TL;DR
- NVIDIA’s $149 Shield TV has reportedly been out of stock for months at major retailers.
- Recent findings suggest the base model of the popular streaming box may have been discontinued.
- If true, rising memory costs and NVIDIA’s focus on AI could explain why the streaming box is no longer available for purchase.
The NVIDIA Shield TV has earned a loyal following over the past decade by doing something very few Android TV devices manage, i.e. staying relevant long after launch. But if you’ve been trying to buy the $149 tube-shaped Shield TV recently, you may have noticed it’s becoming nearly impossible to find.
According to AFTVnews, there are growing signs that NVIDIA may have quietly discontinued the base Shield TV, leaving the higher-end Shield TV Pro as the only model left to buy.
The current Shield TV lineup launched back in 2019, with the standard $149 Shield TV sitting below the $199 Shield TV Pro. While the Pro remains in stock at several retailers, the cheaper model has reportedly been unavailable for months. Amazon hasn’t consistently stocked the device since early April, while retailers like Best Buy and Newegg list it as out of stock. B&H Photo even labels the device as discontinued.
AFTVnews also points to the Shield TV Remote, which has unexpectedly gone on sale at Amazon. According to the report, the accessory had barely been discounted throughout its six-year lifespan, making the recent price cut look more like inventory clearance than a routine promotion.
Of course, this doesn’t mean the entire Shield TV lineup is going away. Earlier this year, NVIDIA Senior VP of Hardware Engineering Andrew Bell said the company had no plans to stop producing or updating the Shield TV “any time soon.” If that’s still true, NVIDIA could simply be cutting out the base model, keeping only the more popular Shield TV Pro around.
The Pro has long been the enthusiast favorite. It offers more RAM, USB ports, and expandable storage. It also has significantly better customer reviews than the base model, suggesting it’s the version most buyers get.
Could memory prices be the real reason?
If the base Shield TV is indeed gone, it may be another example of how today’s memory market is affecting older hardware.
The tech industry has been dealing with rising DRAM and NAND flash prices as manufacturers prioritize memory for AI servers and data centers. That has made it difficult for companies to keep consumer electronics in stores, especially products built with older components.
For a niche streaming box that’s already six years old, and with NVIDIA now focused on its booming AI business, it may simply no longer make financial sense to keep the cheaper Shield TV in production.
That said, this remains speculation for now. NVIDIA hasn’t officially announced the end of the base Shield TV, and there’s always the possibility this is just an inventory shortage. We’ll reach out to NVIDIA for comment and update this story if the company responds.
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