NVIDIA Shield TV 4K HDR Ready Media Streamer Built-in
NVIDIA Shield TV 4K HDR Ready Media Streamer Built-in Chromecast 4K Ultra
Google Assistant Built-in
Control your SHIELD hands-free with Google Home or Alexa and Amazon Echo.
Chromecast 4K Built-in
Cast your favorite apps, photos, and videos from your mobile device to your TV.
Play the Latest Games
Games for everyone , on Google Play Games and GeForce NOW*, including AAA games like Fortnite.
*Game controller sold separately
| Weight: | 137 g |
| Dimensions: | 4 x 4 x 16.5 cm; 137 Grams |
| Brand: | nVidia |
| Model: | 945-13430-2509-000 |
| Colour: | Black |
| Batteries Included: | Yes |
| Manufacture: | NVIDIA |
| Dimensions: | 4 x 4 x 16.5 cm; 137 Grams |
It is most certainly an excellent product. It really is a step above the others. However, especially considering the price, they do not include an HDMI cable. Even the much lower priced alternatives supply a cable. Yes. I do recommend it.
Anything you play below 720p will most certainly make a larger difference than playing it with other tv boxes/media players, however it cannot perform miracles 😀
All in all, been using it for more than a year and have no complaints at all. New one must be coming out soon, so you might even find this one on a hefty discount. Cannot recommend enough.
Just got this a few days ago has a replacement to my 1st gen fire cube and wow this is so much better so glad I got this and at 160 ,on prime day .
I read all the reviews about this nvidia shield tv Pro and asked lots of questions to which I had many replies.. its a fantastic bit of kit , and the pictures on movies are the best I’ve ever seen.. easy set up.. I did use YouTube to get best settings for everything.. totally recommend this product.. only started using it today so looking forward to many movies.. Happy days
Upgraded from a FireTV Cube to improve the performance and so far I’m pretty impressed after a bit of a nightmare setting it all up. For general day to day use the remote does the job well enough but for anything more complicated you really need some kind of additional input device as the remote alone is hopeless. Fortunately, I had a Rii X8 mini keypad/mouse to hand which was a godsend because the remote alone would not have been capable of completing setting up all my apps.
That being said, now it is all up and running it’s absolutely fantastic. I’m not a gamer so use it just for streaming TV and movies. Even though I only have a 32inch 1080 bravia TV the improvement in picture quality is really noticeable. Having tweaked a few settings to get the best performance the Shield goes like the clappers. Everything is so much more responsive. Movies and TV channels connect much faster and I’m also getting hardly any buffering. Also with the aid of an HDMI capture card and a free app called OBS Studio I can even connect it to my PC and screen capture whatever I want to watch things later. Via the X-plore app I have connected to both my 1GB Onedrive account as well as my NAS which has monster hard drives so the Shield has access to plenty of external storage which really helps for adding stuff to my personal media library or sideloading APK’s.
There may be a few more expensive media streaming boxes out there which perhaps have their own internal hard drive but they cant compete with the storage on my NAS. Despite not having a hardware upgrade since 2019 so as far as I can see, for pure streaming the Shield Pro still seems to be the best device out there.
Got this for my dad and ended up getting one for myself it is that good. No issues setting up, it is fast and 3 months in no issues.
Purchased to replace an old android box. Everything runs super fast, linked to PC to play games via steamlink. Lot’s of fu
Wow love this and not even getting the most out of it. I use it to watch TV and movies on all different apps like Disney and Netflix it’s super fast can be connected with WiFi or ethernet cable I have it connected to my Alexa which gives me better sound.
I haven’t even started with the games yet
Love i
From having a Chinese version, which was okay, this product is lightening faster. Easy setup. Great bit of kit..
Very good, excellent purchase for the transmission of live channels and the intelligence of IA is very good with excellent image quality
I was gifted one and when parents wanted to stream we went top of tree.
