When comparing NVIDIA SHIELD Console vs Roku 4, the Slant community recommends Roku 4 for most people. In the question“What are the best devices to stream Netflix to a TV?” Roku 4 is ranked 3rd while NVIDIA SHIELD Console is ranked 5th.
Ranked in these QuestionsQuestion Ranking
Pros
Pro Kodi is installable from the Play Store
Kodi media center is now available on the Play Store for Android TV devices which is very convenient since the old method of installing the app was to sideload, which can be difficult for new users.
Pro 50 curated games at launch
There will be 50 curated games at launch of the device including the likes of Borderlands and Crysis.
Pro NVIDIA Tegra X1
The NVIDIA SHIELD Tablet has an NVIDIA Tegra X1 processor, which is reported as having twice the performance of an XBox 360.
Pro Built-in voice search
Pro Good 4K support
Pro Universal search
Roku's search will look through all available services and offer results in one place. You don't have to search through each app individually to find what you're looking for. It also remembers your previous searches.
Pro Offers the best selection of content
Roku offers more than 1800 entertainment channels.
Pro Simple, intuitive interface
Roku's interface is fairly straightforward.
Pro Headphone jack in the remote
You can plug in any set of headphones in the Roku's remote at which point Roku will mute the TV and allow you to listen to your content without disturbing anyone around you.
Pro Motion control capable remote
Cons
Con Can only have 2 USB hard drives
There are only two USB ports built into the device, which limits how many hard drives one can hook up, but the kicker is, even when using a USB hub the device will still only read two USB devices hard drives at a time, no matter how many are plugged into the USB hub.
Con Only capapable of low end gaming
Even the demos of the games shown at the unveiling shows that any type of console quality game is going to be too taxing for the system, all running at only 30fps. Adding to that, the majority of console ports for the system are years old which shows that it is pretty obvious how limiting the system will be.
Con If you don't want 4K content, Roku 3 might get you more bang for the buck
Since 4K content is still scarce it might be better to get Roku 3 instead. It's practically identical to Roku 4 except for voice search and 4K support that Roku 3 lacks.