NVIDIA SHIELD Android TV Streaming Media Player; 4K HDR, live sports, Dolby Vision-Atmos, AI-enhanced upscaling, GeForce NOW cloud gaming, Google Assistant Built-In, Works with Alexa

I’m well versed with smart tvs, roku’s, and Chromecast, but this Shield TV blows them all out of the water. My 1 year old Vizio P series (best model offered by Vizio) is so slow verse this Shield TV. I currently have this connected to my older Vizio tv as it didn’t offer any “smart functionality” and I really just wanted to pick up one remote and watch Youtube TV without having to cast it to a previously added Chromecast. You know the deal, make dinner, sit down, turn on the tv, and of course your cell phone is back in the kitchen. That was getting old. That all being said, this Shield TV is very polished. Setup took about 3mins as I connected directly to a Ethernet cable (no wifi). A couple more mins for a few updates to install and I was on my way. Syncing the Shield remote to the this Vizio TV was done in less then 10secs. I remember my Xfinity/Comcast taking 10-15mins of trying code after code to find the right one that worked.Post setup, I had to test my Plex server first. A little background, my Plex server is 10+ year old Dell XPS (1st gen) laptop running Win10… a very low powered Plex Server by most people’s standards. I have one 4k movie and this Shield TV Pro plays it with no issues. My other “New” Vizio P-Series TV with its native Plex app, can’t play this same 4k movie with out stuttering ever 10secs. While I though for the longest time it was the server, it actually is the TV’s Ethernet port which is limited to 100mb, while the Shield has a gigabit connection… Simply the Shield TV has the connected bandwidth to play 4k in a local network with out issue. A lot of people over look these kind of issues with Plex Server and waste money on upgrading the server when the network connection speed is the problem. A little tip for you allAs I moved on to setting up all the apps YoutubeTV, Amazon, etc, I was really blow away with Netflix. I couldn’t believe how fast the app launched and the moves started playing. On my new Vizio tv with the Ethernet connection, it would typically take 30secs to fully open Netflix and another 10-20secs for the movie/show to start playing…. Everything with the Shield is near instant. It like running a PC with SSD for the first time, you had no idea how much faster something can be.Lastly I want to talk about the remote. It’s a little on the small size which makes it a little awkward like I’m going to drop it. For example I have a Samsung S20 Ultra and if a friend hands me a old and much smaller iPhone, it just feels out of place in my hand. The other thing I don’t like and a lot of TV remotes do this, is the over shape can’t tell you which direction the remote is pointing without looking at it. For example if you are familiar with Logitech Harmony remotes, they used to have a hour glass like shape, but the top and bottom aren’t the same width, with a little muscle memory you can grab the remote and know which way it is pointing. With this Triangular Prism shape it looks cool, but if you pick it up without looking, you can’t tell which way the remote is pointing. People with argue that this doesn’t matter as this is bluetooth remote, but it isn’t about pointing the remote at the tv it about knowing where each button is on the remote without looking. Kind of like learn how to type on a keyboard, the goal is now to look at each button. Now imagain every time you stop typing, you keyboards moves around, and you have to reoriented it before you can start typing again. It really not a huge issues, but it is still annoying.A few positives about the remote… I do like how the buttons are illuminated by lights. Very useful for dark room while watching a movie. As well, I really love the “find my remote” feature. No longer do I have to go from family member to family member interrogating them on where they left the remote. Lastly, the voice search it super impressive and fast. I like the fact that I can tell it to launch an app and the app will be launched before it can finish confirming your request.In summary, I haven’t test the gaming functionality of it yet, so once I get some controllers connected I’ll update this review. As for my overall impressions of this, I really really like it. If they had a slight bigger and better shaped remote, I would love it. I still give this a 5 stars, when I really want to get it a 4.5 stars. I don’t think the remote should stop anyone from getting this. I know I’ve only seen the tip of the iceberg with all that can be offered with the Shield TV, I’ll be getting another for my second tv as I’m really that impressed by it.