After trying many android TV boxes first Chromecast then sky stream pro then a z8 formula box and now this the Nvidia shield by far my favourite out of them all runs so smooth and the fact that I can use it as a console aswell is a massive bonus for me highly recommend A+++
Far superior to the firestick. No more lag or buffering. Well worth the extra money
I only purchase based on a handful of reviews. Never heard of this set too. After switching on. Wow! Calming music whilst inputting the boring stuff. It’s very fluid and just very nice to operate.
The Nvidia shield is a great device. I received and having been using mine for around 3 to 4 months now. It has been great so far. This has been a big upgrade as I was previously using a Roku 4k streaming stick which wasn’t taking full advantage of the picture or audio quality in my home theatre. Also, the Ai Upscaling mode is a game changer and works so well for all types of media, especially cartoons or old films. The negatives are that takes a little while to set up and can be slightly complex if you aren’t good with technology. Addionally, I get these strange freezes when navigating the menus from time to time, not often but when the do happen it can be very annoying. Overall I would recommend it or if you aren’t sure a safe bet is also the newest apple tv 4k I heard great things about that as well.
The autoframe rate doesn’t work with prime video and you have to map a button on the remote so when you wach a movie you press it and id matches the original frame rate.
Apps are not that optimised.
I liked the build in chrome cast , it works fine, you can cast amazon music with Dolby atmos, but only if you cast from your phone! If you stream directly from the shield amazon music you won’t get dolby atmos.
It is a shame that they don’t optimise and update the apps for this device, it’s so capable.
Apple tv 4k 2022 its the way to go!
I had the shield tv , the fire stick 4k max and i chose the apple tv.
It has a very powerful chip, all apps are working perfect and so litning fast!
It has amazon music, Spotify, tidal and refresh rate auto mach working with all streaming devices. Not to say that apple tv + has all the movies encoded in dolby atmos and uhd! On prime or google tv same movies are or only hd or uhd and only some of them dolby atmos encoded at the same price . I was never an apple fan but the device its wll you need for streamign all platforms including streaming music if you have i high end avr with high end speakers.
I’m not advertising the apple tv here, i only want to help people like me choose the right streaming device without needing to test them all like i did.
It took a while to set up since there were so many updates. It found all the apps I’d downloaded to my AndroidTV in the other room and downloaded them. I was expecting no NowTV app but it was there, as well as iPlayer etc.
The add banner over the apps I overcome by making the “all apps” setting the action attached to a short press of the menu button. So one tiny press, all my apps and no banner ad!
But the one thing that is AWFUL is the IR remote control support. My ancient NowTV box had no issue finding the right code for my BenQ monitor – at a guess BenQ recycles a lot of its IR codes. But the shield tried all of two codes then gave up. So now I have to use the BenQ remote to power on and change volume (well I can use the internal volume control after some sequence of settings I’ll never remember) but still need a separate remote to power on.
Why so few tries for an IR code set? Major fail for something that cost 180 pounds!
If you like to have all of your apps in one place – rather than come out of one, have to go into another screen to enter another app, then this should be on your list.
Even more, if have a surround set up, and watch a lot of Netlfix/ Prime/ Disney Plus, etc, then this is a MUST-HAVE!!! It allows those sources to play back in full Atmos surround sound – if the source has it – which it cannot do without it (unless your TV and receiver both support it. My receiver does, but my TV doesn’t – it’s a 2017 Panasonic 50inch – soon to be upgraded. But with this device, I can now access all that good stuff!)
Moreover, it also uses AI to upscale the image: upscales HD sources to 4K, and most SD sources to HD (or close to), so if your TV isn’t a newer model and doesn’t already do this, then it adds another level of detail to your viewing pleasure.
Most of the other streamers – that I am aware of – don’t have this upscaling feature, so if your TV doesn’t already do this, then this device should be at the top of your list. It is also a lot smaller and slimmer than I expected it to be, making it very easy to slot into any set up that you may have. Recommended.
Like me, many people have hundreds of DVDs and Blurays sitting on shelf, and they don’t get watched as it is too much hassle going to find one, so I wanted to digitise them all and be able to access them on my tv. Also to have a way of sharing them with my friends. Plex, an app, does this and to run a Plex server you need a computer or the Nvidia Shield. The apps on smart TVs and (apparently) other Android set top boxes cannot run the server – they are just clients allowing the watching of the movie/TV shows.
