Your Sunshine host may encode AV1 on a new GPU, but the box under the TV decides what actually reaches the screen, and on every TV box here Moonlight streams HEVC. The best device for Moonlight game streaming decodes the codec your host sends, sits on a wired port and pairs the controller you already own. Get one of those wrong and you get blocky frames, a 1080p ceiling or a controller Moonlight never sees.
We ranked the five clients people shortlist for streaming from a Linux Sunshine host: the new Apple TV 4K, NVIDIA SHIELD TV Pro, Google TV Streamer (the Chromecast’s replacement), Raspberry Pi 5 and Steam Deck OLED. Each one is scored on HEVC and AV1 decode, Ethernet and controller pairing. The specs come from the maker, and the codec rules come from Moonlight’s own source code, which picks the codec for you on some platforms. Prices and stock below were checked on November 1, 2026.
Best device for Moonlight game streaming: quick picks
October 2026 moved this category twice. Apple announced a fourth-generation Apple TV 4K with an AV1 decoder that ships on November 13, and NVIDIA raised the SHIELD TV Pro from $199.99 to $299 while dropping the cheaper SHIELD TV. Here’s where each client lands:
- Best overall: Apple TV 4K (4th generation). Gigabit Ethernet, Wi-Fi 7, 4K60 HDR over HEVC and native Xbox and DualSense pairing, at about $299 on preorder.
- Best Android TV box: NVIDIA SHIELD TV Pro. Gigabit Ethernet and two USB 3.0 ports for wired controllers, but no AV1 on the spec sheet and a new $299 price for 2019 hardware.
- Best value TV box: Google TV Streamer. Gigabit Ethernet, Bluetooth 5.1 and the Moonlight Android app for about $149, with a slower Wi-Fi 5 radio.
- Cheapest wired client: Raspberry Pi 5. Gigabit Ethernet and a 4Kp60 HEVC decoder from $110 for the 4 GB board, as long as your host sends HEVC.
- Best handheld: Steam Deck OLED. Built-in controls and a 90 Hz HDR OLED, sold by Valve only, with no Ethernet port of its own.
If you only pick one for the living room, we’d pick the Apple TV 4K and wait the two weeks for it to ship. If the TV is in a spare room and you already have a case and power supply, pick the Raspberry Pi 5. For this job, a $110 board on a cable beats a $300 box on Wi-Fi.
How we picked these Moonlight clients
Moonlight is a decode job with a latency budget. So we judged every client on four things: what its silicon decodes, how Moonlight picks a codec on it, whether it has a wired port and which controllers pair with it. Decode support comes from the maker’s own pages: Apple’s tech specs, NVIDIA’s SHIELD TV Pro page, the Google Store spec sheet, the Raspberry Pi 5 product brief and Valve’s Steam Deck OLED page. When a maker leaves a codec off its list, we say so instead of filling the gap from a forum post.
Most buyer guides skip codec selection, and you shouldn’t. On Apple TV, the Moonlight app’s settings offer Auto, H.264 and HEVC, with no AV1 entry at all, and Auto lands on HEVC. The Android app can do AV1, but its AV1 decoder whitelist returns false for every device, so you only get AV1 when you force it in settings.
We read both rules in the apps’ source on GitHub, because they change which box is worth your money. We did not have these devices on a bench, so you won’t find latency numbers here. Prices come from Amazon’s catalog API and the makers’ own stores.
