Is nVidia Shield TV Pro a good unit to play MKV files off a USB stick?

[Seeker47]

I run USB sticks -- whether plastic or rubberized or mostly metal -- off the Shield on a fairly regular basis. Talking about 2 hour movies, or multiple programs in a row here. None of the sticks ever got hot, maybe just a bit warm sometimes. No other significant problems worth noting.

As to DumbAsPost's query, to reiterate: I do Ffwd. / Rev. in VLC on the Shield, but I never "clocked" what the increments for those may be. Bear in mind that this is in VLC player for Android, and that I'm using a non-standard, third-party remote -- which may complicate the answer on that.

[PBcam]

I am also looking for hardware to play DVD VideoTS image files that will recognize chapters and will fast forward or skip back. My plan is to replace all my DVDs (rip them) with images on a USB hard drive and backup on my Ugreen NAS.
The NVidea Shield TV Pro seems to be one of the few choices but looking at the one star * ratings I see a lot of negative things about early failures and other problems. Apparently the hardware is a 2019 design which is not encouraging.
There are a lot of 5* ratings as well (Amazon). If it was $50 I would take the chance but right now I'm waiting for someone to convince me to buy this expensive device.
There are other ways to stream from my Ugreen NAS (Network Attached Storage, Raid 5) but then I can't use a remote to navigate my DVD images.
I want precious family and travel movies to be easily playable the way DVDs are. DVDs and DVD players seem to be going obsolete hence my need for something like this.

[Seeker47]

I think mine may even be the 2017 model; it has the dual USB ports plus (I think ?) memory card slot, a config that I prefer. The 2nd. USB port got dropped in later models. I'm not sure whether it covers ALL of the contingencies requested by PBcam, but I still consider this device to be King of the Hill. If I had to cite one possible deficit it is that it is running VLC as the best (?) playback option. The other players I've tried on it do not nearly measure up. VLC for Android is not as robust as the version on your PC. I don't think it covers the full gamut of video file codec formats that are out there, whereas the PC version pretty much does. That said, the failures along those lines that I've run into have been few and far between. Nothing else that I've seen on the market handles both "broad spectrum" playback and good streaming. The Dune players (I have one of the lesser models, and they have quite a few models with prices even dwarfing that of the Shield) seem to be as good as anything around for playback, but I think for streaming you can forget it. There are a couple other "exotic" solutions, like Zapiti, but the prices quickly get to be even more daunting. I've drawn the line for this at that (cheaper model) Dune unit.

You can find a lot of these options for sale -- New, or Used, at hopefully lower Used prices) -- on eBay. If you're willing to roll the dice on that. That's where I bought the Dune. Just always look for a Seller with a long and spotless feedback record.

[PBcam]

I looked at the manual for the Nvidea Shield Pro and saw that it will not read USB hard drives formatted in NTFS is this really true?
I was intending to use 2TB hard drives.
• FAT32 (32 GB or less) - SHIELD TV supports the FAT32 data format. Most drives that are 32 GB or less are already formatted as FAT32. If the storage drive is not formatted, format it to FAT32, using your PC or Mac computer. The limitation of using drives of this capacity is that your SHIELD TV will be unable to process files that are more than 4 GB in size.
• exFAT (64 GB or more) - SHIELD TV supports the exFAT data format. Storage drives that are 64 GB and above come pre-formatted as exFAT. This newer data format is able to process files that are more than 4 GB in size.

[Meritocracy]

I looked at the manual for the Nvidea Shield Pro and saw that it will not read USB hard drives formatted in NTFS is this really true?

No, that's absolutely not true. FAT32, exFAT, NTFS, and HFS+ file systems are all compatible.

https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/shield/support/shield-tv-pro/connecting-storage-to-your-shield/

[PBcam]

Thank you Meritocracy; that is reassuring.
Can you, or someone who has used one, tell me how to use it to view DVD VideoTS images?
I gather that I need to install the VLC Media Player but then how do I control it? With the remote?
Does the remote have 'next chapter' and 'fast forward' and how fast can it play? Does it have skip forward?
Using VLC on my computer is not convenient with mouse and keyboard. I want similar to my DVD player and remote.

[Seeker47]

Thank you Meritocracy; that is reassuring.
Can you, or someone who has used one, tell me how to use it to view DVD VideoTS images?
I gather that I need to install the VLC Media Player but then how do I control it? With the remote?
Does the remote have 'next chapter' and 'fast forward' and how fast can it play? Does it have skip forward?
Using VLC on my computer is not convenient with mouse and keyboard. I want similar to my DVD player and remote.

Of all my playback options, I suspect that the old WD Live TV may be the only one that supports VideoTS structures or ISO versions of them. The Oppo BR deck definitely does not. I don't recall whether the Dune HD or the Shield can, or whether I even ever tried them there. (But I can check and then report back.) VLC is a wild card that could possibly alter this equation.

I use a third party remote for the Shield, which is much preferable to the stock one from Nvidia. It's the Interset 422. Sold directly, or new on eBay. Can link that for you here later.