Back in July, fears were raised that Nvidia had decided to discontinue its beloved standard Nvidia Shield TV set-top box, and now the company has confirmed that it has really been axed. However, the more powerful Nvidia Shield TV Pro device will continue to live on, albeit with a very significant price hike.
This week, Nvidia revealed that it has indeed opted to discontinue the basic Nvidia Shield TV, while bumping up the price of the Nvidia Shield TV Pro by a whopping 50%. That means it now costs $299 (around £225) instead of $199, if you can actually find one.
Nvidia didn't make any official announcement, and the price hike was first spotted by Wccftech, which asked the company what's going on. In response, Nvidia said in a statement that it has no choice but to ask for more money as the “cost of components, including memory, has increased substantially across the industry.”
If only Nvidia had some way to influence the AI industry and reduce the demand for memory… but clearly it’s an issue that’s entirely beyond its control :D
Nvidia’s devices are both several years old, with their last refresh coming in 2019, but they’re still among the best and most capable streaming boxes around, and they have legions of loyal fans. They support hundreds of apps and games through Nvidia’s GeForce NOW game streaming platform, they have beefy Tegra X1 processors, 3 gigabytes of RAM and plenty of onboard storage, and it’s possible to customize the user interface too. The Pro model supports 4K content, can upscale HD content to 4K at 60 frames per second, and Dolby Vision HDR is also on board.
These specs mean the Nvidia Shield TV Pro more than a match for anything else on the market. For instance, the current Google TV Streamer, which debuted in September 2024, is pretty much on the same level as the Shield if you compare its performance capabilities.
Despite the price increase, a quick look at Nvidia’s website shows that the Nvidia Shield TV Pro is currently “out of stock,” and it’s not clear when the supply will be replenished. This has actually been the situation for a while. We first reported in July that the basic version of the Shield was unavailable to buy anywhere – including at major retailers like Amazon – and the Pro version has been in the same boat since September.
According to Nvidia, the product is currently “out of stock due to demand,” but the price increase gives us full confidence that the situation will change, it’s just a question of when. Again, if only Nvidia had some way to influence memory makers, this problem could be alleviated…
It remains to be seen how long Nvidia will persist with the Shield TV Pro, for the company said earlier this year that it is considering launching an updated box at some point in future. While nothing is confirmed, Nvidia said: "We've played with new concepts for Shield and we'll continue to play, and if we find something we're super-excited about, we'll probably make a go of it.”