Compare Moonlight clients: HEVC, AV1, Ethernet
Here are the four things that decide a Moonlight client, side by side. “Moonlight uses” is what the app picks by default when your host offers everything. On Android that’s HEVC, even if the chip could do more:
| Client | Hardware decode (maker) | Moonlight uses | Ethernet | Controllers | Price, Nov 1 2026 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Apple TV 4K (4th gen) | AV1, VP9, HEVC, H.264 | HEVC, up to 4K60 HDR | Gigabit | Xbox, DualSense, DualShock 4, MFi | About $299, preorder |
| NVIDIA SHIELD TV Pro | HEVC 4K60 HDR, H.264, VP9 (no AV1 listed) | HEVC | Gigabit | Bluetooth 5.0 or USB 3.0 | $299 from NVIDIA |
| Google TV Streamer | AV1, HEVC Main10, VP9, H.264 4K60 (Cast docs) | HEVC | Gigabit | Bluetooth 5.1 | About $149, in stock |
| Raspberry Pi 5 | HEVC 4Kp60 only | HEVC | Gigabit | Bluetooth 5.0 or USB 3.0 | $110 (4 GB) to $175 (8 GB) list |
| Steam Deck OLED | Not published by Valve | HEVC or H.264 via VAAPI | None (USB-C dock) | Built in, Bluetooth 5.3 | $789 (512 GB), stock varies |
Read the “Moonlight uses” column before the decode column. Every TV client ends up on HEVC, including the two whose chips decode AV1, so an AV1 encoder on your host does not change which box to buy. Every client except the Steam Deck has a Gigabit port. That port matters more than any codec once someone else in the house starts a video call on the same Wi-Fi.
1. Apple TV 4K (4th generation)
Apple’s new box wins on the parts that matter for Moonlight: a Gigabit port, the fastest Wi-Fi here and controller support built into tvOS. Apple’s spec page for the A19 model lists AV1, VP9, HEVC and H.264 decode, but the Moonlight tvOS app offers only Auto, H.264 and HEVC, so you’ll stream HEVC like every other TV box.
You also get Gigabit Ethernet, Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth 6 and HDMI 2.1, all on Apple’s page. Moonlight’s App Store listing says up to 4K at 120 fps with HDR, but Apple’s spec footnote caps this box’s HDMI output at 4K 60 fps HDR, so plan on 4K60. HDR in Moonlight needs HEVC decode plus an HDR10 display, which this box covers.
Controllers are easy here. Apple’s tvOS guide lists the Xbox Wireless Controller, DualSense, DualShock 4 and MFi pads, and Moonlight’s listing names the same families. So the pad on your PC desk pairs with the Apple TV over Bluetooth, and you don’t buy anything extra.
- Who it is for: a living-room TV on Ethernet where you want 4K60 HDR and the least setup.
- Skip it if: you need it before November 13, or you don’t want to depend on an app whose App Store build (9.0.2) dates from February 2024 and hasn’t been seen on the new hardware yet.
- Price: about $299 at Apple and on Amazon as a preorder sold by Amazon.com. Check the Apple TV 4K price on Amazon.
Apple no longer sells the previous A15 model, and its archived spec page lists HEVC and H.264 without AV1. For Moonlight that missing AV1 costs nothing, so a renewed A15 box works as the same HEVC client. You’d buy from a reseller rather than Apple, though, and only the 128 GB model of that generation has the Gigabit port.
2. NVIDIA SHIELD TV Pro
NVIDIA’s box is the strongest Android TV client for wired setups, because it pairs Gigabit Ethernet with two USB 3.0 ports. You can plug in a wired controller or a USB receiver and skip Bluetooth pairing entirely. No other TV box here makes that as easy.
NVIDIA lists HEVC up to 4K60 with HDR, plus H.264 and VP9 up to 4K60, on a Tegra X1+ with 3 GB of RAM, Bluetooth 5.0 and Android 11. AV1 is not on that list, and it would not matter much anyway, because Moonlight for Android picks HEVC unless you force AV1. The current Android release is v12.2 from September 2026. Its notes improve USB Xbox controller support, which plays to the SHIELD’s strength.
- Who it is for: anyone who wants wired controllers and wired network on Android TV, or already owns one.
- Skip it if: you’re buying new for streaming alone. On October 2, 2026 NVIDIA raised it to $299 and dropped the regular SHIELD TV, so you’d pay Apple TV money for a 2019 chip.
