Nvidia's Shield TV is showing its age, and fixing these key things would change everything

Published Sep 29, 2026, 8:31 AM EDT Hamlin has been in the tech field for over nine years. Since 2017, his work has appeared on MakeUseOf, Android Police, OSXDaily, Beebom, and more. He served as the Senior Editor at Valnet's MakeUseOf for over two years before joining XDA. He uses a high-end gaming rig for desktop use and a MacBook for traveling, but dislikes some of the quirks of macOS. You're more likely to catch him at the gym or on a flight than anywhere else. I haven't used a Shield TV in several years, but I still have a soft spot for it because nothing has really been like it since. I had the 2017 Shield TV Pro for a couple of years before selling it when I upgraded to the LG C8 OLED in 2019. LG's webOS already had the streaming apps I cared about, and GeForce Now, which to me was arguably Shield TV's standout feature, wasn't available here. Fast-forward to 2026, and GeForce Now is finally available where I live, but we haven't gotten a new Shield TV since 2019. At this point, you'd assume Nvidia has moved on altogether, especially considering how much more money it makes from selling GPUs to AI data centers. But earlier this year, Nvidia's senior VP of Hardware Engineering, Andrew Bell, said that the company has been experimenting with new concepts for the Shield TV and would consider releasing one if it came up with something exciting enough. So if that day ever comes, I don't think Nvidia needs to redesign the Shield TV from the ground up. These incremental upgrades alone would be more than enough to get me excited. HDMI 2.1 and 4K/120Hz GeForce NOW shouldn't be stuck at 60FPS HDMI 2.0b was perfectly fine when the current Shield TV Pro launched in 2019, but now it's the first thing I want Nvidia to replace. I mean, 4K/60Hz over HDMI 2.0 is still enough if all you do on the Shield TV is stream movies and TV shows. But the Shield TV's appeal is that it can do a lot more than that, and this limitation becomes obvious with GeForce NOW, where you're limited to 4K/60FPS even if you're paying for the Ultimate tier. Even LG OLED TVs these days can stream GeForce NOW at 4K/120FPS without needing a Shield TV at all. And considering how common 4K/120Hz TVs have become in the last few years, this is exactly the kind of gap a new Shield TV can close by adding HDMI 2.1 support. This could even open the door to features like VRR, which would be nice for cloud and local gaming. I'd say HDMI 2.1 is practically a given at this point, but I really hope Nvidia goes all out and supports 4K/120Hz as well, at least on the Pro model. AV1 hardware decoding The one area where the Shield TV really shows its age There are some things Nvidia simply can't add with a Shield Experience Upgrade, and one of them is AV1 hardware decoding. The current Shield TV supports HEVC, VP9, and plenty of older formats, but its hardware predates AV1 decoding. Newer, cheaper streaming devices like the Google TV Streamer, Fire TV Stick 4K (2nd gen), and Roku Streaming Stick 4K all support AV1, so it's a non-negotiable on a premium streamer like the Shield TV. That said, this is the most realistic upgrade on my wishlist because Nvidia itself knows the Shield TV is behind here, judging by Andrew Bell's comments earlier this year. AV1 could deliver better streaming quality at lower bitrates since it's a more efficient codec. Likewise, VP9 Profile 2 would address the Shield TV's lack of YouTube HDR support, while HDR10+ and newer Dolby Vision profiles would improve compatibility with modern HDR content. More RAM and internal storage These specs don't feel very "Pro" anymore A premium streaming device having just 3GB of RAM and 16GB of storage sounds almost laughable until you factor in rising memory and storage prices due to AI demand. Still, if competitors offer more, I don't think Nvidia has much of an excuse. Both the Apple TV 4K and Google TV Streamer have seen price hikes recently, but they still offer more RAM and storage than the $200 Shield TV Pro. That's why I think 4GB of RAM should be the bare minimum next time, though 6GB would be more reasonable considering the Shield TV also targets gamers. At current RAM prices, asking for 8GB might be a stretch, but what I can't overlook is the storage on the current models. My 2017 Shield TV Pro came with a whopping 500GB hard drive, so 16GB on the 2019 model always felt like a downgrade, even though it uses much faster flash storage. You can always add external storage, but I think anything less than 64GB will have people complaining about how stingy Nvidia is. Wi-Fi 7 and USB-C About time to modernize the basics If I ever get a new Shield TV, I'll still use its Gigabit Ethernet port because, for GeForce NOW, nothing beats the consistency of a wired connection. But I know not everyone will run Ethernet to their TV, and a premium streaming device launching this late shouldn't be two Wi-Fi generations behind. Sure, Wi-Fi 7 is overkill for streaming, but features like 6GHz support and Multi-Link Operation make a lot more sense for cloud gaming. And considering Nvidia has waited this long, I just hope it skips straight past Wi-Fi 6E. USB-C is long overdue, too. I don't mind the standard USB ports on the current Shield TV Pro, but Nvidia could ditch one of them for a USB-C port. I'm not a fan of the proprietary power connector either, so switching to USB-C PD would mean I could use just about any compatible power adapter lying around in my house if something happened to the original one. What I really hope Nvidia doesn't do is ditch the USB-A ports completely, because the last thing I want is a dongle situation. Nvidia could just relaunch the same Shield TV with a spec bump None of what I listed here requires Nvidia to revamp the Shield TV. If anything, that's what makes the idea of a new one so appealing to me. Giving it a faster chip shouldn't be hard either, especially since Nvidia could simply repurpose the same Tegra T239 chip in the Nintendo Switch 2. Add everything I mentioned here, and most of us would have a hard time saying no. Realistically, I don't expect it to maintain the same $200 price tag considering current RAM and storage prices, but I honestly don't mind paying a bit more for that spec bump either.