So, with the addition of an external hard drive, it was all easy to set up and works flawlessly.
I also use it for Netflix, Youtube and Prime. It does have a games facility but I have not investigated this.
Two problems – it does crash occasionally and the dedicated Netflix button on the remote is very sensitive and can activate just by picking the remote up. So nothing serious, just annoying.
If you’re looking for a simple plug and play device, android TV app support may leave you wanting, but if you have the technical and troubleshooting chops to poke around a bit, you will find a really flexible device that will do loads of awesome stuff.
I got the shield to serve two purposes. The first and main reason was as an upgrade to the older steam link to stream games from upstairs, and the second was to have one device that can pretty much do everything we need it to media-wise.
As a gaming device the Shield will deliver 4k 60fps with 5.1 surround sound from my high-end gaming PC upstairs over an Ethernet cable no problem at all. I use both the Steam Link app and the third party Moonlight app to do this.
Geforce now is also pretty nifty, but I only have the free version owing to the input lag of purely cloud gaming making it only really useful for demoing games you have interest in.
On the TV side of things. I set up VLC with access to a shared media folder on my PC so that I can stream downloaded content over the local network – which again streams with no problems with surround sound working fine. I know there are more impressive solutions for this like the included plex, but I rarely watch TV or movies and so this simple method suited my needs just fine.
My girlfriends main concern was getting the streaming services she uses on the Shield, and this mostly worked fine. All the apps we wanted were easy to grab with the exception of All 4 and SoundCloud which do not have Android TV versions. For most people this wouldn’t be a big deal as the shield can be casted to, and so those apps you can just cast the content from your phone. But my girlfriend wanted a more comprehensive solution as she prefers browsing content on the TV instead of locating it on her phone and casting (fair enough).
Android TV has its limitations in that not all the apps you would get on android phones will appear in the google play store as they aren’t supported (IE, the developers dont care). Fortunately installing apps using .apk files is super easy, (look up side-loading) and you can try your luck downloading the .apk files of android phone apps and installing them to see if they work. I was able to get All 4 working this way (even if the menu is in the wrong aspect ratio, content is fine) and I managed to get soundcloud working using a web-browser app and just pointing it to the website.
Web browsing is actually totally workable as the shield supports mouse and keyboard devices, and the ability to side-load apps means I can install SmartTube to replace YouTube (its a youtube app which blocks the ads).
The tegra chip inside the Shield also makes it a formidable emulation device and I’ve tested a PS1 emulator with great success. The only downside here is the on-board storage is only 12gb usable, which is super limited for things like PS1 games.
The only other downside is the ads on the main menu. I know there is a solution to switch out the app launcher and thus get rid of the ads, but I have yet to find a solution for this.
In short:
– It streams games great
– It’s got all of the streaming services we use (with a little bit of techie magic)
– It can browse the web and handle web streaming services like soundcloud etc if you need it to
– It supports third party android applications like SmartTube via side-loading
– It emulates like a pro
– People can cast to it
– It streams content over the LAN with ease
– Extensive blutetooth support for mice, keyboards, and games controllers
– It’s got an awesome remote shaped like a Toblerone
– The way it can control your TV means you can ditch your TV remote and go all-in with the Toblerone.
– Small internal storage is problematic for larger game ROM or app collections, and the only way to expand it is via USB memory stick (i would’ve liked a memory card slot)
– Ads on the main menu are frankly unacceptable for a device of this price, but this isn’t worth knocking off a star and can be overcome, I just haven’t figured out how yet.
Apps,
The good apps store linked to the device does not have all the apps yea that is correct the apps listed are compatible apps.
However this product does run android and you can load other apps on the unit, it’s one of the wonderful things about this product.
Its called side loading and will add its for those that understand such things although frankly anyone can watch a YouTube video on the subject.
So don’t be put off by those that do not understand this remains the best device in it’s class.
If you don’t need the advanced features or are not interested in quality as car as image and sound then by competitors product for simplicity but note none are as good as this product and suggest some detailed research and understanding more about what you are trying to achieve and the real life limitations of her devices.