- Where to buy: NVIDIA’s own store at $299. The Amazon listing we found was a third-party seller at about $580, so we do not link it.
If you already own a SHIELD, keep it. You have the same HEVC client you had last year, and the price hike only hurts people buying now. NVIDIA’s box also shows up in our Jellyfin and Plex streaming device picks, where its lossless audio passthrough earns its place in a way game streaming does not need.
3. Google TV Streamer
Google’s Streamer is the cheapest TV box here with Gigabit Ethernet, and that port is why it beats stick-shaped players for Moonlight. Google replaced the Chromecast with Google TV with it, so if you’re shopping for a “Chromecast for Moonlight”, you end up here.
Google’s spec sheet lists 10/100/1000 Ethernet, Wi-Fi 5, Bluetooth 5.1, HDMI 2.1, 4 GB of RAM and 32 GB of storage, and it runs the same Moonlight Android app as the SHIELD. Google’s Cast media docs list its decoders as AV1 Main, HEVC Main and Main10, VP9 Profile 2 and H.264 High, all up to 4K60. Moonlight still picks HEVC on it by default, because the Android app only uses AV1 when you force it.
- Who it is for: a second TV on a wired drop, where a $149 box and a Bluetooth controller cover 1080p or 4K HEVC streaming.
- Skip it if: your only network at the TV is Wi-Fi. Its radio is Wi-Fi 5, a generation behind the Apple TV’s Wi-Fi 7.
- Price: about $149 on Amazon (sold by Amazon.com, in stock) and at the Google Store, up from $99.99 at launch until Google raised it on August 31, 2026. Check the Google TV Streamer price on Amazon.
4. Raspberry Pi 5
A Pi 5 is the cheapest way onto a Gigabit cable with a hardware video decoder, but it has exactly one decoder and you have to stream to it. Raspberry Pi’s product brief lists a single “4Kp60 HEVC decoder” and no hardware H.264 or AV1. Your Sunshine stream has to be HEVC for the board to keep up.
You run moonlight-qt on it, now at v6.2.0 from October 2026 with a rewritten KMSDRM renderer. Moonlight’s Raspberry Pi wiki asks for Raspberry Pi OS 12 or later. It also says to run the client from the console rather than the desktop, for the best performance and for HDR.
Know about one regression before you buy. A 6.12 kernel update on Raspberry Pi OS broke HEVC hardware decode on the Pi 4 and Pi 5, and Moonlight warned “No functioning hardware accelerated video decoder”. That GitHub issue was closed in September 2025, so start from a current, updated image.
- Who it is for: a spare-room TV or a monitor on a desk, where Gigabit Ethernet, Bluetooth 5.0 and two USB 3.0 ports cover wired or wireless controllers.
- Skip it if: your host can only encode H.264, or you want a remote-friendly couch box. The Pi is a computer you set up, not an appliance.
- Price: Raspberry Pi lists the 4 GB board at $110 and 8 GB at $175. On Amazon, CanaKit’s 8 GB starter kit is about $230 and the bare 8 GB board runs about $193 from a third-party seller, so check approved resellers first. Check the CanaKit Raspberry Pi 5 kit price on Amazon.
Moonlight does not need much memory, so the 4 GB board is enough for a dedicated client. The 16 GB model at $305 buys you nothing here. Raspberry Pi raised prices on the 4, 8 and 16 GB boards in April 2026 and on the 2 GB board in October, all blamed on memory costs. If the Pi doubles as a kiosk, the panels in our Raspberry Pi 5 touchscreen guide work with the same board.
5. Steam Deck OLED
Valve’s handheld is the best Moonlight client you can carry, because the controller, screen and battery are already in your hands. Valve’s spec page lists a 7.4-inch 1280×800 HDR OLED at up to 90 Hz, a Zen 2 APU with 8 RDNA 2 compute units, 16 GB of RAM, Wi-Fi 6E and Bluetooth 5.3.
