Best answer: NVIDIA is phasing out the Shield TV Pro, which offers 500GB of internal storage. It’s still available for sale, but NVIDIA is moving forward with the 16GB Shield TV, which is just as capable for all your streaming and gaming needs with software updates offering improved support for mounting external drives as internal storage.
- Amazon: NVIDIA Shield TV (16GB) ($179)
- Amazon: SanDisk Ultra Fit 128GB USB 3.0 Flash Drive ($31)
- Amazon: NVIDIA Shield TV Pro (500GB) ($299)
Ask yourself if 500GB is worth $100
Between the NVIDIA Shield TV and the outgoing NVIDIA Shield TV Pro, there’s really only one differentiating factor — well, two if you include the price difference. The Shield TV Pro was marketed as a Home Media Server and included 500GB of internal storage for storing all your media for Plex or Kodi — but it also adds $100 to the final price.
Meanwhile, if you forgo the gaming controller bundle, you can get a base NVIDIA Shield TV for just $179, with a bundle currently offered on Amazon that includes the new Amazon Echo Dot (3rd gen) as a free gift. With the way that most popular media streaming apps take up very little storage space, you may be just fine with 16GB of storage. If you binge a ton of YouTube, Netflix, Hulu, and others, the 16GB will serve your purposes just fine.
Save some money and mod your NVIDIA Shield TV
But let’s say you own a larger library of digital media that’s unavailable on streaming services. The 16GB might not support it all — but you’ve still got options. NVIDIA allows you to mount a USB storage device as a removable drive for accessing media files or use it instead as dedicated internal storage for downloading apps and games.
NVIDIA allows you to mount a USB storage device as a removable drive for accessing media files or use it instead as dedicated internal storage for downloading apps and games.
That means you can find yourself an affordable and compact USB flash drive — we recommend the SanDisk Ultra Fit 128GB USB 3.0 Flash Drive — and add up to 256GB of storage. The Shield also supports external hard drives, which is a good option if you have multiple terabytes of data to transfer over. If you’re planning to adopt the drive for internal storage and you happen to have a spare solid state drive kicking around, you can use this USB 3.0 to SSD adapter for $9 and mount the SSD as internal storage.
We recommend using an SSD for mounted internal storage because you’ll notice a significant slowdown using other storage options. Again, this is really only a set up we’d recommend for hardcore users with massive libraries of media, and buying an SSD for this purpose might undercut the savings of optioning for the 16GB Shield.
If you need more help upgrading storage for your NVIDIA Shield TV, we’ve got you covered with this quick guide.
Best value
NVIDIA Shield TV (16GB) + Amazon Echo Dot (3rd gen)
$179 at Amazon
Great value on a great streaming box
The NVIDIA Shield TV is ideal for all your streaming needs. If you’re running low on internal storage, you’re able to mount an external drive to free of some extra space.
Sleek extra storage
SanDisk Ultra Fit 128GB USB 3.0 Flash Drive
$31 at Amazon
Your best value for upgrading storage
We recommend this tiny flash drive that you can plug into your Shield TV, mount it, and basically forget about it.
Go pro
NVIDIA Shield TV Pro (500GB) + Amazon Echo Dot (3rd gen)
$179 at Amazon
For those who want extra storage with no fuss
The NVIDIA Shield TV Pro might still be worth buying if you want the gaming controller, and you know you’ll put that extra internal storage space to good use.