That said many people will.be happy with lesser types of device including the apple tv 4k.
The shield tv has always been a firm favourite of mine, most people don’t understand what it can do and much of the features are hidden in the spec sheets.
Both the original and this new one offer atmos and can stream lossless audio and high bitrate video, there are few in the market that can do what these units can not even the apple devices or fire tv and certainly not roku, so if your serious about quality sonyourawlf a favor and dig deeper into the specs and watch some detailed videos before you buy an alternative.
The new unit offers dolby vision to compatible devices from dolby vision enabled uhd sources.
It was Ai scaling which certainly works for 480p 720p and 1080p scallind well to 4k.
The unit has a nice new control and it takes aaa batteries which is good news.
If you want a device with the extra features above or makes sense however other than the above and a small let’s say 16% increase in speed there is little difference in real life use when compared to the older model.
If like me you would like a picture upgrade to your old tv with hdmi then pairing this with a hdfury arcana can give the picture a boost but beware if you go down this path you will if using an older amplifier need an earc extractor as well to get audio to your amp.
If your luck enough to have a a sonos arc then pairing your shield tv with a hdfury arcana and the sonos will give you a great picture.
For those with more modern tvs is the shield tv an upgrade to your built in roku or android system the answer has to be a definitive yes but depends on what you watch and if you like uhd or 4k in its best quality.
The unit supports plex server and some may find this useful and can say historically other services like Emby are better but only supported as an app, don’t expect to stream multiple feeds around your house and we prefer the streming services such as Amazon video, Disney and Netflix and we can now all benefit by using a device like the shield tv to give us the best quality irrelevant of the age of your TV through these services.
Always check compatibility.
In summary, unless you need Colby vision and a nice controller and need to upscale 480p 720p 1080p and do not subscribe to a uhd streaming service hence the above of value you may of you already own a 2015 model find upgrade pointless.
If you can find a reason as detailed above or money isn’t an issue them this new version is highly recommended.
I have researched the Shield via YouTube so had a good idea what was required when unboxing. First off, ease of setting up. Virtually worked straight out of the box, just needed one update. Next, the picture settings. I used the max AI settings which promised upscaling to 4K. Then signed into Google, downloaded the apps I wanted from the Play Store. Signed into Disney and clicked on a Star Wars movie. WOW! The picture and sound quality was totally breathtaking! Crystal clear picture. I am yet to dabble with Dolby Atmos.
Its been a week now, and I honestly haven’t anything bad to say about the Nvidia Shield. Its beyond what I expected as an upgrade to my old and tired MX boxes. I’ve even been able to sideload some apps I wanted and these are working perfectly. The only negative I can think of is that there is no apps for All4 and Britbox. A bit of a let down, but the Shield is primarily for my own media TV app and Disney, so no problem with the missing two apps.
To finish, the Nvidia Shield is well worth the extra cash and for me, totally superior to anything else on the market at the moment. I’m going to purchase another one for the bedroom, I’m that satisfied with it.
PS: So many bad reviews regarding the Nvidia Shield and using media apps like Netflix and Ipeeteevee via it, most stating they experience buffering, freezing etc . I bet you a chocolate bar, the majority who experience this use their Shield wirelessly. A wired device is your best friend when streaming. Wireless, regardless of the speed of your internet coming into your house can be utter pants if you have multiple wireless devices using your router at the same time. Wired is best for streaming!