Moonlight installs from Flathub, where the build lists VAAPI, VDPAU and Vulkan Video decode for H.264, HEVC and AV1. Valve does not publish the Deck’s decode list, so we can’t promise AV1 on it. At 1280×800 you don’t need it, because HEVC at that resolution is a light stream for any Sunshine host.
Your real gap is the network. The Deck has no Ethernet port, so wired play means a USB-C dock. If all your games live in Steam, Steam Remote Play is already built into SteamOS as well.
- Who it is for: playing the desktop’s library from the couch, the bed or another room, with no controller to pair.
- Skip it if: you only want a TV client. At $789 for the 512 GB OLED, it costs more than the Apple TV, SHIELD and Google TV Streamer combined.
- Where to buy: Valve’s Steam store only, at $789 (512 GB) or $949 (1 TB). Valve warns the OLED may be out of stock intermittently, and its buy button read “Out of stock” on November 1. The 256 GB LCD model is still sold, on sale at $399 until December 1.
Amazon’s Steam Deck listings were third-party or renewed units at about $869 to $940 when we checked, so buy from Valve. If the OLED’s price or stock puts you off, our Steam Deck alternatives roundup covers handhelds that run Moonlight just as well.
What to check before buying a Moonlight client
Your Moonlight client is only as good as the weakest of four links: host codec, client decoder, network and controller. Check them in this order, because spending more later can’t fix a mismatch early in the list:
- What your host encodes: NVIDIA’s encode matrix lists AV1 on every GeForce RTX 40 and 50 card and not on the RTX 30 series, and Mesa’s VAAPI driver gained AV1 encode with AMD’s RDNA 3 (Radeon RX 7000). Sunshine advertises AV1 by default when the encoder can do it, but the TV clients here still settle on HEVC, which every RTX 30 or newer host encodes.
- What Moonlight will pick: HEVC on Android, HEVC only on the Pi 5 and HEVC on the Apple TV, whose Moonlight settings have no AV1 option. Paying extra for an AV1 decoder in a TV box buys a codec the app won’t use by default.
- Whether you can run a cable: four of the five have Gigabit Ethernet. If the TV has no drop, our guide to wiring a house for Ethernet is a cheaper upgrade than a faster client.
- Which controller you own: Xbox Wireless and DualSense pads pair with all four TV clients. An Xbox Wireless Controller was about $49 on Amazon on November 1, and our Linux controller picks cover how each one behaves on the host side.
HDR comes last, and it is mostly a host question. Sunshine’s docs call Linux HDR experimental: it works on Intel and AMD GPUs that encode HEVC Main10 or AV1 10-bit through VAAPI with KMS capture, and it needs an HDR-capable compositor such as Gamescope or KDE Plasma 6. Your client then needs HEVC decode and an HDR display. If you’re still choosing the host GPU, our best GPU for Linux gaming breakdown and the current GPU prices page show which cards fit the budget.
Where each Moonlight client falls short
Every pick carries a compromise, and which one hurts depends on your room. Rule out the wrong client fast with its one weakness:
| Client | Where it falls short |
|---|---|
| Apple TV 4K | Not shipping until November 13, and Moonlight’s tvOS build is from February 2024 |
| SHIELD TV Pro | $299 for a 2019 chip, no AV1 listed, and Amazon only has it through third-party sellers |
| Google TV Streamer | Wi-Fi 5 only, so it wants the cable, and its AV1 decoder sits unused by Moonlight’s defaults |
| Raspberry Pi 5 | HEVC or nothing, and a setup you do yourself on a current Raspberry Pi OS image |
| Steam Deck OLED | No Ethernet, Valve-only stock, and a price that makes it a gaming device first and a client second |
Streaming from a Linux Sunshine host to one TV? For most people, the Apple TV 4K on Ethernet is the client to buy this season. Since every TV client streams HEVC anyway, the codec doesn’t split them; the room does. If the TV is in a spare room, the Raspberry Pi 5 or the Google TV Streamer on a cable gives you the same HEVC picture for half the money.
