Clampdown on TV 'Dodgy Boxes'

My Shield TV will be 10 years old in February 2026 , it's incredible the way Nvidia kept supporting it for so long, if they release an updated version I'd get it but I do wonder how many people would get it now considering the advancements in Smart TV software with many apps available now for smart TVs.

Now that the Switch 2 is out Nvidia might upgrade the Shield, it would be long overdue.

Haven't used or seen torrents since the days of Napster.

I use the Shield also. You are right about windows is the other option and you can get really small form PC's for the job.

Torrents are good when I want a proper high quality 4K movie with decent bitrate.

Here's a trick you can try which might persuade you to go the windows route, even if it might be the more expensive option it's a lot less hassle than trying to side load apps.

In your Chrome browser, go to, for example, ITVX, then click on the 3 dots, go to "cast, save and share" Then click on " install page as app" Name it to ITVX and voila you now have ITVx saved as app you can get in start or save to task bar, not a lot of people know about this little trick. Make sure and log in first before you install page as app and when you click on the app on the task bar it will open logged in, pretty neat !

This doesn't work when there are only android installations available but at least it solves the hassles of trying to sideload U.K TV aps, once you have VPN set to U.K and log in you won't have issues with broken apps or the hassles of sideloading.

I'm the same as you. I use it in the lg os. I'm happier with it built into the TV and on the remote.

The full version of smarters has catch up. If i want to use that i stream on my laptop

Im not saying I use a dodgy firestick and im not saying its was told by a provider that you need to block updates and data sharing etc..

Paid tv was fine when you had sky sports and it had well.all the sports. Now the sports are split among so many channels

Its got so bad now that the next thing will he you get to watch the first half of the game on Sky sports and the second half will be on another channel

Amazon probably don't care because they make so much from Their online store and especially AWS.

Windows apps will get a lot more popular and people will switch to the likes of the Xiaomi Android boxes.

Until of course the other manufacturers do the same - or Google does as they're all Android based. Amazon are not doing this out of the goodness of their hearts towards Sky et al after all.

This could all turn out to be the end of iptv on Firesticks, but it won't be the end of iptv.

I wouldn't be making any decisions on scrapping firesticks or ponying up for other devices until something actually happens.

I'd reckon there'll be "workarounds" found handy enough.