The downsides:
– voice recognition is poor and doesn’t catch half of what is said versus say the Firestick 4K
– the pro offers the extra ports which is about the only draw over the shield TV model and price is 50 more just for this
– the remote is slick but a bit underweight and doesn’t have many configurable buttons. You can use a button remapper but with such limited buttons you cannot remap it very well
The amazing:
– AI upscaling is just next level. Basically almost every app, irrespective of streaming quality, is upscaled and boosted to HD/4K which works even on Netflix SD subscription to give you a much cleaner and clearer image
– set up was so slick and easy and has a lot of apps available from Play store so within 30 minutes I was all set
– usb ports are overpriced admittedly however they allow usb external drives for more capacity
– ethernet port built in and support for 2.4/5ghz WiFi. As a quick comparison, I have 220mbps internet – my Roku 4K streamed at avg of 48mbps, Firestick 125mbps, and this at the full 220mbps even with VPN
– the configurability is second to none. No ads, no crap, everything can be rearranged. Using 3rd party software from the app store you can set up button mappers or custom launchers which brings a much nicer UI
I have had all the main sticks over the last year including Roku Streaming+ 4K stick, Firestick 4K, and Chromecast in search of the right mix. For me that has been to have all the major streaming apps, ability to install 3rd party apps, 4k quality, speed, good interface, and no annoying ads. I’m a cord cutter so it was important to have this in one device.
To that end this is nearly perfect. The negatives won’t deter most, and it’s true this is around 100 more than most 4k sticks, but for someone looking for a slick and future proofed device this is it. Plus the picture quality is stunning.
One final thing, when buying these kind of things there is a realism that you don’t know what you want until you want it. It has taken me over a year to settle on this as price always put me off. This is a smart move to make off the bat however; you get the Google Play store which means ANY new services launched will be immediately available without waiting on a port, you have a device powerful enough to still command value 5 years after launch (just look up second hand 2015 Shield Pros to see what I mean), and to have the ability to natively Chromecast from any tablet, laptop or mobile device.
So why 4* review? Voice recognition and price prevent this being the absolute monster it could be. Perhaps with a price tag closer to 129 for the Shield TV and 149 for the Pro it would smash the opposition and be a no brainer. The higher end streamers such as Amazon TV Cube, Apple TV and Sky Q would have nothing on this at the price points I mention.
That all said, don’t be put off by price. If you need an all in one solution, cord cutting desires, or you want the best quality from what you stream even on lower packages this is always going to be the best thing you could buy in either variant.
As the Shield TV Pro has an onboard fan keeping the components cool, a wired ethernet connection, and can have two USB storage devices plugged into it to expand the memory, I thought it would be the perfect solution to the problems I have had with my Fire Stick.
Sadly not – the Shield TV pro will not even let you download the Amazon Music app from the Google Play store (unless you live in the USA, apparently) – which just seems hugely moronic to me, as I have just processed a return for the nvidia Shield TV Pro just now, entirely because it will not let me use my Amazon Music account/App directly on it. Seemed like a nice device, but entirely useless for my primary purpose for buying it.
It can’t be a legal issue as I can use the Amazon Music app on my other Android/Windows devices, so I suspect it’s just blocked on GoogleTV interfaces (like the Shield has), maybe because Google would rather you were using YouTube Music instead – but as a Prime and Amazon Music Unlimited Subscriber I’m not switching, especially as all my friends who used to be on Google Music have just been forced over to YouTube Music by Google, and they all say it’s awful (and all my friends and family members on iTunes and Apple devices seem to moan non-stop about those these days, so I’m sticking with Amazon Music and Android devices).
Sure, you can cast Amazon Music to the Shield TV Pro from a phone/tablet – I did test that with my Lenovo Android tablet – and because of Chromecast being built in to the Shield it works effortlessly – but you don’t gain anything by casting Amazon Music because the Shield does not display the lyrics on screen or any album art when you cast Amazon Music to it (just a boring grey screen), and then it’s draining my tablet batteries as well – I mean, if it’s not going to show album art or lyrics anyway when you cast to it, why would I cast to it at all, when I could just stream the music directly to my bluetooth soundbar from the tablet and cut out the middleman (the Shield) and still get the sound?
Nice looking device though, nVidia – build quality seemed good, set-up was effortless, remote control was more responsive than Amazon Fire stick one, and remote was a nice shape and felt good in the hand (Amazon FireTV Stick remotes seem a bit flimsy and I’ve already broken one in the past and had to replace it), although battery door on Shield remote was stupidly difficult and obscure to open and not at all obvious until I watched a YouTube tutorial on how to get it open. The GoogleTV interface seems nice enough, though I didn’t test it with Netflix and Prime Video (which come pre-installed) as there didn’t seem much point signing in to those apps when I’d already decided to return the device as I use Amazon Music every day and had mainly bought it for that.
