Advantages of an Android box over the Nvidia Shield TV

[yougz]

Hi everyone.

For a long time, Android boxes had the advantage of being less closed, more customizable and allowing more different things than Shield TV. As a result, some people preferred to buy an Android box rather than an Nvidia Shield. We can of course install Android applications manually or via stores like aptoide on Shield and more and more, we see ways to bypass the closed aspect of the TV shield (root, bootloader unlocking, installation of other roms like LineageOS ...).

What do you think will remain in the future as advantages for devices like beelink gt-king pro, ugoos am6 plus, minix neo U22 etc ... compared to Shield TV 2019? Knowing that some of these devices are also very expensive and with import taxes almost at the same price as the Shield .... What use do you have of an Android box that you cannot have on Shield TV? On which applications do you find that these boxes perform better?

All answers are welcome because each person has different uses and different reasons for preferring this or that device ...

[mitchell4you]

Oranges vs apples
Or android TV vs Android vs Android x86

Why buy a Shield Tv ?
When you can install Android X86 ( lots of distro's ) or Android Tv x86 on a PC with more ram/cpu power/harddisk space
Why buy Shield Tv If you only wish to watch streams... you don't Amazon Firestick/Xiaomi stick/box are cheaper and use less power

Its all about use cases..
For IPTV or kodi a cheap Libreelec box can do wonders
For dedicated services.. not beats a tvbox running linux/unix
For dedicated gaming nothing beats ShieldTv or a PC
For game emulating nothing beats a pc or a cheap arm box running emulationOS/libreelec/..
For programming or learning OS's.. nothing beats a PC or SBC like rassberry pi

As for high end gaming.. do you really need a pc anymore??
With cloud gaming.. beeing possible on low end Arm boxes (dumb terminals) these days?

As for me..
I have Libreelec tvbox for some game/nintendo emulation and kodi/IPTV ( possibly Pi hole in the futher ? )
Remix mini for Office stuff.. printing/email/browsing work related stuff with dedicated dac for music
Firestick 4k for watching Netflix/... or whats on NAS
Xiaomi stick for vacation tripps /camping.. watching netflix.. down stairs
Android box.. doing downloads/tethering/Blokada with a decated dac for music and Displaylink for adding more stuff
then a dedicated arm box for wifi/vpn client routing
I do own a PC.. but I rarly boot it.. these days

So, one monitor 32'' with 2 tvboxes and 1 stick is currently using 37watt total power draw (incl dac's/displaylink ) (up stairs)
Thats amazing.. If i boot my pc.. it near 225 watt just idling

Anyway.. cheers

Ohh.. I just came back for my fathers place (hey is 80+ and has Aphasia )
Hey also has a android tv box for: ( I gave to him )
Recieving pictures (grandkids/vaction/.. ) and msg from familly ( whatsup )
-Sometimes we send them to the printer..So, hey can hang pic up the wall
Using Birthday app.. hey gets notifications Birthdays/aniversery's
Recieve e-mail because everyone need e-mail these days
Hey can order Transport/food/meds.. (but in most cases I do it for him or his GF )

[yougz]

Oranges vs apples
Or android TV vs Android vs Android x86

Why buy a Shield Tv ?
When you can install Android X86 ( lots of distro's ) or Android Tv x86 on a PC with more ram/cpu power/harddisk space
Why buy Shield Tv If you only wish to watch streams... you don't Amazon Firestick/Xiaomi stick/box are cheaper and use less power

Its all about use cases..
For IPTV or kodi a cheap Libreelec box can do wonders
For dedicated services.. not beats a tvbox running linux/unix
For dedicated gaming nothing beats ShieldTv or a PC
For game emulating nothing beats a pc or a cheap arm box running emulationOS/libreelec/..
For programming or learning OS's.. nothing beats a PC or SBC like rassberry pi

As for high end gaming.. do you really need a pc anymore??
With cloud gaming.. beeing possible on low end Arm boxes (dumb terminals) these days?

As for me..
I have Libreelec tvbox for some game/nintendo emulation and kodi/IPTV ( possibly Pi hole in the futher ? )
Remix mini for Office stuff.. printing/email/browsing work related stuff with dedicated dac for music
Firestick 4k for watching Netflix/... or whats on NAS
Xiaomi stick for vacation tripps /camping.. watching netflix.. down stairs
Android box.. doing downloads/tethering/Blokada with a decated dac for music and Displaylink for adding more stuff
then a dedicated arm box for wifi/vpn client routing
I do own a PC.. but I rarly boot it.. these days

So, one monitor 32'' with 2 tvboxes and 1 stick is currently using 37watt total power draw (incl dac's/displaylink ) (up stairs)
Thats amazing.. If i boot my pc.. it near 225 watt just idling

Anyway.. cheers

Ohh.. I just came back for my fathers place (hey is 80+ and has Aphasia )
Hey also has a android tv box for: ( I gave to him )
Recieving pictures (grandkids/vaction/.. ) and msg from familly ( whatsup )
-Sometimes we send them to the printer..So, hey can hang pic up the wall
Using Birthday app.. hey gets notifications Birthdays/aniversery's
Recieve e-mail because everyone need e-mail these days
Hey can order Transport/food/meds.. (but in most cases I do it for him or his GF )

Thank you for the very complete answer which I think will be used by a lot of people.

