The Nvidia Shield TV has today gone on-sale in the US, and though Nvidia themselves won’t ship a unit to you, you can get one sent directly to you in Australia if you use one of their partners.
There’s a number of partners listed on the Nvidia website who will ship the Shield TV Console to you, unfortunately Frys, BestBuy, NewEgg and MicroCenter won’t actually ship to Australia, but Amazon and B&H Photo Video apparently like money and will ship it here for a decent price. Before you get too excited it’s only the 16GB Shield TV console, not the 500GB Shield Pro behemoth most are waiting for.
There are a number of differences between the Shield TV and Shield Pro with the 16GB Shield TV dropping the microUSB port and microSD slot while the Shield Pro retains them. Both models have the same Tegra X1 processor under the hood and you also get two USB 3.0 ports and a gigabit ethernet port to boot as well. The Shield Pro releases on January 30th for $299.99USD or a little over $400AUD, and that 500GB of storage could come in handy if you’re a media hoarder.
Android TV consoles in Australia are a rare thing now that the Asus Nexus Player has gone the way of the Dodo. Nvidia is still flying the flag for Android TV, however they advised us at CES that they have no intention of releasing them directly in Australia (D’oh). So. It’s time to import.
Both Amazon and B&H Photo Video sell the 16GB Nvidia Shield Console at the RRP of $199.99USD, or around $268AUD and you’ll then pay for shipping, which of course to Australia adds a fair bit of cost.
B&H Photo Video offer two options for shipping:
- DHL Express $41.01 – 4-7 Business Days
- FedEx International Priority $47.06 – 3-5 Business Day
Amazon also offer shipping to Australia, with three options:
- AmazonGlobal Standard Shipping $16.35 – (averages 9-12 business days)
- AmazonGlobal Expedited Shipping $21.25 – (averages 7-11 business days)
- AmazonGlobal Priority Shipping $45.15 – (averages 2-5 business days)
If you’re still keen for the Shield Pro, then Amazon and B&H Photo Video will both let you pre-order the Shield Pro right now. If you’re just wanting a basic Shield TV console, then what are you waiting for? Get on it now.
Are you ordering the new Nvidia Shield Console? Which model?
One bit of disappointment coming out, is that despite Amazon Prime video being essentially worldwide now, you can only install the Amazon Video app on accounts from countries that have full Prime (ie: US, UK, Germany). Everyone else still needs to sideload. So Amazon continues to do its best to kill its own service worldwide.
Its really hard to justify the price when they’ve been selling the Xbox one S for $299 recently.
Sure its nice to have a remote than having to power on a controller all the time and android TV may or may not be preferable to you.
My Amazon pre-order shipped last night. Supposedly will get here by the end of the month.
I have read elsewhere the smaller one is capable of running the Plex server app, any truth to that? I’ve currently got 3 USB hard drives attached to my MacMini and the server on that. Am I better off shelling out more for the larger one for the extra storage?
For anyone with Plex knowledge, does running Plex client on a Shield (with server on a NAS) increase the range/quality of videos Plex can play over, say, a Nexus Player?
Well it should have to convert less videos so that would be an improvement. It all depends on what videos you have. Plus it can pass through lossless audio and play video at 24p.
Personally, with media on a NAS I prefer using Kodi/SPMC to access the files. With Kodi you can use SMB or NFS shares (NFS appears to offer higher performance for me), and it supports 24p and audio passthrough.
It’s fast enough to play a Blu-ray ISO on a Nexus Player using a USB Ethernet adaptor.
I’m keen on a group buy, if it can be organised.
I’m looking for a high powered, reputable android box.
You still can’t pre-order the pro to Australia
I think we should all follow Nvidia Shield twitter account and every tweet we all tweet the question: Australia? Perhaps Ausdroid should front this campaign and come up with a catchy hashtag as well!