So I’m returning my Shield, and I’m going to soldier on with my Fire Stick and hope Amazon make a set top box device like this with a wired ethernet connection, cooling fans, expandable storage, and Amazon Music pre-installed (go on, Amazon, I’d be happy to throw 200 at you for it) so I don’t have to screw around with Google Play Store.
Ok after ten minutes of thinking it was DOA to find I had a broken spare HDMI lead I got the unit working. Wifi was easy to set up and Netflix and Prime are preinstalled. The unit rebooted several times for system updates and updates to the remote. First thing was to turn on the AI upscaling and then test. 1080p content is massivily enhanced by the Nvidia AI upscaling. It is much better than the upscaling offering from my Samsung or LG 4k displays. For SD 720p content and old 480p content that has already been upscaled to 720p that you can rent or buy from many media stores it still helps but it can’t make that content match how amazing native 4k or the AI upscaled 1080p will look.
Shield TV runs on Android 9 so if you have an Android phone you can cast photos or videos to the shield and also add storage using a Micro SD memory card slot if you want.
You can download an Alexa skill and link it with an echo to control the Shield it ships with Google Assistant pre installed.
So really the plus points are the AI upscaling for 1080p content to 4k and how quite the unit is, I have yet to hear any fan noise watching media. The downside is some TV apps on other devices are not on the Android store. So like Apple TV and the Fire TV you might not have access to a certain app. But given time I am sure pretty much all those TV apps will work on everything.
Don’t forget to buy a HDMI lead when you order as they don’t include one in the Box.
Like most of these devices HDR is hit and miss as Disney + will trigger HDR modes on my LG TV but Netflix won’t from the Shield but that is the exact opposite on my PS4. So HDR is going to about what TV you have and which exact modes it will support and exactly how upto date the app is.
Summary: Probably the best device for the best picture quality possible from any Major Streaming Media service due to the Nvidia unique AI upscaling with the Option of Alexa and Google Assistant smart home control. Better gaming support for Android games from play store or streamed PC games from your own PC or Geforce now than any other Smart TV device.
The initial set up was very straight forward with a guided process. Once on the main menu, you are given the Shield TV Launcher – and it’s incredibly basic with a number of limitations. Firstly it has a number of “channels” – these are rows where certain apps can highlight things that you may be interested in. This is disappointing as only a few apps support this feature (which are the ones that don’t interest me) and there are apps you do want to highlight things to to you – but are not supported. In the end I customised this view and switch off all of these highlighted feeds, leaving just one row of your favourite apps at the top of the screen.
All of this is done with the Toblerone-esque remote control, which feels great to use. It does come fixed with a dedicated “Netflix” button and as someone who doesn’t use the service its a shame it can be reprogrammed to be a shortcut for what I want it to be.
Next on to the apps. It’s highlighted in the promotional materials that 1000s of Google Play apps and games are available, although this should be taken with a pinch of salt. By default when you go to the Google Play Store on Shield, it will only allow you to install apps that are optimised for Android TV – this excludes pretty much a lot of the apps you would use on your tablet or phone. This is not Nvidia’s fault, but you need to be aware that apps can be allowed/disallowed by its developers to run on Android TV/Tablets/Phones, and with this in mind it restricts what apps are available.
From a UK TV and games perspective, you can get the following Android TV streaming apps straight away and enjoy…
– tvplayer (provides free live streams of BB1, BB2, ITV, Channel 4, and a few others – you can pay extra for other channels)
– BBC iPlayer
– itv Hub
– My5
– Amazon Prime Video
– Netflix
– Sky News
– Plex (useful if you already have a Plex server at home)
– Spotify (there is an in-built version of Spotify and a different app store one)
You can NOT get the following in the Google Play store for the Shield TV
– All4/Channel 4 on Demand
– Sky Go
– Now TV
In order to work around these limitation its possible to install APKs from a third party web site. Just add the APK to the SD card and install – please be aware this is an unofficial process. Sadly it was not possible to get All 4 or Sky Go or Now TV working in this way – the apps would crash out and close.