I am also a user of cheap android boxes for certain uses that you describe, but my question was more about high-end Android boxes whose price is close to that of Nvidia.

The Nvidia Shield TV does not consume much either, I believe maximum 10-11W.

We see some ROMs like LineageOS blooming on Shield TV. Maybe in a short time we will be able to install the same styles of ROMs as on Android box, dualboots? I do not know...

Voila, I was wondering whether the high-end Android boxes did not lose a little interest at the same time as the Shield became more hackable.

[RiCkLaR_atvX]

The Nvidia Shield TV does not consume much either, I believe maximum 10-11W.

Maybe the small 2019 ShieldTV (tube) is tuned to do only 10W, but not the full-size 2015, 2017, 2019 ShieldTV(Pro) which has a maximum of 20W-25W while gaming, there is Intel Pentium processors that don't even use 20W under full PC load situations. If you are talking Only-Streaming 1080p content then Yes the ShieldTV only runs about 6-to-10W for 1080p.

We see some ROMs like LineageOS blooming on Shield TV. Maybe in a short time we will be able to install the same styles of ROMs as on Android box, dualboots? I do not know...
Voila, I was wondering whether the high-end Android boxes did not lose a little interest at the same time as the Shield became more hackable.

Shield is not more or less "hackable" then current high-end Amlogic powered boxes, the current LineageOS builds are "Unofficial Builds" meaning Work-In-Progress builds, but it does help that the device hasn't had major changes between the every 2-year model releases for the last 6 years, and that there is a dedicated developer (Steel01) working on the ROM to make Lineage more stable for the ShieldTV's.
Dual-boots? Most Amlogic chipped boxes can dual-boot Android and Linux(CoreELEC), with some of the Top OEM's selling boxes with pre-installed dual-boot firmwares already.
There hasn't been any loss of interest in High-End Android STB, of course there will always be less owners of the $150 dollar boxes versus the $40 boxes, that is purely economics. More people will buy the Amazon Firestick's ($40) first before they ever consider an Nvidia ShieldTV($150).

[yougz]

Maybe the small 2019 ShieldTV (tube) is tuned to do only 10W, but not the full-size 2015, 2017, 2019 ShieldTV(Pro) which has a maximum of 20W-25W while gaming, there is Intel Pentium processors that don't even use 20W under full PC load situations. If you are talking Only-Streaming 1080p content then Yes the ShieldTV only runs about 6-to-10W for 1080p.

Shield is not more or less "hackable" then current high-end Amlogic powered boxes, the current LineageOS builds are "Unofficial Builds" meaning Work-In-Progress builds, but it does help that the device hasn't had major changes between the every 2-year model releases for the last 6 years, and that there is a dedicated developer (Steel01) working on the ROM to make Lineage more stable for the ShieldTV's.
Dual-boots? Most Amlogic chipped boxes can dual-boot Android and Linux(CoreELEC), with some of the Top OEM's selling boxes with pre-installed dual-boot firmwares already.
There hasn't been any loss of interest in High-End Android STB, of course there will always be less owners of the $150 dollar boxes versus the $40 boxes, that is purely economics. More people will buy the Amazon Firestick's ($40) first before they ever consider an Nvidia ShieldTV($150).

So for you it will not be possible to have systems like Coreelec on the TV shield or dualboots.

Compared to what I have tried I find that there are advantages for example to use CoreElec on Ugoos AM6 Plus rather than Kodi on Shield TV.

[yougz]

Is there a topic that groups together and lists all the advantages and disadvantages of Androidboxes and Android TV boxes?

It could be interesting.

[RiCkLaR_atvX]

Is there a topic that groups together and lists all the advantages and disadvantages of Androidboxes and Android TV boxes?
It could be interesting.

Don't think there is a Topic on this forum. But there is a Topic on the Kodi forum that covers a lot of the details that actually matter in selecting a device, give it a read:

https://forum.kodi.tv/showthread.php?tid=252916

[yougz]

Don't think there is a Topic on this forum. But there is a Topic on the Kodi forum that covers a lot of the details that actually matter in selecting a device, give it a read:

https://forum.kodi.tv/showthread.php?tid=252916

OK

Apart from Android ROMs or Android TV, CoreElec or EmuElec, is it possible to install other systems on Android and Android TV boxes?

Other Linux systems or others ....

Thanks.

[RiCkLaR_atvX]

OK

Apart from Android ROMs or Android TV, CoreElec or EmuElec, is it possible to install other systems on Android and Android TV boxes?

Other Linux systems or others ....

Thanks.

Yes, depending on the CPU, some boxes have Armbian linux development images made (ie. Debian, Ubuntu).