when asked if it was going to discontinue the device, Nvidia wouldn’t confirm, only saying that it had no updates to share on its future availability.
Then, in September, the Nvidia Shield TV Pro went out of stock everywhere too, fueling even more speculation that Nvidia might be on the verge of discontinuing its entire Shield TV lineup. Now, the company has finally come clean, and it’s not good news.
Goodbye Shield TV, hello $300 Shield TV Pro
Nvidia is discontinuing its standard Shield TV in favor of the Shield TV Pro
In a recent statement, Nvidia confirmed that it’s discontinuing its standard Shield TV while simultaneously raising the price of the Shield TV Pro by $100, taking the price from $200 to $300 (via Wccftech).
For a streamer that launched in 2019 and is starting to show its age, mainly due to its lack of HDR10+ and AV1 video codec support, that $100 price hike sure does sting.
Nvidia says the main reason for the price increase is the rising cost of components, driven by the ongoing global memory shortage caused by AI demand, which Nvidia has played a part in. The company also explained it’s discontinuing the standard Shield TV to focus production solely on the Shield TV Pro. That’s not surprising, considering the Shield TV Pro has always been the more popular of the two.
You can read the company’s full statement below.
“Starting October 2, SHIELD Pro will be priced at $299. The cost of components, including memory, has increased substantially across the industry,” a spokesperson for Nvidia said. “We’ve also stopped producing the standard SHIELD TV model as we focus on production for SHIELD TV Pro.”
Is the Shield TV Pro still worth it?
A new Apple TV 4K is right around the corner
I’ve always been a fan of the Shield TV Pro. Its Tegra X1+ chipset still holds up decently, and it’s got 16GB of storage, 3GB of RAM, all the freedoms of Android thanks to Android TV, and a Gigabit Ethernet port for fast network speeds. But at $300, I don’t think it’s worth it anymore, especially for tech that came out in 2019.
The Nvidia Shield TV Pro is still out of stock at most retailers, but given Nvidia’s statement, it seems like the company is ramping up production again, albeit now at a higher price and after discontinuing the standard Shield TV.
At the start of the year, in an interview with Ars Technica, Nvidia’s senior VP of hardware engineering, Andrew Bell, was asked whether future Shield TV models are coming, and he said, “We talk about it all the time — I’d love to,” adding that if Nvidia lands on a new Shield TV concept it’s passionate about, it could happen. So while a new Shield TV isn’t off the table, it certainly isn’t Nvidia’s priority right now.
Apple is reportedly set to launch its new fourth-generation Apple TV 4K on October 13, and personally, instead of getting an Nvidia Shield TV Pro, I think it’s far more worth it to see what Apple has up its sleeve. The third-generation Apple TV 4K, which came out in 2022 and is powered by the A15 Bionic, has long been one of the best streaming devices. Even with its higher $200 price tag now, that remains the case, and a fourth-generation model rumored to be powered by an A19 chip would be even more powerful.
All in all, it’s not surprising to see Nvidia discontinue the standard Shield TV in favor of the Shield TV Pro, but raising the price to $300 is a lot to ask for a streamer that came out six years ago. Still, at least Nvidia isn’t ending Shield TV altogether.