On the other hand this did allow to install the Xbox Game Streaming app (Project xCloud) and runs beautifully along side GeForce Now.
So now that you have installed (sideloaded) an app, you can try to add it to home screen as a favourite, but the Shield TV Launcher doesn’t allow you to add sideloaded apps in this way. And on top of that, there is no way to organise apps in to sections or folders such as “Games”, “TV, “Films”, etc.
In the end it was a paid third party app (ATV Launcher Pro) that I installed and managed to arrange the menu as I would like including side loaded apps that would’ve been hidden with the default home screen. It was surprising how much the app offered over and above the simple launcher – creating sections, folders, changing app icon, size, number of rows, colours, images… none of which were in the Shield TV menu by default. I would say though that my time with ATV Launcher Pro was great 90% of the time, as I had a few freezes and hangs – though I would say that was not the fault of the Shield TV.
For gaming, you have a number of option to play.
– Some Google Play Store games that are optimised for Android TV (you should check on the Google Play website under your existing purchased games if they are compatible on Android TV and you can re-download to Shield TV)
– Nvidia’s GeForce NOW service. A subscription service that lets you play your own Steam, uPlay, Epic, EA Origin games.
– Nvidia’s GeForce NOW “Free with Shield TV”. A few games are provided free of charge as on the Shield TV including Tomb Raider.
– Nvidia Game Stream. Allows the Shield TV, to stream games from your Windows PC to you Shield TV – from place in your home to another. Your PC must have a Nvidia GTX based graphics card to make use of this.
– Steam Link. Similar functionality as “Nvidia Game Stream”.
– Moon Light Game Streaming. Similar functionality as “Nvidia Game Stream”.
– You can also side load Xbox Game Streaming (subject to being a member of the programme). The only limitation I found with running it this way is there was no way to close the app. The original Android mobile app, need touch input to access a menu to close – not possible on Shield TV. You could exit the app back to the launcher menu but it would leave the app running in the background and consuming network bandwidth – I had to go to the Android Settings > Apps > Streaming > and then Force Stop.
I should add that by default the Shield TV will try to connect to a 5Ghz WiFi router (if your router has also 2.4 Ghz) – so it is worth making sure you have fast broadband and router for this purpose (or just use an Ethernet cable), as the game streaming network requirements are quite intensive
It’s also worth mentioning it was fairly easily to connect Bluetooth XB1 and PS4 controllers, and navigate the menus and apps. When the Shield TV is in sleep, turning on a XB1 controller that already been paired will wake the Shield TV up.
Overall this is a fantastic device, only let down by the terrible home screen launcher that should not be the case for a 150 device, that can be out done by a 3 app. And to a lesser extent the limitation of Android apps if not optimised for an Android TV device – though that isn’t Nvidia’s fault.
It always amazed me how small this machine is and what Nvidia crammed into it. Upgrades are Dolby Atmos/Vision unfortunately I couldn’t make use of the new feature since I own a Samsung Qled which does not support it. Chromecast 4k is a nice feature which I use alot casting my tablet to my shield very useful. Google assistant is second to none probably the best assistant out of them all imho.
Because i have 200+ games on steam the nvidia support to stream your steam library was a primary reason why I purchased the 2019 pro model. And boy do the games look stunning in 4k, they also run great and look absolutely stunning on my qled Samsung. I was dazzled by the quality. If you have an extensive steam Library then this machine will allow you to utilize your games in the comfort of your couch, or in my case, my bedroom.
It has all the other obvious app support that you expect, prime, netflix and a hjost of others. You have access to the playstore which is handy for installing your apps.
Overall it’s a very feature packed machine and for the price it’s justified if you have the content to justify the price.
A couple of things which I’m sure will be fixed at some point. I purchased the microsoft elite controller series 2 and whilst it does pair and the thumb controller works for navigation the other buttons do not work as of writing this review. I’m sure there will be an update at some point to give the Microsoft elite controller series 2 full compatibility.
I did have to use the previous version control pad to play games and whilst it’s a great controller it’s not the premium quality of a elite series 2. Speaking of which you will need to buy a controller as one is not included with the 2019 pro or standard model.
