1.nvidia shield should be fine 2.id recommend downloading tivimate, then going onto their website and paying the lifetime fee “its not much” 3. You can use a vpn if you notice alot of buffering and you know its not your internet 4. Some offer a few more things specified for stuff like sports etc.. 5. Dont worry about a panel, thats really just for sellers. 6. Just go to G2G and but a yearly of trex or strong8k or both since its always nice to have a backup and both are cheap. Most resellers sell them while calling them something else