Now that I’ve had this for nearly 2 weeks, it’s time for my final thoughts & impressions of the Nvidia Shield TV. First off, I came from the Amazon Fire Stick 4K. While certainly a good piece of device, there are a few reasons why I switched over to the Nvidia Shield TV:1. Got kinda tired of the Fire TV UI with all of its annoying ads & filler trash everywhere.2. No Vudu app3. No HBOMax app4. No Dolby Atmos support on Netflix (though I’ve heard the Fire TV Cube 2nd gen do support Atmos on its Netflix app)5. Just wanna try something different overallAnd now here I am with the new Nvidia Shield TV, and I’m really loving the experience here. It’s my first ever Android TV based streaming player, really digging it here! The UI is so much cleaner & a bit more intuitive overall than the Amazon Fire TV UI, the remote feels very comfortable in hands & easy to use, it has great selection of apps to choose from, and best of all the Nvidia Shield is buttery smooth & fast as hell!Also really glad to see big support of Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos on apps such as Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, Vudu, Disney+, Movies Anywhere, etc. The Nvidia Shield TV also supports all DTS formats from DTS Digital Surround all the way to DTS:X and was able to test them via playback through Kodi app. Another plus for the Shield is a MicroSD Card slot which you can either use it as expandable storage for the Shield or use it as a multimedia thing for various things like music, videos, games, etc. One of the hot selling points of the Nvidia Shield TV is it’s gaming abilities. It’s not only a streamer, but also a product where you can stream games through it’s GeForce Now service, and it’s also a emulator powerhouse too. You can easily run NES, SNES, Genesis, N64, PS1, PSP, etc. emulators on this beast & all will work without a problem. Only problem is since this tube model is running on 32-bit and not 64-bit, that’s means 64-bit based stuff like a Gamecube emulator will not be available on this at all, step up to the Pro model for $50 more to get 64-bit content going. Oh and one more thing, I’ve seen that the 2019 Nvidia Shield TV products do not come with the Nvidia controller anymore, you’ll either have to purchase that separately or pair a Bluetooth supported controller such as Xbox or PlayStation controllers to the Shield in order to game on this thing.So in conclusion, whether you get the Nvidia Shield TV or the Nvidia Shield TV Pro, it’ll all be worth biting the bullet in the end of the day, you totally get what you paid for as you get a lot back from this! So if you’re coming from Amazon Fire TV or Roku and you really wanna step up your game, the Nvidia Shield TV is the way to go!Apple TV 4K is also a worthy option if you prefer the Apple ecosystem over Android TV. Highly recommended!

There is a lot to enjoy about Android TV, in particular how well the device itself performs despite being such a small inconspicuous tube. I bought this for the purpose of streaming games from my PC to my new TV in 4K/HDR/120fps, as the old Steam Link hardware maxes out at 1080p/SDR/60fps. Streaming games from my PC was problematic using Nvidia’s official game streaming app on the Shield, but using Moonlight instead proved much better (you still need to install Geforce Experience unfortunately, and I ended up needing to uninstall/reinstall it to get it to work finally).PROS:- Fast hardware that runs content very well, I’m running 1080p 120 Hz HDR10 with Dolby Vision and AI upscaling (can go up to 4K 60 Hz HDR10, or 4K 59.940 Hz HDR10 w/ Dolby Vision)- Easily setup the Shield remote to work with your TV (since I get all my content through the Shield now, it’s perfect)- The entire Android TV app catalog contains probably every media app you can think of and then some- A surprising amount of advanced options to tinker/tweak withCONS:- I cannot stress enough that the official Nvidia app for streaming games is junk. Seriously, just use Moonlight instead (it also offers more settings and customization). However this is just an Nvidia app for Android TV, but I feel it’s worth noting as I bought this to stream games from my PC for playing on the couch- The Netflix button on the remote is straight up obnoxious and more often than not just gets accidentally pressed. Can’t find a way to remap it like you can with the menu button either so you’re just stuck with this unnecessary button. If you actually use Netflix often, I imagine this isn’t an issue at all but I use other apps more often (Hulu, Curiosity, YouTube, etc) and it’s just plain annoying for me- A bit expensive, but it is pretty premium hardware for a small tube and definitely runs well. I bought the $150 tube model and it runs well enough, I feel like maybe the $200 box model is really only necessary if you want the storage/USB options

Purchased in January, 2024 – having a problem with it now, need to get my programmer over here to find out what has gone wrong. Worked fine for 2.5 months then turned it on and only have a black screen with the word Android in white on it. Won’t to anything. UGH

Great quality. Easy to operate. Love that I now only need one remote. This would be great for an older person who does not have a lot of skills with devices