Another thing that has always bugged me about the shield is that the USB 3 ports on the back are too close together which sometimes stops you plugging other devices to the adjacent port if the usb part is too big or an odd shape which sometimes it is with lots of usb sticks, and other usb devices. Bare that in mind. I remedied this by plugging a 6 port usb hub so I could get all my usb devices plugged in.
Like I said, I’m very happy with the machine, i was with the previous version. It’s great for what it was designed for and doesn’t try to be anything else.
I’ve had my Shield a week now after owning Fire TV’s for the last 3 years & I have to say I didn’t think you could top those streaming devices, well how wrong was I!
Nvidia Shield maybe a lot dearer than Amazon’s current crop but there’s a reason for that & I will explain as follows.
The Shield looks much crisper on screen in basic mode but turn on the Ai upscaling mode & pretty much everything looks 4k with no other problems being introduced it just works & it works amazingly well which for me was worth the extra money alone as I’m am very fussy when it comes to picture quality. Also there are absolutely no adverts on the homescreen unlike Amazon & you can pretty much tailor the look of that how you want it too.
Also this model only comes with 8gb on board storage which is similar to Amazon but if you add a 128 micro SD card like I have then suddenly you have a very large storage capacity that actually works & what I mean by that is once the extra storage is added it then automatically becomes your default storage location meaning you can add any of those large 2GB playstore games locally which you wouldn’t really otherwise be able to do with the basic storage as you would very soon overload it, I previously had a Fire TV box that allowed a micro SD card but unfortunately it never allowed storage of most large games on the SD card which basically meant NO large games could be stored without using up all on board storage so that was absolutely useless unlike this little tube of dreams. Another thing worth pointing out is Playstation 4 & Xbox one wireless controllers work perfectly well with this machine too.
The only slight down point is the advertised usage of Nvidia Shields Triple A cloud based gaming service isn’t as straight forward as I had hoped in that you basically have to apply for usage by being added to a waitlist which I’m now a week in & still haven’t received clearance yet, I’ve been told it can take anything from 2 weeks to a month to come through so will edit this review if & when that actually happens. But to be honest there’s so many title’s available through the playstore that this isn’t really a problem.
So in short if you’re in the market for a new streaming device which actually can play very demanding games then there’s no other choice than this fantastic bit of kit, do yourself a favour & buy the Nvidia Shiels you’ll be so glad you did.
150 for a streamer, yes it’s expensive, it’s worth it. Wifi has been upgraded, on 5ghz I can now connect to AC dfs 100 channel, this channel is less congested so faster speeds. On my old shield i couldn’t connect to any channel above 48. No reviews mention this. Dolby vision and Dolby Atmos are both supported. I was pleased to see Netflix now supports this, finally don’t have to use my TVs LG app. AI up scaling is nice, turned my down to basic. Device is snappy, quick and appears less buggy mostly. These are the main upgrades.
OK here’s the but! The funky cylinder design isn’t functional, I don’t think it’s a good design choice for its case. That said I’ve secured it to the back of my TV on a vesa mount with cable ties. Don’t see it it, don’t need to touch, it’s more an annoyance thank a deal breaker. The new remote, well I think it’s more functional than any remote I’ve ever had, love the back lit buttons. The triangle shape of the remote is odd, Jury is out on if I like that or not. I use a harmony elite remote so again not an issue to me. I wish it had one USB port, as side loading apps sometimes needs a keyboard, guess I need a Bluetooth one now.
Going from 3gb ram to 2gb, doesn’t seem to have made any difference to speed and usability, but be warned you only get access to the plex server app on the new Pro model. I use the plex app with a unraid server, so again not an issue to me. Overall I’m happy with the device.
Update 14/01/2020
After experiencing weird snow screen now and again which disrupted audio and picture for a couple of seconds here and there I sent my shield tube back and paid extra for the pro. It doesn’t seem any faster, but no issues. Should have just bought the pro. Wasn’t worth saving a few quid. I will keep this for many years to come. Buy the pro. Buy cheap, buy twice.