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

[guy24s]

Hi,

If I buy a nVidia Shield TV Pro, will I be able to play 1080p MKV files (with subtitles displayed) from a NTFS-formatted USB stick? And will it look good? And can I do this without needing an internet connection, once all necessary apps have been downloaded and installed? Sorry if I sound like a moron, but these are all genuine questions.

A little background: I previously used a unit called WD TV to play my videos, but the unit broke and the WD TV product line is discontinued since several years back. That unit was just perfect. The movies looked great on it, plus I could also play DVD ISO files on it and it would mount the ISOs and the DVD menues would be displayed just as if I was playing the actual disc in a DVD player.
I understand nVidia Shield TV Pro probably can't play DVD ISOs, but can it at least play my MKV files? I don't really have any experience in streaming media players, but I've tried to research it and from my understanding, nVidia Shield TV Pro has USB ports that will read units both FAT32, exFAT and NTFS-formatted. And it also said it can play MKV files if I install a media player like Plex or Kodi on it.
So question is, is all this accurate, and most importantly, will it look good? The files look good when I play them on my computer, but I tried playing them on a cheap Chinese media player from Temu and they looked horrible (pixelated and they played jerky).

Last question, there is also a less expensive unit called nVidia Shield TV. Will that also work for what I need it for, and will it look as good? I've looked at pictures of it and I can't see it has any USB ports?

I don't want to use my computer anymore to play my videos and I don't want to buy a small HTPC etc.

[Subtitles]

I have no experience with nVidia Shield TV Pro and it looks like a decent gadget but might be rather expensive.

You mentioned WD TV in your post. I have WD TV Live Hub (also discontinued) that I purchased many years ago from the USA. I used it only for a short while but stopped after having satellite TV at home. It is still in it's original box. See attached user manual.
The gadget has HDD inside and I was able to play videos directly from the HDD. I will need to hook it up to see if it is still working.
If you are interested please send me a PM. Thanks.

[guy24s]

I have no experience with nVidia Shield TV Pro and it looks like a decent gadget but might be rather expensive.

You mentioned WD TV in your post. I have WD TV Live Hub (also discontinued) that I purchased many years ago from the USA. I used it only for a short while but stopped after having satellite TV at home. It is still in it's original box. See attached user manual.
The gadget has HDD inside and I was able to play videos directly from the HDD. I will need to hook it up to see if it is still working.
If you are interested please send me a PM. Thanks.

Hey. When my WD TV stopped working, what happened was that it wouldn't boot anymore. The Western Digital logo would come up on the screen, then when the device normally enters the main screen, it just started over, and kept doing that infinitely.
This is very depressing, but I recently bought a new-old-stock WD TV from eBay. With international shipping and import tax the total cost was almost 400 dollars. It arrived yesterday and guess what, it has the same problem, out the damn box. I googled the error and come to find out it's a common problem that affects the different WD TV models.
This has sort of scared me off a bit from getting another one. But thanks for the offer, I'll wait and see if I get some some more replies regarding the nVidia product, because I am thinking and hoping it will do what I need.

[Subtitles]

I have no experience with nVidia Shield TV Pro and it looks like a decent gadget but might be rather expensive.

You mentioned WD TV in your post. I have WD TV Live Hub (also discontinued) that I purchased many years ago from the USA. I used it only for a short while but stopped after having satellite TV at home. It is still in it's original box. See attached user manual.
The gadget has HDD inside and I was able to play videos directly from the HDD. I will need to hook it up to see if it is still working.
If you are interested please send me a PM. Thanks.

Hey. When my WD TV stopped working, what happened was that it wouldn't boot anymore. The Western Digital logo would come up on the screen, then when the device normally enters the main screen, it just started over, and kept doing that infinitely.
This is very depressing, but I recently bought a new-old-stock WD TV from eBay. With international shipping and import tax the total cost was almost 400 dollars. It arrived yesterday and guess what, it has the same problem, out the damn box. I googled the error and come to find out it's a common problem that affects the different WD TV models.
This has sort of scared me off a bit from getting another one. But thanks for the offer, I'll wait and see if I get some some more replies regarding the nVidia product, because I am thinking and hoping it will do what I need.

Sorry to hear about this problem especially paying so much for this model. I hope that you can get a refund. I think the WD TV Live hub has better design as it came later and I never had such a problem. I tested mine today and cleaned it up especially the small fan inside. It works perfectly and the picture is amazing considering it was an old technology.
It has several nice Apps when you connect it to the internet but in my location most of the Apps are disabled when it detects my IP. They should work in the USA of course.
The nVidea Shield TV Pro works with 4K which can be an advantage in the future.
Good luck.

[cholla]

My settop bluray player plays most video files from a uSB port.
This may be an option to look into.

I do not have a WD TV box but here is a link to manually do a factory reset.It would be worth a try.
https://support-en.wd.com/app/answers/detailweb/a_id/12917/~/wd-tv-play-media-player%3...set-to-default

I have an old Keedox media player that is now mothballed.
It worked well when I needed it.
I believe I only paid about 30 dollars for it many years ago.

[fooledagain]

Nvidia Shield devices do play mkv files. Many blu-ray players also have USB ports and support mkv playback if you are looking for a cheap solution that can also play DVDs and Blu-ray disks. If you're connecting the Nvidia directly to your tv an internet connection isn't required to play off of a USB.

[jagabo]

There are many inexpensive video players that play far more video containers/codecs than the old WDTV models. And they can be had for as little as US$20. The current Google TV devices are very good and range from US$20 to US$100. The current top of the line GoogleTV will probably be on sale for US$50 before Christmas.

https://store.google.com/product/google_tv_streamer

[Subtitles]

Just a little advise. Playing videos using a USB flash disk is not recommended. The drive can get quite hot after playing for a while.
It is better to use an external SSD or HDD instead or an internal HDD drive in a TV boxset.